Friday, September 19, 2014

Plantain Porridge (pottage)

Today's addition y'all, is a happy co-incidence.

We bought some green plantains from the grocery store, hoping they'll ripen overnight like they usually do but lo and behold, a week later, they were as green as ever.

I'd seen a couple of latin American recipes on cooking shows over the years and was thinking I'd try one. In my quest to find a recipe, I actually stumbled upon a Nigerian recipe (go figure). It was basically a typical yam porridge/pottage recipe, which I know like the back of my hands but instead of yam, you use green plantains.

So, here we go!

Ingredients
- green (unripe) plantains
- spinach
- onions
- ground shrimp
- palm oil
- ground red (cayenne) pepper
- salt
- crayfish or shrimp maggi (optional)

Preparation
- Peel and chop up green plantains into 1-2 inch rounds
- Place in a pot on medium heat with enough water to almost cover the plantains and cook until almost done (about 10 minutes)
- Slice onions and add to the pot, cook until the onions soften
- Add ground shrimp (or crayfish) and cayenne pepper and stir in
- Mash a little bit of the plantain to thicken the boiling liquid (this will naturally happen as the plantain softens)
- Chop up spinach and add to the pot, along with palm oil. Leave to cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add salt to taste and simmer another 5 minutes.

This recipe is great for lunch. It can be eaten alone or with a protein like fish on the side.

I was a little skeptical about how this would taste since I really don't like unripe plantains. This my friends was surprisingly yummy. I definitely plan to make this again soon.

You should too! Enjoy :-)



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