The Plantain

-by Vidhya Shankar

I recently noticed that friends from a variety of geographical regions — Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America — and I all grew up eating plantain. That made me curious to find out more about the plant, which I learned is actually classified as an herb.

The botanical name for plantain is Plantago Major. A perennial weed, it grows wild and rarely needs to be cultivated. Having originated in what is now Indonesia and Malaysia, it arrived in India and traveled to Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America via traders and is now a regular part of the diet in many tropical areas. Alexander the Great encountered the plant in 327 BCE, at which time he introduced it to Europe.

While the banana-like fruity part of the plant is likely most familiar, the leaves and seeds are also used, albeit largely for medicinal purposes. Because it is high in starch, plantain can be fermented to produce an alcoholic drink. It is believed to act as a refrigerant, diuretic, astringent, and deobstruent, meaning that it removes obstructions and opens natural passages or pores of the body. From a nutritional perspective, plantain is high in potassium, like its cousin the banana, and in Vitamins A, B6, and C. It has the added advantage of being low in saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Unfortunately, however, much of plantain’s caloric value comes from sugars.

Still, plantain can be enjoyed as both a savory and a sweet dish with little effort, depending to some extent on its stage of ripeness. Simply boiled or fried, perhaps with a little salt or sugar, plantain is delicious just on its own.

Green plantain, the unripe fruit, is very firm and cream-colored when peeled. It is a complex carbohydrate with little or no sugar and is often boiled. Green plantains should be cooked immediately after peeling or kept in a bowl of cool, salted water until ready to use or they will turn black like apples, avocados, etc.

Depending on the level of light and heat it is exposed to, plantain will enter its second stage in about five days. In this stage, it is firm and yellow like a fresh banana. At this stage, the complex carbohydrate is breaking down into sugar. This is the most popular stage in which plantain is enjoyed, often in sweet recipes. The final stage of plantain before it spoils is its black stage. Like a banana, it is softest and sweetest at this stage, and thus typically used in sweet recipes.

A sampling of simple recipes from around the world follows:

From Puerto Rico:

Tostones
Cut a green plantain into 1-inch sections. Fry in your favorite vegetable oil until golden-yellow and crispy outside.

Remove from frypan and crush each piece into a medallion-like shape.

Fry again until the raw middle cooks. Salt to taste. Eat with or without a dip.

Amarrillos
Cut ripe plantain into thin (1/8-inch) diagonal sections. Fry until golden yellow.

Green plantain soup
Shred green plantains. Simmer in vegetable stock until plantain dissolves into a creamy puree. Salt to taste.

From India

Great-grandma’s Plantain Dessert

1. Cut 2 ripe, but not overripe, plantains with the peel into pieces about 2½ inches long.
2. Steam plantain for a few minutes until cooked but not overcooked. Or you can microwave on medium high until cooked but not overcooked (about 7½ minutes), turning the pieces over half way through.
3. Place two layers of wet paper towel over the pieces and cover them with a plate to keep them from drying out.
4. Peel the skin off the plantain pieces.
5. Place 4 tablespoons of a flavorless vegetable oil in a frying pan, and heat.
6. Toss in the cooked plantains.
7. Add 4 to 5 tablespoons of dark brown sugar or raw turbinado sugar.
8. Optional: Add about 2 tablespoons butter while the plantain pieces are browning.
9. Keep the heat on medium-low and keep turning gently until the sugar caramelizes and coats the plantain pieces.

From Cote D’Ivoire

Baked Plantain Loaf

This recipe is from A Taste of Africa by Dorinda Hafner. It serves 6–8.

• 3 large, very ripe plantains, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2 teaspoons chili paste
• 8 ounces (250 grams) rice flour
• 2 fluid ounces (60 milliliters) oil
• 2 teaspoons (10 grams) turmeric powder salt to taste

• 1. Preheat oven to 300–350°F (150– 180°C).
• 2. Mash plantains into a thick paste by hand or blender.
• 3. Add the chili paste, rice flour, and salt. Mix well.
• 4. Gently heat oil in a frying pan and add the turmeric.
• 5. Stir well, remove from heat, and blend into the plantain mixture, which should be thick yet soft enough to pour. If it is too soft, add a teaspoonful of rice flour at a time; if too stiff, add small amounts of water until it reaches the desired consistency.
• 6. Grease a loaf tin and pour plantain mixture into it.
• 7. Bake for 1 hour or until cooked and firm.
• 8. When cooked, remove from the oven and allow to stand for approximately 5–10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack.
• 9. Slice and serve with salted ground peanuts, or as an accompaniment to dishes as you wish.

[Vidhya Shanker is a PhD student at the University of Minnesota.]