What's wrong with my plantains?

Question

They sound easy to make, but when I fry my plantains, they come out burned on the outside and uncooked in the middle. I lowered the heat, I fried them longer, I moved them around, with no luck. How can I make decent fried plantains that taste good?

Answer 1

Try deep frying them instead (more residual heat). If you can, get a wooden spoon, and check the oil of the temperature by looking for bubbles at the end of the stick. I nice steady stream of bubbles should do it the next time.

Maybe the thickness you cut them is funky. Try quarter inch slices. And a a little dusting of flour would help (it doubles as checking the temp of the oil).

Answer 2

o.k. what kind of plantain do you want? sweet or unsweeten? if you want the sweetened ones, it's easy. slice it diagonally about a 1/4 inch thick and fry it with a little butter with veggie oil. the edges will get a little brown but, keep the heat low-or medium low and flip them and fry the other side, walla you'll have sweetened plantain.

unsweetened plantain take more work. if you get the green plantain, slice it very thin so that they will fry evenly and crisp. however, you can have a great plantain chips by frying twice. correct! cut the green plantain across into an inch or 1 1/2" and deep fry them by placing them vertically in the oil. fry each end of the plantain about a minute or two each and take them out. when cooled enough to handle, smash them with a heavy object such as skillet, or mortar to flattened out to your liking. put them back in the oil and refry until crisp, and you got plantain chips. it's scrumptious!

Answer 3

Use oil, make sure it is heated properly, turn the heat down to med-low, slice the plantains so that the amount of oil used is half the width of the plantains when put in the frying pan.

Note: Make sure the plantains are not over / under ripe.

Answer 4

There are many factors that impact how your plantain comes out. Probably the largest one is how ripe the plantain is. It sounds like you are cooking very ripe or over-ripe plantains. The riper they get, the more of a sugar content they get, and the softer (and slimier) they get. Sugar makes them burn very easily. Notice that in some of the recipes in the links, green plantains are called for--these will not have the problem you suggested, but they also will not be sweet.

The quality is also important. Lower-quality plantains will be slimier at the same stage of ripeness, and they also will tend to turn black before they fully ripen. If you can buy good-quality green plantains, they will ripen slowly and you can cook them at exactly the stage of ripness you want. If you buy ripe plantains, try to buy ones that are as pale yellow or greenish as possible, and cook them ASAP.

When plantains are ripe, you generally want to make sure you are using enough cooking oil (canola is basic, I find they actually taste best in safflower oil, if you can get your hands on it); this will help keep them from burning. Also, as the other poster suggested, squish them down flat with a spatula to expose more surface area. If they're still coming out slimy, try squishing them flatter until they're crispy. When done properly, this way of cooking overly-ripe or poor quality plantains will usually make them taste pretty good. They may be black or dark brown on the outside, but they'll taste good.

Another way to cook ripe plantains is to slit them down the middle, instead of cutting them into chips or chunks. This exposes more surface area...you can fry them flat in the frying pan. This tends to make them come out softer and doesn't work as well with over-ripe or slimy ones.

You can also bake ripe plantains.

Non-ripe plantains take longer to cook and do not generally come out slimy, but end up sort of becoming mealy like potatos. You can fry them (deep-fat frying works well), but you can also cook them. The greener they are, the more their consistency will be like a potato and the less like a banana (and the same for the taste). I find green plantains go very well with garlic, and with seafood and rice.

Best piece of advice--find a hispanic person who really knows how to cook, and get their advice, or better yet, watch them cook.

Answer 5

Make sure that you flatten them with the bottom of a glass so they are "smooshed" flat before you fry them. They may be too thick.

If you're frying them in butter only, add a little vegetable oil to the pan. Butter has a lower burning point.

You are right to lower the heat -- good call on that one.

Good luck!

Answer 6

Try getting bananas that are not too ripe, and there are some types of bananas that are not really suitable for frying.To my knowledge,in Indonesia,Malaysia & Singapore,they normally use "PISANG KEPOK","PISANG TANDOK" or "PISANG RAJA"; (PISANG means BANANA or PLAINTAIN in Bahasa Indonesia or Malay) for frying or making banana fritters.
So try shopping for the right bananas."Pisang Kepok" is the normal size bananas while the rest are the slightly bigger version I think.

Recipe for batter ( Pisang goreng or Fried bananas )

1 - 2 cups riceflour
2 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp corn starch
3 tsp of brown sugar
a pinch of salt
1 cup water
a drop of yellow food colouring (optional)
Oil for deep frying

1. Mix riceflour,corn flour & corn starch in a big bowl.Add a pinch of salt & brown sugar.Mix thoroughly.
2. Add a drop or two of yellow food colouring (if prefered) to the cup of water.
3. Slowly add water to the flour mixture and stir to get a thick batter.
4. Peel and slit bananas lengthwise.Dip in batter and make sure it's nicely covered.
5. Heat enough oil in a wok or frying pan on medium fire.
6. When oil is hot, slowly place battered bananas into wok.
7. Fry about 2 - 3 minutes or till golden brown.

* The corn flour makes it crispier & the corn starch makes the batter stick better to the bananas.You can also try serving them with vanilla ice cream & maple syrup,really yummy.Good luck!:)

Answer 7

make sure you are using oil, fry them till light golden take out of pan onto brown paper bag "smush" or flatten them with a heavy glss, botom of clean pan,etc.return to oil fry again till deep golden brown remove and drain on paper towels,sprinkle with salt while still hot delicious!!ENJOY

Answer 8

Try steaming them first to get them softer, and amke sure they are not too ripe(soft) or too green(little hard)

Answer 9

sounds like they are too ripe to me.
are you certain you are using them green enough?

Answer 10

just eat a banana