Fried Plantains with Brown Sugar Rum Glaze

Over the weekend, I visited my family in Maryland and enjoyed a wonderful home-cooked meal. In typical fashion, my husband, father, and brother parked themselves in front of the television to watch the Masters, as my sister, mother, and I slaved over the hot stove in the kitchen all day. Truth be told, my mom did most of the work though, while my sister and I watched just like we were little kids again. She made us an incredibly authentic Trinidadian feast. My mom truly knows her stuff as a Trinidad & Tobago import. She moved to the States when she was a teenager and brought with her some delicious recipes which she thankfully whips up for us quite often. I feel very proud of my mother's roots. In fact, back in school when teachers would ask the students to name one fun fact about themselves, my fun fact was that my mom was from Trinidad. My teachers never believed me though since I inherited my German dad’s fair skin, so it was always fun to play with them.

The menu for our Sunday family dinner included the following Trinidadian specialties: stewed fish with tomatoes, peppers, and coconut milk; black beans and rice; macaroni pie; hot pepper sauce (or Death Sauce, as my brother calls it); and fried plantains. My mom even broke out the special pimento peppers, which she recently smuggled back from Arima (shhhh!) and stores in the freezer. Although I would love to share the recipes for all of these amazing yet labor intensive dishes, I’m afraid that I can only focus on the fried plantains for simplicity’s sake.



Plantains resemble bananas in appearance and are best used when their skin has blackened. They can be steamed, baked, grilled, or fried, as they typically are prepared in Trinidad. You can see in my photo that our plantains weren’t totally ripe as they were still quite yellow, so I decided to create a sweet glaze to drizzle over them. I came up with a brown sugar rum glaze to bring out their natural sweetness. With plantains being an island food and rum being an island drink, I thought that the two would get along famously. My mom was a bit skeptical of my rum sauce at first, but thankfully her first bite won her over. I had a great time cooking with my mom, who allowed me to apply some of my cooking ideas to her classic Trinidadian dishes. I truly feel blessed that my sister and I can carry on the traditions that our mother and grandmother started years ago in their kitchen back in Trinidad.





Fried Plantains with Brown Sugar Rum Glaze

Ingredients

2 plantains
Canola oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 ounce Rum
Dash salt
Splash lime juice


Method

Peel and slice the plantain in half and then long ways. Fill a saucepan with about a half inch of canola oil. Fry the plantains on each side for just a few seconds, until brown. Set on some paper towels to drain.

For the glaze, melt the butter with the brown sugar and whisk until it dissolves. Add the rum and allow to boil until most of the alcohol cooks out, about 2 minutes. Swirl the pot or whisk the mixture so that it does not burn. Season with a sprinkling of salt and a splash of lime juice.

Drizzle over the plantains and enjoy.