Plátanos maduros fritos
Local name: Plátanos maduros fritos
Blackened ripe plantains fried until their edges caramelise, the sweet and salty side dish of the Cuban table.
Photo: katiebordner · CC BY 2.0
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 20 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Method
- Pick plantains whose skin has gone black over more than half its surface. Yellow skin gives firm, bland fruit.
- Trim both ends, score the skin along its length and peel it away.
- Cut each plantain on a slant into pieces 2 cm thick.
- Heat 1 cm of oil in a frying pan over medium heat. A test piece should sizzle without browning in ten seconds.
- Fry the slices for 3 minutes a side, until the edges turn mahogany and the centre stays soft.
- Drain on kitchen paper, salt them and serve hot with rice and black beans.
Plantain sugar caramelises around 160 °C. Oil that runs hotter blackens the surface before the centre softens. A slanted cut widens the face that meets the pan, so every slice gains two caramelised edges.
