Grilled Plantains

After the day before's lovely discussion about chores, I was happy to see the boys take an interest in cooking with Dad. (I think they probably felt guilty about being such pains in the *** the other day, and then sicking Mom onto Dad.) Regardless of what prompted them, they were outside grilling carne asada and broccoli, onions, zucchini, and green peppers. (Finally I figured out how to get them to eat their veggies!)

When I had been shopping for the veggies, I came across some plantains and remembered how much I loved with an unholy passion the fried plantains in Colombia. Called tostones, they are usually mashed, deep fried, and served with a cream sauce. [Must...wipe...up...drool.]



Seeing as how I'm trying to eat a little more healthy now, especially for the Discretionary Eating Challenge this month, I thought I might try grilling them instead.

Success!

All I did was slice them on a bias and put a tiny bit of oil on them before having Ralph and the boys (who thought I was crazy for doing it) throw them on the fire.

They look pretty ugly in this picture, seeing as how the skins are pretty black. (You can also grill them without the skins.)


I was too impatient to wait for them to cool, so I burned my digits while removing the skins.


I had looked up some recipes for grilled plantains online, and whipped up a sauce of brown sugar, butter, and a bit of rum and microwaved it for a minute. I then poured it over the little bits of heaven and it became a kind of glaze.


I'm afraid I'm the only one who appreciated my masterpiece, as the rest of the clan hates bananas. Only Peez eats them, and even he took one bite and decided against dessert. Oh well, more for me. And I even have some left over for lunch today. Yum!

You can also do this with regular bananas. Here's a recipe for a bananas foster-type dessert.

So the next time you want a super-quick dessert but don't want to cook, and especially if the grill is already going, just throw those on.

And then invite me over.