Hello foodies, I present to you one of my local dishes, boiled unripe plantains eaten with palm oil. Did I mention that I enjoy cooking in my introduction post?
Okay, I should like to start by telling you that plantain is called 'jioko' in my language, Igbo, and red oil is ‘mmanụ nri'. This meal is not peculiar to one tribe in my country—there are about 250 ethnic groups—but it's popular among Igbos and Yorubas. You could either roast or cook it or make a porridge of it. Whichever way you like or crave it at the time of preparation.
For this post, however, I'll write about plainly boiling it and eating it with red oil afterwards.
So, now I'll walk you down the process of making this wonderful meal, which is most preferably eaten as supper, although it could as well go for lunch.
First, you decide how many you'd want to cook and as well decide whether or not to boil it with the greenish peel. Say, for this post, I'll go for the unpeeled. Why? Because it's less gluey to peel the greenish back when boiled than not, as the uncooked peel contains lot of whitish liquid that glues and turns your hands brown until you wash it off with oil and detergent.
After deciding how much to prepare, you cut each plantain into two or three chunks depending on how big the whole is. Then get your pot, pour in enough quantity of water, add salt to it, put on your stove or gas, and pour in the washed plantains. Allow to boil for up to 30 minutes. The greenish peel turns a kind of browbish-green when it's boiled properly and the plantain itself dull yellow instead of the original creamy colour. That's your cue to turn off your cooker and drain the water from the pot. Then you peel the back and, voila, you have boiled plantains.
Now, to the sauce. Get your palm oil, pour into a steel dish so as to allow for warming it a bit. Before warming it on fire, though, add your sliced fresh pepper, right amount of salt, sliced onions. After those have been added, you could go ahead and warm the palm oil for a minute or two. That's how the palm oil sauce is made.
It's time to serve!
As in the picture, you serve hot (or warm). Also, keep a great quantity of drinking water beside you, brace up for a lot of nose wiping, and then dive into your peppery but delicious meal!