Plantains, yay!

When I was growing up in Florida a less enlightened person, I loved Cuban food and (blush) arroz con pollo. I especially loved the plantanos or plantains that came on the side. So when I saw a packet of three peeled plantains at Trader Joe's today, I had to get them. I had on hand a box mix of Casbah Saffron Rice, which can be Middle Eastern or Caribbean. Hey, it takes only 20 minutes to cook, including the time to heat the water to boiling. It's quick and easy--in fact, everything on my plate was quick and easy.

After pressing the tofu, I mixed up some garlic powder, Mexican seasoning mix, and oregano and dredged the tofu. I put it in a baking dish with a cut-up onion and a 14.5-ounce can of chopped tomatoes (note to self: next time, use more tomatoes) and baked it at 350 degrees for half an hour, turning the tofu slices midway through. The plantains, you just slice and saute, then drain on paper towels. The riper the plantain is, the sweeter, and these must not have been terribly ripe because it had the starchiness of tostones as opposed to the sweeter maduros. This is the only negative to buying plantains peeled.

I'm going to be tinkering with this recipe, I think, mostly with the amount of ingredients. I may try cutting the tofu differently to get more spicing as well. If I get this perfected, I'll let you know.