Plantain, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways #6: Sweet Baked Plantain with Cheese
January 4, 2009 | Filed Under Baking, Plantains, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways
I’ve been eating a lot of much-needed comfort food lately and got very excited when I came across a recipe for an old childhood favorite on Laylita’s blog. A plantain recipe. Yes, plantain. You can find some of my plantain stories here.
One of the things I like about this so called cooking banana is that you can prepare it in several different ways. You can boil, fry or bake it. When I make my plantains, I normally fry them.
I got excited about Laylita’s recipe for baked plantain because it triggered memories of eating baked plantain and roasted peanuts as a young girl in Africa. I don’t think I’ve eaten baked plantains here in the States before. What a treat!
Laylita’s recipe was unique to me because the sweet baked plantain is served with cheese. Cheese! In this case, Mozzarella. Oh my! The combination tasted really good. I would have never imagined eating plantain with cheese. She also recommends using feta cheese or a good queso, which I’ll try at another time.
According to Laylita, this dish makes a great breakfast or brunch. I’ve made it several times now, mainly for dinner. So, I can say that it makes a great dinner, too. It’s also great as a an appetizer or side dish when cut the plantain is cut in half or into smaller pieces.
I loved Laylita’s way of serving the baked plantain and cheese with Aji Criollo, a spicy Ecuadorian hot sauce. Oh. My. Gosh! What a perfect combination of the taste of the sweet plantain, melted cheese and hot pepper! Whoo hoo! If you don’t like hot-tasting food, then leave it out but if you’re like me and love peppers, then go for it! I’ll post the hot sauce recipe next week.
I left the plantain in the oven a little longer than I should have and it came out a little darker than normal, but no matter. The plantain still tasted good.
The best part of this recipe is that it is one of the healthiest ways of preparing plantain — baked is much better than fried (although I love my fried plantain.). The cooking process was very easy to follow and after a long day, I was happy that I didn’t have to go through any lengthy food preparations in order to eat. Thanks Laylita for this plantain recipe. It made my day.
Paz
Sweet Baked Plantain with Cheese
Ingredients:
6 ripe plantains, whole
1-2 Tbs melted butter or oil, use as little as you want
6 thick slices of mozzarella
Optional side – Aji criollo (Ecuadorian hot sauce)
Preparation:
Pre-heat oven to 400 F
Peel the plantains, place them on a baking sheet and rub them with butter or oil.
Bake the plantains for 30 minutes, then turn each one and bake for another 15 – 20 minutes or until golden on both sides.
Remove the plantains from the oven, made a horizontal slit on the middle of each plantain, and stuff them with cheese slices
In a few minutes the cheese will have melted, serve immediately, with or without hot sauce.
Comments
24 Responses to “Plantain, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways #6: Sweet Baked Plantain with Cheese”
Leave a Reply
sounds like perfect comfort food! have a good week!
This looks utterly lovely! I have never had this combination before even though I cook a lot with plantains. Very nice.
That plantain dish looks tasty!
Have a great week and cheers,
Rosa
what a lovely yet unique way to enjoy this – at least for me. Paz! I hope you had a great start to the year and wish you a funky and delicious 2009!
Paz, you make me want to go out and search for plantains, unfortunately I don’t think I will find any but I will try!
I love plantains all ways–boiled-fried-double fried and smashed with garlic sauce-and NOW baked–with cheese-a favorite food group–I will make this with the mozzarella–but I’m sure the queso is great and I love the addition of pepper to add zing!
wow… looks so great… happy new year, paz…
Never tasted anything like this, but I’d love to try it!
I have been eating plantains once a year for the past decade, at a specific place. I am not going there this year, so your post makes me think I should go out, find some plantains and bake them myself. The combination with mozzarella sounds good.
This just sounds awesome. I love plantain, as well, but so very seldom have any. Yum!
Better late than never….
Happy new year Paz!
I’ve never seen plantain cooked this way — intriguing!
Oh sweet heaven! I have got to make this! I am a plantain fanatic!
Oh my. That picture has me dying with a craving. My Nigerian father only fried his, but I wiuld love to experiment with some baked and with cheese. Wonderful stuff.
Hi Paz – These look amazing, I’m so flattered that you like the recipe and that you featured it on you blog!
I agree, there are several ways to cook bananas and all are delicious.Whit cheese sounds divine.
Happy 2009 to you and yours.
I love sweet fried plantains, your savory version looks very tempting, though!
If you can’t find plantains can you use bananas? Are they the same thing? This looks really, really good! I’ll have to try this.
What a unique combination of flavors. Love the photos too. Happy new year Paz!
LL
you know this does not sound like a good combination but it looks so YUMMY!
[...] Last week, I wrote about Laylita’s Baked Plaintain with Cheese recipe, which I served with Aji Criollo, an Ecuadorian hot sauce/salsa. The hot [...]
Thanks, everyone, for stopping by!
Paz
[...] Sweet Baked Plantain with Cheese [...]
Paz, I cannot wait to try this! I will have to go to the little tropical market in the city to find the plantains, but when I do, look out! Oh my goodness, it looks heavenly!