Boiled plantains with Brazilian cream

Posted by Ben On March - 7 - 2008 Under Desserts and Pastries


I love avocado. That is one of the foods that I almost always have in my house. I use them for soups, guacamole and to accompany my tacos, sandwiches, salads, chili, frijoles rancheros, sopes and many other dishes. I even use them to make an avocado Alfredo sauce. But I had never had avocados for dessert before, until yesterday.

My friends Darrin and Chris came to visit me yesterday all the way from Dayton and after lunch at Max ‘n Ermas and a walk in The Book Loft we prepared a Brazilian cream with lime and rum that I saw online. The cream was really good, but it was too rich and too…creamy… to be eaten by itself. Darrin mentioned that it would go perfectly with some plantains, but alas, I didn’t have any. So I fried some bananas coated with pancake mix instead. I never thought I was going to like an avocado dessert, but this combination was very tasty.

Today when Jon and I were at the grocery store packing up in preparation of the snowstorm that is threatening to leave us with almost 2 feet of snow I got some plantains. When I was ready to try this new combination, I remembered that Bren had written a post on her blog about how to prepare plantains so I headed over there and after reading it I decided to boil mine and this is what came out:

Boiled Plantains with Brazilian cream with rum and lime

1.jpgFor this recipe you will need:

  • 2 plantains
  • 2 avocadoes
  • 1/3 cup rum
  • 1/3 cup limejuice
  • 3 TBSP confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 cup heavy cream, whipped
  • ground cinnamon or fresh ground nutmeg

Preparation:

Here is what Bren suggests for the boiled plantains:

To make plátanos sancochados (the way Cubans say it) you want to get an “in between” plantain that is more ripe than green. It can’t be black though. It can show some black speckles but it should be more yellow than anything. Cut into 2.5? pieces, boil (with peel on) and then peel… You can sprinkle nutmeg on this mildly sweet plátano or just eat as is.

In medium sauce pan, boil water. With a paring knife, cut off ends of plantain, about 1/2?. Leaving skin on, cut into 2-3? chunks. Boil for about 20 minutes or until plantain gets bright yellow in center. Remove from boiling water. With the same knife, peel plantain and sprinkle nutmeg or sugar on top.

I served it with cinnamon and the Brazilian cream.

2.jpgThe Brazilian cream:

  1. Peel and de-seed avocados (here’s a video on how to do this)
  2. Blend avocadoes, confectioner’s sugar, rum and limejuice to obtain a smooth mixture.
  3. Pour into a bowl and fold in the whipped cream.
  4. Serve with the plantains and enjoy!

If I do this again I will let the plantains boil longer because they were a little bit too hard to eat. Also I’ll use some nutmeg, this time I didn’t have any so I substituted with cinnamon. I think nutmeg would work better.

Although I have heard of avocado desserts before (ice cream, bread), I had never adventured to eat them before. But now I have found a new way to enjoy this delicious fruit.

Buen provecho!

Useful links for this recipe:

Avocado health information on World’s Healthiest Foods
Plantain information on Botanical.com

In other news, I received this today:

tupprize.jpg

Yes, this is the prize someone will be winning in my food event Food for Plastic Challenge II – A taste of spring or fall. There is only one week left so start cooking!

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18 Replies

  1. Jen of a2eatwrite Said,

    This looks yummy! I love all those ingredients.

    Posted on March 7th, 2008 at 4:43 pm

  2. Peter Said,

    Yumm…the plantains certainly look good with the Brazilian cream…hmmm..what diet?

    Posted on March 7th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

  3. courtney Said,

    Another post with Plantains. Thats 3 this week. I am only used to the yellow variety fried. I have never boiled the sweet ones. Way less fattening. I dont really care for the green ones, but maybe I have to have it done right.But give me the yellow fried ones any time of day!

    Posted on March 7th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

  4. michelle @ thursday night smackdown Said,

    you know, i wouldn’t normally be excited about something with “boiled” in the title, but this looks darn tasty; i’ve never made plantains like this. and i can think of about ten thousand things to do with that avocado cream.

    Posted on March 7th, 2008 at 7:51 pm

  5. Peter Said,

    Ben, you’re always expanding my knoweledge of food. I’m very intrigued by a sweet avocado cream.

    Posted on March 7th, 2008 at 8:50 pm

  6. jeena Said,

    Hi there my name is Jeena and I have started a food recipe forum that I thought you would like to join here Click here for food recipe forum

    I would love to see you on there to chat about food and cooking you can talk about anything you like and start your very own topics. :-)
    or see my main food recipe website Jeenas food recipe site

    Hope to see you soon

    Thanks

    Jeena x

    Posted on March 8th, 2008 at 5:43 am

  7. Ivy Said,

    I have never had avocado as a dessert before but this looks great.

    Posted on March 8th, 2008 at 9:40 am

  8. brilynn Said,

    I’ve never had plantains in a sweet dish. Well, for that matter, I’ve only ever had them twice in a savoury dish, I need to experiment more with plantains…

    Posted on March 8th, 2008 at 10:24 am

  9. Joy Said,

    I love plantains, but I have to admit I never thought they would go with avocado. The rum and lime juice sounds like it will lift up the flavors of the plantains. Sounds really yummy, Ben!

    Posted on March 8th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

  10. Deborah Said,

    I just found a grocer that sells plantains, so I really want to try this out! I’ve never had avocado in a dessert.

    Posted on March 8th, 2008 at 12:38 pm

  11. Kevin Said,

    That looks good. The Brazilian cream sounds really good!

    Posted on March 9th, 2008 at 9:59 am

  12. Heather Said,

    I must have that Tupperware!! *pant pant pant*

    I think this dish would’ve been a good entry into Emiline’s pub crawl, too, Ben. The stronger booze taste of rum is a winner. I didn’t know that plantains are also boiled, I thought they were only fried. I learned something new today!

    Posted on March 9th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

  13. Emiline Said,

    Wow, this is really interesting. I always thought avocados could go into a dessert, because they’re so creamy. So this sounds really good. You should make avocado ice cream!
    Also, I tried plantains about a year ago, and I like them. i made them into chips.
    So I give this dessert 4 stars. No, 5 stars.

    Posted on March 9th, 2008 at 2:27 pm

  14. Pixie Said,

    I’ve never tried plantains boiled; must give it a go one day!

    Posted on March 10th, 2008 at 2:19 am

  15. JennDZ_The Leftover Queen Said,

    I had this recently Ben! At a Mayan restaurant! It was seriously good stuff! :)

    Posted on March 10th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

  16. Sues is not Martha Said,

    We were JUST looking for a good recipe involving plantains…this looks perfect :) Thanks!

    Sues

    Posted on March 10th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

  17. Katherine Said,

    I love plantains and have been looking for another good plantain recipe. I can’t wait to give this one a try!

    Posted on March 12th, 2008 at 11:03 am

  18. adriana Said,

    that is so funny that you have never had avocados in sweet form…. i grew up in Brazil only eating avocados as a sweet fruit….. avocado with sugar and lime is delicious…. or as smoothie of with milk, sugar, lime, banana, orange and apples….. it is devine…. i'm glad someone tried it the way i think it shoud be eaten…. i don't like avocados in savory dishes and i dispise guacamole…….yuck

    Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 6:32 pm

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