Mollejas en escabeche is a boiled green banana dish that is marinated with pickled gizzards, onions, peppers, and spices in a robust vinaigrette.
This is a reader submitted recipe provided by Luis Gonzalez, an active member of our Facebook group community!
Here is his story!
Growing up in the country side of Puerto Rico, we used every and all of our resources to create the most delicious dishes!
I remember growing up, my mom would make this dish: guineos con mollejas en escabeche.
It took me a while to find the perfect time to cook every component of the recipe, but eventually I did and I added my special touch to it!
I love colors, which is why I use all the ingredients with bright colors! For me cooking is a way to express my love.
The dedication I take to prepare each meal is to make sure that it is enjoyable to them! It also helps me show my mom, who was a single mom, what an amazing job she did with us.
The great thing about this dish is that you can substitute ingredients!
You can use shrimp or chicken breast instead of the gizzards if you are a picky eater! Enjoy/Buen Provecho/ Bon Appetite
Ingredients for mollejas en escabeche
The ingredients used for guineos en escabeche contain basic ingredients to create an escabeche marinade, which is created with the vinegar, olive oil, seasonings, and onions.
- gizzards
- green bananas
- white onion
- red bell pepper
- green bell pepper
- yellow bell pepper
- orange bell pepper
- green olives
- olive oil
- white vinegar
- water
- black bell pepper
- bay leaf
- garlic powder
- parsley flakes
- onion powder
Can you eat green bananas?
Green bananas are very unripe bananas that is used for making masa (dough) for alcapurrias, pasteles, and more by grating it. But for this recipe, we're just peeling the skin off and cutting the green bananas into one inch chunks.
How do you keep green bananas from turning black?
Quick tip! When peeling and cutting the green bananas, put the cut bananas into a bowl of water with milk. This keeps it from turning black.
To cook green bananas, you boil it with a little bit of salt in the water, and cook for only 10-12 minutes until just fork tender. You want your bananas to hold it's shape.
How do you cook gizzards?
Cooking gizzards for escabeche is quite simple, first you need to cut the gizzards into small bite sized chunks.
For this recipe, you just boil it for ten minutes!
How do gizzards taste?
Chicken gizzards are intestines that taste like dark meat. Gizzards are a tougher cut of meat, which is why you want to cut them into smaller pieces.
Related recipes
Want more? Here are some related recipes!
- yuca con mojo (cassava with garlic marinade)
- sancocho (stew beef with root vegetables)
📖 Recipe
Green bananas and gizzards | Guineos escabeche con mollejas
Equipment
- stove
Ingredients
- 2 lbs gizzards
- 8 green bananas
- ½ white onion
- ½ red bell pepper
- ½ green bell pepper
- ½ yellow bell pepper
- ½ orange bell pepper
- 8-10 green olives
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ cup white vinegar
- ½ cup water
- black pepper
- salt
- bay leaf
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 teaspoons parsley flakes
- 1 onion powder
Instructions
- Cut the ends of the green bananas and peel it. Cut bananas into one inch chunks.
- Place bananas into a large pot of water with a pinch of added salt and boil bananas over high heat for 10-12 minutes, or just until fork tender.
- While the bananas are cooking, cut gizzards into smaller bite sized pieces and boil with water in a different pot for ten minutes.
- Drain the bananas and put into a large bowl. (Drizzle a little olive oil to keep fresh.)
- In a separate pot, heat the oil over medium high heat and then add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil over medium high heat, and then lower to a simmer. Cook until onions and peppers have softened. About 7-10 minutes.
- Taste for seasonings and adjust to your liking.
- Once vegetables have softened, pour mixture into the large bowl with bananas, and toss to coat.
- Fold in gizzards and refrigerate for an hour before serving.
Renee says
How do you make your pastels! Your other foods look really good! Some I do make already. I am American married to a Puerto Rican fellow! I also know how to make Pastels already!!
francisco says
My wife has been talking about this recipe for ages. One of her coworkers used to bring it for potlucks in Boston. Thank you so much for sharing this, I will make it for her. My wife is from Guate I am from Chile and we both enjoy mollejas, our kids, not so much. Anyhow, if you are interested, in another simple dish with mollejas, here is how I make them. There this really super simple, amazing, Roman Italian dish called Amatriciana. Instead of pasta use coocked mollejas, and since real guanciale is imposible to find outside of Italy, use a nice very smoked bacon. If you are in the Boston area, I strongly recomend to get triple smoked bacon from Karl's Sausage Kitchen in Peabody.