Well people, I think we are all pretty aware of my slight obsession with plantains. I kind of love making plantain chips, especially with homemade or HEB guacamole… I’m totally craving that now…and patacones are no different. You might also have seen tostones, they are pretty much the same thing and patacones. But anyway, I love me some fried plantains. Gimme gimme.
When picking out your plantains, the greener they are, the firmer they will be and probably better for plantain chips. The more yellow or brown they are, the softer and sweeter they will be, which is usually better for patacones since you are smashing the whole thing. Personally, I like plantains to be yellow green for chips and yellow for patacones. If they are too green, when you try to smash them, they will crumble everywhere.
I feel like plantains never taste the same each time I eat them. I mean they taste like plantains, but each time they are a little different depending on what color they are. Someone should really create some kind of plantain color taste spectrum for all of us. Could someone work on that please? K thanks!
Ok, so on to how to make these babies!
Ingredients:
- Plantains (You can make two pretty big patacones out of one plantain)
- Sea Salt
- Coconut oil
First, cut the ends off of your plantains and cut them in half. Slice the peeling down the side a couple of times and work the it off by getting your thumb underneath the peeling.
Place the plantains in a skillet of melted coconut oil. Let one side get brown and then roll it over for the other side to brown. Wash some dishes, because this will take a few minutes hehe.
Remove one plantain and place it between some parchment paper. Cover it with the parchment paper and grab your meat pounder. Use the soft side to flatten out the plantains into little pancakes.
Once you are down pounding slash releasing some pent up anger, it should look similar to this. Return the plantain to your skillet and maybe add a little more coconut oil if you need to, and also top with sea salt.
Once one side has been fried golden, flip the patacone and fry the other side, also salting with sea salt. Remove from your skillet, add some more coconut oil and you can fry the other half of the plantain. These guys actually reheat decently well in a skillet if you want to save one for lunch the next day.
Tip: I have been storing my plantains in my refrigerator lately. I know, sounds silly, but I was getting tired of buying them, storing them in the bowl under bananas and everything getting brown super fast. Apparently when you group fruits and I suppose veggies too, together, they ripen faster. (Did you know that?? Now you know! That’s a Bill Nye reference for any non sciencey peeps out there) It was just a big plantain banana party in that hanging bowl combo going down so had to put a stop to that because they were ruining my chip and patacone game. So throw yours in the fridge to keep them green a little longer. 🙂
These are so yummy though, and even thought it seems like a process it is worth it. Just a different taste, a different food. Also a good carb to add to a meal.
So I mentioned the pork carnitas in that picture above… don’t they just look like best friends? This is again one of our favorite meals. Make yourself some guac (avocados, salsa, garlic salt and lemon juice), pile it on thick and go to town. Hope you enjoy!
