Tostones or Fried Green Plaintains. Yum!!

When I was in High School, I did my junior year abroad - in Spain. While it was an amazing experience, one thing that I missed over there so badly was just plain Puerto Rican food. So one day, I made Tostones (or fried green plaintains/bananas) for my host-family and they ate every last one! Cooking the tostones and showing my host-family a little bit of my culture made me so proud of myself, and also helped me feel closer to home. So try it out, and see what you think!


What You Need:

- 3 Green Plaintains. You can find these in the produce aisle, usually next to potatoes. They are always next to yellow plaintains which tend to be sweeter, so make sure you don't grab those. They are also surprisingly inexpensive. My supermarket usually sells them for 3 for 1 dollar.
- Goya Corn Oil
- 2 small, heavy plates


What To Do:

- Place a small layer of oil into a frying pan. You don't want to deep fry the plaintains, but you will need enough oil to fry them quickly.
- Cut off the ends of the plaintains and peel.
- Slice them into 1/2 inch slices at a diagonal.
- By this time, you're oil should be hot. Go ahead and place the slices of plaintains into the oil. Allow them to fry for about 2 minutes on each side. You're just trying to give them some color, and soften them up a bit.
- When you take them out, you want to lower the heat on the frying pan, but keep it on. You want the oil to stay hot.
- Take the just-fried plaintain slice and place it on a small plate.
- Take another small plate and place it on top of the first. Basically, I want you to squish the plaintain slice until its thin and looks almost like a fat potato chip.
- Take the smashed slice, and place it back into the oil and let it fry until it becomes crispy.
- As soon as you take them out of the hot pan, toss some salt onto them and you're done!


Note: They have actually invented plaintain smashers called Tostoneras. You can purchase one if you like, but I prefer the two-plate method.

Another Note: Many tostone lovers will tell you that you have to eat tostones with the special garlic sauce that is usually sold with them in cuchifritos. But in my family, we grew up eating tostones without this sauce, so I'm not exactly sure how to make it. I will ask around, and if I find out, I will definitely post it!

Enjoy!!

Total Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Total Cook Time: 15 minutes.