How To Cook Plantains Platanos -- Puerto Rican Style

MiriamBuhr.org
Green Plantains (Platanos) resemble bananas and

I suppose for that reason are sometimes referred to as cooking bananas.

They look like a banana in shape but have firm, thicker skin, noticeable seams, longer length, and a pale yellow or slightly pink interior with a starchier texture.

Starchy taste resembles, to an extent, that of a potato.

The green (or raw) plantain is considered a staple vegetable throughout the Caribbean (tropics), Latin America, and Asia.

How to make plantains -- there are many ways.
One example as seen in this video is to fry 'em...I mean...fried platano or fried plantain. They are fried twice. The second time is to get a beautiful toasty look and crunchy taste. The cooked plantain are called "tostones."

You can purchase this vegetable/fruit in the fresh produce sections at grocery stores or markets.

Plantains are also classified as fruit when ripe.

When ripe the plantain (amarillos or maduros) is in the middle stage of the fruit.

The interior is yellow, and skin has a yellow color or even yellow with brownish-black spots.

The "maduros" or "amarillos" have a slighly sweet, banana-like flavor with a firm texture.

When they have darker skin, the taste is sweeter (simply delicious) and texture is softer.

Ingredients to make tostones:
Plantanos (plantains)
vegetable oil
salt

To mold the plantains...into cool shaped tostones:

You can use small dish, saucer, brown paperbag...just about anything to flatten or squash the precooked vegetable (once fried plantain).

Optional Gadget:
Tostonera

Oh yes...
Make sure that you clean up the platano after you peel it...

Sometimes little tiny fibers of skin can be left behind (like I did jajajaja)...

It's all good...just not big chunks :)

Use papertowels to drain oil, then move over to a pretty serving plate.

Please Rate this video and...

Let me know how your side dish turned out!

Adiosito!