Nigeria are cooked in hot oil and served with vegetable sauce, beans porridge, egg sauce orn style fried plantains
just enjoyed with some rice. Fried plantains can be eaten with no accompaniment and they taste great. Nigerians fried plantains are made with no sugar added. The ripe plantains are fried with just a little salt sprinkled on the thin slices.
Some people prefer them without salt. Just peeled, sliced and fried but I like the taste of a little salt in my plantains. My favourite method of serving fried plantains is with Nigerian beans porridge. Nigerian fried plantains are cooked using fairly ripe plantains or very ripe sweet plantains like the ones in the picture above.
TO SALT OR NOT TO SALT?
For me, my choice of plantains to fry are fairly ripe ones that are not very sweet but my kids prefer those very ripe soft, juicy plantains that are so sweet the kids can eat a whole large bowl of plantains with no accompaniment without salt.
My family is divided when it comes to serving fried ripe plantains. While I love them salted, the other members of the family like their fried plantains cooked with no salt at added.
Fried plantains are easy took if you make them the Nigerian way. There are no ingredients involved and cooking is not complicated at all. The only ingredients needed for Nigerian style fried plantains are Ripe plantains, vegetable oil and salt. Any body can cook fried plantains the Nigerian method.
HOW TO MAKE FRIED PLANTAINS NIGERIAN STYLE
- Wash ripe plantains in clean water.
- Cut off the ends with a knife.
- Slice into the skin along the length of the plantain but don’t cut too deep as you don’t want to cut the plantains yet. Just the skin .
- After cutting through the skin, remove the peels with your finger.
- Next, Place the ripe plantain on a chopping board.
- With a knife, cut into thin shapes of choice. I like to cut my plantains diagonally or into small cubes when I make for kids. You can make the cuts like 1 inch thick or less.
- Heat olive oil, vegetable oil, groundnut oil, palm oil, coconut oil or your oil of choice in a pan till hot
- Salt., sugar or just fry the plantains by placing them gently in the hot oil with a long spoon. Do not drop from afar off as you don’t want oil splashes. Do not over crowd the fry pan or pot. Just cook in batches.
- Let them fry till they begin to brown. Gently flip over with a spatula, spoon or fork. Reduce the heat a bit to low so they don’t start browning too quickly without cooking through.
- Fry till both sides are brown.
- Remove from oil into paper napkins to help drain excess oil.
- Serve with rice meals, beans stew or Tomato egg sauce. Finally, You can actually serve them as an appetizer before the main dish.
INGREDIENTS FOR FRIED PLANTAINS
- Ripe plantains
- Salt (Optional)
- Cooking oil
You can also Serve fried plantains alongside proteins like stewed chicken, fish or beef. They taste great with Tomatoes stews too.