Cross Over Cooking
Fried Plantains, Courtesy of Fred Opie
Plantains are indigenous to India. Asian traders introduced them to Africa during the Christian era and cooks gradually made them a staple across West and Central Africa. African cooks steamed, boiled, grilled, and fried plantains. Some recipes call for green ones which taste more like a potato or you they ate them overripe in they are sweet. African women made plantains into flour for breads and fritters, drinks, fried chips, and as fufu. Like other Asian plants, Africans introduced them to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade where the became infused into the cookery of the Caribbean, Mesoamerica and South America. Throughout tropical regions of the world plantains represent a cross over staple prepared as soup, fried and roasted. Try them sliced them into long thin pieces, deep fried until golden brown, and served seasoned with grated fresh ginger, cayenne pepper, and sea salt.
