Think about your favourite fruit. I bet the first, second, or even third fruit that immediately comes to mind isn’t a plantain, is it? Well, that is probably because you weren’t aware that plantain is classified as a fruit. Now that you know, take a journey into the fantastic culinary world of plantain with me.
Spicy. Sweet. Salty. Savory.
For every palate there is at least one plantain-based dish that YOU will like. Plantain isn't only eaten in Ghana but across many countries in Africa, the Caribbean, South America as well as Asia. For this write-up, we're staying in Ghana.
Mention plantain to a Ghanaian, chances are they know exactly how they like to eat it. Whichever name it goes by - Agade, Bɔdeɛ, Kɔkɔɔ, Amadaa or Abladzo, this fruit is eaten more as a vegetable than a fruit.
My mother tells me as kids they'd mix very ripe plantain with roasted corn flour and eat that raw, but this and other food stories from yesteryear are for another day.
Plantain grows abundantly in parts of Ghana and is eaten in all stages once mature. From green and unripe, to yellow and ripe, and finally to black and overripe.
Green & Unripe Treasures
At one point in my childhood, I was haunted by green plantain. There were uncountable plantain trees in our house and we ate. A lot. Oh goodness did we eat. And we (my siblings and I) hated boiled green plantain.
In its green and unripe stage, plantain is not at all sweet but still a delight in many forms. It can either be boiled and eaten with Kontomire Stew- a palm oil based stew made from green leaves of the cocoyam plant or with garden egg stew. Typically Apem, a slimmer type of green plantain, is boiled to be eaten with the aforementioned stews.
Do I eat green plantain now? Yes, I do. I will however not eat it boiled and with stew.
Green plantain is also fried into delicious golden Plantain Chips, a salty snack better than crisps or chips.
For Fufu, green plantain is boiled with cassava, pounded, and molded into a starchy and stretchy blend. The closest way to describe the texture is that of bread dough. Fufu is eaten in a deep bowl with a delicious and spicy choice of any of the following soups poured all over it.
- Palm Nut Soup - a deep orange soup made from the fleshy nuts of the palm nut tree and a choice of proteins.
- Groundnut Soup - made with peanut butter or groundnut paste and a choice of either chicken, fish, or a mix of meat and fish.
- Light Soup - a light tomato soup that is sometimes thickened with boiled blended garden egg or ground agushi seeds plus some protein choice.
- Wrewre Soup - a soup whose taste reminds me of something between light soup and groundnut soup, made from wrewre seeds.
This list is not exhaustive and there are many more soups that fufu can be eaten with.
Whatever you do, don't ever call fufu, "cassava and plantain dumpling" or any other randomly anglicized noun. It's FuFu. 2 syllables.
Sweet Golden Harvest
In its yellow, sweet, and ripe phase, plantain lends itself well to frying but also boiling or roasting. It can be sliced and fried to be eaten with beans stew - a black-eyed beans stew with a flavourful palm oil base, a dish commonly known as Red-Red.
One of the best smells in the world is that of frying plantain - a sweet smell that is equally matched by its sweet and caramlised taste. You know how adding a pinch of salt to cakes or baked goodies makes a difference? The same is true for fried plantain. Add some salt.
Fried plantain is an excellent extra side to boiled plain rice and stew, Jollof or Waakye. If anyone ever tells you they hate fried ripe plantain, immediately re-examine your friendship with them.
Another fantastic ripe plantain dish is Kelewele, a swicy snack made by cutting plantain cut into diagonals or any other shape, spicing it with a mix of ginger, salt, peppers, anise seeds, grain of Selim, and then deep fried. The best Kelewele you will ever eat in Ghana will be found sold by the roadside. Forget that restaurant Kelewele.
Apart from frying, ripe plantain is also boiled and eaten with stew or soup. I particularly love boiled ripe plantain with groundnut soup.
Roasted or grilled over a low-coal fire and eaten with groundnuts(peanuts), plantain eaten this way is a great and inexpensive lunch or snack option.
There is also, Etɔ a mashed plantain dish made by cooking ripe plantain and mashing it in an earthenware bowl with palm oil and other ingrredients for a glorious golden result - often topped with peanuts, eggs, and avocado. Etɔ can also be made with boiled yam.
Indulgent Black Gold
Just when you’re tempted to throw out plantain because the skin is now black, don’t! At this point, plantain is very soft, incredibly sweet, and still very much edible. At this point frying them directly or boiling them is NOT the best option. Why? Because you're going to end up with a greasy mess or soggy plantain.
Instead, you’re going to want to mash the plantain and transform them into Ofam, a baked dish in which the mashed plantain is mixed with palm oil and spices and then baked.
Then there is of course a personal favourite Kaaklo , which has similar ingredients to Ofam but without palm oil and which is deep fried instead of baked.
The dishes written about here are a few out of many you can make with plantain in all stages. The possibilities are truly endless with plantain. Even the leaves are used to wrap Fante Kenkey - a dish made from corn dough and a close relative to Ga Kenkey bu also Epitse, made from ripe mashed plantain.
Try a few of these or create your own and explore the beautiful world of plantain.
Oh, one last thing. Forget what anybody says - it’s plan-TAIN and not plan-TIN 😉
Alecia says
Excellent site. Lots of useful information here.
I am sending it to several buddies ans also sharing in delicious.
And obviously, thanks to your effort!