Fried plantain & Ginger butter beans starter

Starter for 4 people.

Fried plantain & Ginger butter beans serve with flash fried cherry tomato, avocado and a green salad.

Ingredients:

·         250g butter beans  

·         1 garlic clove

·         3 cherry tomatoes

·         30g red onion

·         1 ready to eat avocado

·         Lettuce

·         Handful of fresh coriander

·         10g fresh ginger

·         Dry thyme

·         Salt & Pepper

·         Chilli flakes (optional)

·         Olive oil

·         Plantain

·         1 lime

Method:

Start by draining and rinsing the beans. Set aside. Dice the garlic, onion and 1 cherry tomato. Peel and grate the ginger, then cut in 4 each the other 2 of the cherry tomatoes (you should have 8 tomato wedges altogether).

1) Flash fry the quartered cherry tomatoes: Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil add 1 pinch of salt, thyme and the tomato. Toss fry for 1 minute. Remove from heat and set aside in a bowl for later

Flash fried cherry tomato

2) Cook the beans in ginger: In the same frying pan, add and heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the diced onion and fry for a minute. Add the beans and grated ginger. Stir, add salt and pepper as well as 200ml water then cover to simmer for 20 minutes. This will allow the beans to soften and really absorb the flavours. All the water to evaporate, but to not let the pan dry as we need the bean to be slightly wet.


Ginger butterbeans

3) Fry the plantain: The ideal frying plantain should be uniformly yellow with both end still slightly green. When fried it will still be just sweet enough and firm. A very ripe plantain tends to be too sweet, absorbs a lot of oil and can be very sticky.

So, peel the plantain and cut it as on the picture on the right, about 1cm thick each. A whole plantain should provide about 10-12 slices.

 

Peeled plantain

The plantain can be fried in a chip pan with a lot of oil. If using this option, heat the oil as if for French fires, then drop the plantain pieces in and allow to fry and brown all over or 2 minutes an half.

If you do not have a chip pan, just us a frying pan, and pour in about 200ml of vegetable oil. Allow the oil to really heat up, then carefully place the pieces of plantain in one single layer. Fry each side for 1 minute or minute and a half, then turn over to do the same for the other side. If the the fire is too high, the plantain will burn. Turn down the heat if necessary and continue. If the heat is too low, the plantain will absorb too much oil. Not ideal.

Raw & fried plantain

Whichever method you choose to fry the plantain, once the plantain is fried, remove from oil, place on absorbing tissue and lightly dust with salt.

I served the plantain topped with the ginger butter beans and the flash fried cherry tomato all held with a tooth pick… with an avocado, coriander and chilli flakes salad.

4) Making the green salad: select the greenest leaves of the lettuce, wash them individually under the tap and roughly cut them. Do the same for the handful of fresh coriander.

Mix both in a salad bowl and sprinkle with chilli flakes. Just before serving, drizzle with olive oil and serve with slices of avocado and lime wedges as no vinaigrettes will be needed.

Serve as suggested below.

Voila!

I have done another version yellow plantain and ginger beans before on the blog as mains… see it by clicking this link http://all-vegan.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/red-kidney-beans-cooked-in-garlic-and.html

There are indeed many ways to cook the same ingredients… Celery vas never only made for houmous.

Enjoy!

Soy meat, Plantain and Beetroot dip

We are one week before pay day and by pure slackness I have decided not to step out of the house this week end. A quick look through my cupboard informs me that I’ve got plantain, precooked beetroot, flour and soy meat. Not very inspiring, but is it 12 o’clock, I have skipped breakfast and getting hungry! I make myself a cup of coffee, then, light bulb moment. I ate a beetroot puree not long ago. I could try that, but I want something warm all the way so… I wish I could have steak and chips and this is how I came up with this dish:

Soy meat steak, plantain chips and hot beetroot dip - Serves 2 portions

Ingredients:

Ingredients for the dish

·         250g Hydrated soy meat ball
·         25g plain flour
·         25g + 50g onion
·         4 garlic cloves
·         2 yellow plantain
·         25ml sesame oil
·         Chip oil
·         Olive oil
·         Salt & black pepper
·         A bit of herbes de Provence
·         Scotch bonnet (or chilli pepper)  

Preparation:

For the soy meat cakes; squeeze out the water from the hydrated soy balls, place them in a food processor with 2 table spoons of sesame oil and wiz in 2 or 3 quick bursts. We just want them chopped up finer than we can with a knife. When it is done. Empty in a bowl and set aside.

Now peel and crush two garlic cloves on the mix, finely cut 50g of onion and add to the mix. Then add the flour, salt and pepper. Mix well and form as if you were making burghers. Leave to the side

Prep done!

For the beetroot dip; rinse the beetroots, cut and place in a food processor with 25g onion, 2 garlic clove and the scotch bonnet. Also add 3 table spoons of water to help with the liquidizing. Leave aside.

As for the plantain, just peel and cut to your taste.
Now that everything is prep, clear out the mess and reset your work space.

Method:

To cook the soy meat, heat a non-stick frying pan without oil and place all four burghers on the pan and let them cook for 2 minutes on each side. If you want, you can add a tea spoon of sesame oil to help the process.

To prepare the dip, just fry the blended beetroot mix in 3 table spoons of olive oil. Add salt pepper and Herbes de Provence, stir and leave it to cook until there is no traces of liquid (water) coming out of the mix… this should takes 5-7 minutes. Don’t forget to stir so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

For the plantain, if you do not have a chip pan, just heat up 500ml of vegetable oil and fry in it the plantain as you would your chips. I recommend that you add a big slice of onion along with the plantain to give it an added flavour. The plantain should take about 5 minutes to brown. Once it is brown, remove it from the oil and place on some absorbing paper before serving.

I recommend deep frying plantain because it absorbs less oil than when fried in a frying pan. And it takes longer too, then the colour isn’t homogeneous.
All is ready! Time to serve and enjoy…

Oh the leaf? It just from one of my house plant. Lol

Serving suggestion

Red Kidney beans cooked in Garlic and Ginger

for 2 potions

This dish is one of the simpliest you will find on this blog. It is simple quick and tasty.

Ingredients:

Dry kidney beans

1. 1 tin of kidney beans
2. 3 garlic cloves
3. ½ small onion
4. ½ tea spoon of fresh grated ginger
5. 3 tablespoons of Olive oil
6. 1 barely ripen plantain
7. Spring of thyme
8.  ½ vegetable cube
9. Salt and pepper

If you prefer your beans slightly firm, I’d recommend that you use dried kidney beans and boil it in salt water for 30 mins.

Preparation:

Rinse the kidney beans, set aside.
Peel and chop garlic & onion.
Cut the plantain in half and cover with water in a deep pan.

Method:

Yellow plantain

Bring the plantain to boil for about 20 minutes, remove the skin, scrape the spongy looking layer on the plantain, rinse and set aside in a bowl with boiling water.

While the plantain is boiling, Fry the chopped onion in a very hot pan with 3 table spoons of olive oil and a spring of thyme. Fry for 2 minutes.

Add in the ginger and crushed garlic, then add the kidney beans, salt, pepper and crushed half of stock cube.

Stir fry for 2 minutes then add 50ml of water mix, cover and let the water reduce on medium heat for 5 minutes so the beans will absorb the seasoning. Do not let the water dry completely as this dish needs moisture.

It is ready to serve.
This dish isn’t great reheated. Since it takes about 10-15 to get the beans ready, it is better to just cook the quantities needed.
If the plantain the beans were to be cooked simultaneously. The whole dish will take 20 minute to get ready!

Next time, make it with some soya chunk and chopped tomato then serve with chips or rice or just a toasted slice of bread.

Enjoy!

Did you know that Kidney beans reduced cholesterol and that plantain contains vitamins A, potassium and calcium? now you know!

Pounded yellow plantain

This dish is from my childhood. When well made it feel like a blanket on the tongue. I just love this dish.

Its nutritional value isn’t bad either. Check this out; the plantain contains vitamin B6, Vitamin A and C. The kidney beans protect against heart diseases, and a great source of protein. As for the palm oil it contains vitamin E, beta carotene, co-enzyme Q10 … According to a Portuguese explorer palm oil smells like violets, tastes like olives, has a colour of food blended saffron”. It is not be used by amateurs.

To make this delicious but simple dish you will need:

2 ripe but firm big yellow plantains

1 tin of kidney beans

50ml of palm oil

Salt and 1 dried chilli pepper

Method:

Start by boiling the plantains in their skin for 25-30 mins until the skin splits.

In the meantime open the tin of beans rinse them before warming them up in boiling water for 5 minutes. Then, drain again. Set aside.

Remove the plantain from the boil, rinse, peel and place in a salad bowl then mash as you would potatoes.

Once the plantain has been mashed to preference, add the drained kidney beans, salt, finely chopped chilly and oil.

Mix all very gently avoiding crushing the beans. Taste, then, adjust the salt… Serve.

I love the sweet and salty taste of this dish and also the nuttiness that comes from the palm oil.

Hope you will try it and come back to tell me about it.

Enjoy. :-)