Fearsome Food... Plantain

So - Episode 1 in my mission to confront the scariest ingredients.
What do you think when you see Plantain? My reaction was always one of avoidance, until I decided to look further and try some recipes.

Now I'm sold on Plantain - the green cooking banana. At present I can buy it for 99c per kg at Lim's Gardens in Glen Innes - but Nosh have it for $1.49 too.
Plantain looks a lot like banana, but it has 3 distinct stages in terms of cooking - when green or yellow it cooks just like kumara or potato and is best treated as a vegetable. Once black, treat it as you would a banana - best for sweeter dishes. Highly nutritious, good source of potassium and Vitamins A & C, high in dietary fibre and high in carbohydrates. Popular in Carribean and Indian cooking.

Here's the first recipe: please try it - it's fragrant and delicious, very easy and no tricky ingredients.

Plantain Kofta with Thick Tomato Cream Gravy
500gm (about 3) green Plantain
1/2 cup finely sliced onion
1 tbsp finely chopped root ginger
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
6 green chillies finely chopped
Boil the Plantain in plenty of water for about 30 minutes or until soft like cooked kumara. Cool, peel and chop. Add onion, root ginger, green coriander and chillies. Season with salt and pepper. Form into 15 small balls (koftas).  Shallow fry in a littel oil (handle gently) and place into an oven-proof dish.

For the sauce:

6 green cardamom pods, seeds removed

4 whole cloves

1 inch cinnamon stick

1/2 cup chopped onions
1 tbsp garlic paste

150 ml chopped tomatoes - or half a can

1 tsp red chilli powder

60ml cream

1 tsp honey

pinch of mace

Pour all but 3 tbsp oil out of the frypan. Crackle the whole spices then add the onion and garlic and cook slowly till transparent. Add tomato, red chilli and salt to taste. Cook until the oil surfaces. Add 2 cups water. Bring to the boil, then strain and puree. This is where my old mouli comes into its own - a wonderful old implement for smoothing vegetables and soups. Return the tomato gravy to the heat and bring to the boil. Add the cream, remove from the heat and add honey.

Carefully pour the gravy over the koftas and heat in the oven until just warmed through. The koftas are very fragile but it won't matter if they amalgamate through the gravy - the flavours are divine.

Serve with rice or Indian bread. I have a recipe for a wonderful Indian pancake which is filling, luscious and easy - look for that recipe here.