If you’ve just come back from a holiday to the Caribbean and don’t want to let that holiday feeling slip away just yet, here are some plantain recipes from all different cultures on the islands to try in order to recreate the experience. We can’t promise blue skies and welcoming smiles everywhere you go here in the UK, but at least your taste buds will be tingling to make up for it!
Don’t forget that plantains are NOT bananas, so you can’t substitute them, but the good news is that many green grocers in the UK now sell the real thing. They can be green, yellow or pink and they need to be cooked before eating.
Roast bream with fried plantain fritters and coconut sauce
This Jamaican recipe uses fish, coconut and some typical Jamaican spicing to get your tummy happy and the compliments flowing. It looks complicated but is fairly quick to put together.
Very easy spiced plantains
Delicious alongside chicken or fish, use plantains that are not too ripe for this dish.
- Peel one medium plantain per person and slice on the diagonal to just under a centimeter thick.
- Fry the slices in single layer a frying pan using a dash of sunflower oil. Turn often and watch them carefully so they don’t burn.
- When golden brown, remove to kitchen paper, then fry the rest.
- When they’re all done, return to the pan with a knob of butter, salt and pepper, chilli flakes to taste, a squeeze of lemon juice and a crushed garlic clove and just cook for a minute or so until hot and sizzling.
- Serve and enjoy!
Low fat, un-spiced version of the above
Cut your plantains on the diagonal as above but instead of frying, just bake them in the oven at about 180 °C in a single layer on a baking tray, spraying the tray with cooking oil first.
Tomato rice with beans paruppu usili, plantain crisps and mango pickle
This recipe, or feast should we say, is entirely vegan and is one with lots of dishes and a long shopping list! Don’t worry because these ingredients can probably be bought in one fell swoop from an ethnic shop, but plan to feed lots of people with this one.
These suggestions should be enough to get you started, but for more we recommend Levi Root’s Reggae Reggae cookery book, which completely lives up to its name with some fiery Jamaican dishes!
Facebook
Twitter
Email 
