Meal innovation

Maduros : Fried Sweet Plantains

source: Johnny Miller

Tender in the middle and crisp at the edges, maduros, or sweet fried plantains, are served as a side dish throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Plantains change color as they ripen: They are firm when green and unripe, then soften as they turn yellow, and eventually, black. Like bananas, plantains develop more sugar as time passes. For the sweetest maduros, use blackened plantains — they have the most sugar, and will yield a more caramelized result. If you can only find yellow ones at the store, buy them in advance and be prepared to wait over a week for them to fully ripen. They’re worth it.

Ingredients :
- 2 very ripe, blackened plantains (about 6 ounces each)
- Neutral oil, such as vegetable or canola oil, for frying

Preparation

Step 1 : Use a paring knife to cut a slit along the length of the plantains, carefully avoiding cutting into the flesh. Remove peels and discard. Slice plantains at an angle crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick pieces (about 12 pieces per plantain).

Step 2 : In a large skillet, heat about 1/8 inch vegetable oil over medium-high. When the oil shimmers, add half the sliced plantains and fry until golden brown, turning once, 2 to 3 minutes per side. The plantains should be caramelized and slightly crisp at the edges but still tender in the middle.

Step 3 : Using a slotted spoon, transfer maduros to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Repeat with remaining sliced plantains. Serve immediately.

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Week five: Make ice cream in a bag

Summer camp snacks sometimes make kids think they’ve pulled one over on parents! Keep fostering that independent feeling by letting them make their own ice cream at home.

STEP 1 : MIX THE INGREDIENTS

In a one quart-size plastic zipper bag, add:
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon sugar
Remove the air from the bag by gently pushing it out the top, then seal the bag. Check that it’s zipped up tight.
Place the bag with the ice cream mixture inside a second quart-size plastic zipper bag. Remove the air from the bag, then zip it shut. The second bag helps prevent any leaks while churning the ice cream.

PHOTOGRAPH BY EMMA WOOD

STEP 2: CREATE THE ICE CREAM MAKER.

In a one gallon-size plastic zipper bag, add:
• 4 cups of crushed ice
• 4 tablespoons of rock (ice cream) salt. (You can also use kosher or table salt.) The salt lowers the temperature of the ice and helps the ice cream freeze better.
—Slide the ice cream mixture bag into the center of the ice.
—Press out all the air, then zip the bag shut.

PHOTOGRAPH BY EMMA WOOD

STEP 3: CHURN THE ICE CREAM.

—Wrap the large bag in a dish towel.
—Shake and wiggle the bag. Keep the ice cream mixture surrounded by the ice as you churn, and keep it moving to help the mixture stay smooth and creamy as it freezes.
—After about 5 to 8 minutes, check to see if it’s ready by opening the bag of ice and gently squeezing the mixture. If it’s still liquid, close the ice bag and churn a few more minutes.

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To Master Sous Vide, You Just Need a Good Cookbook

PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES

Sous vide, the technique where food sealed in a plastic bag is cooked in a temperature-controlled water bath, delivers stunning and consistent results. Fish goes from hard to nail to hard to fail. Pork chops can be a perfect medium-rare from top to bottom, with no gray bands. Cheap cuts can be turned into meltinglytender steaks. Chicken breasts are worth eating again. Soft-boiled eggs can emerge with just-set whites coddling velvety yolks.

Despite a growth in popularity in the past decade or so, sous vide remains a bit of a fringe kitchen activity, a little too nerdy for the general population. Perhaps the best-known cookbooks out there are Thomas Keller's Under Pressure and Joan Roca's La Cocina al Vacio (both way too nerdy for the general population), but nearly all the other books out there feel like they've been bankrolled by sous vide equipment manufacturers. There's been a peculiar need for a reference book with basic recipes that set the foundation and help you grow. Instead, we've mostly been left to the wilds of the internet.

PHOTOGRAPH: ANDREW THOMAS LEE
PHOTOGRAPH: GETTY IMAGES

This isn't a wholly bad thing. There are some excellent websites and recipes out there, but there is a ton of dross to sift through, and especially in the early days, it's hard to know what's what. (Full disclosure: I wrote about food on a four-month contract in 2015 for ChefSteps, which later went on to become a sous-vide manufacturer.) A well-written sous vide cookbook could make a significant impact, and while Acheson's isn't for beginners, it's earned a spot in the “technique” section of my cookbook collection.

I immediately appreciated the depth of the bench in the fruit and vegetable section, the largest in the book with almost 40 recipes. Testing began with the long-cook broccoli, mostly because I was getting hungry and had the ingredients on hand. It's essentially a long poach, cooking the crucifer in a mix of chicken broth, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and red pepper flakes. After two hours at 176 degrees Fahrenheit, the florets are then seared in a skillet and served under a shower of grated parmesan. There are faster ways to cook broccoli, but not many that are this good. It looks like nothing fancy and tastes like a million bucks.

I also made a purée of shelled edamame, which gets a similar treatment, cooking in stock with lemon juice, garlic, and a few fistfuls of spinach. After 30 minutes it all goes into the food processor, and it out comes looking like a green hummus cousin. Acheson suggests serving it as a hot side dish or as a cool dip, and I did both, then devoured half of it in one late-night go, alternately spreading it onto crackers and just spooning it directly into my mouth.

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