The best way to Make Completely Crispy Tostones, In accordance with a Puerto Rican Chef

Tostones are certainly one of my favourite snacks to make when introducing mates to Puerto Rican meals. These twice-fried plantain slices are nice solo, with sauces, or as an accompaniment to varied meals. They even make a terrific chip for hearty dips, ceviches, and salsas, or as the bottom for constructing phenomenal nachos.

To make tostones, unripe inexperienced plantains are peeled and reduce into slices, fried till golden and tender, smashed with a tostonera (plantain press) or different heavy implement equivalent to a consuming glass, then fried once more till crisp on the surface. A fast toss with kosher salt and a few garlic powder and these golden morsels are irresistible. 

The best way to Serve Tostones

In Puerto Rico, tostones are usually served with a dipping sauce referred to as mayoketchup, aka salsa rosada, that—you guessed it—is a mix of mayonnaise and ketchup, plus quite a lot of spices. Whereas they’re scrumptious this fashion, I favor my tostones easy and with out sauces—to scoop up rice and beans or for dunking into saucy stews. One other—what I think about fancier—possibility for serving tostones is making tostones rellenos, that are stuffed twice-fried plantains made through the use of a special curved press referred to as a tostonera rellena (as an alternative of a flat tostone press) to type a small cup that holds meat sauces, dips, or salsas.

Tostones vs. Maduros

These savory snacks are one of many many fritura—deep-fried fritters or treats—which can be a typical avenue meals in Puerto Rico. They differ tremendously from their relative maduros (aka amarillos) that are one other fashion of fried plantain slices. Each tostones and maduros will be discovered throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, together with in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and extra, with the names various primarily based on the place you discover them: patacones, plátano frito, bannann peze. 

Whereas each tostones and maduros are deep fried plantain slices, the important thing distinction is within the ripeness of the plantains used. Tostones use very inexperienced unripe plantains, that are starchy and related in texture to a potato that you’d use for french fries. Maduros, alternatively, are made with very ripe plantains. When the plantain begins to ripen and switch yellow after which black, it softens in texture and sweetens in taste as its starches flip into sugar. The result’s a sweeter, very tender fried plantain. Whereas I get pleasure from each types of fried plantains, I favor savory, garlicky, crisp tostones over candy maduros.

The best way to Fry Tostones

Frying tostones is pretty easy. As famous above, it’s at all times necessary to start out with inexperienced, agency, unripe plantains. Whereas many recipes name for deep-frying tostones, I favor shallow-frying them in a skillet. It requires much less oil, which suggests much less mess and a better clear up.

The important thing to reaching their golden and crisp exterior and tender inside is a double-fry approach: The sliced plantains are first fried at a decrease temperature till gentle golden, then they’re smashed skinny whereas nonetheless heat with a tostonera (plantain press) earlier than being fried a second time at a barely greater temperature till crisp. Should you don’t have a tostonera, no worries—you can even use a tortilla press or perhaps a heavy-bottomed glass or mug to flatten the plantain slices. Don’t be afraid to make use of a number of pressure when flattening—they need to be very skinny, a couple of quarter inch in thickness.

When smashing the tostones skinny earlier than their second fry, preserve an in depth eye on the temperature of the cooking oil. The oil can simply overheat, so that you may want to scale back the temperature in your range between frying classes.

As soon as you have twice-fried your plantains, make sure to set them on a wire rack set inside a baking sheet to permit any extra oil to drip off. Then serve them whereas they’re nonetheless piping sizzling. This recipe makes an enormous batch of tostones so there can be a lot to share with others. They’re so good they have an inclination to vanish earlier than making it to the plate.

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