Fried Plantains

Posted by foodess on Fri 30th of Jan, 2009 05:36:59 PM

Plantains may look like bananas, but don’t be fooled. They are deceptively un-sweet, much firmer, and are used for cooking. They are never to be consumed atop cheerios, or smothered in peanut butter between slices of bread, and they most definitely do not belong in a chocolate-studded muffin (not that that ever happened to me or anything…). Not to mention, you would probably throw away a banana that looked like a perfectly ripe plantain - they are ready to use when the skin is black!

I fried some plantains to serve with jamaican jerk-seasoned pork chops. Hot, salted, and with a wedge of lime, they were a perfect complement to a Caribbean-spiced main dish. The flavour is starchy and only slightly sweeter than a potato - really not at all what you would expect from something that looks like it donned a Chiquita sticker in its lifetime.

The trickiest part of using plantains (besides mustering up the patience for them to turn black) is peeling them. It’s easiest to cut them into thirds, make a slit the length of the skin, and unwrap it with the aid of a paring knife. Cut it up into quarter-inch rounds, on a bias if you wish, or into lenthwise strips instead. Watch them carefully when frying - they go from perfectly golden to burned in no time.

3 Responses

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   1

   Obi - February 6th, 2009 at 9:27 am

   Slice them long and thin (at an angle)!

   Sprinkle salt on them prior to frying!

   Lay them on a paper towel after removing them from the fryer to drain the oil!

   Eat them for breakfast with eggs in the morning! (Ok, that’s a personal bias.)

   I’m really glad someone else feels me on how awesome a food they are. And yes, they most definitely need to be eaten when the skin is black (even though the above picture doesn’t seem congruent with that statement).

   Anyhow, sweet.

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   2

   foodess - February 6th, 2009 at 10:20 am

   I think I have to get in on that plantains-for-breakfast action. ASAP.

   Trust me, they looked like compost when I used them - maybe it’s the lighting?

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   Native West Indian - December 24th, 2009 at 9:42 am

   Plantains should also be ripe and soft (not mushy though!) when you cook them, not hard as rocks. They taste sweeter and more robust that way. You can fry them when they are hard and not ripe but it’s definitely a different flavor.

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