Plantain

Name	Plantain
Peak season	year-round, though mainly during the rainy season
Uses	snacks, hand-fruit
Vegetation	plant
Scientific Name	Musa paradisiacal
Spanish Name	platano

Plantains are related to bananas and their appearance is similar. People unfamiliar with plantains will easily mistake it for a large banana. Size is indeed basically the only difference from the outside, but the fruits’ taste and uses differ significantly.

Plantains, called platano in Spanish, are mostly used for cooking, although the fruit can also be eaten raw if it is ripe enough. Still, most people prefer to rather eat the softer regular banana in raw form than the plantain, and most uses of the plantain fruit involve frying or cooking. In Nicaragua, plantains are a major staple food in Nicaragua, and they are eaten throughout the country.

The most common form to consume plantain is as fried chips. These so-called tostones are a wildly popular snack or dinner-supplement, and they are made by slicing unripe, green plantains and then frying them in oil. The slices are normally quite thick before they are fried, and right after finishing the frying, they are flattened to a width of around 4 mm. They are then fried again until they are crispy. These flat but thick plantain chips are salted and served with a small piece of cheese on a cocktail stick. Another possibility is to slice them very thin which creates more chips-like tostones. Slicing them lengthwise is another option (fried plantains in this shape are called tajadas). Cooking plantains in water is also possible.

After ripening, the green plantains turn yellow, often covered with dark spots. These yellow plantains are known as maduros, and they are softer than the unripe ones (called platano verde in Spanish). These ripe plantains are cut lengthwise and baked in oil. This will create a much softer type of delicacy called tajada maduro. Even overripe, black plantains can be used for consumption. These are used to make stuffed pastry, referred to as empanadas de maduro.

Plantain plants have the same characteristics as the banana plants, and they grow in the same unusual way.