Fried Plantains (v)

I first had fried plantains atr my sister's house one Christmas.  Her husband is Cuban, so I called her one day for the how-to on fried plaintains.  I bought 5 big green plantains at the store so I was excited to cook them; until I talked to my sister.  She said they have to be ripe, so they went immediately into a brown paper bag under the kitchen sink.  For two weeks! Waiting for them to ripen is the hardest part of this recipe.  Finally, my plantains are ripe so it's time to cook them.  I'm going to first just fry them in their pure state, tomorrow I'm going to make a proper meal out of them with a bed of steaming hot quinoa and a spicy black bean and mango sauce.  For now, here's how:

before & yum

Fried Plantains

Get ripe plantains, or do as I did; buy the green ones and put them in a brown paper bag to ripen.  This can take up to two weeks.  Mine did, but it was worth the wait because they are good and sweet and perfectly ripe.  I let them get brown, but not too brown. 

I peeled mine and cut them in half and set them into the hot oiled cast iron pan.
Let them brown completely on one side.

Flip over and press down into the pan.  You want to flatten it out a little but not too much.  I used my spatula at first, but the bottom of my glass measuring cup worked better.

Let brown on that side too.
Transfer to a plate with paper towels and sprinkle with salt.

And now, the possibilites are endless!
= Yum.

Ok, so I made the plaintains, ate two and put the rest in the fridge.  Yesterday, I made a big pot of quinoa, my favorite grain, and I made a black bean sauce to go with the plantains.  Here's how I did it:

Fried Plantains with Black Bean Sauce

Sautee in olive oil, one onion, chopped, and one poblano pepper, chopped, one clove of garlic, minced.  Once the onion and pepper starts to look good and yummy, add about a teaspoon of cumin seeds, some salt and pepper.  You can make this spicy by adding cayenne or jalapenos, my sauce was a little milder than i wanted it.  Next time I'm using a jalapeno!  So, this is the sofrito!  Sautee for a few min longer and remove from the heat.  In a small saucepan, put in a can of black beans, add all the liquid in the can too.  Simmer until hot, then stir in the sofrito.  Heat through.  Add salt and pepper as needed.
To reheat the plantains, I put them in a hot skillet and put a lid on it.  Flipped them over and heated them gently until they were hot all the way through.
Put a big pile of quinoa on the plate, arrange the plantains, and top with the beans.  I also added fresh chopped mango and cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.  Next time I'll make a fresh mango salsa, like a pico, with raw onion, tomato, mango and lime.
So yum!