You may have looked at the giant green banana in the produce section and wondered what to do with it.\u00a0\u00a0 Plantains are one of my favorite munchies.\u00a0\u00a0 Usually served with tropical dishes, plantains are starchy and sweet only when they have black spots or are completely black, a state you would not<\/strike> should not eat a typical banana in, at least I wouldn’t because eating a black spotted banana is improper and should only be done in secrecy as it will bring shame to your family.<\/p>\n

You can prepare fried or baked plantains, crisp and salty or soft and sweet which I prefer and will discuss here.\u00a0 Start with a semi-ripe plantain with black spots, not completely black.\u00a0 The plantain should give lightly to a soft squeeze.\u00a0 Peeling a plantain is not as easy as peeling a banana.\u00a0 To start cut the ends off of the plantain and cut 4-5 vertical incisions down the length of the plantain only cutting through the peel.\u00a0 Next, pull each strip of peel off until you have a peeled plantain.\u00a0\u00a0 Cut the plantain in half and then slice each half lengthwise into 1\/4 inch thick slices.\u00a0 Arrange the slices in a shallow pan with a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium-low heat. \u00a0 Don’t cook them over very high heat as the sugar content can cause the plantain to burn quickly.\u00a0 About 8 minutes per side until dark brown flipping each slice as needed should do.\u00a0\u00a0 Occasionally, I’ll add a dash of allspice or cinnamon to the slices but most often I add nothing to them as they are perfect unseasoned.\u00a0\u00a0 When finished cooking move each slice to a plate with a paper towel to remove and excess oil then munch!<\/p>\n

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Start with a semi-ripe plantain with black spots.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, a Shun knife works best.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Cut each end off of the plantain before peeling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Cut the peel lengthwise 4-5 times down the entire length.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Pull each strip of peel off individually to peel the plantain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Cut the plantain in half<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Slice each half into 1\/4″ thick slices.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Arrange slices in a pan over medium-low heat with 2 TBS of vegetable oil.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Flip the slices when they become dark brown, about 8 minutes each side.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Yummy!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Great served with my favorite junk-food, veggie burgers!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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You may have looked at the giant green banana in the produce section and wondered what to do with it.\u00a0\u00a0 Plantains are one of my favorite munchies.\u00a0\u00a0 Usually served with tropical dishes, plantains are starchy and sweet only when they have black spots or are completely black, a state you would not should not eat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,91],"tags":[545,546],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plantains","category-shun-knives","tag-plantains","tag-shun-knives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashveggie.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashveggie.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashveggie.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashveggie.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashveggie.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nashveggie.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"http:\/\/nashveggie.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashveggie.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashveggie.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashveggie.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}