No secret: Boiled Ripe Plantains

Boiled Ripe Plantains (plain) (Photo by Cynthia Nelson)

Hi Everyone, When it comes to food, I do not have secrets. If you want to know how I’ve made something, I’ll gladly tell you. Yet, my best friends and more recently my extended family accuse me of “doing secret things” when it comes to cooking. Their reasoning is simple. The things never turn out the way I tell them to make it, therefore, there must be some secret ingredients or methods that I employ when cooking.

Case in point: Last week Sunday I gathered the family for lunch. One of the side dishes on the menu was boiled ripe plantains. Everyone, and I mean everyone, raved about the plantains and kept asking me what I did, how I prepared the plantains. I explained, “Remove the top and bottom tips of the plantains, leave the skin intact, add the plantains to a pot, fill the pot