Wow, there is so much confusion around plantains. I was looking up recipes to post pictures and a lot of people have them mixed up. I grew up with them, so lets see if I can help a bit. Ok, there is only 1 kind of plantain but there are 3 colors, depending on its age. Order is green, yellow, then black. Green is for TOSTONES, or light gold pieces that are cut into rounds, fried, mashed and fried again. They're salty. Personally I like to throw on some minced garlic on top out of a jar with some juice and a sprinkle of salt. Some people go for garlic powder instead. Then you have PLATANOS MADUROS, or ripe plantains that are used to make this sugary version. The color to make these is when your plantain is BLACK. The riper the plantain, the sweeter it is and that's the trick. It should be slightly mushy to the touch. The best way to tell if its good to fry is if, once peeled, its still got a tan color, not brown or black. In my family, we cut these at an angle. These are perfectly sweet as is, so I don't add anything extra. The last is yellow. These are usually not hard enough for tostones, and definitely not soft enough for platanos maduros so some people chop them up and boil them to eat either in or along with soups. They don't taste that good boiled so its not so popular. If it were me, I'd wait til it goes black and make these yummy sugary ones. Hope this helps!
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