CAT HEAD / CABEZA DE GATO

Hey Rebels!

Don't be scared if your heard the name of this traditional preparation from Colombia, specifically located in the Atlantic coast: CAT HEAD... easy tigers!! my country count with a few exotics cultural  and gastronomy customs but is not a possibility eat cats. This exotic name is derived from a funny reason and perhaps another mistake in a “patio” (in the history of our cultures, the kitchen was located mostly times in the backyard or Patio in spanish)  my intuition about culture and cooking go to the same path: the most wonderful things in kitchen has been a mistake once or a tasting process.

The cathead is a traditional “amasijo” or a wet dough made it with green or “pintón” plantain, and pay attention to this, the name change depending of what city you visited and what kind of plantain was used for prepare it, remember in Colombia still survive more than 8 types of plantains: popocho, mafufo, plantain macho, banano manzano and we can take a spanish slang course just with the 13 names of platains in South america!

… basically since this point my experience speak cause I went rolling all the Atlantic coast of my country and many corners, villages, mountains, rivers, the furious dessert and the jungle and I conclude: “the variation in the name do not representing a variation in the preparation and  doesn’t intervene with the technique used for more than 200 years". 

The datas about how older is the cathead and the consume of many preparation based in  green plantains is according to the arrival of afrodescendants from Angola and the central area of Congo to the Caribbean and their pursuit of freedom in San Basilio de Palenque a small village near from Cartagena, this community take the credits and my respect.

Yeah! Patacones, cathead, mongo mongo, arepa’ e huevo are the best representation of our tri-ethnical gastronomy culture still alive in Palenque and every corner of Cartagena de Indias.

So Rebels, what about if you try it…is so easy that maybe you prefer run behind cats in the kitchen!

Tips: in our culture is popular for breakfast but this RebelChef used Cathead like a sides for: seabass, red snapper and seafood…is delicious.

Ingredients: ( 5 portions)

4 green plantains

Sea salt

Garlic (your taste)

Pepper

Topping 

Cheese

Hogao sauce

Process: 

Peal the green plantains and chopped in quarts

In a pot boil water and sea salt, when you see the first boiling add the plantain, is important not aggregate the pieces in water and wait until boiling cause turning in black soon. And the color only accepted by Older Palenqueras  is yellow! 

Then, smash garlic, salt and pepper, dry the plantains and smashed together until having a soft texture, made small balls and grilled by 4 min each side… you see now, looks like Cat Heads!

On top a fresh touch of Costeño cheese, if you prefer Feta is perfect too, and traditional hogao sauce.

Spanish version
https://bastimentobyrebelchef.blogspot.com/2019/04/cabeza-de-gato.html