Basic Cooked Plantains
Green plantains boiled with their skins become dense and lightly sweet, a neutral side that soaks up sauces and complements stews, soups and eggs.
Prized for their endearing simplicity, plantains provide structure and sweetness to any meal, any time of day. They're often peeled before cooking, but in this recipe, they're cooked with their skins and are naturally released from their jackets as they boil. Unlike fried ripe-blackened plantains, which are very soft and sugary, these green ones end up dense and only slightly sweet. Neutral enough to take on the flavors of surrounding sauces, these boiled plantains are ideal for transporting those sauces from plate to palate and help the main dishes shine. They're particularly good with stews (vegetable, meat or chicken), especially Designer Stew With Eggs, Cagaar (Spinach Stew) or Red Red (Pepper Stewed Beans). They also add heft to any brothy soup and are good with soft-boiled, poached or scrambled eggs.