Baked Plantain with Cheese

Deep fried plantain... Plantain chips... My knowledge of plantain can be concluded with just these two... until my colleague at work told me about how they make varieties of food with plantain in his hometown, Columbia. He introduced me 2 of the following: Baked plantain with Cheese and Plantain deep fried toast. Baked plantain is simply baked plantain and stuffed with cheese, he also suggested to add honey but I did not add it since I do not have a sweet tooth (the recipe I find online only serves this with hot sauce but not honey either). I also learn that dark plantains are sweeter while the greenish-yellow ones are savory. So, it is up to you which one you prefer. The one I used here is yellow and it's perfect, slightly sweet and just taste like a sweet potato. The combination of sweet (plantain) and savor (cheese) is well presented here. I will definitely try to do the plantain toast one day!

Ingredients (Recipe from here)

Ripe plantains, whole

1-2 tbs melted butter

Thick slices of mozzarella (or other kind of white cheese, I used Gouda)

1) Pre-heat oven to 400 F.

2) Cut the ends of the plantains. Peel the plantains, place them on a parchment paper and brush them with melted butter.

3) Bake the plantains for 30 minutes, then turn each one and bake for another 15 minutes or until golden on both sides.

4) Remove the plantains from the oven, make a horizontal slit on the middle of each plantain, and stuff them with the cheese slices.

5) Return to the oven for a few minutes until the cheese melts, and serve immediately.

6) Original recipe recommends to serve with (Aji criollo, kind of hot sauce) but is optional.