Master of My Own Plantain

Every once and a while, I'll have something out and want to make it at home. Okay, maybe this happens more than every once and a while. After having soft sweet cooked plantains at El Rey, my challenge was set.

Plantains are like lots of guys, early on, we are colorful, firm with a hard outer peel. As we and plantains get older, we tone down, turn softer, but we get sweeter. I learned after research, that plantains have different stages as they ripen and you use them in different ways. You'd use a green or yellow plantain to slice thin and fry up to serve in place of tortilla chips with salsa or chimichuri. Or you'd have dark plantains to fry to have as a side item or maybe dessert.

There are some things that when I try to re-create, they really challenge me, plantains became my nemesis. My first attempt was covered with oil and grilled which was not good. Months later, I tried frying them 2 times in the same week and both were horrible. I didn't know then that my yellow plantains, cut into chunks and shallow fried in butter or oil where still too starchy for what I was trying to achieve. I bought the darkest HEB had and tried again with just oil and it was much better.

For this recipe, you need dark plantains, completely brown or even black. I've found that HEB doesn't have them normally but have found them at 99 Ranch Market (asian market) and heard they have them at Fiesta. You can buy them ahead of time and let them darken but it seemed like that takes plantains for eeeevvvvveeeerrrr.

Oh, I don't like deep frying, its too much mess and too much fat, but I tried other ways and its simple no bueno.

Ingredients:

1 ripe (brown/black) plantain

canola oil

Put enough oil in pan to come up half the side of the height of the plantain. Heat on med to medium-high, about 300 degree. If this is too high, I found myself burning them, but my attention might have been on cooking something else at the same time.

Peel plantain and cut plantain in half length-wise and once width wise. You can make these in chunks like triangles (called on the bias) if you want to. I think the chunks is more traditional from what I've seen online.

Place in oil, move just slightly after setting in oil. Don't move them around too much. My co-workers from Tobago verified that they'll just break apart if you move them too much. Brown on first side and then flip. Brown on other side. Remove from oil and place on paper towel. Sprinkle with salt and/or sugar. I tried with honey, guava nectar and nutella on top, I think guava was pretty good of those, but I still heart nutella.

Here's the bad news, estimating the amount of oil soaked in the plantain is 1/8 cup which is probably on the high side, Calories: 400, Total fat: 20g, 1.4g sat fat, Carbs: 62g, Sugar: 28g, Fiber: 5g, Protein: 2g.