COPPERTostones recipe
Green plantain rounds fried soft, flattened, dipped in salted garlic water and fried again until the crust blisters.
Ingredients
- 2 green plantains
- 4 clove garlic
- 1 tsp salt
- 500 ml water
- 500 ml vegetable oil
How to make Tostones
- Score the skin of 2 green plantains lengthwise and peel them under running water, then cut 3 cm rounds.
- Heat 500 ml oil to 165°C and fry the rounds 7 to 8 minutes. They must turn tender and pale yellow, not golden. This fry cooks them.
- While they cook, crush 4 garlic cloves into 500 ml warm water with 1 tsp salt.
- Drain the rounds and flatten each one to about 1 cm with a tostonera, a plate or the flat of a knife.
- Dip each disc in the garlic water for two seconds and pat it dry. This is what seasons the inside and makes the second crust blister.
- Raise the oil to 185°C and fry them again 2 to 3 minutes per side, until deep gold and crunchy.
- Drain on paper and salt them while still hot, when the salt still sticks.
- Eat them straight away, with garlic mojo if you have some. They go leathery within minutes.
What is Tostones?
Tostones is a traditional dish from Cuba, cooked in a pan, and takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. The recipe below uses 5 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Tostones take?
At 30 minutes it is quicker than 97% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 7 dishes built on green plantains. The method runs to 8 steps, the longest being 8 minutes.
Any tips for making Tostones?
Keep the first fry pale and tender, not golden, then dip each flattened disc in the garlic water before the second fry so the crust blisters.
How Tostones compares
At 30 minutes, Tostones is among the 20 quickest of the 586 dishes Copper documents.
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on green plantain, from other countries.
- Olla de carne 🇨🇷 Costa Rica
- Mangú 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
- Sancocho 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
- Fufu 🇬🇦 Gabon
- Fufu 🇬🇳 Guinea
- Pepper soup 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea
Copper documents Cuba alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.