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Posts from the ‘Plantains’ Category

Mar 8

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Tarte Tentación

I was very excited to see my post up on the Cooking Channel‘s Devour the Blog yesterday.  I’ll be contributing regularly over the next few months and hope you will make the jump with me.  It was my first visit, so I gave a lot of thought about what to bring before deciding on a pastelón de platano maduro.  It had been awhile since I’d made one and I was dying to update one of my favorites, especially since I’d discovered recao and ajicitos tucked in between the parsley and peppers at the grocery store.  Once it was baked, photographed and eaten, my mind went to the plantain recipes I hadn’t tried.  I’d made tostones on the fly, mariquitas when I was feeling restless, and tortilla de platanos maduros just because.  With a bowl full of plantains that were just past ripe, it was time for dessert.  Read more

Jul 11

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Mariquitas de Platános

Feeling restless, I decided to make a batch of mariquitas.  Not the hard, round plantain chips sold in grocery stores, but the ribbon like crisps served with garlic mojo for dipping.  Though simple enough to make at home, I could only remember having them in family style Cuban restaurants, where they’d appear ready to eat in baskets.  The starter no one remembers ordering but everyone is happy to see. Read more

Jan 20

13 Comments

Tostones on the Fly

Until recently, I rarely fried anything at home.  I hated the smell, the splatter, the guilt.  When I started writing about Latin American food, I knew I couldn’t avoid it much longer and finally bought a deep fryer.  While it produces perfect batches of churros, empanadas and buñuelos, it’s the SUV of fryers requiring such a massive amount of oil that I keep it parked most of the time.  It wasn’t practical for smaller, any-night batches of plantains.  Maduros I can handle.  Overly ripe, they caramelize Read more

Jun 16

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Plantain Comfort

Plantains are my comfort food.  After my second failed attempt at making Cuban bread this afternoon (so near, yet so far), I wanted something sure.  When my new Food Coop friend Jennifer described the Puerto Rican style plantain pie she makes when her daughter’s home from school, I had to try it.  I’d seen different versions of the pie that used fried plantains and cheese.  Jennifer bypasses both to make this healthier version with mashed, boiled plantains that bring out the sweet and savory flavors really well. Read more

May 12

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Cuban Potatoes

I should confess that when I admitted to my host family, during my year abroad in Madrid, that one of my favorite dishes from home was tortilla de plátanos maduros (fried ripe plantain omelette), I thought they might ask me to leave…the country.  I don’t think they would have been so shocked if they knew that for Cubans, plantains are as ubiquitous as the potatoes they put in their own tortilla de patatas. Read more