Plantain chips

I love plantain chips no it's very serious, everytime someone is coming from Ghana I ask for plantain chips lol so the craving got real and I decided to do it myself. It's not like they sell in Ghana but it's pretty darn close lol!

Ingredients:

• 2 green or yellow plantain(depending on what you prefer)
• 1 tablespoon salt (less if you don't want it overly salty)
• Oil for frying 

Method 

1. Peel and wash plantains. Cut into very thin slices the shape is your choice but make sure you cut it as thin as possible(that gives you the crunchy-ness of plantain chips). You can also use a potato peeler to slice the plantain into thin slices. 
2. I soaked mine in salt water for 15 mins before frying(you can choose to skip this part and just add salt after frying), heat up oil on medium heat and fry until its golden yellow.(see pictures for guidance)..

Stages

Theedee's yummy plantain chips :-D

I used a potato peeler to achieve this style plantain chips

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

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)

Ot) or 3tor

Growing up in Ghana for almost everyone's birthday in our household we made the traditional "ot)" (the Gas call it that i believe & the Asantes call it 3tor I believe) which was eaten before the "celebratory" meals. Very simple food to make, made with either yam or ripe plantain

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 yam or 1 whole yam (if your prefer the plantain 1 riped/yellow plantain)
• 1/2 cup of red oil
• 1 small onion 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• Eggs (depends on the number of people you are cooking for).

Method:

1. Peel yam(or plantain) and slice it into whatever size you want, the smaller the better ,makes it easier for you to mash it
2. Wash and boil yams with salt for about 30mins until yam is soft(for the plantains its usually takes a shorter time to get ready)
3. Pour out the water and set aside
4. Slice onions
5. In a cooking pot, pour the red oil in with the onions, let it simmer until red oil is completely dissolved. 
6. Begin to mash the yams in the asanka(black), add some red oil to it and continue mashing/mix it together(add more red oil as you go to get the yellowness of the food) 
7. Repeat step 6 until there is no more yams left. The picture below shows you how it show turn out. 

Ingredients for the 3tor with riped plantain

Asanka, what I used for mashing

Mashing it, the peanuts were requested by my friend who wanted it

Ot) made with yams(this was made for my family during my mom's birthday)

Riped plantain 3tor with peanuts andavocado