The Old Fashioned Plantain Smasher | Old Fashioned Plantain Smasher

Every evening I would watch my mother cook fried plantains called tostones. She would lay the green plantains on the counter. Slice the ends off. And carefully peel the skins from around the fruit inside. Then she cut them into little pieces that would eventually be placed in a cast iron skillet filled with hot melted lard. When they were a rich golden brown she’d fish them out of the skillet and let them cool a little. Then she’d fish them out of the skillet and let them cool a little. Then she’s pull from the kitchen drawer a greasy brown paper bag that she protected as if it were some high priced kitchen tool that she just couldn’t lose. She put one plantain at a time inside and smashed it with the coffee can she’d made fresh Cuban coffee from earlier that day. Then she fried them again.

These were our McDonalds’ French fries. And today whenever my Hispanic friends and I get together we always talk about how our mothers of grandmother made tostones. Sometimes the story involved two saucers or simply the peel from the banana being used to get the plantains flat enough to make a good toston chip. And who hasn’t tried to use one of those cheap tostonera that break after you use it a couple of times. These days the brown paper bags are replaced by plastic. And making tostones the old fashioned way for Latinos is frustrating and time-consuming effort. It makes it hard to carry on old traditions.

Then along came Tostobueno, the Ultimate Tostonera® one kitchen tool aimed at keeping old traditions alive but accommodating the new age schedules and commitments of the chef on the go.

Annette E Alvarez

wwwTostobueno.com