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knife, not fingers; then soaked in salted water

green plantains, ends cut off, the skin scored lengthwise in three or four lines cutting right through to the flesh, then the peel prised away in strips with a thumb or the back of the knife. Plantain skin is thick, dry and bonded to the fruit — it does not slip off like a banana's, and trying to pull it will shred the plank you need whole. Cut each into two crosswise then split lengthwise for large flat planks, and hold them in salted water while you work: it stops the cut surfaces oxidising grey and it seasons the starch through rather than only on the outside, which is the difference between a plank that tastes of something and one that tastes of nothing. Pat completely dry before they go near oil