My colleague and friend, the lively Aseem Chhabra leads an exciting life flitting between Berlin, Tokyo, Cannes, Toronto, Telluride, New York, Mumbai and Noida, writing about films as both an authority and aficionado.
He curates movies for the New York India Film Festival and has written three best-selling biographies on Shashi Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Irrfan Khan. You would have read his brilliant coverage on Rediff.com.
Aseem posts details of his intriguing adventures on his Instagram feed, as well the best movie reccos, interspersed with pics that he calls #chhabskhana, being a vigorous foodie. They are shots of the glorious stuff, especially the desserts, he eats on his travels and always spark my curiosity and gets the mouth a-watering.
The other day he was dining at a popular Mexican cocina in New York called El Rico Tinto and he put up a pic of some kind of guacamole bite. I asked him what it was and he said the base was tostones or plantains.
Basically a thicker version of our banana chips made like a flat tikki, after frying it twice, so it tastes a bit like a French fry.
Guacamole, made from avocado, is then slopped on top of it and any other topping like radishes and cheese.
The dish called Tostones Con Guacamole looked rather intriguing and it got me fired up to recreate it at home. The experiment didn't go too badly.
Tostones Con Guacamole
Serves 2
Ingredients
For the tostones
- 2 large raw green bananas
- Pinch coarse salt
- Pinch red chilly powder
- Extra virgin olive oil for frying the bananas twice
For the guacamole
- 1 ripe avocado, peeled, deseeded and mashed
- 1 tomato, finely chopped
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- Dash Tabasco
- 2-3 tbsp chopped green dhania or coriander or cilantro
- Pinch dhania or coriander powder
- Pinch salt
- 1 tsp nimboo or lemon juice
- 1 green chilly, deseeded and finely chopped
For serving
- Slices of radish
- Sprinkling of grated cheese, optional
Method
For the tostones
- Peel the green bananas with a peeler and cut into 1-inch pieces.
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and shallow fry, over medium heat, the banana pieces so they lightly brown, turning them occasionally.
Drain onto a kitchen towel or tissue-lined plate.
Allow them to cool totally. - On a flat wooden board flatten each piece using the back of a katori or bowl.
- Refry the flattened pieces in a non-stick frying pan, lubricated with olive oil, turning them over halfway, till both sides are nicely browned.
Drain onto a kitchen towel or tissue-lined plate.
Season with the salt and the chilly powder.
For the guacamole
- Mix all the ingredients together.
For assembly
- Place the fried tostones on a plate and top each piece with 1 tbsp or so guacamole.
- Garnish with cheese and slices of radish, if preferred.
Zelda's Note: These fried tostones can be topped or dipped into just about anything -- mango tomato salsa with sour cream, a garlic hot cilantro sauce, garlic mayonnaise, a salad of olives, tomato, parsley and feta, a tuna dip. Or you could even try something sweet, like cut fruit.
For a Jain version of guacamole, skip the onions.
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