[darway]

We've all seen these green_things_that_arent_bananas_so_you_ignore_them . How should they be used?

I bought one, cut up some slices and mixed it in with my steamed vegetables. It reminds me of butternut squash... very light flavor. I'd say weaker than pears but stronger than mushrooms. The pieces turn brighter yellow when cooked, and adds color to the mixture.

[lazylioness]

Plantains are good. My fiancee likes them fried Cuban style

[nelie]

You are supposed to wait until the peel gets black. Traditionally, they are fried but I have found that I like them steamed.

[angelskeep]

I LOVE plantains, but the only way I've ever had them was deep fried and dunked into a pepper sauce, kind of like salsa. A friend from the Ivory Coast introduced me to them. We always fixed them when the peels were quite dark, more sugar to caramelize in the deep oil, I think.

I would think you could bake them without the peel and then use the mexican/mediterranean aromatic spices for flavor. Hmmm. I don't even know if the stores here have them at all. Now I'll have to look.

Here's a link for plantains multiple ways.

http://www.dollarman.com/puertorico/...inrecipes.html

Barb

[Rana]

You can make plantains in a variety of ways.

The simplest ways are to fry them. You don't have to deep fry them either. You can have them ripe, which will make them very sweet or green, which will be a more savory flavor (add salt after frying).

Also, you can boil them and mash them, green or ripe, you can also add them to soups.

Each country that cooks with plantains has a variety of ways of eating them, including dipping sauces, adding meats on top of the plantains. There's even "plantain nachos" that you can make, substituting them instead of the chips (after they are fried, of course).

You can also bake them, which is the way that I like them the best. I only like ripened plantains baked, however. Very delicious, 375 degrees or higher if you're watching, and depending on your oven, 20 minutes or so, they should be done.

It's a versatile food, but I count it as a starch, not a vegetable.

[Chrztina]

Plantains are wonderful, though I've never checked the nutritional facts.

My husband is Puerto Rican so we eat them on a regular basis.

Most of the ways we prepare them are really NOT healthy. However, you can boil them with a mix of squash, potatoes, and chicken and it's like a stew.

Or you wait till they are semi-ripe, cut into four longer portions, and fill them with a meat mixture. We call them canoas (canoes), because they end up looking like a little canoe filled with meat.

They are very versitile!