Plantains

Plantains are closely related to yellow bananas, but these ugly relations are considerably larger, averaging about 12 inches (30 cm) in length and weighing as much as 1 pound (455 g). Though they are indeed a fruit, plantains are sometimes referred to as vegetable bananas because they are cooked like a vegetable rather than being enjoyable raw, as are most types of fruit. Plantains require cooking because the ripening process, like that of the potato, does not convert all of the starch to sugar. Another name for plantains is cooking bananas. They are used in Latin American countries in a way that is similar to the use of potatoes in the United States. Plantains are left to ripen on the tree and change color from all green to all black (and become slightly wrinkled) when fully ripe. We usually see them in the market somewhere in between, when their thick, slightly blemished skin has started to turn a reddish brown. Plantains have distinctive ridges along their length, causing the fruit to have three or four flat sides.