My Favorite Food in The Whole Wide World

I decided about 10 years ago, after long deliberation, that I knew without a doubt what my favorite food in the world was. I grew up eating these on the occasional nights that my mom would cook Haitian food, and grew to love them even more when I started having them in Dominican restaurants too. I can eat an INSANE amount of these beauties, but I only like them one way. Fried. Deliciously fried.

Plantains!!! I could eat them all day, and all night…and then all day the next day. Let’s take a brief field trip to learn more about them! This is a lovely platain tree:

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They grow in hot climates (like bananas do) and are a staple in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and lots of other places. They are so verstatile! When they’re green (under-ripe) they are hard and starchy, like a potato. And when they turn brown (over-ripe), they are soft and sweet! In places like Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic you might find them as tostones, still green plantain sliced thick, smashed, and then fried.

(Source) A man in the DR smashing tostones

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And in places like Haiti, Cuba, or Jamaica you might also find them as platanos maduros or bannann, sliced when very ripe and fried.

(Source) Market selling plantains in Cuba

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And that’s the way I make them!

From what I understand, many countries cook them both ways (and a lot of other ways too). When I go into a Dominican restaurant, I ask for sweet plantains because I know that they probably also serve the green ones.

These babies are related to the banana but taste very different (to me), and they have lower sugar content than regular bananas! They are fat free, and one plantain contains 50% of your daily value of Vitamin C and 40% of your Vitamin A! A serving size is actually half of one, but I definitely eat an entire fruit myself. 🙂

After some tweaking, I discovered a much more healthy way of making fried plantains. First thing is that I use coconut oil instead of peanut or palm because it’s just plain better for you and it also gives it a great flavor.

The second thing I do differently than the traditional way is to slice them relatively thin so that they can be pan-fried in a smaller amount of oil instead of deep fried and soaking up a lot of fat. Here’s the easy recipe!

Fried Sweet Plantains

• 1 very ripe plantain
• 1/4 c. extra virgin coconut oil (not all of it will be absorbed, you can re-use it)

-Start with a very, very ripe plantain. It should be nearly black in color in order for it to be sweet.

-Slice off the ends of the plantain on a diagonal, and then make a slit with a sharp knife down the length of the peel. Slowly pull the peel away from the flesh (it tends to get fragile when it’s really ripe).

-Slice the flesh on a diagonal, making each slice about 1/4″. Heat the coconut oil in a wide pan/skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the plantain slices.

-Fry the slices for about 1 minute on each side, flipping once or twice until all the slices are golden brown. Keep an eye on this, it really only takes about 3 minutes total!

-When the slices are golden brown, remove the pan from the heat and transfer them to a paper towel lined dish to drain. After they have cooled about 2 minutes on the paper towels, serve and enjoy! Makes 1-2 servings.

Soft, sweet, moist, just delicious. You can’t beat it.

Hopefully you have already tried a plantain before, and if you haven’t then you must put it on your bucket list. Come to my house and I will fry some up for you.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. -The blog is going to get a makeover sometime this evening. The layout I have re-sizes my pictures and I really don’t like what it does to them in the process, so I’m making a change! I also just like to change things a lot, I can never leave something looking the same for too long. 🙂

-Lauren