Sofrito

[AhBee01]

Does anyone have recipes with Sofrito as an ingredient? Someone gifted me with some but I have no idea how to use it! TIA

 

[Chef]

I love making spanish rice with it. I will make sofrito and put it in ice cubes and freeze them. Then when I need to add a bit of flavor to stuff I'll pop in a cube or two. Lots of stuff to do with it!

Chef

 

[DawnSuiter]

Sofrito refers to a base set of ingredients, seasonings specifically. All cooking styles have a 'sofrito' from italian to asian.
Depending on what is in yours, it's like the start of EVERY meal.
Everything I cook starts with either an Italian, Cuban, Mexican, or Asian style Sofrito...
Usually onion, garlic & some additional regional basics.

Here is a fresh sofrito in the Italian style, red onion, garlic, celery & carrot in olive oil.

which is the base of all my italian red sauces

Powdered sofritos are usually garlic, onion, red & black peppers - which is useful in EVERY dish or steak rubs, etc.

 

[Chef]

Quote:
That looks more like mirepoix than sofrito you have in that pot to me. Celery,onions,and carrots is mirepoix and when you go down south it's the holy trinity and they use bell pepper. Pretty close but they are called different things. Sofrito is used in most latin dishes. It contains peppers, tomato's, onions, garlic, cilantro, and parsley normally, but there are many variants. All of these ingredients are usually blended together in a blender and added while cooking.

Chef

 

[Break an Egg]

Spanish rice, carne quisada, enchiladas, anything mexican that has a sauce you can use sofrito.

Here's my carne guisada recipe:



1 to 1 1/2 pounds of lean stew meat (beef)
1 medium onion
1 bell pepper (you can also use something hotter, DH can't do hot)
1/2 cup of sofrito (you can also use picante sauce, or just tomato sauce)
a few tbs of flour and some oil to make a roux
seasonings: pepper, salt, cumin, garlic
water to cover


season meat with salt and pepper
get a wok or other large fry pan hot and add a few tbs of oil to fry the meat, the hotter the pan the better you want to brown it for a few minutes so fry until brown and and edges start to look crispy (carmellized)
take out meat and add chopped onion and lower temp to soften the onions
at this point add garlic when onion is somewhat soft
add chopped bell pepper with garlic
after all is combined, add meat back and the sofrito
stir and let come together for a minute while you add seasonings
add enough water to cover, (I add a little extra water because the sauce is so good)
cover and simmer for about 2 hrs on low (on my stove it's 3)
don't forget to take a look once in a while to make sure you have enough liquid, if you start to see the meat not covered by liquid, add more water
add oil to a small saucepan or fry pan (I use my cast iron) and get it to med
add a few tbs at a time enough to where it is easy to stir, but not runny
when this cooks to a golden brown add it to your guisada

(you need to add enough roux to make the sauce thick enough, make sure not to burn the roux)
this can also be done with cornstarch, but the taste will not be the same

Carne guisada actually translates to meat with sauce or gravy and can be eaten in a tortilla, or with rice.

 

[DawnSuiter]

Quote:
That's wonderful information! I only know what the "old country" abuelas & nanas (grandmas) taught us growing up in the old neighborhood. Italian, Spanish or Cuban they always called their blend of onions, garlic, olive oil and whatever else, "sofrito". I learned about cooking in the kitchens of some great cooks... I only wish I had paid more attention in the greek kitchens honestly!

OP - It's wonderful old world cooking! Enjoy your gifted seasonings on nearly anything!