Venezuelan Style Baked Plantains
How to Bake Plantains with a South American Recipe from Venezuela
Nov 12, 2009
Plantains are typically larger, firmer and less sweet than bananas you're used to eating as a snack. They are popular in Southeast Asia and Australia, as well as Central and South America. More recently, local markets in the United States and Canada have been stocked with this wonderful ingredient.
Plantains can be used when they are green or under-ripe making more savory, starchy foods. However this recipe requires very ripe plantains, with brown/black skins, which gives this side dish it's sweet undertone.
Either way you use plantains, they are cooked or processed in some way to make them palatable and tasty. Whether they're baked, fried, boiled, steamed or grilled, they're always a tasty and exotic-tasting addition to a meal. Not only is the fruit or plantain eaten, but the roots and shoots are used in numerous cuisines around the world.
Venezuelan Style Baked Plantains:
This is an authentic Venezuelan recipe learned from exchange students brought to Canada for university. This is just one of the ways they enjoy plantains, which happens to be so easy to make with only three ingredients.
Type: Side Dish
Serve With: Sour cream or creme fraiche, if desired
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Make: 1 plantain per person for a side dish or appetizer
Ingredients:
- 3 ripe Plantains - With completely brown or black skins
- 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese - Grated
- sprinkle Cayenne Pepper - As desired
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Peel skins off ripe plantains and slice them in half lengthwise.
- With the flat side up, cut a small wedge out of the center of the plantains lengthwise. This way, you can fill this void with cheese. Set aside.
- Grease a cookie sheet with peanut oil or cooking spray.
- Line up plantains on a cookie sheet so they are not touching. Line up the wedges on the cookie sheet too.
- Top plantains generously with mozzarella cheese filling the centers, and sprinkle cheese on the wedges you removed as well.
- Sprinkle cayenne pepper on top, depending upon your own taste and tolerance of spice.
- Bake in oven for 15-20 min - until the plantains are soft and cheese is melted and golden.
- Serve with sour cream or creme fraiche as a side dish or appetizer, if desired.
The key to success for this recipe is to be sure the entire skin of the plantain is brown or black. Then, they are ready to bake and at peak sweetness.
You will hardly be able to wait until the plantain skins are brown, so you can create these tasty treats.
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