If I had to pick one ingredient that shouts “Cuban cooking” to me, it would have to be the plantain. Cubans seem to have adopted this large banana-like fruit as their own, giving it a special place not only in their kitchens but also their lives. As noted inA Taste of Old Cuba, when a foreigner becomes fully integrated with Cuban culture and customs, he isaplatanado，也就是说，他已经被“物流化”了。

但是，尽管他们对所有权感到自豪，但古巴人不能称呼车前草为本地植物。该水果可能起源于印度，并通过西班牙定居者降落在加勒比海。车前草很便宜，多才多艺，而且营养丰富（它们是钾，纤维和维生素C的良好来源），因此难怪它们已经成为该地区以及整个拉丁美洲和南美的主要农作物。

When it comes to cooking, plantains are really more of a vegetable than a fruit. They’re larger and firmer than their banana relative, and they’re not sweet: They must be cooked to become palatable. With their bland, starchy, somewhat potato-like flavor, plantains take well to many cooking methods. In Cuba, as well as in Miami and other Cuban communities, plantains are often sliced and deep-fried to make chips, or panfried to maketostones, a crisp smashed plantain appetizer or side dish that’s delicious plain or dipped in a garlicky lime sauce. Tostones are practically the Cuban national dish. Cubans also like to cube plantains and add them to stews, boil and purée them like mashed potatoes, orbake them with sugar and cinnamon对于甜点。

Buying plantains.You’ll find plantains year-round at most Hispanic markets, and I’ve often spied them in supermarkets. If you don’t see them, ask the produce manager, who can usually order them.

A fascinating aspect of plantains is that, as they ripen, they seem to transform into a new ingredient. I usually buy six or seven very green, unripe plantains. I pan-fry half of them within a day or two for tostones, and I’ll let the rest ripen on my counter. After several days, they start turning yellow and speckled with black spots. At this point, they’re semiripe, ideal for boiling and mashing. I wait several more days until they’re fully ripe and their starches have turned to sugars to make baked sweet plantains. The plantains will be black and mushy, so fight your instinct to toss them out. Rest assured, this is the plantain’s sweetest moment and your cue to start baking.

To hasten ripening, put the plantains in a paper bag and leave them at room temperature. Don’t use a plastic bag, as the trapped humidity will cause the fruit to get moldy.

如何剥离绿色车前草

Ripe, black plantains can be peeled like a banana, but green ones have very firm, clingy flesh, and there’s a trick to peeling them. (The slightly sticky substance under the skin can irritate sensitive skin, so wear gloves if you like.) Start by trimming the ends. To make rounds, as fortostones, cut the plantain in half crosswise. With a sharp paring knife, score the skin along one or more of its ridges, being careful not to cut into the flesh, and then peel off the skin in sections.