Kelewele (spiced fried plantain)
If you know me well, you will know that I am a plantain lover! Absolutely cannot go a week without eating plantain. One of the things that I love about plantain is how versatile it can be. Versatile in not only what you can eat/pair it with but also how you cook it. The most popular way of cooking it is probably frying and this kelewele recipe will take your fried plantain to the next level! It is also very quick and easy to make as well and taste so delicious. This would probably be the only way you want to eat fried plantain ever again!
So what is Kelewelwe? Kelewele is basically spiced fried plantain. It is a popular street food/snack in Ghana. However you can also enjoy it as part of your meal- I've had it with jollof rice before and it what is really good! Apart from how delicious it taste, the aroma of kelewele is everything! The spices really takes the plantain up a notch
The main spices needed for this recipe is chilli and ginger but feel free to make it your own and any other spices you feel like. Now let's get into the recipe.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 20g Ginger
-1 x Scotch bonnet (or any other chilli of your choice-whole or ground)
-1x small Onion
-2x Plantain
-Salt
-Oil - enough for deep frying
Equipment
-Frying pan
-Knife
-Bowl
-Mortar & Pestle or Blender
Process
1) Peel off the skin plantain and slice into two vertically. Take one half and slice vertically again and then slice into small chunky bits diagonally. The shape doesn't really matter so you can also just dice it. Put the sliced plantains into a bowl.
2) Peel the skin off the ginger & onions, wash and cut into chunks. Blend or pound the ginger, scotch bonnet and onions together. If you using a ground pepper/chilli, then pound/blend the ginger and onions together, then mix with the ground chilli.
3) Add a little bit of salt to the plantain- not too salty as you still want to be able to taste the sweetness of the plantain.
4)Pour the blended ginger, pepper and onion mix into the plantain and mix together with a wooden spoon in order to coat the plantain with the mix.
5) Heat up the oil in the frying pan. When the oil is hot, pour in the plantain and fry until brown. While the plantain is frying, line a bowl with kitchen towel/paper and the put the plantain the bowl to drain it off excess oil.
6) Enjoy as desired! :)
Check out the reels section of my Instagram page for a quick video showing the process here.
Any questions, feel free to send an email or message on any of my social media platform.