Topic “plantain”

I bought a bunch of green plantains the other day, as you can see from one of my recent posts. I had only a few options before they started to ripen, so I originally decided to make tostones and freeze them. Then an idea occurred to me.

Have I ever mentioned that plantains are to Puerto Ricans what shrimp are to Bubba. Plantain is the fruit of the mountains. You can fry it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There's, uh, plantain canoes, plantain creole, plantain chips. Pan fried, deep fried, twice-fried. There's sweet plantain, green plantain, mashed plantain, smashed plantain, plantain soup, plantain stew, plantain with syrup, plantain and veggies, plantain ice cream, plantain sandwich. That's about it.

In terms of fritters, nothing beats the tostones. These twice-fried delicacies are the main complement of many meals in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Plantains are so ubiquitous there that you can consider them the equivalent of potatoes in the U.S., in which case the tostones are french fries of the Caribbean. Only better.

Much better.