this is a banana and this is a plantain which is also technically a type of banana but it's probably really different from the kind that you've been eating these two fruits look so similar that if they were side by side at a supermarket and they often are you might just confuse them now here in america these types of bananas are super well known but plantains on the other hand they might just give you pause in today's video i'm going to share five key points about these two types of bananas and by the end of the
video you'll know how they differ how to use them and why let's get bananas [Music] hello and welcome to i want to cook my name is chef matt and this channel is all about helping you be a better cook and today we are talking about bananas particularly these commonly just called bananas and these plantains which like i said are technically a type of banana but through the rest of this video just for less confusion i'm going to refer to them as plantains now the first key point will be regionality here in america these types of
bananas dominate they are sweet and they are common just about everywhere from your supermarket to the airport we use them in everything from breakfast cereal to desserts like banana split plantains however are far more popular in latin countries and the caribbean although they can be found here in america i find mine at latin supermarkets now despite their popularity in latin countries cuba other parts of the caribbean historians believe that plantains actually originated in asia in the 1500s wound their way through africa and then got where they are today nowadays both bananas and plantains are pretty
easy to find and we actually import both from countries with tropical climates where they grow really well point number two we're going to talk about is selecting and storing uh bananas and plantains and now both of these have a similar skin that actually turns from green to black but with bananas that happens far more quickly you know in about just a number of days it can go from just a almost a green to black and and the inside gets really kind of mushy plantains however these take far longer to ripen in fact they can go
a week and the color will barely change this means that plantains can actually last quite a bit longer on your shelf whereas a banana might turn a little over ripe sooner i should also mention that the skin of plantains are quite a bit thicker than that of a banana now of course as with a banana if you need a plantain to ripen quicker you can put them in a paper bag and kind of seal that up and that will help them ripen quicker conversely if you want to keep the ripening process from happening you can
put them in the refrigerator now note that when you do that the skins will turn black but the insides will be ripening less quickly when you're shopping for plantains of the store you might see them in a variety of different stages of ripeness and that's a good thing because if you need a plantain that is a little more on the riper side you will want to look for one with a darker skin that means you just won't have to be waiting days and days for it to ripen to the stage that you want point number
three about bananas and plantains is the texture of the fruit now bananas as you probably know these are pretty light they're pretty creamy but plantains however these are denser and starchier now what that means is that these plantains actually hold up really well to cooking which is the next point and point number four is the way we use and or cook with these types of bananas now with just a standard sweet banana like this you know most of us are used to just kind of peeling it open taking a bite and it's great it's sweet
plantains however these are really meant to be cooked if you're buying a plantain you're probably going to be baking it sauteing it or frying it i mean i guess you could eat one of these raw i just don't think it would taste very good let's give it a try and you'll notice i'm not just peeling this thing this has a really thick skin so you're probably going to be using a knife and uh i gotta warn you i don't i don't think i've ever eaten a plantain raw and you can see it just doesn't even
really peel like a like a regular banana this thing is really thick and really sturdy no not really good and that brings us to point number five taste now uh as you might have guessed by now uh plantains being kind of the sturdier fruit with uh thicker skin well they're also more flavorful they are not sweet like a banana but they can be so what happens is they get sweet when they get ripe and then when you cook them that's when the real magic happens with these what happens it just just like anything else when
we cook when we apply heat to food it changes that food on a molecular level and plantains oh they are magic when they're cooked one of my favorite things to do with them is make what i call caramelized plantain bites where i saute them in some butter i finish them with a little bit of sugar they are absolutely fantastic and guess what well i've got some plantains i just need to let them ripen a little bit more and next week we will make caramelized plantain bites they are absolutely delicious so for now i hope this
primer helps you tell the difference between a banana and a plantain and you know maybe you've just always wondered about these things if you've seen them in the store now you know and if you do have a store near you with them hey buy a few they're going to last days possibly weeks depending on the stage that you get them in and tune in next week when we make caramelized plantain bites i cannot wait to share that recipe with you as always thank you for watching thank you for subscribing if you're new to the channel
welcome welcome to my kitchen i am so glad that you are here until next time i hope that you want to cook [Music] you
