Plantains with black beans

These were great, and turned out so wonderfully I hope we can have them again. They'd work great as snacks or as an appetizer. They have a kind of Cuban feel to them, so they'd probably go well with Mojitos, if you can drink those.

Plantains, guacamole, refried beans, and roasted bell peppers

Plantain Bites with Black Beans
Ingredients:
Plantains, cut into 1/2 inch slices. Remember, plantains should be dark yellow or even black when you buy it, so it's ripe (unripe ones cook differently)
Refried black beans
Tomatoes or red bell peppers
Sliced jalapeños OR Tepin chiles, crushed (or whatever spicy powder you've got)
Olive oil (or whatever oil you've got)
Sea salt

Directions:
1. Fry plantains in 1-2 Tb olive oil.  If you don't have any jalapeños, add a little crushed tepins to the oil as it's frying (or add it to the refried beans).
2. Fry until lightly browned on one side, then flip them once and brown on the other. If you've never  press down a little with a potato masher to flatten a bit. I criss-crossed it during the mushing part. I'd rather use a spatula, but mine were wimpy enough not to work. I used med heat, was a bit high for the time, so burned a tad. If you've never cooked plantains before, they need to be cooked thoroughly or it'll be like taking a bit of alum. So when you cook on one side, you want it browned on one side and see a color change to a bright yellow for the entire bottom half of the plantain slice, to show that it's cooked.
3. When they are completely cooked, put the plantains on a plate, let oil drain, if needed.
4. Slice tomatoes, add a little olive oil and salt and broil them until soft and hot.  Or fry in a pan for a few minutes until soft and hot. Or roast or fry red, sliced bell peppers.
5. Use plantains like little crostini, basically. Place a slice on a plate, add a little tomato and black bean on top of them and eat one at a time, or add just the black bean. I enjoyed the tomato a lot, but not everyone in my family did.

Plantains with refried beans, jalapeños, and a little tomato sauce on top

6. The recipe this was inspired from had avocado, caramelized onions, and poblano chiles added as well, which looked awesome, honestly, but I didn't have them when we made the recipe. :-)

Inspired by:  http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/02/fried-plantains-with-black-beans-roasted-pobl-recipe.html