“Guineitos Verde en Escabeche” is one of our most popular dishes. You would say its a “Jíbaro” dish.
Carmen Aboy Valldejuly is the raining queen of Puerto Rican cooking. Her book, Cocina Criolla – Puerto Rican Cookery, is considered the bible of our kitchen. The first edition was printed in November 1954 and now about 40 more editions have been printed. I have it in both Spanish and English and my copy is from 1983.
I am not adapting this recipe…its coming straight from her book. This is the way my mother made it and we continue to follow the recipe to the letter.
When I make this dish I always make it with a salted cod salad and some avocado and cilantro, of course.
A. Pickling Sauce or escabeche Sauce:
2 cups of olive oil
1 cup of vinegar
12 peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 bay leaves
1-1/2 pounds onions, peeled and slices
2 cloves garlic, minced
B. 10 green bananas (available in latin american grocery stores)
C. 8 cups of water – 2 teaspoons salt
Instructions:
In a heavy pot, mix ingredients included in A and cook over low heat for an hour. Allow to cool.
Trim ends of bananas and slit just the peel, lengthwise, on both sides.
In a deep pot, bring to a boil water to cover bananas. Add bananas, cover and boil over low heat for 15 minutes. Drain and peel.
Fill the pot with ingredients included in C and bring rapidly to a boil. Add peeled bananas, cover and boil for 10 minutes. Add one cup of water and boil for another 5 minutes. Drain and allow to cool.
Cut bananas into one inch rounds. Place in a deep glass bowl, alternating with the escabeche sauce. Marinade for 24 hours.
BUEN PROVECHO!
platanosmangoes.com 
One of my favorite dishes! I drool just thinking about it.
Unlike the two of you I have never had the pleasure of trying this dish. But my life is not over yet:D
It’s a must Val…really a great dish…
This dish looks so tasty Norma….will try this for sure!!!! Nice pictures!
I have never had pickled green bananas…it’s actually a complete new thing to me. It looks very tempting!
This marvelous Hispanic recipe is cooked everywhere in the Americas, especially in rural communities. And is very healthy, with lots of potassium.
I enjoy this dish with green bananas and also with almost ripe, but not quite sweet, bananas, which I call “platanos pintones.” The only difference in the way a cook it is, that I cut the bananas, from the beginning, in one inch rounds to boil. And make sure they cook “al dente.” Because of my special diet I can’t use too much salt. So instead of the cod fish salad, I use Spanish “bonito” which looks like tuna but taste better, I think. It comes from Spain, in a can, marinated with olive oil or tomato sauce which I buy in local markets in the USA. I have bought this product in American markets in Boston, Miami, New York and California. But you can get “bonito” anywhere in the USA, even Alaska.
Thank you for your wonderful site.
Thank you for you rimput and ideas. Such a pleasure having you visit and your support is very well appreciated. Wait til I post sopa de platano verde…it was so good.
I haven’t eaten this dish since I visited Puerto Rico over 30 years ago. Thank you sooooooo much for posting this. It is so lovely to be reminded os something enjoyed, but forgotten over time. And, OMG, it looks so good!
I can’t wait to try this! I’ve never tasted it before.
Delicious, now where to find the green bananas!?
In any Latin America Market or bodegas.
What an interesting dish! This escabeche looks really delicious.
Cheers,
Rosa
Sounds super delicious – I would love to try!
When I was younger, I did not like the taste of vinegar hardly at all. I would eat pickles, but I didn’t really like vinaigrettes or other pickled foods. Now, I just love the stuff! I’ve never tried pickled bananas, but I’d sure give them a shot. Sounds yummy!
Pickled bananas sound so interesting. Love pickled everything so no doubt would love this exotic dish!
LL
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While it’s marinading, should the dish be placed in the refrigerator (I know green bananas get hard after they are placed in the refrigerator) Just don’t know if it will spoil to leave it on the counter for 24 hours while it’s marinading. Thanks.
You can put in fridge and then bring it down to room temp when you serve it. Thanks for the visit.
Can I use regular large, green plantain bananas instead of the smaller green bananas?
Never used it. Would not taste the same….
It won’t be the same but you can try it