Tuesday, 12 May 2015

For The Love Of Food: 3 Mouth Watering Delicacies To Make With Overripe Plantain

Image Source: Spicebaby
Wait!!! Don't you throw that overripe plantain away! It's more useful than you guess. Just thinking of all the goodness you can get out of overripe plantain makes my mouth water already. The possibilities are myriad, if not endless. Read on to find out!
Lets start with my favorite.....

1. Dodo Ikire
Image Source: Funtaqa

This is a yum yum local snack made with over ripe plantain. All you need in addition to the overripe plantain is some scotch bonnet pepper (ata rodo), palm oil and salt. 

Method Of Preparation: Heat palm oil, peel and dice the plantain, crush or dice the pepper, add little salt to the pepper and then combine the pepper with the diced plantain (do not mash).

Form plantain into balls and fry till they are very dry and turn dark brown or blackish. Drain in  a colander and transfer to paper towels to extract more oil. You can garnish with more peppers and onions (if you can manage the hot spiciness). The dry frying gives it a preservative quality such that it can last up to two months without refrigeration! Isn't that super?

2. Plantain Pancakes
Image Source: Nigerianfoodtv
I am a pancake fan anytime, any day. The thought of plantain pancakes as you can imagine, more than thrills me. To pull this off, apart from your overripe plantains, you would need some white flour (or oatmeal if you like), a large egg, a pinch of salt, and some vegetable oil or cooking butter.

Method of Preparation: Mash the plantain into a fine paste, add in the flour, salt and egg and combine. Heat a lightly oiled (with oil or butter) frying pan over medium heat, pour or scoop in the batter. brown on both sides. Remember that you can use the pancake making hack of pouring the batter into a tomato ketchup container for easy pouring.

3. Plantain Moi moi (Ukpo Ogede)

Image Source: Happenings
Moi moi is an excellent dish on any day, adding plantain to the works just makes it absolutely wow! To make Ukpo Ogede, you would need 2 pieces of overripe plantain, about 100g unripe plantain flour, 1-2 cooking spoons palm oil, 1 teaspoon ground crayfish, 1 large onion, Pepper (scotch bonnet/ata rodo), Salt (to taste),1 seasoning cube and moi moi (uma) leaves/aluminium foil/plastic moi moi bowls.

Method of Preparation: Blend the overripe plantain pieces, plantain flour batter, onions, crayfish, pepper and stock cube with just enough water to allow the blades of the blender move. Pour the smooth blend into a bowl. Add salt and palm oil. Mix thoroughly till well combined.




Set a small quantity of water in a pot to boil. When the water boils, place a base for the Plantain Moi Moi wraps into the pot. This can be scrap pieces of aluminium foil, a stainless steel stand or leaf stalks from the uma leaves. Scoop the mix into folded leaves aluminium foil, just as you would with beans moi moi.


Gently place the wraps in the pot of boiling water and cook for 20-25 minutes. Add water along the way if necessary. 

There are several other overripe plantain recipes also, eg Mosa, plantain muffin, plantain smoothie, spicy plantain balls (krako) all the way from Ghana. You can get creative and make up your own!

Cheers!

3 comments:

  1. I rily enjoyed reading dis update! il try dem out wen I get home afta ma exams.tnx a lot

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay! I'm glad you did. Please let's know if you enjoy the delicacies when you make them and all the best in your exams.

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