TOSTONES RECIPE - TWICE-FRIED PLANTAINS (2024)

FAQs

How ripe should plantains be for tostones? ›

A staple dish throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, tostones are crisp, flattened plantains that are often served as appetizers and side dishes. Unlike sweet maduros, which are made with very ripe, almost black, yellow plantains, savory tostones are made with unripe green plantains.

Tostones are made from green plantains. Sweet plantains are made from ripe green plantains and they turn yellow when ripe. Tostones are twice-fried, crispy, and salty while sweet plantains are sweet and tender. Both are delicious!

Soak green plantains before frying them to keep the fruit from oxidizing quickly. As soon as you slice the green plantains, put them in a little salt water to keep the plantains from turning brown; it also helps season them.

Why are my Tostones falling apart? If the tostones fall apart when you press them, it's because you did not let them cook through enough when frying the first time around. If this happens when you press the first tostón, return the plantain rounds back to the oil before pressing them and let them cook a bit longer.

A ripe plantain is best when it's mostly black with a little yellow, and still slightly firm to the touch, like when you squeeze a peach. Although completely black plantains are still good to eat, they are a little too soft, making them difficult to prepare. But they're still delicious.

At its peak of ripeness, a plantain's skin will be dull yellow with black patches or be mostly black. Unripe plantains are green and turn cream to bright yellow in color. which are also fried to make tostones. A green plantain will eventually turn black. To ripen plantains at home, leave them on the counter.

"They add calories that may result in weight gain or obesity, and have metabolic effects that increase the risk of developing chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer." If you love fried plantains, try cooking them in an air fryer, and you can get the crispy texture without a lot of oil.

Green plantains are a must for tostones. As they go from green to yellow to brown to black, they become progressively riper, and progressively sweeter as well. While ripe, brown plantains can be tasty when fried, they're better used for sweet maduros, not savory tostones. For these, go as green and unripe as possible.

Cook Plantains On Lower Heat To Ensure No Burnt Flavor

The fruit needs only a few minutes on each side until the outside hits an appealing golden-brown color. Anything darker and the result will be too dry; anything less, and the plantains will remain hard.

Olayinka explained that while you could salt them after they cook, she prefers to salt them beforehand because the plantains are stickier when they're raw. Thus, the flavor of the salt is much more likely to be infused into the plantains — allowing them to be as tasty as possible.

Should you soak plantains in salt water before frying? ›

But since the unripe plantains don't taste like much on their own, soaking the slices in salt water will help draw out their subtle flavors. Soaking green plantains can also add moisture to the naturally dry starch and help the tostones to crisp up nicely when they're fried.

Slice the plantains crosswise into thick slices, about 1¼ inches. (You should get about 5 slices per plantain.) In a bowl large enough to hold the plantains, combine the salt with ½ cup water and stir until dissolved. Add plantains and set aside to soak for 15 to 20 minutes.

Tostones are traditionally meant to be savory and not sweet, so you need to pick the greenest (unripe) plantains possible. In my opinion, this all really comes down to preference. My husband prefers sweeter tostones, so I get plantains that are more on the yellow side for him.

This recipe is how we most often eat plantains at home… pan fried sweet plantains. I personally like to use plantains that are yellow but not too ripe yet. They are still firm but give a little and don't have many black spots yet.

This recipe is easy and never fails to please. You may use green or yellow plantains for this, but refrain from using a plantain that's beginning to show brown or black spots. That plantain will have too much sugar to make tostones and will burn instead of crisp in the oil.

Plantains can be cooked at any stage of ripeness – from green, to yellow or black – to create a variety of dishes from appetizers to desserts. Plantains taste different at each stage of development, though the interior color of the fruit will remain creamy, yellowish or lightly pink.

And, while bananas are generally always sweet and a tad soft, plantains are firmer, larger and a lot less sweet in taste. In fact, they even have a starchier consistency, which means they should always be cooked before eating, unlike traditional bananas.