venturabananas

OK, I am the first to admit, I don't much about cooking bananas. I do know that I love eating maduros, and I've even succeeded at making decent ones a time or two.

I tried to make maduros with ripe Cardaba. They were quite astringent and dried out my mouth. I'm guessing that was because they just weren't ripe enough -- the peels were full yellow with no green, but they weren't really black at all.

I tried what Gabe described as his quick default for testing the quality of cooking banana: poke holes in the peel of a green banana with a fork and microwave for 1-2 minutes. I did this with a green Cardaba and it was horrible. Essentially inedible because it was so dry and astringent.

I know people (e.g., Rmplmnz) say Cardaba/Saba is the best cooking banana and suggest using it for tostones, maduros, etc. (Cardaba is just an improved Saba, sometimes described as Cardaba Saba.) I'm at a point now where I can't even imagine a green one being edible cooked any way. What am I missing? Clearly, some key cooking technique! Help please!

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BigBananaBoy

Hey Mark,
As far as when a cooking banana is ready from a chef point of view, if the cooking banana is not soft to the touch where you can press your finger and slightly squeeze it, its not ready no matter what color it is....

A trick for getting rid of the starchy taste, You can marinade the cooking banana in a honey and lime mixture..

Honey mixture:
Add 1 tablespoon of a good honey I use tupelo honey to a half of small to medium lime, squeeze it and whisk it. The marinade should have a loose consistency and taste for preference. It should be slightly sweet. you should be able to coat 3-4 7" size Banana half's.

Prep
Cut the cooking banana in half and make a small slit down the middle where the lil seeds are then brush the honey-Lime mixture a few times getting the mixture into those slits is the key.

Then place it in a bowl for a few hours and cook on medium-high heat. Do not mash them just turn when there golden brown 3-4 minutes depending on your stove, as each brand varies in heat variance. Let them sit for a minute and brush them again for added flavor that gets cooked off and they should be good.

Let me know how it goes....

Big Tony

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raygrogan

I tend to agree, that green, or even yellow ripe, plantains are a rough go cooking wise.


(Saba I have far less experience. We can buy them in Honolulu Chinatown markets, pretty pricely like $2.50 / #. The ripe ones are very good cooked. I was going to try to grow but learned here that they tend to harbor BBTV, which we barely have under control as it is.)


Chips - commercial ones are killer good, no doubt. Like in our El Paso Mexican store, they have Zambo's plantain chips - with chile, lime, and salt. Delish, but 90% of the flavor is in those additives.

That is about what I found, like you, trying to cook with plantains, even as far ripe as yellow. However, once I got into BLACK ripe ones, even a little gooey as mentioned above, that is when things went very well. And easy.

What worked best was just putting the black plantains on an oven rack, turning it on "45-45" which is 450F, with 45 min on the cooking timer. I put an old cookie tray on the rack below, as the plantains often split open and goosh all kinds of black sugary foamy liquid out. (It will eventually just turn to ash on the bottom of your oven if you are casual about it.) These plantains need absolutely nothing to be served, well except a knife to slice. They will keep on the counter at room temp at least ~3 days, no spoiling. Loads of cooked banana flavor.

I think the black ones in the store are just the ones they bought yellow and they just hung around the store a month or so until they turned black. So you could probably test that with some of your Cardabas, if you can be patient. Please keep us posted with your results.

iz

Sounds like the Cardaba was not completely ripe. Yes they do not taste good and right if cooked unripe. Just because its yellow, doesn't mean its ripe. I have to feel it to the touch. Just like avocado, if its not lightly soft to the touch, its not ripe. They taste good when cooked in microwave with slightly open. Boil or steamed is probably best, but I usually microwave it. If its not perfectly ripe or if its toooo ripe, it wont taste right.

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Going banana 4 bananas,
iz

iz

oh, have I mentioned when throwing the ripe Cardaba banana in pit fire or on barbeque griller taste even better.

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Going banana 4 bananas,
iz