Plantains with hot pepper sauce

 

My favourite counter at Grand Frais is the 'ethnic' one

Now that March has arrived and it feels  suddenly, depressingly cold, almost with a hint of snow in the air, I thought today would be a good day to put something tropical and warming on the lunchtime table.  It was probably a little over three weeks ago that I found myself at Grand Frais in Périgueux cruising the exotic fruit and vegetable counter.  A place where the colourful and adventurous folk of Périgueux meet.  To enjoy plantains at their best you have to take a long view.  No good, in these parts, buying them on the day your'e thinking of eating them, for they will be hard and tasteless and give you a bad case of indigestion.  It's a very different story in the tropical countries where they are grown, for here they can be consumed on the day, and people buy them ready ripened to eat. Like the bananas we enjoy, plantains have to be picked green, ready for transportation to countries overseas and once there have to be given time to ripen.  

 

Don't be tempted...these plantains are not quite ready

I often wonder how many people buy the things unripened and believe they will be rewarded with a taste of bananas. Anyway, as I say patience is required.  Normally when you buy them plantains are coloured somewhere between green and yellow and are much duller than a banana in appearance.  They will also in all likelihood, feel much harder than their cousins within the 'Musa' family.

Place your plantains in a dark, cool place and forget about them, at least for a week or so (of course it will depend on how ripe the plantains are on the day of purchase).  At this time the sugar will have risen turning them from green/yellow to mottled brown;  don't be tempted to eat them at this point because they appear to be 'on the turn'.  Put them back in the cupboard and wait.  What you are looking for is an almost black plantain that hasn't yet gone mushy.  If you have handled them with care you should be alright.  They should have fermented, concenrtrating the sugar.  The blacker they are the better.  Blacker because you will have acheived the maximum amount of sugar.  So you can see, as with most foods, timing is everything.

 

Perfect and ready for the pan

Carefully peel your fruit and then with a sharp knife slice your plantains diagonally in readiness for the frying pan.  The fruit should be quite soft and orange in colour.  If they look like this at this stage you will have something sweet and succulent to look forward to.  

 

soft, pulpy, orangey fruit

Drizzle some fresh groundnut oil into a large frying pan and heat.  When the oil is good and hot delicately place your sliced plaintains into the pan.  Fry for between 5 and 10 minutes on each side.  The fruit should have a crispy dark edge with an orange centre. 

 

The plantains, golden and crispy on the outside, velvety soft on the inside

Remove from pan and place on some kitchen roll to remove any excess oil.  Quickly serve with a small knob of hot pepper sauce as a condiment.  I like my pepper sauce hot so I make it myself from 'scotch bonnet' peppers bought of course from Grand Frais.  Here they are known as 'piment d'antilles'.  The combination of the sweetness of the plantains married to a hot pepper sauce is most extraordinary and once you have developed a taste for this hot sweet melange, the above recipe can become addictive! 

 

So sweet! The plantains await their meeting with the hot pepper sauce