Spectacular Sides: Sweet 'n' Spicy Plantains & Black Beans
During a trip to San Francisco a few years back, we had some awesome Latin take out with a side dish that consisted solely of fried plantains and black beans with a dollop of sour cream. It was so delicious, yet so simple. It's like combining dessert and a savory side dish into one. You'll want to eat it with dinner, but then wouldn't complain if it was also served as a dessert. At least that's how I see it.
I served this a few weekends ago as part of a Latin-themed dinner party, along with barbacoa beef tacos and yuca fries with a homemade chimichurri-esque green sauce. I'll hopefully get around to posting recipes for those, as well, but for now, these would be a great side to any Latin-ish meal. It's super simple to throw together and then pop in the oven just to keep warm while you prepare other dishes.
The plantains are from Cinco De Mayo Mercado on Nicollet and 38th in South Minneapolis, though you can often find them at other grocery stores. I got pretty much everything I needed for my dinner party at Cinco De Mayo. It's a great little Latin market that you should definitely check out.
Sweet 'n' Spicy Plantains & Black Beans
Serves 6-8 as a side
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
2-3 large ripe plantains, sliced into 1/2-in. coins (the plantains don't need to be black, but shouldn't be green and definitely have some black spots--if you buy them in advance, you can store them in a paper bag to help the ripening process, like you would with bananas for banana bread)
1 tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tbsp. butter (+ more if needed)
2 15-oz. cans of black beans, rinsed & drained
salt/pepper, to taste
1 tbsp. maple syrup
crema, sour cream or Greek yogurt, to serve
Method:
1. Place sliced plantains in a bowl. Sprinkle with cumin and cayenne, stir to coat. Heat butter in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Once melted, add plantains and saute until golden on each side. This will take 5-10 minutes. If the pan gets too dry, add more butter.
2. Once the plantains are golden on both sides, add the black beans to the pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, as desired, add maple syrup and then stir. Once the beans are heated through, remove from heat. As mentioned above, you can cover the pan and place in the oven until the rest of the dinner is ready. If the dish looks too dried out after sitting, add a tiny bit more butter and stir until well coated. Serve with some sort of cream to top.
