Plantains are kind of a new thing for me. As you can imagine, they're not exactly Alaska's most common import. Fred Meyer will usually have a small display of them between the organic and non-organic bananas, but half the time the miniature sugar bananas or red bananas are mis-identified as the plantains... or there will be none at all. And when I do find them, it's rare to find green, unripe ones - even if they look green when I grab them, by the next morning they're bright yellow with brown dalmatian spotting.
Ripe fruit is generally a good thing, though, right? I would tend to agree, except for the case of the plantain. Plantains are more like a potato than a banana, and you prepare tostones - those wonderfully smashed-looking savory discs that litter my Instagram feed's enviable plates - with green plantains.
It's a good thing that ripe plantains can be just as delicious, if more undercelebrated. It turns out Cuban-style fried plantains are made with only a few ingredients: over-ripe plantains, coconut oil, brown (or coconut) sugar, and salt.
They're not something we make often, but it sure is fun once and a while. It's a dish I don't think I would have ever considered making before the scientific findings that 'fat doesn't make you fat' really gained traction - and even then, it took me a while to overcome fat phobia. (I remember the first time a naturopath told me how nutritious coconut oil was, and prescribed a tablespoon a day. ...Plain. Solid fat eaten off a spoon... I'm pretty sure you could have made a fairly successful meme with the expression on my face.) Of course, I'm not arguing that these are health food, but neither are they the anathema they once were.
But seriously, you heard about the corrupt research about fat (and conspicuously, NOT sugar) that Harvard's been generating for the past FIVE DECADES, right?
This particular morning, I had ripe plantains in the fruit bowl. And Norah was wearing super cute jammies (I may or may not have squealed aloud upon finding them at Once Upon A Child). And my camera was nearby. And so this was breakfast. :)
Clearly, none of us had had coffee yet.
