Skip to main content

First attempt at plantains

For a reason that is none of your business, I decided to try making some food involving plantains this past weekend. I may have been a little drunk, and I may have been dancing to Spanish language love songs while cooking, but that did not prevent some culinary magic from working itself despite my inebriation, lack of experience with the ingredients, and limited kitchen resources.

The first dish I cooked up involved seasoning some oxtail with a pre-made jerk rub, searing it in olive oil, and braising it in red wine (Apothic Red is my current kitchen red). 
After I had the oxtail on the back burner, I lightly caramelized some chopped green plantain in butter with a light dusting of sugar and allspice. Once the plantain had a nice golden color, I added it to my Dutch oven, put on the lid, and let it sit for a good 8 hours on low heat. 
Unfortunately, there are no pics of the finished product because I devoured it like a drunk fat man.

While the oxtail and plantain simmered away, however, I set to work on the yellow plantain I had also picked up at the local grocery store. I threw two and a half tablespoons of butter into my pan on a low heat and, once it had melted, I dropped in a cinnamon stick for a minute or two before adding in the diced plantain, again with sugar and allspice. I caramelized this plantain a bit more than the first batch, then pulled it all out of the pan.
Once the pan was nothing but melted butter, browned bits, and a cinnamon stick, I added in about a half cup of heavy whipping cream and beat it gently with a whisk for a few minutes to make a nice little cream sauce.
After the sauce thickened a little, it was snack time. I just poured the sauce into a custard bowl (added the cinnamon stick in for a visual touch, as well as helping to scoop...), and put it on the plate with the plantains. Nothing fancy, but it got the job done. I highly recommend giving this a shot.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I don't understand food

Part 1 the morning after, while eating a sausage, egg, and cheese everything bagel from Bergen Bagels Last night, I had the pleasure, privilege, and audacity to eat at a Brooklyn restaurant named Aska . I know it's cliche to refer to a fancy restaurant meal as a life-changing experience, but this was straight up paradigm-shattering. I've written before about food being a medium of communication, about how I strive to reduce food waste as much as I can, about sharing our cultures and stories with each other through the meals we create, but seeing how Chef Fredrik Berselius is able to do this at such an intricate, elegant, and elevated level is both humbling and inspiring. The experience started before the first bite. I walked into the 10 table restaurant, and they knew me by name. I was shown to my table (right in the middle of the place, looking directly into the open kitchen), and they even pulled my chair out for me and pushed it up under me. I was a little uncomfortable with...
Post a Comment
Read more

Restaurant week: My new Mexican restaurant

 As I mentioned the other day, my Mexican restaurant closed down. Luckily, they opened up in a new space a couple of months later. Great new look, new name ("Lopez Grill"), they've got a bar, staff is expanded, and the place is always packed. Business seems to be going great. Now, this isn't just a rehash of my post about the 'Dolo. While the menu is largely the same, there have been a few changes, plus I'm going to share a few things I've learned eating there. On my first visit to the new location (which was opening day, right when the doors opened; yes, I was standing in line outside with the other faithful), Señor Lopez brought me a bowl of their new salsa. He called it "guacamole salsa," but it's a jalapeño-based sauce. It's got an almost creamy texture, but is dairy-free (I asked for my vegan friend). Being a jalapeño salsa, it's got some heat, but not nearly as overbearing as some capsaicin-phobes may fear. It is perfectly bala...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trying a new idea

I decided to try out a new concept: plain seasoning on my food with a bold sauce to kick it up a few notches. I was thinking that a pretty boring salmon fillet with a super flavorful sauce would be a fun way to put food on the plate. Sort of a "oh, this isn't that great, but wait! There's more!" kind of deal. I just salted the salmon and poached it in olive oil. Meanwhile, I also made some mashed potatoes with some sautéed green onion and orange bell pepper mixed in. A little butter, a little cream, yada yada. The potatoes were great. The salmon was boring. So how about that sauce? I made myself a roux (butter mixed with flour), then added in some white wine, and I let that simmer while I cooked the fish and potatoes. Unfortunately, it thickened up a bit much, so I added some more wine. With the extra wine, it was too watery, so I dropped in some creme fraiche, all while repeating my Randy Marsh impersonation of saying, "creme fraiche!" That gave it a great ...
Post a Comment
Read more