Bananes Pesées
The Haitian cousin of tostones: pressed plantain fried until brittle and salted at once.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 25 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Course
- Side
Ingredients
- Salted water500 ml
- Oil for frying400 ml
Preparation
- 1
Fry thick plantain rounds until pale.
- 2
Press flat and dip briefly in salted water.
- 3
Fry again until crisp and serve with pikliz.
Nutrition
Nutrition per serving · Calculated
- calories
- 288 kcal
- protein
- 2 g
- carbs
- 42 g
- fat
- 13 g
- fiber
- 3 g
- sugars
- 17 g
- sodium
- 380 mg
Plantain
Caribbean PantryThe everyday starch of the Caribbean table, changing character entirely with ripeness.
- Origin
- Southeast Asia, naturalised across the Caribbean from the 16th century
- Flavour
- Starchy and grassy when green, honeyed and caramel when ripe
- Calories / 100g
- 122 kcal
- Seasonality
- Year-round
The story behind this ingredient
Brought to the Antilles through the Atlantic trade routes, the plantain became the region's most democratic food: fried as tostones, boiled in soups, mashed into mofongo or fufu. Its ripeness is a language of its own — green for salt, yellow for sweet.
This ingredient means something to them
Ricardo Méndez
Cuba · Criollo cooking and mojo
“Sour orange is the first thing I smell when I think of home.”
Meet the chef
Isabela Rosario
Puerto Rico · Mofongo and sofrito
“A plantain tells you exactly what dish it wants to become.”
Meet the chefWant to go further?
You discovered the ingredient. Now learn how to master it.
The Plantain Lab
Green to black: six ripeness stages, six techniques, from tostones to mofongo.
- Sun, 11 Oct 2026, 14:00 · 150 min
- San Juan, Puerto Rico · In person · $60
