Plantain Balls with Cheese and Bacon (Bolitas de Plátano)

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Ripe plantain boiled and mashed with bacon, wrapped around a cube of cheese, breaded and fried. Sweet, salty and smoky in the same bite, and it takes twenty minutes. Serves four.

Prep Time5

Cook Time15

Total Time20

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Colombian

Keyword: banana and bacon balls

Servings:

Calories: 590kcal

Author: Angela Giraldo

Ingredients

2 ripe plantains peeled and cut
5 strips bacon
12 cubes of cheese one for the centre of each ball
Water for boiling the plantains
2 tablespoons cilantro or parsley chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup flour
2 beaten eggs
1 cup breadcrumbs
Oil for frying

Instructions

Lay the five strips of bacon in a skillet and cook them for a few minutes until done. Take them out and cut them into small squares. Set them aside.
Put the peeled and cut plantains in a pot of water and cook for 10 minutes from the moment it starts to boil.
Lift them out of the water and let them stand for about 5 minutes.
Put the plantains in a bowl and mash them with a fork into a purée.
Add the diced bacon, the cilantro or parsley, salt and pepper, and stir until everything is evenly combined.
Take a small portion, flatten it into a disc in your palm, put a cube of cheese in the middle and close the plantain around it into a ball.
Roll each ball through a plate of flour, then through the beaten egg, then through the breadcrumbs. Repeat until all the balls are coated.
Fry them in a skillet of hot oil until browned on all sides. Lift them out, drain them and serve immediately.

Notes

Close the ball completely around the cheese. Any gap and the cheese melts out into the oil, which leaves a hollow ball and a pan to clean. Roll each one smooth in your palms after sealing and look for thin patches before it goes anywhere near the breadcrumbs. Let the plantain cool for the five minutes the recipe asks for. Hot mash is loose and slippery and will not hold a shape, and it also melts the cheese before the ball is even closed. Use plantains that are properly ripe, with black patches on the skin. A yellow one stays starchy and mashes into something grainy that cracks when you try to wrap it. Cheese that melts without turning to oil works best: mozzarella or queso campesino rather than anything aged.

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