Plantains. Let me out myself right away. My family owns the Chifles Plantain Chip factory in Tampa, FL. I know a little about plantains. I am also from a Latino family (father was from Ecuador), and I spent a number of years in Cuba and other Central and South American countries. Living in Tampa, with my family background, yeah, I was raised on this cuisine. Keep in mind other cultures and countries have different ways of making these dishes; these are the ones I know.

Sooo….for the green plantains, making the chips. Best way is a mandoline, slice thin into deep fat fryer with peanut oil or a similar oil with a high flash point, when golden, drain and salt immediately. The fried green plantain retains so much less oil, you need to salt it right away or the salt wont stick at all.

You can cut the green ones thicker for patacones. What you have in the picture above is about the right thickness for patacones. Place into a skillet with enough oil to do just as you have above; not quite cover them. Cook on med-med high heat for about 2-3 minutes on each side, take them out, drain on paper towels, then take a flat bottomed glass, a mallet, or anything with a round flat surface, give it a good whack to flatten somewhat, put back into the oil, cook again on each side to your shade of golden goodness, salt and eat immediately. We eat them for breakfast a lot. Or, they are yummy dipped into mojo sauce as a snack or appetizer any time. For both of the above applications, your plantain should be green, hard to the touch, and with NO yellow on the skin. There are special devices out there to flatten the plantain when making tostones.

The ripe ones. The plantain you show above is what we would call ‘pinton’, or painted with ripeness…not quite there yet. For maduros, or the sweet fried ones, no it isn’t. To make real maduros, we always wait until the skin is nearly all black, and when you gently squeeze the ripening plantain, it should feel soft. Not like really ripe banana soft, but almost like a ripe avocado. The trick to them is to get plantains from a Latino market or somewhere that knows you cannot just take a green plantain and let it ripen. That doesnt work. What you get is a black skinned plantain with a hard inside. Useless.

When you have a good source, then you can leave them out to ripen, or do like my mother used to; put them in a closed paper bag and stick them on top of the refrigerator for a few days. I tell people when your plantains are black and look like you should have thrown them out 2 days ago is usually when they are ready. YMMV.

Cooking is simple. Skillet with high smoke point oil at med-med. high, slice just like you have in the picture, or more on an angle (this is strictly personal preference), cook on either side until nice golden caramelized color, turn over, do the same, take out, drain, eat and enjoy. Try not to turn until they release naturally from the pan. If you are rewarded with a maduro that sticks to your teeth, you done good. That was always our standard, the best were the ones that stuck to your teeth. Even if they dont, a ripe fried maduro is a wonderful thing.

Sorry to drone on….hope you have better luck with cooking plantains. Dont give up.

http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/06/25/the-slippery-slope-of-banana-disasters/

The key thing to remember is that “plantains” can mean “green plantains” or “ripe plantains”. Green plantains (the whole thing should still be green) are starchy; you can do pretty much the same things with them that you do with potatoes. The procedure you followed is one for green plantains–compare it to the procedure for french fries from scratch. Ripe plantains are the one I prefer; they are quite sweet. (Yours is in between–ripe plantains will start to spot like very ripe bananas; they are firmer than bananas, so they can turn almost black before starting to spoil.) Really ripe plantains are sweet, and so they burn easily; if you have ever fried cooked sweet potato slices, it’s almost the same procedure. They need to cook over low heat (I’d say about the same as for scones–cooler than pancakes and hotter than eggs).

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