The Art of Frying Plantains

While in Ghana, I have been staying in a house with two other students. We have a chef, who we call Auntie Ama, and she has been cooking for us the majority of our time here. A meal of hers that is a crowd favorite among our cohort is Red Red. It’s basically just bean stew and fried plantains. Although the plantains are labeled as a side dish, they always steal the show. And Auntie Ama’s plantains are unlike any other. They are always caramelized to perfection, and the insides are so soft. We have now entered into a part of the program where we are expected to cook for ourselves, and my friend and I have been trying to master our plantain frying skills.

Our first encounter trying to fry plantains was actually towards the beginning of the program. We had a day dedicated to learning how to cook some classic Ghanaian meals. Here we were introduced to the seemingly simple method of frying plantains:
1. Peel the plantains and cut them into slanted pieces.
2. Let them soak for a few minutes in salted water.
3. Fry them in oil, flipping them every 5 minutes, until they become golden brown.
Seems easy enough, but it was not. The plantains did not come out like Auntie Ama’s, even though we cooked them exactly how she taught us. We were puzzled, to say the least.

Discouraged by that attempt, we did not embark on frying plantains for a long while after that. We inquired with Auntie Ama to see how she gets hers so caramelized, but all she told us was to leave them in the oil for a bit longer. So, we were encouraged to try again. We followed her advice, and ended up slightly burning them. Following this, we had many discussions as a group on how to improve our plantain frying skills, and came up with two potential solutions: let them soak in the water longer and/or use very ripe plantains. So, we tried a third time. Employing both of these new techniques, our plantains came out a lot better! They were nowhere near Auntie Ama’s in terms of caramelization, but they were tasty. Another trick we learned that adds to the caramelization is to flip them more frequently than every 5 minutes, and to cook them longer on lower heat. We have been eating an unhealthy amount of fried plantains ever since.

~some Red Red I made (with nicely caramelized plantains, if I do say so myself)