Why A Totally Black Plantain Is Still Good To Use

Overripe bananas have darkened the doorstep of many an innocent breakfast eater or baker since time immemorial. The withered lump of black peel and its sad, soggy innards will hardly even do for banana bread, let alone as a snack by itself. When your banana is that ripe, it's best to leave it to the compost so it can return to Mother Earth. But before you apply the same logic to your plantains, just know this: even though many cultures eat green plantains, fully black plantains are also perfectly edible.

It's easy to misjudge their ripeness at the store. Unlike bananas, plantains come off the shelves at the store still as green as the day they were chopped from the tree. Don't make the mistake of trying to eat it as it turns yellow. Unlike your local Cavendish, these are cooking bananas that you're meant to fry, roast, or boil first at any stage of ripeness. Also, unlike bananas, plantains aren't considered fully ripe until they're mostly black with just a touch of yellow remaining. At this point, the flesh is sweet and won't have too much give when you squeeze it. But you can still eat plantains even when there are no yellow spots left. The flesh inside is still good, albeit soft. With that softness comes a quandary: How exactly can you prepare a dish with an ingredient that has such a tricky texture?

There are scores of plantain recipes for you to browse through if you have black plantains awaiting their fate on your counter. These cream cheese-stuffed plantain balls make use of an air fryer for a delightful soft-and-crunchy texture combination. While the recipe calls for moderately ripe plantains, you'll be mashing them up anyway, so a highly ripe plantain works just as well.

You can also try platanos maduros, a simple dish that highlights a ripe plantain's natural sugary-sweetness. To make it, just cut your plantain into diagonal slices, deep fry them in half a cup of frying oil on medium heat until golden brown, and serve hot or at room temperature after allowing them to rest on a paper towel to drain excess oil. Plantains are a versatile fruit that you can eat sweet or savory, like in the soup called sancocho. but have you really lived if you haven't had a freshly fried sweet plantain melt in your mouth? Just hop over to your local grocer, pick out a plantain, wait for it to ripen, and let the magic begin.