Ingredient Review: Plantains
While home for thanksgiving this year I was talking to my cousin about food and different ingredients that I haven’t used before but want to use. During the conversation, plantains came up. My cousin has recently started using plantains a lot because she adopted from Columbia. She started to tell me about some of the different ways that you can prepare plantains.
Plantains are known as cooking bananas. They are part of the banana family and can be prepared dozens of different ways. The one I was most familiar with was plantain chips. I had also tried fried plantains before. Both ways were really good. However, I had never actually thought much about how they were made much less made them myself.
My cousin offered to show me how to make Patacones, which are fried and smashed green plantains. They are surprisingly easy to make and require very few ingredients. All it takes is a plantain, frying oil, and salt.
To start, heat the oil until it starts to simmer a little. Then, peel the plantain by cutting the ends off and slicing down the side of the plantain just enough to get through the peel. Then, slid your finger under the edge and run it along the slice to peel it away from the plantain.
Once you have it peeled, slice the plantain into 1/2-inch slices and drop into hot oil until they are a light golden color. Pull them out of the oil and place each one in between pieces of wax paper and press down on them with the flat bottom of a dish. Place the smashed plantains back into the oil for another 10 seconds then flip and do another 10 seconds. Once they are a nice golden color and are crispy, pull them out of the oil and place on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Sprinkle with salt and serve.
My cousin makes a dip from mayo, garlic and lime and dips them in that. However, while making these, a fellow culinary major told me that his family just sprinkles a little garlic powder on theirs. I tried it both ways and enjoyed both immensely. Getting to try making these was a lot of fun and I am happy to have a new snack I can make that I really enjoy.
