Tostones

[cacevedo222]

Delicious and easy...

Ingredients
3 green plantains
Water, with 1-2 tablespoons of salt or garlic salt added
Lots of cooking oil to deep-fry in a large heavy pan

Directions
Cut both ends off of the plantain and run the knife along the entire outside curve, cutting into the thickness of the peel.

Cut the plantain diagonally by making 3/4 inch thick slices.

Place each slice in a bowl with salted water and let it soak for about 20 minutes for a better flavor*. DO NOT leave them there more than 30 minutes.

Drain the tostones well and place on paper towel to be sure all the liquid is off. This is to avoid getting burned by the splattering that occurs when moisture mixes with the hot oil.

Now preheat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Make sure the cooking oil is very hot!

Deep-fry the plantain slices for about 7 to 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels again.

Take each plantain slice, place on the tostonera and squeeze it to flatten them out. DON'T squeeze too hard.

If you don’t have one, use waxed paper instead a lo jibaro as follows:
Place some wax paper on the surface of your cutting board. Place a fried plantain slice on top of the wax paper. Cover the slice with another piece of wax paper and squeeze down with a plate (saucer) and flatten.

Do that with the rest of the plantain slices too.

Put the slices back in the deep-frying pan until they're golden yellow and crisp.

Drain and layer them on a paper towel and sprinkle lightly with salt or garlic salt.
Tips
Try using garlic salt or add a crushed clove of garlic to the salted water in step #3 for better tasting tostones.

If you prefer to use an electric deep frying pan, set it at 375º to fry the tostones.

Cover both surfaces of the tostonera with wax paper to avoid the tostones sticking to it.

Tostones go good with all kinds of dishes. Serve them on the side of chicken, beef, pork, shrimp or any seafood dish.

Try them with stews, asopaos and even your breakfast eggs. I crumble a toston in the eggs before I scramble them. YUM YUM!!

Spread some sour cream on the tostones and top it off with caviar or your favorite toppings.

Dip them in “Ranch” dressing or your favorite dressing or sauce.

Try my very own “Tomato, onion, garlic and olive oil” sauce to dip or pour over your tostones.

Let your imagination go wild!!