I'm not a fan of plantain, i can actually go a whole year without eating dodo and not miss it. Lol, bring down your brows, i'm still human... I don't care much for unripe plantain either but i love this recipe. It was one of the first meals my mother cooked for me when i first indicated my discomfort with my weight. It's unripe plantain which is more of iron and minerals than carbs, vitamin A from the green vegetables and Omega 3 from the fish...uber healthy and guilt free goodness!
A few days ago i fell ill and i needed something healthy, that was easy plus i was missing my mum so i cooked this up for dinner.
Five fingers of unripe plantain
Catfish or meat of your choice (pre-cooked)
Crayfish
Ugu
Palm oil
Onions
Salt and pepper
Peel plantain and use the blunt side of the knife to scrape and part of the peel off the plantain. Dice plantain into pot and pour just enough water to cover it.
Add your catfish or meat of your choice along with about 1 cup of the stock you cooked it in, (pre-cooked meat as well as fish is recommended because this meal cooks fairly quickly), ground crayfish and sliced onions. Allow to cook for 10 minutes, season with salt and pepper and before all the water is absorbed add about 2 tablespoons of palm oil. Cover the pot and lower the heat. After 3 minutes, add cut ugu, mix properly and turn the heat off. To make it a bit spicier you could add "scent leaf" or uziza leaf.
Makes for a good rainy day meal too...
So i just talked about the bolle fish. Thinking about this as well for my starters:) Question though is the catfish fresh when added to the mix?
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing that out Funmi. Massive oversight, apologies. I've edited it now and answered your question. Please let me know how it turns out.
ReplyDelete:)
Thanks. WIll do. Like you I don't really like plantains and haven't really tried unripe plantains. Will give it a go this weekend. Will definitely let you know how it goes. Thanks a lot for your help.
ReplyDeleteSooooo. I made both the Grilled Tilapia dish and the unripe plantain dish. The breakdown: I was very pleasantly surprised by the unripe plantain dish. It turned out amazing if I may say so myself:) Tasted great and was quite easy to make thanks to your directions. I used smoked mackerel and crayfish for my fish and added stock from meat i had boiled and saved last week. It was delish. One of my good friends is Cameroonian and apparently it is a popular dish there. Thumbs up from all. I have never cooked unripe plantains before so peeling it was an experience...!!!! ( Maybe I am being dramatic! its not as easy to peel) Love the dish. Its a keeper. Would probably have hated it as a kid I am sure. The fish turned out quite well but it was missing something. I think that I might have added a little too much water making the pepper mix. It turned out good but not great (not as I had imagined it in my head) but hey will try and try again:) Thanks mama and will try out more things. Will keep you posted.
ReplyDeleteBoy am i happy to hear this. :D
ReplyDeleteYou're not being dramatic, unripe plantain is a bit tricky to peel, it'll get easier though.
For the fish you need very little water and its really just to let the peppers blend properly. If you think its a bit bland, kick it up a bit more with some of your fave spices.
:)
Tried a variation of this with goat meat as my protein of choice. It was great. Very yummy. Defeats the purpose of it being a healthier dish though:)
ReplyDeleteLittle goat meat can't push you over the edge. ;)
ReplyDeleteWell key word being 'little'':). No judgement. LOL.
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