Where to Shop for Costa Rican Ingredients

Few special ingredients are needed for Nelly Orona’s Costa Rican dishes. The least familiar is bijol, a bright orange powder that adds a dash of color to Orona’s potato and ground beef picadillo. It’s based on annatto, with cumin and red and yellow food colors added. Look for tiny round cans of bijol in Latino markets.

Green plantains are available in many supermarkets as well as Latino markets. All plantains must be cooked to be edible. Green (unripe) plantains are not sweet. When they ripen, the skin turns yellow with brown spots and the flavor is too sweet for Orona’s plantain picadillo.

Orona uses canned pickled yellow peppers instead of fresh yellow (guero) peppers, which are seasonal and often unavailable. Packed in jars, the pickled peppers are stocked by some large supermarkets as well as by Latino food stores.