Patacones
Green plantain rounds fried twice, smashed flat and salted with garlic, served with a cool avocado dip.
Photo : Jdvillalobos · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Total
- 35 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Method
- Score the plantain skins along their length and lever them off with your thumb. Cut the flesh into 3 cm chunks.
- Stir the warm water, crushed garlic and 1 tsp of the salt together in a wide bowl; this is your soaking bath.
- Heat the oil to 160°C and fry the chunks for 4 minutes without colouring them. They should turn tender and pale yellow.
- Drain them and smash each one to about 1 cm thick with the base of a glass or a flat plate.
- Dip the discs in the garlic water for 5 seconds, drain them well, then return them to oil raised to 190°C for 2 minutes, until golden and brittle.
- Mash the avocados with the lime juice, coriander, remaining salt and plenty of pepper.
- Salt the patacones as they leave the oil and serve them scorching hot with the avocado dip.
The plantains must be properly green: once they yellow they sweeten and scorch in the fryer. The garlic-water dip seasons the inside and makes the second frying noticeably crisper.
