Secrets of Panamanian Cuisine: Mastering the Art of Sofrito

What's Inside: A step-by-step guide on how to make Panamanian sofrito at home, plus ideas on how to use it in your daily cooking to add flavor to your meals.

Sofrito is the start of most Panamanian dishes; it gives that unique flavor. Made with simple ingredients, it’s easy to prepare ahead of time, so it's ready to cook later, and you can store it in the fridge. Perfect for amplifying the flavors of your dish.

Most Hispanic or Latin American countries have a variation of these ingredients: garlic, onion, peppers, which are base or stews, beans, and tamales.

What Is Sofrito?

Sofrito is when you lightly fry different aromatics and vegetables to generate a base for other recipes. In Panamanian cuisine, it is mostly used for tomato-based sauces and stews.

Depending on the flavor profile you are looking for, the same base ingredients, paired with other spices and aromatics, can add a depth of flavor to your daily meals.

Each country uses various ingredients in Latin America, but the essence is the same. Panama uses the sofrito as a base for stews, beans, lentils, rice, tamales, and meats.

It resembles the French combination of celery, onion, and carrots called mirepoix.

Usually, the quantities are adjusted to each person’s taste. Below, you’ll find a basic recipe that can be used for any meal.

📋 Base Ingredients For Panamanian Sofrito

Here are the common ingredients used in Panamanian sofrito. While some ingredients can be omitted, the sofrito serves as the base for most dishes, such as tamales, that require that particular flavor.

Culantro is the star herb in Panamanian cuisine. For me, this is the base of any typical meal. It gives a unique aroma to food. It’s a cousin of coriander or cilantro. This can be a controversial topic, but they aren’t the same. This one is shaped like a saw and has a slightly stronger flavor. Perfect for sancocho and other soups and suitable for stews.

Variations Or Additional Ingredients

• Ají Chombo: This is the quintessential spice for Afro-Caribbean food. It provides heat to the end dish.
• Tomato sauce or tomato paste: This ingredient also adds color to the preparation, especially when you want to make stews. It's used when making guacho.
• Fresh diced tomato adds a fresh taste to the sauce used. Fry it with the rest of the ingredients.
• Worcestershire sauce or Soy sauce: to enhance the flavor of all the aforementioned ingredients.

📝 Steps To Cook Sofrito

1. The prep step is to chop your ingredients finely. This base recipe will only use onion, garlic, sweet pepper, and culantro. You can add other ingredients depending on what you are using it for.

💡 Tip: You can chop the ingredients using a food processor.

2. Add the oil to a saucepan at medium-low heat to start cooking. Start by sauteing onions until translucent. Add sweet peppers and saute until soft. Then add garlic, saute until fragrant, and add fresh culantro. Season with salt and pepper.

At this point, your kitchen will smell like a Panamanian kitchen! That mixture of culantro, garlic, and onions is just perfection.

These are the basic recipe directions. You can add other ingredients like tomato paste or Worcershertire sauce from here, based on what you will use it for.

Ways To Use Sofrito

Once you make the sofrito, it can be used in different ways. For example:

• Add it to your omelet.

• Flavor your beans or lentils by adding them once soft or before cooking to amplify their flavor, like in coconut rice with pigeon peas.

• It's the base for Arroz con Pollo; replace the vegetable oil with annatto oil and add some celery to the mix.

• Used in tamales. Add the sofrito to the raw main ingredients to flavor the corn dough when it's cooked. Or for the tamale filling you are making, chicken or pork.

• Use it for guacho. You’ll have to slice the onions in Julianne and omit the sweet peppers. Add tomato sauce, and saute until it thickens. Remember to season to taste. Then serve over the guacho.

• Use it as a base for your stews. You can sear your chicken, meat, or meatballs and then cook the sofrito in the same pan to add another layer of flavor to the dish. Then add the tomato sauce and the rest of the ingredients and cook until the meat is tender.

❓FAQs

👩🏽‍🍳 Recipe Tips

To prepare it beforehand, you can chop the veggies and store them in the fridge in an airtight container so it's ready before you prepare your meal.

Alternatively, you can cook it ahead of time. It may lose some flavor, but you can revive it by adding fresh culantro or other fresh ingredients.

Wait until the pan is hot to add the oil and lightly fry the vegetables. This will ensure the oil is infused and the vegetables release their flavor.

Always use fresh ingredients; this will yield the best flavor.

Add the culantro last to the cooking so it doesn't burn, then add tomato sauce and the additional ingredients.

If using sofrito for meat stews, sear the meat first, then in the same pot, make the sofrito; this will add a depth of flavor to the final dish.

Only if you can't get culantro, then use cilantro, the taste will be slightly different, but it can work. Even though it's not my personal preference.