For many years I would stop and pick up a bunch of bananas, gaze over at the plantains and move on. Sometimes they were green ones, sometimes yellow. Once in a while the yellow ones would be so spotted that they were more black than yellow. I would offer a mental “tsk…tsk…tsk” to the produce workers for letting an obviously over-ripe fruit stay on the stand for way too long. I figured they were just like bananas.

I decided to cook with plantains for the first time a couple of years ago. Figuring all plantains to be the same, I grabbed the first bunch that were yellow with as few black spots as possible (just like bananas, right?). I took them home, fried them up and found they were almost inedible. I quickly wrote them off as not for my palate.

But as the months went by, I kept seeing them. Not one to give up on a food that easily, I decided to try them again. This time, I did my research. What did I find? Go for the black spotted ones. The flavor improves and are much better to eat as the spots appear. So I put two in my cart and went to the checkout line. After getting home I looked at my receipt and found the checker had rung up two….bananas.

I found that I really liked these.

I tried them with garlic salt and parmesan. The savory combination worked great but I could see cinnamon sugar going just as well.

All sliced up and ready for the oil.

I know that different foods are best at various oil temperatures. I went with my old standby of 350.

Sizzilin’!

Beautiful and tasty.

Fried Plantains

Prep Time: 5 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Makes: 8

Ingredients:

  • 1 quart oil for frying
  • 2 plantains

Directions:

1. Preheat oil in a large, deep skillet over medium high heat.

2. Peel the plantains and cut them in half. Slice the halves lengthwise into thin pieces.

3. Fry the pieces until browned and tender. Drain excess oil on paper towels.

Nutritional Info:

Nutrition Amount Per Serving (8 total) Calories 152 cal 8% Fat 11.2 g 17% Carbs 14.3 g 5% Protein 0.6 g 1% Cholesterol 0 mg 0% Sodium 2 mg < 1% See More Based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Source: http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/22308/fried-plantains

 

*** REMINDER ***

If you have an interest in participating in DICED! A Ranting Chef competition, the deadline is midnight on February 28, 2013. For full details about the competition, see the original post by clicking here.

About these ads