Plantain

Banane plantain

What it is

It is the banana that never became a dessert: too starchy and too astringent to eat raw at any stage, it is cooked green as a starch, half-ripe as a vegetable and black-skinned as something close to a sweet. Across the Congo basin it is counted with the grains rather than the fruits — a staple in all but name.

In the kitchen

Score the skin lengthways along the ridges and lever it off with your thumb; a plantain does not peel like a banana, and a green one will not peel at all under running water. Green plantain fries twice: once at 150 °C to cook it through, then flatten, then again at 190 °C to crisp.

Goes with

Garlic Lime Chili pepper Coconut oil Black pepper Pork Red palm oil (dendê) Onion

Also used with

Chilhuacle negro

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