Tostones!

If you’re bold enough to dig back through the archives here, you’ll find some pretty fun posts about our last trip to Puerto Rico back in 2011. Well, we’re going back next year, and to celebrate, I made us some tostones.

Tostones are double fried plantains. Nowadays, plantains are really cheap at the supermarket, so I figured I’d share the very straightforward and quick way to prepare these goodies.

First, get some plantains. The market near my apartment had them two for a buck. You want your plantains to be a smooth green. I picked the two that had the least brown spots (brown spots are caused by ripening of the fruit, which is good if you want sweet plantains, but bad if you want tostones.).

Remove the skin from the plantain and slice them about 1-2 inches thick.

Heat up a pot with some oil to about 375°F, and fry each piece until it is golden brown.

While that is happening, get yourself something to smash them with. I usually just wrap some aluminum foil around a can of beans. You can use any canned vegetable or broth you want.

Place each piece of plantain on a flat surface, and slam the can onto it.

Do that with all of the pieces, and throw them all back in the oil until they’re golden brown all over.

As they come out, drain them on some paper towel and hit them with some salt.

To serve, you can whip together a concoction of light olive oil with minced garlic, or you can do what they do in Puerto Rico and serve them with “Fancy Sauce“. (Actually, in Puerto Rico, they call it mayoketchup.)

To make fancy sauce, I just mix mayo with ketchup and some salt and pepper.

I like my tostones while they’re still hot. They’re typically allowed to cool just a little, like a French fry.

That’s really all there is to it!