I had some oxtail soup a few days ago that included green bananas. I ate a chunk of it an assumed it was some starchy root vegetable I was not familiar with.
I was just curious, is this a common utilization of bananas in central american cuisine?
It was probably a plantain, not a banana. They’re pretty similar but the former is much starchier and denser and used in a similar manner to potatoes in Latin cuisine.
They are also delicious.
What Aesiron said. Unripe plantains are sort-of-kind-of potato-y in taste and texture and can be cooked pretty much the same way. Ripe plantains are sweet and best served fried, IMO. Regular bananas can be subbed (with slightly different results) for the latter but not the former.
JRB
Ooh, I want tostones now.
I made some tempura the other day and thought I’d be adventurous. I used some plantain (amongst a bunch of traditional ingredients) with a yellowish brown skin and indeed, it pretty much tasted like bananas. I’ll have to try green plantain next time. I ate a bunch of fried plantain in Venezuela and really liked it, and now that I think about it, it tasted half way between a banana and a potato.
Boiled green banana as well as green plantain is definitely used in this way in Caribbean cuisine. Not my favourite, I hasten to add. Tostones, though… mmmm. And Mofongo!
ETA our local (Santo Domingo) sushi joints offer Dominican versions with ripe plantain. I like my ripe plantain but not in sushi.