The Great Plantain Experiment: Fried vs. Baked

Today my undying love for potassium lead me to pit the plantain against its nemesis: the plantain.  Let me explain.  Plantains are great.  They’re like bigger, harder, cheaper, more versatile bananas.  They can be served sweet or salted, soft or hard, mashed or whole, and, as I’ve now put to the test, baked or fried.

As long as I’ve eaten plantains, I always thought you could only fry them.  Fitting neatly into my rule that I can eat as much fried food as I want as long as I cook it, that was fine by me.  But I had a few fiascos.  Oils fires.  “Blackened” (i.e. black) plantains.  Oil burns on my hands.  Oil stains on my clothes.  Not to mention feeling like someone should roll me into bed after eating them with dinner.  All this from a mere fruit?  Yes.  Well, a fried fruit. (Is that an oxymoron?) Ew.

So when I heard about baked plantains, I tried it out.  Several times.  The first few attempts were not great.  They were hard.  They were dry.  They were flavorless.  It’s been a few months now though and my many attempts have paid off.  I’ve finally got it down.

Having spent so much time eating baked plantains, I was curious to see if they were actually better than fried plantains or if I had just convinced myself of that with cognitive dissonance in subconscious reaction to the somewhat frightening fries.  This is my account of that experiment.

To bake:

Smear halved plantains with about ½ tablespoon of butter.  Season with cinnamon to taste.  Bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 25 minutes.

That looks like a lot of butter.  It's actually not.

To fry:

Cut plantains into short diagonals.  Fry until golden brown on both sides in ½ inch canola, sunflower, or vegetable oil once the oil has time to heat. 

Result: Yes.  It’s true.  The baked plantains are moister, sweeter, and best of all, healthier.  They’re less of a hassle to prepare and clean up and they reheat better too.  I doubt I’ll have a reason to return to fried plantains any time soon.  EAT THESE SOON.

Black Bean Brownies

Yes, my loyal readership, I’ve returned.  And bearing gifts.  After a daunting bit of a hiatus due to some necessary steps involving my “future” (let’s not talk about that right now), I’m determined to tell the world about what’s got to be my fave new rave: Black Bean Brownies.

These delectable morsels are tricky.  Most vegan baking delights involve applesauce, vinegar, and other odd ingredients that don’t seem to mesh exactly with the intent of the recipe.  Fear not.  Black bean brownies will change your view on black beans.  And brownies for that matter.

After making these, I ran a controlled experiment by serving two types of brownies: one regular, old batch and one black bean.  No one could hazard a guess near the truth.  The best estimate of the difference was that the black bean set had fudge.  Negative.  I want you to know, too, that I gave the regular old brownies a fighting chance.  I added an extra egg to make them cake-like and I tossed in chocolate chips.  Nonetheless, they were nowhere near as moist and rich in flavor as the black bean brownies.

In describing them on their own, one could say black bean brownies are denser and moister than regular, old brownies.  They even looked better in the pan and didn’t have the tendency to crack.  They’re healthier, given the use healthy bean fiber in place of partially hydrogenated oils like vegetable oil.  They’re not as sickeningly sweet either – which means you can eat more without feeling guilty or like you need to boycott the white menace sugar for a month.  Conveniently, you can make them from scratch or with a box if you prefer.  Just replace all wet ingredients (eggs, oil, water) with one can of black beans.

Give these things a shot.  They won’t let you down. 

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.

Drain one can of cooked (not seasoned or spiced) black beans.  Refill can (still full of beans) with water.  

Puree can contents for about one minute or until the mixture is evenly smooth.  Flecks of black bean are ok.  Chunks are not.

Whether using a mix or ingredients from scratch, spoon pureed mixture in with dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed.  This shouldn’t be more than 50-75 strokes.  Bake in a 9 x 11 in pan at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Note: Cut the baking time on these brownies compared to regular, old batches.  They seemed to need significantly less time.

My next step is to try cakes with cannellinis.  Get ready.