A couple weeks ago, I fried up some sweet plantains for the sweetest girl on the west coast. She was polite when she told me she liked them.
In fact, they came out pretty bad— hard and starchy like fried potatoes. There’s nothing wrong with potatoes, but I don’t like my plantains to taste like them. But I suppose that’s a matter of opinion.
Traditionally, plantains are served both starchy and sweet; it’s all a matter of fruit ripeness. Green plantains are destined to be starchy because the fruit is under-ripe. Yellowy-black plantains will be soft and sweet. Don’t let the blackness fool you into thinking that they’re rotting. A generous amount of black means you’ll have a sweet side dish, perfect for complementing rice, fish or whatever.
The whole ordeal takes about ten minutes, uses a single pan and is just esoteric enough to fool your friends into thinking you’re actually cultured. In reality, plantains can be found in just about any supermarket these days and they’re cheap as hell.
So let’s get at it:
What you’ll need:
Plantains
Olive oil
Salt
Procedure:
If you’re like me, and you like your plantains sweet, you’ll want to get some that look like this: all yellowy and black.
Top and tail them.
Run a long slice down the whole thing, careful not to cut to deeply into the actual fruit.
Remove the peel.
I like to slice mine on a 45-degree angle. I could invent some technical reason why this is better, but in reality I just think they look prettier that way. Be careful not to get a food boner.
In a medium pan over medium-high heat, drop about 5-6 tablespoons of olive oil in and just a pinch of salt. Victoria will tell you that salt isn’t necessary, but she’s a liar. She just doesn’t want your food to taste good.
After 2 or 3 minutes, most of them will start to caramelize. Tongs work well to flip them, but a fork will do if that’s all you got.
Another 2 or 3 minutes later and they can be removed to a paper towel to drain some of the excess oil off.
I throw a dash of chopped parsley on top for some color. Then I destroy them.
The Bicoastal Cookbook 