Labouye Banane/Green Plantain Porridge

What happens when you mix green plantain with milk and sugar. You get sweet delicious plantain porridge. Here's the long awaited labouye banane recipe. It requires time, patience and a little elbow grease but it's definitely well worth the work and effort.

Labouye in the pot with carnation milk

Ingredients:

2 green plantains
1.5 cups of whole milk
1 cup of sugar
4.5 cups of water
2.5-3 oz of carnation milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 cinnamon sticks
3 pinches of salt
2 slices of bread
peanut butter

 
Directions.

Rinse plantains. Leaving the skin cut off the ends and discard. Thinly slice and chop the plantains, then place 1 chopped plantain into a blender/food processor with 1.5 cups of water. The thicker the slices the harder it will be to puree. Puree on high and add in remaining chopped plantain one handful at a time. Blend for no more than 30 to 45 seconds with remaining 1/2 cup of water.

In large quart pan, add in remaining water with cinnamon sticks. Stir in pureed plantain and allow to boil for 20 minutes on medium high temperature. The mixture will get thicker and should boil down some. Stir and watch the mixture. It will start to stick to the bottom of the pan. Just stir and stir. After 20 minutes, you are going to strain the mixture in the fine strainer (This is where the elbow grease comes in at). This will help remove the seeds and make the consistency smooth and creamy.

Once the mixture has been strained be sure to discard cinnamon sticks, Place plantain mixture into the cleaned and rinsed pot. Stir in the whole milk, salt and vanilla. Allow the mixture to boil for 5-7 minutes then stir in sugar and lower the temperature to medium low.  The mixture should be thick, you want to slowly add in the the 2.5 oz of carnation milk. If you'd like to get a consistency that is not too thick just add in remaining .5 oz of carnation milk. Taste to see if you need to add in additional sugar. Allow plantain porridge to thicken a bit more for 5-6 minutes.

Toast bread slices and spread with peanut butter. Serve with plantain porridge and enjoy.

Please share your comments. I'd love to hear how yours turn out.

Legumes Epinard, Chou, Berejèn, Militon a Vyann Bef avec Coden

Legume shouldn't be this dark, got distracted by the baby and left on stove top too long.

Braised Spinach, Cabbage, Chayote Squash, Eggplant Beef and Turkey served with boiled plantain and white rice.

Legumes is a traditional Haitian dish of braised vegetables and meat that is a real crowd pleaser. It's hearty, healthy and worth the time and effort. The meat used in this recipe is beef and turkey but you can really use any meat including pork, crab, ribs, conch meat and my all time favorite oxtail. The same goes for the veggies. The cooking time is 2 hours and it does require a lot of attention, unless you are using a dutch oven, but this dish is a staple in every Haitian home. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lbs of stew beef

1/2 lbs of turkey necks/steaks

1 large eggplant/ 2 meduim eggplants

2 large chayote squash

1 bag of spinach (10 oz to 16 oz)

1 onion

2 bouillon cubes

1/2 green pepper

1 cup of chopped carrots

1 cup of cilantro

1/2 cup of parsley

2 tablespoons of epis

3 cups of cabbage (rough chop)

1 tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon of pepper

1 habanero pepper

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

1 green onion (crushed)

1.5 sour oranges

2 small limes

4.5 tablespoons of oil (any except olive oil)

1 teaspoon of tomato paste

1 teaspoon of ground cloves

4 cups of beef broth

PREP WORK:

Juice the limes and set the juice aside. In a medium bowl, cut oranges and rub the beef chunks then rinse with hot water, drain and set aside. In a separate bowl rub the turkey meat with limes, rinse with hot water then drain and put turkey into the same bowl as beef. Pour in lime juice, add in chopped onions, 1 crushed  bouillon cube, salt, pepper, seasoning salt, crushed garlic cloves, chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon of epis(spice blend) and green pepper. Allow to marinade minimum 1 hour.

Wash and rinse all your veggies beforehand. Chop the carrots and set aside. Peel chayote, remove the white oval shaped seed in the center; then chop into cubes and set aside. Remove the skin from the eggplant, chop in half, remove some of the seeds from the eggplant and set aside. This helps reduce the amount of liquid released from the eggplant while in the pot. Wash and rinse cabbage and rough chop, then set aside.

Let's get started:

Add oil to a 6 or 8 quart stockpot on medium high temperature. Add in 1 tablespoon of epis and saute for 1 minute then add in strained beef and turkey meat and stir. Brown the meat, turning over and stirring. After 5 minutes pour in marinade and stir in tomato paste, add in habanero pepper (do no let this break, it will be very hot so watch for the pepper). Cover and let cook until the water evaporates some. Do not let it burn. Stir with wooden spoon and add in 1 cup of broth. Do this every 15 to 20 minutes.

Once the meat starts to take on a brown color and the water has started to evaporate some more add in 1 cup of broth, top the meat with the chayote, the eggplant, then the cabbage and cover. Lower temperature to medium and let cook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, add in rinsed spinach on top and cover. After 15 minutes, stir in carrots and cover the pot. At this point, the vegetables should start to cook down, the sauce should be getting thicker and the meat should be cooked completely. Allow the carrots to cook and the sauce to thicken a bit more, approximately 15 minutes.

At this point you want to search for and remove the habanero pepper. Lower the temperature after 15 minutes to low and serve with rice.

Legumes with boiled plantain and white rice

Every family and every home has their own way of making legume but I find that cooking everything in one pot is hassle free and saves time.

Bannan Bouye a Zey/Scrambled eggs with boiled plantain

This is a delicious dish and can be eaten any time of the day. In some parts of Haiti, boiled plantain is eaten with boiled eggs. Some people may call this a poor man's food because it's inexpensive, while others enjoy the combination of the eggs and boiled plantain. Either way, today we are having good ole scrambled eggs, hmmmm. Enjoy this quick, easy and affordable dish.

Ingredients: Servings 1

• 2 eggs
• 1/8 cup of onions (optional)
• 1 bowl
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt + a couple pinches of salt for eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon of vinegar/1/2 lime (juiced)
• 1 plantain
• 3 cups of water
• 1/2 tablespoon of butter

 Plantain: cook time 20-30 minutes

Rinse plantain then, cut the ends of the plantain. Cut in half then using a knife place a split down the middle. In a saucer pan, add water, lime juice, salt and plantain. Cook until tender. Once tender, remove from water, remove skin and using a butterknife, softly scrap top layer. Discard outer layer then cut the ends off and place on plate. Slice into desired pieces.

Eggs: cook time 2-4 minutes

Once plantain are done heat butter in a small frying pan on medium temperature. Add onions and cook until almost clear. (Optional: In a separate bowl, crack eggs then beat) add eggs into frying pan then sprinkle in a couple pinches of salt. (FYI: don't scramble eggs to much/hard because you want the eggs to maintain some moisture, because the plantain may be a little dry). I like mine soft scrambled. Cook for 2-3 minutes and garnish over plantain. 

Bannan Bouye/Boiled Plantain Part 2:

Ingredients:

4 cups of water

1/2 lime

1 teaspoon of salt

saucepan

1-2 plantain

Wash plantains. On medium temperature add lime juice, water and salt. Then cut ends of plantain (Optional: you can cut in half) then using a knife slice down the middle of the plantain and place into water. Boil plantain until tender.

Once tender, remove from stovetop and place into sink. Add 2 cups of running water into pot allowing some of the hot water to  drain out. Then remove and discard plantain skin. Using a butter knife softly scrap down the plantain, removing top layer and discard. Once done place plantain on plate. Repeat with remaining plantains and enjoy!!!

Shay's Mediterranean Sweet Pepper Salad with Papita's

Fried plantains and this sweet pepper salad go so well together.

Papita's (sweet fried plantain) Recipe Part 1:

Green plantains

Looking for a snack, here it is! It's  quick easy and delicious. This is what you will need.

1 soft plantain (not too soft -yellow) and ( not too green and firm)

1 small bowl of water

2 teaspoons of salt

2-3 cups of vegetable oil

1 small shallow pot/deep dryer

Cut the ends of the plantain, slice straight down the middle with a knife. Peel plantain open, discard skin and slice plantain into slices shown above. Add plantain slices to hot oil. Once the plantain obtain a light golden color remove from oil and set aside on a paper towel, until plantains are done. Lower temperature slightly, then add salt to bowl of water, then dip individually slices into water and place back into hot oil (caution, oil may splatter so be careful). Let fry until a golden brown and remove from oil. Repeat until you finish.

peeled plantain

My good friend Shay is from Baghdad and every time I have lunch or dinner at her place, she makes these bright and delicious salads. She made this the other day and I had to share it with you guys.

Shay's Mediterranean Sweet Pepper Recipe

3 cups of mixed baby arugula & baby greens

2 sweet yellow peppers (chopped)

2 sweet orange peppers (chopped)

2 sweet red peppers (chopped)

1/2 cucumber (chopped)

1 tomato (diced)

1/2 lemon

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

1/2 green pepper (chopped)

1 chives (diced)

4 tablespoons of feta cheese/goat cheese

In a medium sized bowl rinse greens, once drained add cucumber, peppers, tomato, chives and squeeze lemon juice over greens. Drizzle olive oil, add salt, pepper and feta cheese. Garnish with favorite dressing and enjoy.