Plantains

Post Reply New Topic

I cooked plantains once and they came out amazing, but ever since every time I try to cook them they never work out. They end up really hard and taste like paper. I'm not sure why either...I've tried following the same recipe I used the first time but with no success! I've tried both baking and frying them, but either way they just stay hard as a rock and never seem to really get soft enough to eat no matter how long I cook them. Could it be that I'm buying low-quality plantains? Or does anyone have some easy suggestions for ways to prepare them?

I always make plantains since my family is Mexican. I make them as dessert though. When you are buying them, are you making sure they are squishy and yellow-fleshed in the inside? If you cook them when they are hard they taste very starchy and are not sweet. So, I put some oil or butter in a pot and cut up the plantain into 8 pieces and fry them in medium heat until they are light brown in the outside. Then I take them out and roll them in cinnamon and sugar. They take like churros in a way, but I think more better.

I love platanos fritos

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zujGm90x8F8[/youtube]

They do go through different stages of ripening, and their taste and texture can vary quite a bit depending upon how ripe they are. I like to make tostones from unripe plantains, frying rounds at low temperature, smushing them into disks, and then frying them again in hotter oil to produce a snack that is crisp on the outside and cooked through in the center. Add a little cilantro mayonnaise dipping sauce or Cuban mojo and you're in business. Riper plantains I like to make into a Puerto Rican thing called mofungo, which is sort of like spicy plantain mashed potatoes with pork cracklings.