I personally love plantain chips, tasty and crunchy, a handy snack especially when in Lagos traffic. I've also always wondered how its being made, I know you have that thought too. Our recipe this week shows how to prepare plantain chips and will get you confident enough to try it out.
Ingredients:
- Unripe plantain (for savory)
- Semi ripe plantain (for sweet)
- Water
- Salt (table salt or sea salt)
- Oil (Vegetable, Sunflower or Canola oil preferred)
- Handful of chopped onions
Tools:
- Deep frying pan
- Slicer / Mandolin
- Deep bowl
- Sieve
- Paper Towels (optional)
Method:
- Pour the water into a bowl and add salt to taste. The water should not be salty as the plantain soaks up the salt.
- Using the slicer, slice through as many plantains as you like directly into the bowl of salt water.  The water should cover the plantain completely. You could also use a grater. If using a mandolin, select the thickness setting you prefer, I usually opt for medium to thick.
- Pour the oil into the deep frying pan and set to high heat. Oil should cover a third to half of the pan. Once the oil is hot reduce the heat to medium.
- Pour the chopped onions into the oil and fry for one minute. Take out the onions and discard. (The onions simply balance out the flavours of the oil to prevent the smell of oil from lingering on the chips).
- (To test) place about 4 slices of plantain directly from the water into the hot oil and fry. Some people prefer to strain and even mop the water off first. The water does not affect the crunchiness so this is not necessary. Flip the plantain regularly to ensure it fries through evenly.
- For unripe plantain you should take off the heat once the plantain starts to turn golden in colour. For ripe plantain look out for a slight browning colour and firm texture. In both cases be careful not to leave on the heat for too long as the colours darken even further once off the heat. Place directly unto the sieve (you can prefer to line the sieve with a paper towel to soak excess oil). Test for crunchiness by snapping your crisps. Also taste for saltiness and adjust as required.
- If above test yields desired result go ahead and fry the rest of the plantain in the same manner. Be careful not to overfill the pan to avoid the chips sticking together. Adjust the cooking time depending on the outcome of step 5.
- Once fried set aside and allow to cool, then turn into an airtight container.
Contributed by Bimbo Oduwole | Instagram: @bimsinq
