This is a very authentic Puertorrican Mofongo recipe. If you are not from PR will probably not know a few things: The mortar and pestle to be used is made of wood, look in the auction site for "Puerto Rico mortar" and you will find a lot for sale. If you run out of olive oil, the canola oil used for frying can be used as a substitute. In the States you can find Howard's Fried Pork Skin, they are very good for this recipe. When mashing the fried plantain, first add a pinch of salt and 1-2 cloves of garlic to the mortar and mash a little with the pestle, then, one by one, add the plantain chunks and mash. Once you have an homogeneous mixture the mofongo is ready. Run a knife or spatula between the mofongo and the mortar walls, turn the mortar upside down, and bang against the counter top; you will get a nice mofongo dome. Or, push the mofongo against the walls of the mortar, leaving the center hollow, and fill with your favorite seafood stew; eat directly from the mortar...Yummy!!!

This is delicious but rather labor intensive. I don't know what sort of mortar & pestle the author of this recipe has, but I found the mashing of the garlic and plaintains difficult in my modestly-sized marble one. It definitely took more than 15 minutes! Does she have a LARGE authentic Puerto Rican wooden one (as seen on Man vs. Food)? The result, however, was wonderful (I ended up using my "boat motor" to puree it). I made this as my sister's b'day dinner (her request) along with "Camarones al Aijillo." Would not make again due to the difficuly of preparation, but thanks for sharing just the same.

Very good!!! I couldn't find the pork rinds so I crisped 3 bacon strips and ground them up. I also put about 1 tsp of butter in the mix together with the olive oil. YUMMMYYYYY