Plantains anyone?

[Dan Schultz]

PM 'tubajug'. He's an expert on fixing plantains!

[alfredr]

I can't help much, I'm afraid. My wife does that and she is out of the country right now. But I think you want them yellow , but not mushy. Fry them in a little oil in a skillet. Oil of your choice: corn, canola, vegetable, whatever. I'm sure you could find it may change the taste a bit. We use canola oil for our cooking oil. Turn them to fry on both sides; a fork works to turn them individually. When they look done, remove and drain excess oil on paper towels. Learn by doing. Your exact preference for just how done you like them for eating and what they look like when you turn them, remove them, and how much heat, will be a trial and error learning process.

We call them 'platanos' (pla` ta nos).

[Donn]

I like them yellow, too. I think I've read a few accounts where they're green. They're edible green but less tasty in my opinion, but might be the right thing for tostones.

In our brief visit to Puerto Rico, we had them several ways -

• mofongo: big lump of mashed plantain filled with some stew or something
• tostones: sliced and fried, similar culinary role to french fries
• amarillos: a little more ripe, sweet but a little tart, kind of like fried apples but better. Fried I guess. Might be a different cultivated variety here - maybe smaller, they were cut on a bias.
• maduros: real ripe, fried for dessert.

A local Cuban restaurant here can make a really delicious maduros that's kind of between the maduros we had in Puerto Rico and the amarillos. I think they may deep fry, but the quality of plantain they're getting beats anything I can find. If you had something close, you might try grilling it, as I read is commonly done in the southern US.

I just go for stuff that looks reasonably yellow, and fry it up sort of like tostones but omitting the crush and refry steps. Cooking time is not critical.

I am not a big banana fan, speaking of the Chiquita etc. fruit, so I was surprised by how much I like plantains.

[bearphonium]

Cut them in half, toss them on a grill. Yum!

[alfredr]

Hmmm. I'm not sure now, reading those descriptions, just where the platanos fritos that we do (my wife/daughters do) fit in there. On the ripe side, sliced thin,(less than a quarter of an inch) on the bias (kind of 'French style' diagonally) fried in a skillet with a little oil, turned to fry both sides. Then, as I said, drained of excess oil. And maybe sprinkled with sugar. (I think adding sugar is unnecessary, they are sweet plain. Did I mention that they can be fried to various end points? From lightly browned to well carmelized. Or beyond.

'Maduro' means 'mature, real ripe'.

'Amarillo' means 'yellow'.

'Tostones' would mean kind of toasted, but lightly, medium, or well toasted, I don't know. That may depend on who's cooking them.

"Mofongo" You will have to ask a Puerto Rican about that.

Never tried grilling them, but she will roast one in the coals on occasion, I think usually if it has gotten a little too ripe.

Schlepporello said, "I think tostones is what we had. They were almost like tater chips." How do they compare to the platano chips that are sold bagged like potato chips in that case? That is not what we do. Look around for them in the ethnic section of your supermarket or find a tienda Latina (Latin, Spanish, Mexican, or whatever, store.)

[Donn]

How do they compare to the platano chips that are sold bagged like potato chips in that case?

Not at all. I believe tostones are the closest to your recipe - which is also how I cook them - but in Puerto Rico anyway tostones are taken out and crushed a little, with a fork or something, and then fried again. And they're made with relatively starchy plantains, not sweet or tart at all. Hence the connection with potatoes. Common side dish, as "the starch."

[alfredr]

Most like tostones in appearance maybe, but I think ours are between amarillos and maduros in ripeness and sweetness, maybe. Not like the bagged ones.
Somewhere between pliable and semi-crisp.
More than one way to skin a platano. Before slicing, or slice first, then remove the skin.

[Three Valves]

This is all I know...

[Donn]

Most like tostones in appearance maybe, but I think ours are between amarillos and maduros in ripeness and sweetness, maybe.

That sounds great - better than what I can get, though there are a couple local restaurants who seem to have better sources.

Tostones

[Tubajug]

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply Schlepp! But here is how I learned to make tostones while I was in Puerto Rico:

You start with very green plantains and cut off both ends. Then slice it down lengthwise, just deep enough to get through the peel. Then peel it under running water (it helps the peel come off easier).

Cut them into slices no more than 3/4" thick. It's actually better if you slice them a little slanted, rather than into straight cylinders. This helps the smashing later on.

Heat a pan of oil on medium with enough oil to come up halfway on your slices.

Put them in the hot oil and fry them until they are a nice golden yellow (not until they go brown!). You want them cooked enough to hold together when you smash them, but not overdone, because you fry them again. Once they're the golden yellow, turn them over and fry the other side.

Once both sides are done, take them out and put them on a paper towel to absorb some oil. While still hot, smash them flat. I use the backsides of two small plates. Once you smash it, immediately put it back into the oil (you might need to scrape it off the back of the plate with a small spatula or something) and fry a little longer to crisp up the stuff you just smashed out of the middle. It helps to have two people to make this part go a bit smoother, but it can be done alone.

Fry them on both sides until the smashed parts are crispy (still golden, not brown) and remove and place on a paper towel. I like to salt mine like french fries, but that's up to you. I eat them with ketchup like fries too. Eat them all the day you make them, because they don't reheat very well! But man are they good!

Let me know if you have any other questions! I love these and should make them more often...

[Tubajug]

If anyone is interested, I can make them and take photos along the way if the instructions above aren't clear enough. As they say in Puerto Rico, "¡Buen provecho!"

[alfredr]

That is certainly different than what we do. We also say "Buen provecho" in Guatemala. We also say it at home here.

(How do you get the upside down exclamation point or any other characters needed to write in Spanish? I used to know one way with a previous computer with a much older Window. Thanks. Although I'm not sure if even that only worked sometimes, such as not writing emails, or not with posting to a discussion like this, or maybe not with trying to write documents on the computer.)

[Tubajug]

How do you get the upside down exclamation point or any other characters needed to write in Spanish?

Hold the "Alt" key and press 0161 on the number pad ¡

To be honest, I just googled how to do it because I couldn't remember the keystroke. I used to know most of the Spanish accents and things on the keyboard when I wrote more in Spanish, but I don't much writing in Spanish anymore.

[Donn]

Hold the "Alt" key and press 0161 on the number pad ¡

Apparently you'd need numlock on, for that to work, by the way. From what I read. It looks to me like this is really the old school way, though, like left over from punch cards. Which may have lasted quite a while on Microsoft platforms, but at this point, it might be worth looking into keyboard reconfiguration options, to bring your setup closer to what you can do on the Apple Macintosh platform for example. ¡Good luck!

[alfredr]

"Hold the "Alt" key and press 0161 on the number pad ¡"

This sounds kind of like what I think I remember doing from back in the days of Window, but as I remember*, it didn't work when that computer had to be replaced with a newer one with a different Window. ¡Que bueno! Funciona con este. Pero faltan muchos caracteres todavia. Es un sistema despacio; tienen que tener algo mejor para las computadoras que constuyen y venden en paises hispanparlantes. Debo preguntarles a mis hijas que se comunican con sus primas, pero de lo que he visto, no muy se usan los caracteres de Espanol. You see, there's where I needed one just now.

*YMMV: your memory may vary; mine certainly does.

[Donn]

Indeed, there is something better. I see this for Vista:

From the Control Panel, select "Clock, Language and Region." Under Regional and Language Options, pick "Change keyboard or other input method." Select the General tab.

Under "Installed Services" click "Add..." Find the United States-International option and select it. In the pull-down menu, select United States-International as the default language. Click OK to exit the menu system and finalize the installation.

The key word is "international". That apparently gets you a keyboard configuration where you type <alt>1 and get ¡ -- just like on the Mac -- and most of the other stuff you need - diacriticals, angle quotes, etc. <alt>n is ñ (unlike the Mac - there, fortunately for Portuguese speakers, that just starts the tilde and then you type whatever character goes with it, so we can just say "não" to Windows.) On this Windows setup you have to use the right alt key, not left.

Honestly my memories of Puerto Rican tostones have grown a little dim after a couple years, but I don't remember them that thin, even as thin as the picture. There could certainly be some variation across the Caribbean. Oddly, as far as I know the Brazilians don't particularly go there at all - they know plantain, but more at its maduros stage - maybe because there's an abundance of land suited to cultivation of rice etc.

[alfredr]

Thanks for information, Donn. I will try to make some time sometime and look into that, although this computer has the seventh Window, not one with a View.

Obviously, there is more than one way to skin a platano. And platano needs an accent mark ' over the first a.

[alfredr]

ñáéíóú Well I got these, but the upside down exclamation point and the upside down question mark don't work that simply. ¡ is still {alt0161} and the upside down ? is still lost to me. plátano. Lo encontré. ¡Ay caramba! Yo quiero Taco Bell.

Gracias Donn.

¿¡ Y tienes razón. Solo funciona con la tecla 'alt' derecha. And apparently the apostrophe key also works differently. It can be used before typing the letter you want to use it over and to get just an apostrophe, you have to type a space after hitting ' . ñ That kind of thing works with the ~ also to put it over the n only apparently.

[Donn]

Que bueno. Eu não sabia do á em plátano - plátano existe in Portugues mas de sentido differente - Plane Tree, as in London Plane or more specifically a parent of that tree, crossed with sycamore. You'd have to be very hungry to try to eat any part of it. Cooking plantain is banana-da-terra.

[alfredr]

Planatus acerifolia off the top of my head. American(?) sycamore. It might be that I have seen platano translated as planetree form Spanish, That's another of those YMMV cases. I'm on the laptop which has not developed enough character to do the accent on the a in platano.

But how did you get the ã? I tried to do it out of curiousity, but it didn't work for me. (I copied and pasted that) I don't think I have any need for it as I don't write Portuguese, but I'm curious.