- Hey, I'm John Kanell.
And today, on Preppy Kitchen,
we're making crunchy, delicious tostones.
So let's get started.
First off, a little bit about the plantains.
You have two choices here, tostones or maduros.
So, tostones are gonna be crunchy, salty,
like, amazing chips that you can make.
Maduros are the same exact thing,
but you're using a sweet plantain.
This is unripe, it's green,
this is pretty ripe,
although it can be all the way black
and super soft and sweet.
We're gonna make both of them today,
and just, I want you to see the difference.
So, I cannot believe that this is the very first time
that I am using plantains on the channel.
I'm actually shocked when I found out,
just because I love plantains, they are delicious
and so versatile.
This guy is very unripe.
So, when they're not ripe, the skin does stick.
So you have to score the edges.
Tostones, like I said before, are chips basically.
They're wonderful on their own, they're vehicles for sauce,
and they're so easy to make
that you're gonna become addicted to these.
If you use the ripe plantains,
those are like, sweet and amazing too.
But I don't know, some people like to argue
which is better.
So if you wanna do that, let me know in the comments.
I like both of them.
Cut the top, cut the bottom,
three scores and you are ready to peel.
tostones are called tostones
because it's derived from the Spanish word, to toast.
They're twice fried.
So we're gonna fry 'em up, do a little magic,
and fry 'em up again.
And then just for the sake of seeing the difference,
watch how easy this peels, the skin comes right off,
and it feels totally different.
Now this feels like a giant, beautifully colored banana.
All right.
So we want 1" thick pieces just like that,
they should be fairly thick.
If you've never had a plantain before,
Oh my gosh, you see them at the market,
you need to buy one and make this.
I just think they have much more flavor
and they're so much more versatile than bananas,
although bananas are amazing.
Plantains are popular throughout South America
and the Caribbean, and they are amazing.
Oh my gosh, you've gotta have them.
If you haven't had, like,
sweet plantains with rice and beans,
you are missing out.
All right, I'm also gonna chop these up,
and you can scale this recipe up or down.
It calls for two plantains, but I tell you,
when you make this, you are going to eat all of this,
and, like, want quintuple portions.
So go ahead, buy some more plantains and make more
'cause everyone's gonna want them.
So now you want about 2 cups of water.
It does not have to be exact.
We're gonna soak our plantains
in a solution of water and salt,
and I'll tell you why in a second.
I'm making two batches and I'm keeping them separate
so I don't get confused.
Small bowl are for the ripe plantains.
And the big bowl is for the unripe.
2 teaspoons of salt here.
Every recipe calls for you to soak your plantains
in salt and water.
Sometimes you can add lime juice too
if you feel like it.
No one tells you why.
But I went back to my science teacher memories
and I realized that if you have salt,
like a solution of salt on one side,
and something else on the other side,
water will go out
to kind of try and even out the environment.
Anyway, so I think that the water is gonna like,
seep out of the plantain.
And when we fry them, it'll give you a crispy plantain.
So every one wants things to be crispy,
we're just trying to get some of the moisture out.
Oh my gosh, these feel so different.
We need to give our plantains
at least 10 minutes to soak, could be up to 30.
In the meantime, we're gonna make an amazing sauce.
You could enjoy these tostones with basically anything,
including just plain.
But if you have a minute,
you can make the best garlic mojo sauce
that's gonna blow your mind,
and like, make these completely addictive.
So, you only wanna few ingredients.
One of which is a garlic,
give these a smash, skin comes right off,
it's really easy.
You could make this in a blender,
you could make this with a mortar and pestle,
or you could even make this like I am
with a mini food processor.
I'm adding in about 1/3 cup of olive oil.
I also want 1/2 cup of cilantro leaves.
You can get rid of most of the stems,
but it doesn't really matter,
it's all gonna get chopped up.
I'm adding a pinch of salt now to get it started.
I'm adding just a bit of lime zest into this
because I can't help myself.
And now we're gonna add to the juice of two juicy limes.
Pop the top on, hit the turbo button.
(processor whirring)
Okay, this has a beautiful emerald color.
It's just garlic, cilantro, lime and olive oil
with a little bit of salt.
But those flavors together are pure magic.
And I love the color too.
My sauce is made, my plantains have soaked,
and now we're gonna add 1/2 inch of oil
into a large skillet.
There we go.
Medium high heat.
Now I'm going to be, patting my plantains dry.
Soaking them also gives you a chance to avoid oxidations,
they don't change color,
it rinses off any kind of, like, sappy moments
the plantains might have.
I'm gonna fry these open two batches
because I'm keeping them separate for our test.
You want your oil to be hot, but not smoking.
It should be 325 to 335
if you're breaking your thermometer out.
Okay, we're gonna add these in right now.
And the deal with these, is they're double fried.
So we give them a fry, give them a magical flattening step,
and then we fry them again.
If you're not using a thermometer, which is totally fine,
it should bubble, but not super vigorously.
So if it looks like it's getting too hot
and it's like going crazy with the bubbles,
just take the heat down.
This is a nice, soft, rolling little bubble.
These will cook for about three to four minutes
until they're like, lightly golden.
And these guys right now, are the tostones,
they are the unripe bananas.
If you could feel them, they feel so different,
not at all slimy like the ripe ones do.
These are nice and golden, so I'm gonna flip them over.
You're gonna see a little bit of browning
and that's totally fine.
So right now I'm gonna take these guys out,
plop them onto my paper just to drain a bit.
If you're making, like, a big batch of tostones,
or if you're making these, and you're kind of just busy,
you can stop and hold them at this stage,
and then go on to the next step later
when you're ready to eat
because these are best fresh.
But right now you're at a nice stopping point
before the second fry.
Repeat those same steps for your next batch.
If you're not doubling or tripling this recipe,
I kind of think you shouldn't tell anyone
you're making these
because you will eat the entire batch yourself,
and you will not want to share.
This is a fair warning to you.
I kind of wanna do a whole series where I recreate
some of my favorite recipes that I used to enjoy
at restaurants in Los Angeles
that just aren't available here.
These plantains are bringing back a lot
of delicious memories.
My gosh, there's one Brazilian, it's like, fried.
No, it's like a cheesy ball, pae de queijo?
I don't know, I cannot say anything in Portuguese
and do it justice,
but they're little Brazilian puff balls
that are cheesy and amazing.
Okay, these guys are looking good too,
so we're gonna drain them out now.
Transfer your plantains onto a sheet of parchment paper
and grab a flat bottom glass.
We're gonna smash these up.
So, just press now you have a wonderful chip.
Oh my gosh, I can't wait.
Some people will tell you to do this in plastic
and that's not a good idea,
'cause oftentimes these are warm,
and like, you just don't need it.
Give it a smash.
And then once they're all smashed
they're ready for their second fry.
Pop that oil back onto heat.
Now we pop these back into the hot oil
and fry them for about three minutes on each side.
You'll see what they look like.
They're gonna be so much more golden
and just crispy all over.
They're like beautiful little yellow flowers.
The moment the first batch is out of the fryer,
sprinkle with salt, you can do it to taste,
it's a nice contrast.
I've just been using a cup and a sheet parchment paper,
but one more piece of parchment paper on top
makes it really easy,
you're not gonna be picking 'em off the cup.
Now we're popping in the ripe plantains,
and you'll do batch after batch until you're all done.
You want your tostones to be golden and crispy,
so that's what you're looking for,
like a beautiful golden color like this
means that they're just about done.
The tostones are golden crispy and amazing.
The ripe plantain, which are technically maduros,
has a darker color because of all the sugar released.
Give these a dip.
(tostones crunching)
That is so good.
But now,
(tostones crunching)
these are both delicious.
The tostones have a different vibe from the sweeter ones,
but they both go so well with that garlic mojo sauce.
I hope you had a chance to make this recipe.
And if you like my videos, check out my Latin playlist.