Episode 1: Preserving Family Recipes

Dominican Cuisine with Vanessa Mota

 

What we ate:

We sat down with Vanessa at Puerto Viejo in Brooklyn, where we tried —

• Oxtail & sweet plantain empanadas
• Arepitas de yuca
• Chimi Burger
• Pernil with yuca fries
• Flan de Coco
• Tres Leches

 

Vanessa’s Recommendations for Dominican Food in New York City:

📍Puerto Viejo — 564 Grand Ave, Brooklyn (Prospect Heights)

📍Malecon — 4141 Broadway, Manhattan (Washington Heights)

📍Mamajuana Café — 247 Dyckman Street, Manhattan (Inwood)

📍La Cabana — 3917 103rd St, Queens (Corona)

 

More NYC Dominican Spots to Try:

📍Lina — 500 W 207th St, Manhattan (Inwood)

📍El Floridita — 4162 Broadway, Manhattan (Washington Heights)

📍Habichuelas Con Dulce — Stand at 570 W 182nd St, Manhattan (Washington Heights)

📍El Manantial Bakery — 1220 St Nicholas Ave, Manhattan (Washington Heights)

📍El Fuerto Fritura Y Chimichurri — 3881 10th Ave, Manhattan (Inwood)

📍Kenny Bakery — 126A Dyckman St, Manhattan (Inwood)

📍El Panadero Bakery — 1380 St Nicholas Ave, Manhattan (Washington Heights)

 

Dominican Recipes to Try:

If there is one recipe that epitomizes Dominican cuisine for Vanessa, it’s sancocho, a rustic soup with meat, root vegetables, and spices.

“I really love sancocho. It's love, you know? It's, like, that dish. Every time I go to the Dominican Republic, everybody makes sancocho for you. It's like, “I love you so much I made you sancocho.”

Try Vanessa’s recipe for Dominican Sancocho (Caribbean Meat and Vegetable Stew).

 

You can also try Vanessa’s tips for getting the perfect pernil — roasted pork shoulder.

“You have to season it really well for it to be flavorful. We like to use a lot of  lime or bitter orange, a lot of garlic, adobo, pepper, and spices to season it. And then cooking it properly so that it becomes really tender…You don’t want the meat to be tough and you don’t want it to be dry. If it's dry, you overcooked it. If it's not tender, you didn’t cook it enough.

I season it like I usually do, and I put it to cook in the slow cooker until it's nice and tender. And then I put it in the oven just to crisp up the skin. And that ensures that then the skin is crispy and then the inside of the pork is, like, nice and juicy.”

 

Cookbook & Blog:
Be sure to check out Vanessa’s blog, My Dominican Kitchen, where you can find hundreds of Dominican recipes, and even buy her cookbook, The Dominican Kitchen.

 

Episode Credits

Hosted, Produced, and Edited by Diane Bezucha

Additional Editing by Christina Mitchell

Music Supervision by Rachel Helman

Original Music by Richard Tunstall

Additional Music

• “Coronea” by Blue Dot Sessions from the album Marisala, (2017)
• “Filing Away” by Blue Dot Sessions from the album Crab Shack, (2016)