Honduran Plantain Turnovers

Have you had a chance to try one of the recipes from Haiti, Kenya or Indonesia during the last few weeks? This Lenten season, Food, Faith and Fellowship has featured several Operation Rice Bowl recipes from countries the organization is focusing on this year.

ORB is the Catholic Relief Services program that funds hunger and poverty projects in 40 countries around the world. During Lent, participants are urged to put money they save from eating simple, meatless meals into a symbolic “rice bowl” to be donated to CRS.

Honduras is another of the countries that ORB has chosen to feature this year. A friend and colleague, Dianne Towlaski, prepared this unusual recipe and shares her comments and photo with FFF readers today. CJK

Honduran Plantain Turnovers

(Operation Rice Bowl)

3 plantains (soft to the touch)

Photo courtesy of Dianne Towalski

1/2 cup cooked black beans

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tbsp. cinnamon

2/3 cup vegetable oil

Peel and wash plantains and cut into three pieces. Boil them until soft, then drain and mash.

Mash the beans with a fork. Add the sugar and cinnamon.  Fry bean mixture in a little oil and set aside.

Heat remaining oil in another frying pan, add plantain mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, and spread with a fork into the shape of a small pancake. Fry 3 minutes.

Place 1 tsp. fried beans on each pancake and fold, shaping into a turnover. Fry 3 minutes on each side until brown.

Yield: 4 servings

A note from Dianne: It was fun to make the plantain turnovers because I had not eaten plantains before. I found they were hard to fry without burning them a little but that added crunchiness and a little extra flavor.

A note from Carol: Plantains may look like large green bananas but, as we all know, looks can be deceiving. According to Wikipedia, plantains are firmer and lower in sugar than the fruit we call bananas. Bananas are most often eaten raw, while plantains are usually cooked or processed in some way before being consumed, unless they are very ripe. As they ripen, the green starchy fruit becomes sweeter and the color changes from green to yellow to black, resembling its banana “cousin.”

A staple food in the tropical regions of the world, unripe plantains are somewhat like potatoes, possessing a neutral flavor and texture, and are often cooked in similar ways such as steaming, boiling or frying.