Kelewele (Spicy Fried Plantain)

Ahhhh!! Who remembers kelewele from Ghana. Just passing by the lady making it will make you want to stop and buy some! If you don't know by now I am a plantain addict, yes I love PLANTAINS!! lol So its safe to say this has got to be one of my favorite things too. This goes very well with some peanuts.

Video for kelewele is on my YouTube channel at - Theedee's Kelewele(Spicy fried plantain)


Ingredients:

• 2 yellow plantains
• 1 tablepoon salt
• 1 tablespoon powdered ginger or 1 fresh ginger
• 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of powdered red pepper (cayenne could be used if you don't have the red pepper from the African shops) or 2 or 3 fresh red pepper
• 3 ginger
• Oil for frying

Ps: You can blend ginger,scotch bonnet pepper and some powdered red pepper if you don't have the powdered ginger(that gives you the authentic kelewele after all, but to make things easier I like the powdered stuff). You can increase the amount of spices to use depending on your preference some like it really spicy, others don't. 

Method:

1. Peel plantain and wash it. Cut the plantain into small sizes (see pictures below).
2. Season plantains with salt,ginger and pepper, set it aside for about 30minutes if you want it to "marinate" very well(that's if you have time to spare)
3. If using fresh ginger,garlic and pepper blend it, pour it on the cut plantains, let it marinate(yes lol) for a while then go to number 4.
4. In a frying pan, on medium heat, heat up the oil, pour seasoned plantains in and fry till its golden brown(see after picture)

The ingredients (using the powdered pepper and ginger,which I got when I was in Ghana)

Before seasoning(I cut the plantain into 2, then into another 2, that's how I got these sizes)

Well seasoned and ready for frying

Deep frying the kelewele(so you will need enough oil for this, that's why I didn't specify how much oil you will need)

Yummy kelewele

Yummy kelewele with roasted peanuts

Yellow or Curry/Turmeric rice

I can give up somethings but unfortunately rice isn't one of them. Lol. I tried brown rice for like a week and I wasn't happy that whole week(maybe a bit drastic but that's the only expression I can give for how I felt. Anyways here's something I tried with my rice. Oh how I love rice lol

Ingredients

• 4 cups of rice
• 2-3 cups of water(depending on the kind of rice you use,every rice cooks differently. I use Jasmine so typically I use 2 and half cups of water)
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 teaspoon thyme
• 1/3 teaspoon of parsley flakes
• 1 small red or green pepper

Method:

1. Chop the vegetables,in a saucepan or rice cooker add the veggies, rice, and water stir, then add in your curry and turmeric making sure that it all dissolves probably. Add your salt, parsley flakes and thyme. Cover saucepan with foil and allow it to cook until it's soft to touch(or if you are using your rice cooker, should be a whole lot easier)

Ingredients

Didn't have onions in these

Corned beef stew

I don't know about you but as for me when I was little and growing up in Ghana this was one of my favorite stews to eat with white rice lol. This can also be eaten with boiled yam or boiled plantain and even spaghetti, whatever you like, as long as it tastes good, YOU ARE GOOD TO GO!! So simple and easy to make. This was by request, so here you go.

Ingredients:

• 2 onions
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper(depending on how hot you want it)
• 1 teaspoon ginger(or half from a whole...look below to get what I mean)
• 2 pieces of garlic(my family likes garlic so if you aren't a garlic person this can be optional)
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 1 can corned beef
• Oil 
• Spices to taste (seasoning salt,black pepper,curry powder,etc....whatever you use to season stew) 

Method:

1. Cut the 1 and half of the onions and slice the remaining half and set aside, then blend your onions,tomatoes,garlic,pepper and ginger
2. In a saucepan, pour the oil and sauté the sliced onions for about a minute, pour in the blended ingredients and allow it to cook for about 15minutes. Add the tomato paste stir and let it for another 15 mins. Add spices then corned beef,stir once and let it simmer for 10minutes(DONT STIR IT TOO MUCH, because you don't all the corned beef to break in the stew,if you get what I mean)

Ps: I usually use 2 cans of corned beef thats because I really do love corned beef so you can use one or two depending on your preference 

Like I said I love corned beef so I often use 2 of these. (Exeter is a bit pricey, so if you don't have this any will do)

Ingredients before blending

Step by step to the corned beef stew

Kaaklo/Tatale

Don't throw away the black,soft plantains yet. Kindly use that for some Tatale which is more flatter than that of kaaklo. Tatale is usually fried in a much flatter frying pan while kaaklo can be deep fried. This is typically eaten with Bambara beans or regular beans.

Ingredients:

• 2 or 3 plantains
• 1/2 cup of flour
• 1/2 Jamaican hot pepper(or more depending on your preference)
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Oil (for frying)

Ps: You can use powdered pepper and ginger if that's your preference. 

Method:

1. Peel and wash the plantain, then in a big bowl mash it all till resembles what I have in the picture below. (Some people like to blend the plantain, but one problem with that is,if you are not careful you might end up with watery plantain)
2. Blend the pepper and ginger and mix it with the plantain. Add the flour and salt,mix until all ingredients are combined well, now you are ready to fry some kaaklo. 
3. On medium heat, heat up the oil and using a tablespoon full fry the kaaklo. I used in my hand in other for me to get the size in the picture below. Fry until golden brown

PS: The flour is to help hold the plantain together, so if you fry one and it doesn't hold together, then add some more flour to your plantain mix. I was told that in Ghana sometimes they use cornstarch instead of flour. So whatever you have available when you are ready to make this.  Also note that in the picture below, I was making kaaklo not tatale. 

Ingredients and step by step directions

This is how Tatale is usually fried

The difference between kaaklo and tatale

Kaaklo, along with some beans stew and gari(cassava flakes)