Pabellón Criollo

Venezuela's national plate: black beans, shredded beef and white rice laid side by side with fried ripe plantain along the edge

Origin: Caracas & Venezuela

From the journey of Beans.

Pabellón criollo is four things arranged on one plate and never mixed: black beans, shredded beef, white rice, and fried ripe plantain. A pabellón is a flag or a pavilion, and the usual reading of the name is that the components lie in bands like a standard. It is Venezuela's national dish by common consent rather than by decree. The reading of the plate as a picture of the country's population, black beans, white rice, brown beef, is offered constantly in Venezuela and abroad. It is a nineteenth-century interpretation applied to a dish whose components were on Venezuelan tables for other and duller reasons, and it should be treated as a piece of national storytelling rather than as an account of how the dish came together. What is straightforwardly true is that all four elements were staples of the colonial llanos and that combining them on one plate is not a difficult idea. Caraotas negras are the beans, cooked long with sofrito until the liquor is black and thick, and Venezuelans finish them with a little sugar or panela, which startles outsiders and is standard. The beef is carne mechada, flank simmered and then shredded and stewed down in sofrito. The plantain must be genuinely ripe, black-skinned, so that it caramelises rather than merely fries. Adding a fried egg on top makes it pabellón a caballo, on horseback, and a wrapping of the whole thing in a plantain leaf makes it pabellón en tarkarí in some regions. The version with a leaf laid under it is pabellón con baranda, with a railing, the plantain standing along the edge like a fence, which is where the name of that variant comes from.

Ingredients

Beans

400 g dried black beans, soaked overnight
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
3 tbsp oil
2 tbsp grated panela or brown sugar
1.5 tsp salt, or to taste

Beef

900 g flank steak, in one piece
1.5 litres water
1 onion, halved
2 bay leaves

Sofrito

2 onions, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
6 garlic cloves, crushed
400 g tinned chopped tomatoes
1 tsp ground cumin
4 tbsp oil

To serve

3 very ripe plantains, sliced on the diagonal
400 g long-grain rice, cooked

Method

Simmer the flank steak in the water with the halved onion and bay leaves for two hours until it shreds easily. Keep 400ml of the broth.
Meanwhile cook the drained beans in fresh unsalted water for an hour and a half until tender, keeping the cooking liquor.
Soften the chopped onion, pepper, and garlic in the oil for ten minutes, add the cumin, then stir this sofrito into the beans with some of their liquor.
Simmer for twenty minutes, then add the salt and the panela.
The sugar in the beans is not a mistake and is not a modern flourish. Venezuelan caraotas are faintly sweet, and the plate is built around that against the salt of the beef.
Pull the cooked beef apart into long strands along the grain.
For the carne mechada, soften the sliced onions and both peppers in the oil for twelve minutes, add the garlic and cumin, then the tomatoes.
Cook down for ten minutes, add the shredded beef and the reserved broth, and simmer for twenty-five minutes until the sauce clings and the strands are dark.
Fry the plantain slices in a shallow pan of oil over a medium heat until deeply caramelised on both sides.
Use plantains with black skins. A yellow one has not developed the sugars and fries pale and starchy instead of going sweet and dark.
Warm the rice.
Serve each plate with the rice, beans, and beef laid side by side in bands and the plantain along the edge, and do not mix them before they reach the table.

Notes

Keep the four elements separate on the plate. Black beans want a little panela; this is standard and not optional. Flank steak shredded along the grain gives the right strands. The plantains must be black-ripe. Both the beans and the beef improve overnight, so the dish is easily made in stages. A fried egg on top makes it pabellón a caballo.

The Gastrographer

Name: Pabellón Criollo
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 35 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Caracas & Venezuela
Ingredients: 400 g dried black beans, soaked overnight; 1 onion, chopped; 1 red pepper, chopped; 6 garlic cloves, crushed; 1 tsp ground cumin; 3 tbsp oil; 2 tbsp grated panela or brown sugar; 1.5 tsp salt, or to taste; 900 g flank steak, in one piece; 1.5 litres water; 1 onion, halved; 2 bay leaves; 2 onions, thinly sliced; 1 red pepper, sliced; 1 green pepper, sliced; 6 garlic cloves, crushed; 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes; 1 tsp ground cumin; 4 tbsp oil; 3 very ripe plantains, sliced on the diagonal; 400 g long-grain rice, cooked

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control