'Diasporican: A Puerto Rican Cookbook'

After documenting her family’s Puerto Rican recipes and preserving the island’s disappearing foodways for years, Illyanna Maisonet shares over 90 recipes, including Arroz con Gandules and Mofongo and Pinchos with BBQ Guava Sauce, in her first cookbook, Diasporican. Maisonet joins us to talk about working on the cookbook and food memoir as well as the research that went into it.

Arroz Chino Boricua

Makes 4 servings

If you read my column, you know about the impact, especially gastronomically, that the Chinese have had on Puerto Ricans. When you go into a Chinese restaurant in Puerto Rico and order a seemingly innocuous combo plate, what you receive might baffle a Statesider: an entrée, fried rice, and french fries or tostones. Yes, Chinese cooks have figured out Puerto Ricans’ love affair with double starch and meat. You can also add peas and carrots to this mixture.

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 cup chopped jamonilla (such as Spam)

1 pound 16/20-count shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 scallions, chopped

2 teaspoons sofrito

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups Basic White Rice

1/4 cup soy sauce

Add the canola oil to a sauté pan and place over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until translucent. Add the jamonilla and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, or until browned, then stir to mix well.

Add the shrimp to the pan and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes, or until just pink, then add the scallions and sofrito and mix to combine. Add the eggs, let settle for 1 minute, and then scramble them in the pan for about 3 minutes. Add the rice, stir in the soy sauce, and keep the mixture moving for 5 to 7 minutes, or until the shrimp are thoroughly cooked.

Serve the rice hot.