‘Cada cocinero tiene su librito‘ (every cook has his/her own little book) goes the Dominican saying. Each home has its own traditions, likes and dislikes. It is impossible to offer you recipes that duplicate the flavors of each of your homes, and the flavors of each home are contained in the base for Dominican cooking: the sofrito / sazón.
Some time ago somebody asked if anyone had a good recipe for home-made ‘sazon/sofrito’. Always keen to help, our regular readers shared their recipes with us. Here are three. Feel free to share yours with us too.
Karima’s recipe
- 2 bunches of cilantro
- 4 radishes
- 1 of each: green, red, and yellow pepper
- 1 onion
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 lime (just the juice)
- if you like a couple of the small hot yellow and orange peppers,
- only two sometimes they are really hot.
- I put all of these ingredients into a blender and set it a chop or blend, you don’t want it watery, you could even use a food processor. I put it in a container, and refrigerate it. It keeps for a long time at least 3 weeks.
Vitico’s recipe
- Olive Oil
- Tomato paste
- Oregano
- Cumin
- Although I have learned to interchange Oregano and Cilantro. When I use one I don’t use the other.
Kjdrga’s recipe
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- 2-3 sopita (bouillon cubes)
- a bunch of cilantro
- 1/2 of aji / pepper (the one they sell in the DR long pale green not hot)
- a tablespoon of bitter orange
- half a red onion (depending on its size if small a whole one)
- a tomato or two seeded
- a little olive oil
- I either use a blender or food processor. I like to baste chicken with this and roast it in the oven, basting every 15 minutes until it’s done.
And here’s my own:
Aunt Clara
- 1 cubanela/cubanelle pepper , diced
- 1 clove of garlic , crushed
- 1 medium red onion , cut into strips
- 3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
- 1 teaspoon of powdered annato/anato/bija
- 1 teaspoon of dry oregano
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
-
Saute all the ingredients at very low heat until they release their flavor.
-
Blend until you obtain a coarse paste. Keep refrigerated for up to a week. Or freeze in a zippy bag for up to a month.
If it is going to be used for stews then substitute the oregano and coriander for a bouquet garni consisting of thyme, cilantro and oregano,
I use cilantro, parsley, oregano, garlic, peppers and a splash of vinegar to get the processor going… never use onions… my great grandma (best cook ever) used to tell me that onions will make food bitter if not used fresh… so I just chop onions when I am cooking, never in my sofrito!
I make my grandmother’s so fritz, which it includes onions… I make enough for 4 months… the taste is never bitter… actually perfection!!!
The Puerto Rican version is very recao-heavy (also called culantro, not sure how Dominicans call it). We also use lots of ajies dulces; the recao and ajies give it its distinctive flavor. Of course every family has its own recipe. In mine, for example, we don’t add garlic because several family members are allergic or have trouble digesting it. No garlic in a sofrito is close to sacrilege for many people, but to each its own. In many PR households they add tomato, which I think makes the sofrito spoil faster. Anyway, my sofrito has recao, cilantro (if available), ajies… Read more »
Do you have an app. If not you should.
In the future. 🙂
I have never heard of any sofrito using radishes as a main ingredient!!! I use the regular Rican recipe which includes onions, cubanelle peppers, garlic, ajicitos, oregano, cilantro & recao… but I also add green & red bell peppers, a jar of pimentos with their liquid, a jar of pitted alcaparrado with their vinegar, tomatoes, and oregano brujo… absolutely divine!!!
Cada cocinero tiene su librito. Compartir la receta de nuestros lectores demuestra que no hay dos versiones iguales de nuestras comidas en ninguna casa. 🙂
Thankyou i was like really what part of D.R YOU from?
Yo uso, una cebolla roja grande, un ají verde, me encanta ponerle bastante ajo (algunos 10 dientes de ajo mas o menos), verdura, cilantro, aceite verde, mojito ó naranja agria, un tallo de apio, ajicitos dulces (como le llamamos en RD, me gusta al igual que el ajo ponerle mucho), un poco de adobo y/o sazonador total. Pongo todo en la licuadora, sirvo en algun container, guardo y listoooo! Me fascinaaa hacerlo! Es DEMASIADO PRACTICO!