"when" news and stories

David Blaine at From The Back Kitchen recently posted about his experiments trying to develop new menu items around plantains. Faced with nearly 50 pounds, I guess he had plenty of chances to explore. Blaine says he tried grilling and roasting plantains both with and without the skin. From the photos, it looks like most of the plantains were cooked when they were still quite starchy. Unlike bananas, plantains can and should still be eaten when their skins are completely black. My standby method is peeling them with a knife, slicing them on a bias into half- to quarter- inch thick slices and shallow frying them in either butter or vegetable oil. A good dose of kosher salt and cracked pepper finishes them off. A little hot sauce never hurt them either.