Homemade Plantain Chips

Get Them While They’re Hot

By Dara O’Brien
Creative Director, Lake Isle Press

Plantains are a fruit that cooks like a veggie. They resemble bananas but aren’t like them, really, and they taste sort of like potatoes until they ripen, when they taste more like sweet potatoes. Depending on their ripeness, they come in green, yellow, or spotty/mostly brown. Come on, plantains. Pick a lane.

When I joined Lake Isle Press and began exploring diverse cuisines via our cookbooks, I found that many of our authors, including Pierre Thiam, Jose Garces, and Vikas Khanna, featured plantain recipes in their books. Since I had never eaten one, this piqued my curiosity. You might think, logically I might add, that I would then simply try one. You would be wrong.

Picky eaters like I was (all right, still am) have to make a conscious effort to try new foods. In my case, the catalyst for eating something new can come from anywhere, but it often takes time between when I first consider biting in until I actually do so. My aversion to new foods means I need to ease gently into them, kind of like wading into the pool to get used to the water (if it meant one could do that without getting wet).

Therefore plantains and I needed a formal introduction. Fortunately, I was able to wrangle one at Teranga, Chef Pierre Thiam’s restaurant in Harlem. Over dinner there recently I had the chance to try kelewele—spicy plantains. Kelewele is a Ghanaian street food that is often fried, but at Teranga the plantains are roasted and look mighty good. After contemplating plantains for about a year, when I encountered those appetizing little morsels I was ready to take the plunge and actually eat one.

Oh, so good. The spice mix had just the right amount of heat to stay with me without taking my lips off, and the plantain had the perfect taste and texture to complement it. My plantain avoidance was over.

I give myself points when I successfully incorporate a new food/ingredient into my all-too-limited diet. When I not only taste but then cook with said ingredient, I get bonus points. I went for the bonus with plantains.

I started by making mashed sweet (brown) plantains. Easy—just chop, boil, mash, add butter and salt. Next I settled on making plantain chips, which are popular in Africa and other parts of the world, including Latin America, where they’re called chifles. (There’s a twice-fried plantain chip called tostones that’s popular in Latin America and the Caribbean.) I followed a recipe from Pierre Thiam’s “Yolelel! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal.”

Pierre’s recipe calls for green plantains. Just about any recipe for plantain chips will tell you to use green plantains. In my ignorance I used yellow plantains; not a good idea. The fruit was slippery and hard to hold onto as I tried to slice on a mandolin. I managed anyway, and prepared the sliced rounds two ways: the first was tossed in oil then baked; the second, deep-fried. The baked batch was too dry for me; the fried ones were good, but grew soggy very quickly. I wondered if the slices were too thick, and was pretty sure I had not gotten the oil hot enough.

I tried again with green plantains, which were a breeze to slice. I also set the mandolin blade one degree thinner and used a digital probe thermometer to monitor the oil temperature. Voila. Real chips.

There’s a richness to the flavor and a lightness in the texture of freshly fried chips still warm from the oil that’s not as pronounced once they cool. But it’s nice to have the option of leftovers, and this batch was still good even the next day—and didn’t turn soggy.

Now that I’ve begun to explore cooking with plantains, I’m ready to wade in a little deeper. Let’s see if I can ride this wave and get close to replicating Teranga’s delicious kelewele.

Green Plantain Chips Recipe

Click here for printable recipe.

INGREDIENTS

4 large green plantains
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Salt

Serves 4

PREPARATION

Peel the plantain by cutting off the ends, then with a sharp knife, make a cut just through the skin along length of the plantain. Peel off the skin. Slice the peeled plantain into thin rounds or ovals or with a vegetable peeler cut horizontally along the plantain to make long thin slices.
Pour about 2 inches oil into a large saucepan. Heat the oil over medium-high heat to about 365°F. Drop the slices into the oil one by one, leaving room between the slices. Let them fry for a minute before lifting gently with a slotted metal spatula or fork. Remove when golden brown and drain on paper towels. Salt while the chips are still warm. The chips can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Recipe from “Yolele! Recipes From the Heart of Senegal” by Pierre Thiam, Lake Isle Press, 2008

GREEN PLANTAIN CHIPS RECIPE
from “Yolele! Recipes From the Heart of Senegal”
by Pierre Thiam, Lake Isle Press, 2008

By Pierre Thiam

“Fresh, lively, and intelligent, Thiam’s “Yolele “ documents, through good strong recipes, fine writing, and much marvelous photography, a fascinating food tradition and the culture in which it is embedded.” —Nach Waxman, Kitchen Arts & Letters

In this pioneering book, Chef Pierre Thiam, a native of Senegal, brings the cuisine of West Africa—including authentic Senegalese appetizers and street food like Shrimp and Sweet Potato Fritters, seafood dishes like Fish Stew (Caldou) or Black-Eyed Pea Salad (Salatu Niebe)—to the world.

TRY THESE OTHER RECIPES FROM CHEF PIERRE THIAM

Beet and Fonio Salad With Spicy Pickled Carrots
Chicken Yassa
Chocolate and Coconut Pudding with Raspberries
Creamy Fonio Cereal with Blueberries, Pomegranate, and Brown Butter
Five-Spice Duck
Fonio and Roasted Cauliflower Pilaf
Fonio, Grilled Lamb Chops & Asparagus with Mafé Sauce
Fonio and Plantain Pancakes
Jollof Fonio
Lamb Shank Mafé Recipe
Millet Beignets
Seafood and Okra Stew
Spicy Kelewele Fried Chicken
Spring Vegetable Fonio Pilaf
Sweet Potato, Green Plantain, and Scallion Latkes
Sweet Potato-Mango Spice Cake