Bandeja paisa is the great platter of Antioquia, the mountainous region around Medellín, whose people are known as paisas. It was farmhand food, built to fuel a day's work on steep coffee slopes, and it has kept its ambition. A proper bandeja holds red beans cooked with hogao, white rice, ground beef, chicharrón of fried pork belly, chorizo, a fried egg, sweet ripe plantain, a small arepa and slices of avocado, with a wedge of lime. Some add blood sausage. Nobody adds a salad.

It is a celebration of abundance rather than a single recipe, and the trick at home is organization: everything can be cooked ahead except the eggs and plantain. Serve it at lunchtime, the paisa way, and plan nothing energetic for the rest of the afternoon. Watching a race from the sofa qualifies.

Hogao

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
• 1 bunch (about 8) green onions
• 4 ripe tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon fine salt

Chicharrón

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb (680 g) skin on pork belly
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Red beans

Ingredients

• 2 cans (15 oz, 425 g each) cranberry or red kidney beans
• 1/2 of the hogao
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) water
• 1 small carrot

White rice

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (300 g) long grain white rice
• 2 1/4 cups (540 ml) water
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vegetable oil
• 3/4 teaspoon fine salt

Ground beef

Ingredients

• 1 lb (450 g) lean ground beef
• 1/2 of the hogao
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

Chorizo and arepas

Ingredients

• 4 fresh chorizo sausages
• 1 cup (120 g) masarepa
• 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) warm water
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

Plantain, eggs and finishing

Ingredients

• 2 very ripe plantains
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 lime

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