Sancocho de Habichuelas / Bean stew

Well friends, fall is here and winter will soon be upon us. Without a doubt, the cold weather draws my appetite toward comfort food. One comfort food that warms the insides is a sancocho de habichuelas. This recipe was initially given to me by a dear friend named Elba. Though I can no longer remember Elba's last name, I promise you that this sancocho will be a memorable one. Throughout the years, I have worked at making this sancocho my own. Here's what you'll need:

• One small bag of roman beans
• 3 Chicken boullions
• One medium onion
• One pepper (preferably yellow, orange, or red)
• Three large cloves of garlic
• Adobo
• Five sweet peppers (ajies dulce)
• Dried oregano
• Corn Oil
• 1 tbs Tomato paste
• A bunch of Cilantro with stems (be generous with this)
• 4 sweet plantains (yellow, sweet but not over ripe)
• 2 green plantains
• 1 large wedge of squash (calabaza/auyama)
• A small pack of loose pork ribs (not a rack)
• One tbs sugar

Preparation:

• The evening you make the sancocho, put the beans in water
• The next day, drain the beans and fill a small-medium stock pot with water, but not to the top. Leave enough room for the remaining ingredients.
• Add a little corn oil (about 2 tbs), chicken boullions, beans, onions, pepper, adobo and a tablespoon of tomato paste
• In a mortar, place your garlic cloves and sweet peppers (ajies) and sprinkle with dried oregano and pound with the pestil unil a paste develops. Put half of this mixture in your pot of beans and reserve the other half for the ribs.
• Place your ribs into a bowl and season with adobo from the mortar mixture
• In a pan, fill with a little corn oil. Just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar in the pan and allow to caramelize. Once the sugar turns dark brown (it'll seem like it's burning), place your seasoned ribs in the pan and cover immediately. The ribs will sizzle, but when the sizzling simmers down, give the ribs a turn so that they absorb the caramelized coating.
• Clean your cilantro, and tie a string around it and place in pot of beans
• Once beans are soft and the ribs are cooked, place ribs inside the pot of beans. Reserve some of the left over sauce from the ribs pan.
• Cut your sweet plantains in thick round slices and place in your bean pot
• Cut your squash in squares and place in the bean pot
• Finely grate your green plantains and mix the grated plantains in the rib sauce and form round dumplings and place the dumplings into the bean pot.

Cook until the squash, plantains, and dumplings are done. The stew should be very thick by this time.

I know this sounds like a lot, but it's really uncomplicated, relative to other sancochos. I higly recommend this one. It's actually my favorite sancocho.

Enjoy.