I Want to Cook Plantains! Recipes, Please.

Cafe Society
1

I love plantains so much. They are awesome. But I find that as an ingredient I’m stumped as how to incorporate them in my cooking. Well, not stumped, I just need some stellar recipes.

I’ve eaten plantains at restaurants, most notably a Ghanan place that I’m not sure is around anymore (I’m in the Twin Cities, for the curious). And there’s Victor’s, a Cuban joint that’s quite good, 'cept they give you like 2 plantain bites with your rice and beans. I need more! I love plantains!

What I’m looking for is recipes of the Cuban, Puerto Rican, African variety. Rice and beans and spicy zazz. Also, how do I pick the best plantains at the supermarket? And how 'bout tasty, simple fried plantains? Please help me consume more plantains in my home.

2

A guy from Venezuela taught me this way to cook plantains: steam or boil them whole until nearly tender, cut in slices and smash flat and then fry in butter until nicely brown.

3

  1. Peel them, the cut them diagonally in 1-1 1/2 " wedges.

  2. Soak them in water (my cookbook says for 15 mins in water with some mashed garlic cloves on it).

  3. Fry them in oil, both sides.

  4. Drain them of grease, then smash them. You can buy tostoneras, or you can put the wedge in a flat surface and smash away with a pan/dish/lid/any flat surface.

  5. Fry them again, in oil, until crispy.

  6. Drain them again, sprinkle salt (or garlic powder, my personal favorite). Let them cool a bit, enjoy.

Congrats, you’ve made tostones!

Also, I translated a recipe for mofongo. Rumble rumble Here it is!:

Mofongo (enough for 10 big balls, says the recipe)

A- 3 green plantains (Southside carries plantains, I don’t know if they’re green there, sometimes they aren’t)
½ pound of chicharrón (fried pork skin rinds)
B- 3 big garlic cloves
1 tablespoon of olive oil

  1. Peel the plantains and cut them diagonally in one inch thick slices. Soak them in 4 cups of water with one tablespoon of salt for 15 minutes. Dry them well.
  2. Heat up a lot of vegetable oil or grease (350°F). Fry the plantain slices slowly (therm. 300°F) around 15 minutes, until cooked without burnt. Remove and dry them on absorbent paper towels.
  3. In a mortar and pestle (or something similar) smash the garlic and mix them with the olive oil. Remove them from the mortar and put on a different bowl.
  4. Smash three plantain slices in the mortar. Add some of the chicharrón and smash together. Add some of the garlic mixed with the oil and continue mixing together. Take them by the spoonfuls, and round them into balls. Do the same with the rest of the ingredients. Serve warm.
    Addendum: You can use something else to smash those plantains, like a big bowl and a potato smasher (that’s what we did at my house, faster than the tiny mortar and pestle).
4

Plaintain replaces bread in the jibarito sandwich. Try it with avocado instead of/addition to mayo. Basically, follow the KarlGrenze method for tostones only cut to sandwich length.

Here’s a recipe that tells walks you through production though I might deviate from in some significant ways (I’d probably do chicken, substitute avocado for mayo and use a quality cheese.)

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Oooh, looks good. Thanks, guys!

6

Don’t mean to hijack, but you make me miss home. It’s been forever since I’ve had a tostone. By the way they taste good with ketchup too.

7

You can also use mayo/ketchup sauce, and some olive oil/green herbs/barely reminiscent of pesto sauce. :slight_smile:

I’m cheap and don’t like mayo, so garlic powder works. Mmm…

8

Oooh, a weekend of watching Food Network’s Ultimate Recipe Showdown was useful today!

The recipe that won on week 3, “Comfort foods”, turns out to be Puerto Rican-inspired, with plantains! I’m not too sure how much TGI Fridays butchered (heh!) the recipe, but you can search for the recipe here. Just check under Week 3, and click the tab on recipe.

Mmm… heart attack on a plate… wants me to go to TGI Fridays just to try it. :wink:

9

Last year, I entered a recipe contest put on by the National Pork Board ( http://www.theotherwhitemeat.com ). The recipe I entered was called Tampa Mojo Pork Loin and Plantain Brochettes. For whatever reason it didn’t make the cut, but regardless, it’s a good recipe, tried and true, very tasty, and convenient. And lucky for you, it’s a great way to make use of plantains. The parameters of the recipe contest was to create a unique, regional (state), recipe for pork tenderloin using only five ingredients or less (besides the tenderloin, salt, pepper, and oil), with a minimum of, I think, 30 minutes of prep and cooking time (not counting marinating). Unfortunately, I don’t have an exact copy of the recipe on hand but I’ll try to transcribe it from memory (I should remember it, although I might be off on some of the quantities and times.).

Tampa Mojo Pork Loin and Plantain Brochettes

1 pork tenderloin cut into one inch thick medallions
4-5 yellow plantains (mid-ripe) cut on a bias into one inch thick slices
12 soaked bamboo skewers
8 cloves of peeled garlic
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 3/4 cups of 100% Real Florida Orange Juice from the carton
The juice of 5 fresh limes
1 tbls dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tbls fresh ground black pepper

Cut the tenderloin into one inch thick medallions and place them into a large ziploc bag. Place the garlic cloves into a blender with the olive oil. Puree until the garlic is finely chopped, and the mixture is white and frothy. Add the orange juice, lime juice, oregano, salt and pepper. Pulse the blender until the Tampa Mojo is well combined.
Reserve a half cup of the Tampa Mojo for basting the brochettes and pour the rest into the ziploc bag with the tenderloin.

Put the tenderloin in the fridge and marinate for 1 1/2 hours. Place the skewers into water to soak at this time.

Remove the tenderloin from the fridge and fire up a med high grill. Cut the ends off your plantains and slice horizontally along the plantain to remove the thick peel. Cut the plantains into one inch thick bias slices. Using two skewers double thread a cross section of plantain on its side, alternating a pork medallion, a slice of plantain, a pork medallion, and a final slice of plantain. Grill the brochettes over med high heat for around 8-10 minutes, basting with the reserved Tampa Mojo and turning halfway through cooking time.

10

I don’t have a great deal of experience with plantains but I believe the one type of plantain (chiquita brand) that is available at my supermarket is a kind of all-purpose variety and perhaps a bit less starchy and slightly more sweet than other varieties. Usually Latin Markets have a couple of different varieties available that are better suited to different uses.

Something to keep in mind, when choosing and using plantains-- Plantains don’t follow the same ripeness rule of thumb as bananas. A plantain isn’t truly ripe until they are black, and then they are best suited to dessert preperations and regular eating, although they aren’t truly as sweet as a banana. Green Plantains are very starchy and best used for cooking and savory preperations, like frying and mufungo. And in my experience, I found the mid ripe yellow plantains, which I used for my brochettes, perfectly starchy with just a hint of sweetness. It worked well with the Orange Juice and Pork, and they grilled perfectly in a short time.

11

b.t.w.- The mojo pork tenderloin and plantain brochettes serve up perfectly with rice and beans, that’s how I ate them. It makes a very easy and nice presentation for a cookout, as well. Just prop the brochette over a serving of rice and beans and garnish with some cilantro and a wedge of lime.

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Wow, thanks, devilsknew. I have a lot to work with now!