Garlic-lime skirt steak with Cuban mojo and tostones
On page 97 of our cookbook, we talk about how to make tostones and maduros. Both are made from plantains, a staple of Cuban-American cuisine. Tostones are made using green, under-ripe plaintains, which are starchy and require cooking to be made edible. Maduros, on the other hand, are made with brown-black, over-ripe plaintains, which are sweet and sugary.
Our local supermarket, alas, has been selling plantains that seem to have emerged from Cuban Purgatory – they are neither green enough to make proper tostones, nor over-ripe enough to make maduros. Undeterred, we’ve been using them to make “mostones,” a kind of tostone-maduro hybrid. We use the tostones cooking technique (peel, cut, fry, press flat, re-fry), but the maduros-like plaintain has more sugars to caramelize, resulting in a darker color and sweeter final flavor.
We’ve all heard the saying, If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well, if the supermarket gives you bastard plantains, make mostones!
– Pete
Pete,
I’ve made tostones before but had never heard of maduros. I like your hybrid approach. Being willing to improvise when you don’t have exactly what you want is the key to living a delicious life, inside and outside of the kitchen.
I think their may be a plantain with my name on it at the store this weekend. Thanks for the reminder.
Hi Christy… Wouldn’t you know it, two days after I put up my post about mostones, our supermarket had perfectly under-ripe, super-green plantains…perfect for making proper tostones! These days, we’ll take ’em any way we can get ’em… =)
Cheers, Pete