Recipe: Plantains Fried in Browned Butter

I’m known to be rather…well, “excitable” is the word we use in our family. I scream, I clap, I jump up and down, I have a laugh that shakes the rafters. There’s really no mistaking how I feel about something, especially if I’m enjoying it, and I don’t really have a public filter (which I think is pretty obvious if you’ve been reading here for more than a week).

Bear and I went to a Cuban restaurant once where I ate plantains served with sour cream and onions and the yummy noises I was making were apparently so ridiculous that the waitress started joking with me. But I couldn’t help it. I was discovering a taste that was brand new to me and I was savoring every morsel. It was worth a little embarrassment.

Plantains are common in a lot of South American and Caribbean cooking, but since I’m not familiar with those traditions I just saw the weird green banana looking things at the grocery store and shrugged my shoulders at them. Not anymore. It’s got a freshness like a cucumber as you’re peeling it, and then when you eat it it’s like a banana and a potato had a beautiful starchy baby with just a hint of sweetness. But unlike a potato it cooks up so fast that you can get the rich browned butter flavor on it and it’s cooked before the butter turns black.

Plantains Fried in Browned Butter
1 plantain, peeled and sliced
2 T butter

It really is this simple: Melt the butter in a saute pan and let it heat until foaming and brown. Toss the plantain rounds into the butter and let it cook for 30 seconds or a minute. Flip, cook for 30 or so more seconds, then remove from the butter.

I like to eat mine with sour cream and green onions, just as I had it in the restaurant, and sprinkled with a little chili powder. But the possibilities are endless. They’re like unique little french fries, you could dip them in anything that tastes good.

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Roasted artichokes with Remoulade Creamy Corn Chili Dip Panzanella Salad Pea Pancakes with bacon and sour cream