In Praise of Over-ripe Plantain Loaf

In early 2010 I posted about ofam, a tasty savory over-ripe plantain loaf  from Ghana that is also described in The Ghana Cookbook. It uses only 7 ingredients: over-ripe plantains, good quality red palm oil, hot pepper (I use habanero) fresh grated ginger, flour (I use white rice), grated onion, and a little salt. Unsalted dry roasted peanuts make a great garnish or accompaniment.

Now that plantains are becoming more readily available (after years of begging my local grocers to import the yellow--ripe plantains--I am happy to say that I can now find them locally at Wegmans, Giant, and Weis! A great thing since in the winter the green ones will not ripen properly here in central PA. 

When I was in Ghana in March, Paulina Addy gave me a can of organic, high quality palm oil (thank you), and I decided yesterday that, since spring is almost here finally, it was time to open the can and make some ofam. I plan to serve it at a Penn State student symposium luncheon I'm catering next week. (My husband begged me to cut a little slice for a taste since he couldn't wait). Oh, and when made with rice flour, it's also gluten-free and sugar-free.

Note: I did find that in my new oven it took a bundt pan 45 minutes to cook (longer than the 30 minutes in my old oven).

Eating waakye, ripe plantain, gravy, and vegetables in Ghana

waakye.JPG
Originally uploaded by betumi

Things have already been hectic in 2008: 3 continents in as many weeks. We left Brazil Jan. 2, 2008, were in Pennsylvania for 5 days, and arrived in Ghana on Jan. 10. I still have many things to share from Brazil (such as how to make goma and how to prepare cassava/manioc filled pancakes), but right now I'm working on solving technical problems so I can upload photos and videos using my internet connection in Ghana. Today is my first try.

Last night I cooked up some waakye (pronounced "WAAchi where the "i" sounds like the "i" in "in" and made from rice and beans or black-eyed peas), fried some ripe plantain slices, made a little gravy (oil, onion, tomatoes, hot peppers, salt and tomato paste), and stir-fried some cabbage and carrots for dinner. Here's a picture to mark our new location and the foods easily accessible here.