I see. Thanks. Heres a picture of what I ended up with, using 4 week old ( mostly refrigerated) plantains, and the coconut milk and orange juice recipe. Sort of.
Truth in advertising.
Tasted better than it looks, but still a bit much as a side.
The black bits are cinnamon chunks, i think from Whole Spice.
Are the “cooking bananas” the ones that never ripen, just stay green? (Although I think they do go bad, they just don’t do it the way regular bananas do).
In case OP’s still listening in, my favorite is very ripe maduros. There are a couple of recipes like Haitian goat stew where we do the super-flattened greenish ones. Kind of like tostones you might get in a Cuban etc. restaurant but flatter, and you soak them in a hot water/acid bath between the 2 frying steps.
That sounds like what I’m told!
I had not heard of cooking bananas vs plantains before so am learning.
I am team savoury, so the plantains I like should be unripe.
Then plantain chips (with just salt or pepper and salt). These are cut in rounds.
I also like the long chips.
Tostones rock, too.
Or soak the plantains awhile, peel a thin layer off the peel with a peeler, small dice, and make poriyal.
These are too starchy for me nowadays so are rare treats.
This was fun for a minute when visiting the in-laws
I saw this recipe today
Unnakkaya- Plantain fritters stuffed with coconut, cashews and jaggery and deep fried in coconut oil!
I buy green, boil, peel, slices, fry at 350, remove, smash, back in at 375. I ate these all the time in Ecuador. Never got sick of 'em.
My favorite recipe for plantains is to make sweet plantain fries. To make the fries, you will need 3 large, ripe plantains, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Peel the plantains and then slice them into thin strips. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the plantains to the skillet and fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle salt over the plantains and serve as a side dish or appetizer. Enjoy!
This looks good https://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/baked-plantains-with-guava-and-cheese/
Interesting! https://www.tastetoronto.com/recipes/ghanaian-plantain-and-beans
Fried plantain my way, not husband’s way ( 
“why did you make them so thick?” ) 
A little bit soft and a little bit sweet.
First fry
Smash, dip in salted garlic water, then second fry.
Perfect for mofongo, if I could stop snacking.
I made some fried sweet plantains for the first time in a while and I get a kick out of how I practically have a whole dissertation about how ripe plantains should be fried and why I hate ripe plantains made by basically every restaurant and honestly in a lot of homes, too.
I proceeded to make another plantain after I fried these 
.
i could insert many foods after this phrase in lieu of plantains, and I totally get you
I’m not sure I understand, but yay!
I mean that I’m extremely particular about frying ripe plantains (green ones, too, but people don’t screw them up nearly as badly as they do ripe ones) and I’ve got a whole breakdown on why most are bad. I almost never make fried sweet plantains because my mom insists she doesn’t like ripe plantains and we only eat green plantains every once in a while, typically as mangú or tostones. But my aunt grows plantains so when she stops by she usually brings plantains, rulos, bananas, and anything else she has grown. And the plantains she grows are actually delicious even to someone like me who doesn’t love boiled green plantains. They are softer and creamier and very enjoyable to eat just boiled. Still, we usually can’t eat them all before they ripen, so I decided to fry a few that ripened today.
Can the plantains be steamed, mashed, and used in baked goods? Ripe or unripe?
I’ve seen a couple of people use ripe plantains in place of bananas for bread, but plantains in DR are savory food even when they’re ripe.
I wanted to make empanadas de verde, which are Ecuadorian empanadas made from a plantain dough, typically filled with cheese (meat ones exist, too, but I’m used to cheese), and fried, but I didn’t get to it. That dough contains no flour, only plantains.
A plantain also usually goes into the dough for pasteles en hoja, which is mostly made of green bananas traditionally (but I’ve seen ones that do higher proportion of taro, and there are all yuca ones which are chewier). But that’s as far as I go with using plantain in any sort of dough.
Yes.
Depends on what you’re making as to degree of ripeness
Was on a mofongo kick after a trip to Puerto Rico years ago.
These days don’t buy plantains to often but usually just slice and fry
