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View Full Version : What variety of sweet plaintain do spanish (Cuban/Puerto Rican) restaurants use?


Kanana
03-14-2018, 12:42 PM
I love spanish food and really love when they serve a sweet plaintain side dish. I was wondering if there is a specific variety of cooking plaintains they would use or if they are pretty much the same. What makes it sweet plaintain as I tried regular plaintain and it was starchy almost like potatoes.

Gabe15
03-14-2018, 04:49 PM
You can use pretty much any Plantain cultivar you can get ahold of, there are only very few available in the US anyway. Sweetness is determined by ripeness level, not by cultivar in this case.

Kanana
03-14-2018, 04:52 PM
Do plaintains ever turn yellow? I always see them as green and hard as a rock in grocery stores. One time I tried to peel a green one and it shredded the skin and I bit into it and spit it out.

raygrogan
03-14-2018, 06:39 PM
Plantains can be baked at any stage of ripeness. I haven’t experimented much with the green ones, and usually stay between 100% yellow (more potato-like) and 100% black (softer, richer, sweeter). My favorite is about 80% black. (Asian markets are more likely to have yellow and black stages.)

Place plantains on an oven rack, just as they are. If you care about keeping your oven neat, place a sheet of aluminum foil on the next rack down (to catch all the oozing caramel stuff).

Set heat at 450 degrees, set cook time for 45 minutes.

When the plantains are cooked, they will split open. You can just leave them in the oven until you are ready to serve them. (They are easier to handle when cool.) I’ve left them sitting in the unopened oven for at least 24 hours with no spoilage or loss of color or flavor. I like them at room temp.

beam2050
03-15-2018, 06:17 AM
I am going to bump this thread so I can find it easier. bump. like the recipe. eats easy

bananimal
03-15-2018, 03:34 PM
Hey Kanana ---- Do you have a Bravo supermkt near you? They have the best green ones and ripe as well. Good prices too.

They also have a product in the frozen food area which are green plantain slices fried once and flattened. To finish off fry them defrosted and they are great -- saves a bit of work.

Kanana
03-18-2018, 12:34 PM
I was mainly asking about the type of plaintain cultivars to buy a plaintain tree/plant to grow, as I love the sweet plaintains at these restaurants but don't want to get the wrong type of plaintain tree if there are specific ones they'd use for this.

MOlivera
04-14-2018, 05:26 PM
For fried sweet plantains try a Dwarf Orinoco. I think they are way better than the plantains you buy at the store. They also make really good tostones.

Valdus
04-15-2018, 03:03 AM
Throw leftover fried plantains into an omelette, old Dominican recipe.