Gringo Times

Page 16 www.gringo-times.com May 2007 - Issue 2

TOSTONES are a favouriteside-dish in the DominicanRepublic, made from green(unripe) or slightly yellow (barelyripe) plantain. Plantains arecheap and easily available in theDR and you’ll often see truckspiled high delivering them to thecolmados (local shops). Theylook pretty much like big greenbananas and you can often findthem in larger supermarkets inNorth America and Europe aswell.

This is an easy recipe, sothere’s no excuse for not tryingthis one!

Ingredients required:1. 3 or 4 plantains2. Enough olive or veg-

etable oil to one-third fill a pan3. Salt (or maple syrup) to

taste

The steps in sequence are:1. Cut into 1” slices2. Fry both sides until

golden brown3. Take out and flatten4. Fry again for a couple

of minutes5. Take, out, season and

eat

The process in detail:1. To prepare the plantain,

you need to peel them and cut

into 1” slices. If the plantains arevery green, the easiest way is tomake a cut lengthways down theplantain with a sharp knife. Thencut each plantain into 1” slicesbefore peeling (or breaking) offthe skin from each slice. You

could also try cutting the slicesdiagonally in order to make theslices wider.

2. Heat the oil in a heavy panor skillet over a medium highheat, and add the plantain sliceswhen the oil is hot enough to siz-zle. Fry in batches to avoidcrowding the pan. Turn eachslice after 2-3 minutes or whengolden brown. When both sides

are golden, transfer the plan-tains to paper towels to drain.

3. Here’s the fun bit! With the

plantains on a flat surface,squash each slice down to 1/3”thick with a flat-bottomed glass

or similar. 4. Now bring the temperature

of the oil up again, and transferthe plantains back into the oil.Fry on a slightly higher tempera-

ture, turning occasionally for 2-3minutes or until golden brown onboth sides.

5. Remove and drain onpaper towels

Sprinkle with salt to taste.

As an interesting alternative,

you can turn this dish into a tastydesert, simply by using slightlymore ripe plantains (yellowier),and then adding maple syrup toserve instead of salt. The riperplantains have a much sweeterflavour.

Recipe kindly provided byGringa Altamita.

Note: The Gringo Times cannottake any responsibility if yourtostones don’t turn out as well asour’s did. The lovely Gringa Altamitawho provided this information doesn’t like cooking much and wasrail-roaded into providing this recipe.We hope you enjoy it!

If you’d like to submit a recipe,email it to editor@gringo-times.com.In order to ensure it gets published, ithelps if you can provide a readycooked sample for the editor to tryout - and a crate of beer to wash itdown with.

Gringo CuisineRecipe of the Week

“Tostones”