La Bandera, which literally translated is "the flag," is a dish served at lunch in the Dominican Republic. Josh has been raving about it since we started dating. It's basically tons of rice smothered in a red kidney bean soup (I don't know how else to describe it) and served with pollo frito (fried chicken). I've tried 2 other recipes, neither of which was close. A few weeks ago, Josh found the website dominicancooking.com and sent me a link. We spent one Saturday morning looking through all the recipes and he pointed out some that looked like things he'd liked on the mission. I now have a whole Word document's worth of "recetas dominicanas" to try out and if this was any indication, they should be good.
Rather than write the recipes here, I'll send you to Aunt Clara herself. I made the rice authentic style instead of popping it in the rice cooker (and it was pretty darn good!). It's under arroz blanco, here: http://www.dominicancooking.com/516-arroz-blanco-white-rice.html
The bean mixture is called Habichuelas Rojas Guisadas: http://www.dominicancooking.com/122-habichuelas-rojas-guisadas-stewed-red-beans.html
And the chicken I made is pica pollo. It's different from the chicken usually served with the La Bandera, but I wanted to try it anyway: http://www.dominicancooking.com/626-pica-pollo-fried-chicken.html Like it says, you usually serve this with fried green plantains (just as good as french fries!) and ketchup.
The result? Something akin to Zatarain's red beans and rice, just more nutritious and flavorful!!
Here's some pictures:
