>>HILAH: Hey dudes, I'm Hilah, and today on Hilah Cooking I'm going to show you how to
turn this hideous being into delicious plantain chips or "Tostones", and then we're gonna
top 'em with lotsa different things!
It's just a really quick little appetizer snack that you can make that's a little bit
different than, like, potato chips and stuff like that, but, uhm, let's do that then!
Look how good I am at catching!
I'm not even looking…
[laughs]
[music]
[Fried Plantains Recipe]
>> HILAH: Okay, if you're unfamiliar with a plantain, umm, these are all good examples
of sort of medium ripe plantains.
Plantains are like punk rock bananas-they're a lot tougher, they have a thicker skin, they
might be on drugs.
I don't know.
I don't know what these bananas do when I'm not looking right at them.
But anyways, these are turning yellow as you can see.
Uhm, greener ones actually work better for this, but I got delayed on my shooting, so,
they got a little bit overripe…anyway, these will work fine, uhm and if you can get them
slightly greener, do that- this is what happens when you let them sit on your counter for,
like, a month; they turn into that, which is still usable, but not in this recipe.
Alright, the skins on these are so super thick, and really a lot more fibrous than regular
bananas.
So, the easiest way to get them off is with a knife.
I'm going to start with this one.
The straighter you can get, also, the easier it's gonna be to cut them into chunks.
Okay, so, start with cutting off the ends.
You don't want to cut into the flesh too much.
And then just try to get your hand between the skin, and then if there's a little bit
you can't get you can either use your knife just like a regular vegetable peeler to kind
of cut that off.
And then we're going to cut these about an inch is what I like to do.
[cutting]
And then, we'll just start frying them.
I've got about a cup of oil here, a third of an inch deep, or so.
And I'm just going to heat that up to kind of like a medium hot.
I guess it would be like 330 or 340 degrees fahrenheit.
When it starts doing that, it's good.
And the purpose of this first "fry job", is just to actually cook the plantains.
So, just a couple minutes of each side.
If you're using green plantains you will need to cook them a little bit longer to get them
soft enough.
Okay, and then, flip them over.
Once they're brown on both sides, we'll go ahead and turn the oil off so it doesn't just
keep getting hotter and hotter.
Just drain these little dudes on a paper towel.
Okay, now, we're going to flatten them.
And one way to do that is with what's called a "Tostonera", and my buddy Steve, over at
Woodworking for Mere Mortals, actually made this and sent it to me.
So, if you have one of these, i'll show you how to use it.
So, it's got these little cups and little masher things.
Okay so we just wanna put our little guys, and the oil that's on them from the frying,
should keep them from sticking.
It's a very simple machine.
And then just kinda close it like a book and press down like that.
And then we're just gonna tap it out.
There we go!
So that's how to use a tostonera!
Thanks Steve, for that!
Uhm, it's been a lot of fun playing with it.
And then, if you have one of those, this has been kinda cool because it make it into this
little cup shape.
And then after you fry it you can actually fill that with like refried beans, or cheese,
or even like pica de gallo or something like that, and serve it as like a little two-bite
appetizer.
If you don't have one of those though, that's fine, all you need is a piece of wax paper
and some people just sort of smash it with their fist but it's a little hot for my delicate
hands.
So, I'm just going to use a jar of salsa and mash it.
You just wanna mash it to make it like a half an inch thick and then we'll fry them again.
Okay, for our second fry we want the oil to be more like 350 or 360, and this is just
gonna get them super crispy and delicious.
And after a couple of minutes they're good and brown, so flip them over.
Okay, these are good, really, really crispy.
And just drain them again on a rack or a paper towel.
And now, while they're hot, I'm going to sprinkle them with a little salt while they're still
hot.
Oh my god, I'm going to have such bad luck you guys.
Problem solved.
Alright, now, you can serve these just as is or, I like them, I've got a little pico
de gallo here, which is just kind of a fresh, chopped salsa.
I've got a recipe for that on my website.
And then, I'm also using a spicy, hatch chili sauce that i made with yogurt and I've got
that recipe on the website too and I think that they both compliment it really nicely.
So, these are hotter than, I don't know…
Satan's piss?
They're really, really hot.
My creamy sauce, and plantains have been compared to like a fried potato.
Like, a thick, fried potato.
And they are kind of like that, they're real starchy.
Especially the greener ones- and kind of bland, so they really take to any kind of spicy sauce
that you might want to put them with.
Wow, oh, this is so delicious you guys.
Okay, it's just like so, so crispy.
These plantains fry up so beautifully and then spicy, creamy sauce on there with, kind
of like, the soft interior of plantain itself, is just excellent.
And, there you go, there's how to make some plantain chips.
Check my website for these two salsa things and also like the pico de gallo and taco meat
recipe.
You could fill them with that, refried beans, like I said.
You could do all kinds of stuff, like these little cups, these are super cute.
Alright, well, thanks for watching!
I hope you have a great day!
I hope you try this recipe.
If you have any questions leave them in the comments and I will get to them as soon as
I can.
Alright, thanks for watching.
[music]