Mouthwatering Plantain Bananas
When plantain bananas are mashed, the dish is called Mangu. Like many other Caribbean dishes, different islands have different recipes. This West Indian food is almost identical to a dish I grew up with in Uganda called Matoke. I have discovered that there are many variations of this dish throughout the Caribbean Islands.
Plantains are usually eaten when they are green. They tend to be firmer and not as sweet as yellow bananas; they cannot be eaten raw. They originally come from Asia, but now you can find them is tropical regions all over the world. Plantains are one of the primary traditional Caribbean foods, and are generally eaten much like a potato.
Mangu is normally eaten for breakfast, so it's not uncommon to add milk and butter to the recipe. This makes the Mangu into a warm cereal -- much the same way that warm oatmeal is eaten. However, on other islands the additional ingredients are onions and Anaheim chili peppers. This creates a spicy dish that complements eggs and sausage quite well.
Plantains
Ingredients
- plantains
- water
Preparation
- Peal the plantains with a sharp knife, and then cut them into large chunks.
- Boil the plantains for about 20 minutes.
- Drain off the water and save it.
- Mash the plantains. Note that the plantains will become very stiff as they cool so you can slowly add back the water that you drained off as you need it.
- You can eat this dish as is, or you can add in milk and butter to make it into a creamy texture.
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