Hello. Yewande Komolafe is in The Times this week with an incredibly detailed and informative treatise on plantains that I hope will encourage you to cook with the fruit more than you already do – which may or may not be at all. Of course, she has recipes to help you on your way: one for Plantains with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Eggs (above), which calls for firm yellow plantains; the other for the plantain fritters known as mosa, which require super-ripe, black-skinned plantains.
And we have a lot more on New York Times Cooking, with recipes for the sweet fried plantains known as maduros; for fried green plantains called tostones; for Ghanaian spinach stew with sweet plantains; for an asaro, a rich stew of yams and plantains with crispy shallots; for the caramelized plantains with beans, green onions and lemon; for mofongo and more. Just search for “plantains” and see what delicacies.
Plantains for dinner tonight, then? If I haven’t convinced you, try Meera Sodha’s amazing chicken curry, or the maple-baked salmon, or the pork chops in a cherry sauce with a side of plain spaghetti and a Lucali salad afterwards. . And we’ll always have tofu and green beans with crispy chili.
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Now that has nothing to do with table salt or the smell of tarragon, but John Williams’ formidable Times review of Jonathan Lee’s fourth novel, “The Big Mistake,” urged me to buy the book. It can do the same for you.
Sometimes all I wanna do is walk around Long Beach listening to Vince Staples: “Are You With That”.
Other times I just want to watch Joe Coscarelli’s “Diary of a Song”, this time with Lorde, who presents his summer jam, “Solar Power”.
