One of my favorite things about New York is the astonishing variety of cuisines here. I can find delicious and authentic cuisine of every variety. One of things I’ve come to love is plantains – fried plantains, baked plantains, plantain chips are all delicious. They look like banana’s super-sized cousin, but have a slightly more earthy taste.
This recipe concentrates the plantain flavor by baking and produces caramelized tops that are slightly crisp on top and soft and sweet inside. The key to making this dish is to use ripe plantains. Plantains are ripe when the skin starts to turn black, kind of like when bananas are overripe and best used for banana bread, but that’s when the plantains are ready. Instead of peeling a plantain list a banana, cut off the 2 ends and slice it down the curvy side to split open the skin and undress peel it.
As I found out from this batch, the plantains should be sliced a bit thicker than I did in the picture. Thicker plantain pieces have more texture and flavor. Then toss them with a bit of olive oil and sea salt.
Next bake them in the oven at 400F for 15 minutes, then turn them over and bake for another 12 minutes. To get them a little extra caramely on the top, pop them under the boiler for 2 minutes. I baked them for 15 minutes then 10 minutes this time, but they were slightly underdone.
[recipe]
2 Servings
[ingredients]
- 2 ripe plantains, peeled and sliced diagonally
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
[directions]
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Toss plantain slices with olive oil and salt.
- Arrange the plantains flat on the baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, then flip plantains over and bake for another 12 minutes.
- Optional: broil for 2 minutes on high or until the top is caramelized to desired color.
Enjoy these delicious plantains!
[/recipe]