Plátanos Maduros

I had never eaten a plantain until I tried plátanos maduros at a Puerto Rican restaurant. It was love at first bite, and every once in a while I find myself craving them. Plantains are a cousin of the sweet banana that we eat as a snack, baked into bread, sliced over cereal in the morning, etc. However, a plantain is NOT a banana. Plantains are extremely versatile--they can be cooked while green or yellow as a starchy component to a meal (the potato of the caribbean!) or they can be cooked when black, the starches within having converted to sugars. I have had plantains both ways, but I must admit that my sweet tooth points me towards this recipe whenever I have plantains on hand.

It's pretty easy to make plátanos maduros. Basically, you just buy some plantains, and forget about them. For a week, for a month, whatever. The riper they are when you get around to using them, the better. I should have waited a little longer to make these for optimum deliciousness, but I am not a patient woman.

This is how it goes down--it is ridiculously easy and unless you hate plantains, you won't regret it. If you hate plantains, I question the logic behind your desire to read this blog entry.

Slice your plantain the same way you might slice a banana to put it into your cereal. My plantain slices were on the thick side, which I how I like them. Clearly, if your slices are thinner, you will need to be more careful about watching them while they fry to avoid overcooking.

Heat a frying pan filled with oil--it should be enough to at least partially submerge the plantains while they fry.

I don't fry a lot of things, so this process grosses me out a bit. Tons and tons of hot oil that I am submerging fruit in? Weird. If it grosses you out too, get past it. It's worth it.

Toss the sliced plantains in what should, by now, be VERY hot oil ready to fry them up. They should turn a lovely, caramelized-looking golden brown color. Cook both sides, remove from oil, and allow to cool a bit on a paper towel (to suck away some extra oil).

You can eat the plátanos as is, or, as I did this time: with a bit of cinnamon and sugar sprinkled over the top. YUM.