Caribbean Plantain Fritters

Sue's Kitchen in Bangalore is a popular Caribbean restaurant. It was for a team lunch that I stepped in there for the first time in December couple of years back. It was a small yet cozy place and I fell in love with the food. I was intrigued by the similarity of the Caribbean food to the Kerala cuisines. The buffet spread was decent and the variety amazed me. I was particularly fond of the pan fried plantains. It is something that we often make at home - yet I simply could not resist going back for more.

So on those lazy days when I sit back and wonder what to do with time in hand - I have flashbacks of some wonderful moments and Sue's Kitchen happened to be one of them. I had plantains and I wanted it to be Caribbean. So off I set on a internet search and came up with the fritters recipe. The basic difference I have incorporated is steaming of the plantains and cooking on tawa without deep frying it.  It is definitely a hassle free recipe and would make a good snack time recipe. So here we are - 

Ingredients
( Serves - 4)

1. Plantain - 2 ripe
2. All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
3. Milk - 1/4 cup
4. Nutmeg powder - 1/8 tsp
5. Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp
6. Sugar - 1 tsp 
7. Salt to taste
8. Ghee

Method

• Steam the plantains skin on until soft and let it cool.
• Remove the skin and mash it using a fork adding 1 tbsp of sugar into it.
• Sieve the flour, salt, nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder and set aside.
• Now add the milk and give it a good whisk 
• Slowly add the dry ingredients in batches until well combined. The batter would be thicker than the pancake batter.
• Heat a tawa and grease it with ghee ( oil also will do, personally I feel that ghee goes along perfectly well with plantains.) Ensure that the flame is on low throughout the cooking.
• Wet your hands and scoop out a lemon sized ball. Place it on the tawa and press it with your hands to get into a round shape. Alternatively scoop using a laddle and press it down onto the tawa. The second method gave me inconsistent shapes and hence I began using hands for the process. Give it about a minute to cook on one side and flip it over.
• Serve it with honey, peanut butter or even jam.

You may also note

• Caribbean recipes call for deep or shallow frying. To reduce the oil consumption I used a tawa - you could opt for frying it.