Plantains, a larger and less sweet member of the banana family, have been used in various dishes for thousands of years in tropical regions. Plantain chips are a popular snack made by frying thinly sliced unripe plantains and sprinkling them with salt. Plantains can also be boiled, baked, steamed, and grilled, and are used in various dishes in Caribbean, Latino, African, Indian, and Asian cuisine.
The plantain is a larger and tastier member of the Musa banana family, specifically called Musa paradisiaca. Known as platanos in Spanish, this fruit has been used in a wide variety of dishes for thousands of years of tropical civilization, in equatorial regions as disparate as South Asia, Africa, and Latin America. One of the most ubiquitous ways to eat this fruit is to slice it thinly and fry it like plantain chips — resulting in a snack that’s starkier and less sweet than banana chips, but far less bland than traditional potato chips.
Historical analyzes of the origin of banana trees and bananas have these about 300 varieties of trees native to or around Malaysia, back to the dawn of agriculture. According to the University of California at Los Angeles Botanical Garden, as early civilizations spread east from Asia with the Polynesians and west with European exploration of America, so did banana and banana trees. Although plantain chips are most famous in Latin American cultures, African and Asian cultures have also prepared fruits like this.
The key to making a delicious batch of plantain chips is using slightly unripened ones, with the fruit’s typically thick skin still a dark shade of green. Once the peel turns yellow and eventually black, the sugars in the fruit have developed to a point where a dessert would serve better. Unlike bananas, plantains are rarely eaten raw.
The preparation is simple. The peeled, unripe plantains are sliced thin and dropped into a deep fryer. Once they have taken on a crunchy texture, after just a minute or two, the plantain chips are sprinkled with salt as they dry on a paper towel. Some skip the oil and decide to bake their fries instead for a healthier snack. Others add more diverse flavors to the finished product, such as cayenne pepper, citrus juice or zest and the Latin American spice known as annatto, which adds nutmeg flavor and a distinctive orange tint.
Plantain chips are just one of the many ways Caribbean, Latino, African, Indian, and Asian chefs prepare plantains. Each region has different dishes that use this fruit, which can also be boiled, baked, steamed and grilled. In Puerto Rico, for example, a popular offering is called mofongo, which sees chefs mash fried plantains into a filling fortified with beef broth, garlic, onions, oil, pork, bacon, and other assorted vegetables and meats. In Africa, a mashed plantain dish called fufu is more likely to be served with dinner than mashed potatoes.
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