The Sunny Goodness Of Plantains

Winter cooking can be blah at times.It 's the same old ingredients in the same old dishes.It , like any bored foodie needs a jolt.Luckily this comes in the sunny yellow form of a plantain.It's a great addition to any recipe or good on it's owm. Melissa Clark raved about it in her A Good Appetite Column in today's New York Times Wednesday Dining section. Plantains or plantanos are a cousin of the banana.It is less sweet but more meatier than it's relative.They are bigger and firmer too which makes them excellent for any kind of cooking or frying.Like bananas ,they are best bought and cooked when they are over ripe.The skins should be black however you can buy them both yellow and green skinned and let them ripen as you would bananas.The outer layer ,exactly like a peel ,will slide of easily when gently tugged. The recommended recipe is a chicken stew.It's one of the easiest plantain dishes that require stewing a whole chicken with various spices along with tomatoes and green olives.Ms Clark uses the flavors of the Caribbean ,such as cumin and chile with a squirt of lime juice.She also throws in oregano and red peppers for added zing.If you want to make a true WestIndian plantain dish ,try mofongo. This is a trickier recipe that calls for green plantains?it involves garlic ,pork and crackling for flavor.You can also just slice the plantains lengthwise and then fry them.They're sort of like sweet potato fries and make a fun side. If yo want to liven up your winter cooking then throw in a few plantains.They can make an ordinary stew zesty.They are also a great departure from regular fries?Try then and get a taste of the islands!