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.

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