A few weeks ago in my uninsulated house I had a shiver that I couldn’t drive away. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I started craving my grandmother’s Exit – the small, plump, green bananas she simmers with sautéed onion, tomato, and spices until the sauce turns dark and glossy, and the starchy bananas become just soft enough to fall apart a few fingers behind the fold of a chapati .
My grandmother was born in Mbale, eastern Uganda, and lives in Nairobi, where bananas from the East African Highlands are abundant. Since I couldn’t find them locally in Los Angeles, I picked up a bunch of green Thai bananas from the grocery store and peeled them instead. The result was nutritious and hearty – just what I needed!
Bananas and plantains are everyday ingredients for chefs around the world, and with good reason. They are usually available in many types of supermarkets, making them easy to find. If you’re not already grabbing them in your savory kitchen, read Yewande Komolafe’s beautiful and practical ode to the fruit for more information.
Plantains are almost delicious and versatile every stage of their livesso go ahead and buy a bunch, more than you need for one meal, and cook with them as they ripen.
First you can simmer the green, unripe plantains to give substance and body to a large pan asaro or vegetable maveor grate them to make tender dumplings for bowls of hot Lounge chairs. You can fry them to make vegan mofongo — note von Diaz’s comment at the top and skip the pork, but be a little more generous with the garlic and olive oil. Or fry the green plantain twice (!) for a nice crispy edge stones.
As the fruit begins to ripen and the skin turns from green to yellow with a few black freckles, you can cook it to have some on the side. spinach stew. Finally, when plantains are super ripe, the skin more black than yellow, it’s time to make grown up.
Asaro (Yam and Plantain Curry)
One more thing
In case you missed it, I really enjoyed Ligaya Mishan’s latest column on the origin of chiffon cake, “born of American ingenuity, and perhaps a quintessentially American desperation.” The retro cake, made with oil instead of butter and lightened with beaten egg whites, was the invention of a former insurance agent named Harry Baker — but it’s a stranger story than I realized.
And the recipe that Ligaya adapted, from the pastry chef Christopher Tan, looks so good, packed with mandarin zest and juice.
Thanks for reading The Veggie, and see you next week!
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