More than half of the world’s plantains grow between the coast of West  Africa and the Zaire basin which is probably why these snacks are so popular in the Ivory Coast. For those of you that don’t know the vegetable, plantains are a type of banana that contains less sugar than the normal yellow banana. In the Côte d’Ivoire they are prepared like ordinary vegetables and are fried, boiled and turned into a host of tasty dishes. They have to be ripe before they’re eaten and are low in sodium, high in vitamin A, magnesium, potassium and fibre – in fact, they are

nutritionally similar to bananas and are very healthy addition to any diet.

Ingredients

• 2 green plantains – you could use very big green bananas as well
• 1 ripe plantain – use 2 ripe bananas here
• ½ onion
• ½ tsp garlic, pureed
• Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
• Vegetable oil for shallow frying

Method

• Peel one of the green plantains and then slice them into extremely thin rounds using a vegetable peeler.
• Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan over medium heat and fry the rounds for about 3 minutes until they are golden brown.
• Drain on absorbent paper and set aside, keeping them warm.
• Grate the other green plantain as coarsely as you can and place on a plate.
• Slice the onion into extremely thin shreds and mix this with the grated plantain (use a mandolin if you have one).
• Heat a little more oil and fry dessertspoons of this mixture until they, too, are golden – turn these only once too, drain on absorbent paper and keep warm with the rest.
• Heat al little more oil in a frying pan and while it’s heating, peel the yellow plantain, cut it in half lengthways and dice before mixing with the garlic and the cayenne pepper – use your hands here.
• Fry this until golden brown and drain on absorbent paper before arranging all three variations on the theme in a shallow dish to serve a snacks.