Ivorian Aloco {Fried Plantain and Palm Oil}

Delicious, caramelized fried ripe plantains were my favorite snack during my growing up years in the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Known as aloco in the the Cote d'Ivoire, this dish is usually eaten as a snack served on a piece of newspaper, or the evening meal alongside achekey (a couscous like dish made with grated fermented cassava, usually spelled attieke), pepper sauce, and fried fish. Somehow the combinations of these things is just amazing! The western palate, however, general prefers sweet plantain not mixed with savory fish and pepper. 

In Liberia this dish is usually referred to simply as "fried plantain", and in Ghana it's known as kelewele.  Plantain is a very popular food throughout West Africa, and African in general, as well  as many South American countries where the plantain, also know as the cooking banana, is readily available.

Plantains are prepared in a number of ways in West Africa, and are a nutritious part of the indigenous diet. They can be thinly sliced and fried green to make a chip very similar to potato chips (only better!), they are fried when the fruit is yellow and ripe, as is pictured above, which tastes more like soft French fries, or they can be fried when the plantain is black and appears to be rotten, as is done with aloco. In the Cote d'Ivoire plantain is also boiled then beaten in a mortar with boiled cassava to prepare futu, a delicious doughy starch served with meat gravy. Plantains are also served roasted when very ripe over low coals, which is another personal favorite.

When fried with a healthy oil, such as palm oil as is traditionally done, aloco can be a healthy side dish or snack. Aloco is an example of a modern day tribal food and is appropriate for paleo, primal, whole foods, and traditional foods diets. The basics to this recipe are plantain, oil, and salt, but some people add ginger, garlic, hot pepper, onions or a combination of these. My favorite is the ginger. 

Plantains are now available at most large supermarkets, as well as ethnic food stores. You can often find rich red palm oil at your local ethnic food store as well, or order it online at Tropical Traditions. Those who may not like the earthy taste of palm oil should now that it blends perfectly with the plantain and any strong taste is no longer noticeable.

Many people who grew up in West Africa crave aloco. But there are several tricks to getting that authentic taste. First of all, you want the fruit to be at the perfect stage of ripeness. Like the banana, as plantains ripen the starches are converted into sugar and the fruit gets more and more sweet. This is part of the secret to aloco. The plantains should be black with a few spots of yellow still visible.  If you notice some mold developing on the skin the fruit is getting too ripe and starting to spoil beneath the peal. (Though portions of it will probably still be okay to cook). Cooking them has to be done correctly as well. You want the pieces to be perfectly caramelized without falling apart or burning.

Aloco-perfect plantains. Mostly black with a touch of yellow still remaining.

Ivorian Aloco

3-4 Tablespoons palm oil or coconut oil (preferable unrefined for no coconut taste)

2 very, very ripe plantains, cut into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces (not sliced)

2-3 teaspoons finely chopped or grated ginger root, optional

1/4 teaspoon salt

In a heavy skillet, heat the oil over medium-low heat (number 4 on my stove) for about five minutes. Combine the remaining ingredients. Spoon the plantain evenly into the pan. Cook for about five minutes, then with a fork, carefully turn the pieces. Do not use a spatula or spoon as the pieces will be very fragile since they're so ripe. Cook for another 15 minutes, turning carefully at each five minute interval until the pieces are caramelized and dark brown. 

Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel. Or don't drain if you aren't bothered by healthy oil!

Preparation time: 2 minutes. Cook time: 20 minutes. Servings: 2-3

After about 5 minutes of cooking.

Perfectly caramelized.

{This recipe is linked up at Tasty Traditions and Whole Foods Wednesday.}

 What ways have you found to incorporate plantains into a modern diet?

Versatile Fruit, Nut, and Cheese Salad

If you think you don't like salad you may change your mind after trying this recipe!

These days restaurants, even fast food ones, are selling more and more interesting salads. But at home creativity may be lacking. 

This Versatile Fruit, Nut, and Cheese salad is not so much a recipe, but more about learning to use the ingredients you already have on hand to create a delicious green salad any night of the week. My Sweet Vinaigrette recipe ties together the sweet and savory flavors perfectly, but theoretically you could just use your favorite dressing for this recipe. 

Concerning salad dressings, though, store-bought salad dressings are very unhealthy and should all be replaced by homemade dressings with good quality ingredients like extra virgin olive oil, unpasteurized vinegar, yogurt, and fresh herbs. Bottled salad dressings in general are filled with unhealthy ingredients including bad oils (soy, canola, vegetable, sometimes even hydrogenated oils) that are already rancid before the dressing is even bottled (then it sits on a shelf forever before being put in your fridge where it also lives forever until it's all used up), lots of artificial ingredients, sweeteners and starches - including high fructose corn syrup, and preservatives. The fact alone that store-bought salad dressings have such a long refrigerator life should be concerning. Healthy food - REAL food - should spoil if not eaten right away, so when your food last forever you should question how good it really is for you. My homemade salad dressings last for about a week for creamy dressings made with yogurt and fresh herbs, and 2 to 3 weeks for vinaigrettes. 

My recipe for Sweet Vinaigrette is a very versatile and easy. Honestly, it's easier to throw this dressing together than to select a dressing and purchase one from the store. Also, making a good quality, nutritious salad dressing like this is cheaper than the bottled stuff, especially if you were already trying to buy the more expensive healthiER kinds.

Okay, back to the salad. Here are the basics:

Every good salad starts with good quality greens:

Dark green lettuce such as romaine, regular and red leaf lettuce, bib lettuce, etc. Notice I did not include spinach. Spinach actually is not healthy eaten raw. It is often touted as a high source of iron, but that iron can't be absorbed unless the spinach is steamed or lightly cooked. It's not terrible to eat a spinach salad on occasion, but it is not the healthy salad green it is typically thought of.

The fresh fruit:

Strawberries are my favorite fruit for this salad, but most fruits work. Blueberries and raspberries are good, chopped apples (great for fall), peaches, pears, even mangoes.

The dried fruit:

I love cranberries because they are nice and tart, but just about any dried fruit is good. The chewy texture is a great addition to any salad. Other ideas include raisins, apricots (chopped), mangoes, blueberries, etc.

The cheese:

I usually use feta, but blue cheese is also great if you are a fan. During pregnancy when the soft cheeses are not to be eaten I used cheddar or Colby jack cheese cut into half-inch cubes, which actually was very good. 

The nuts:

Nuts add great crunch and increased protein. I usually use almonds, as they are cheapest (aside from peanuts, which wouldn't go with too many flavors). Pecans are great, and walnuts would be great for fall. Toasted is best for the flavor.

The onions:

Onions add such an interesting twist to this kind of salad. You can omit if you hate onions, but if you're just unsure, I encourage you to give onions a try. Red onions are the strongest, green onions also have a stronger flavor, sweet onions (usually white or yellow) are more mild and may be better for kids.

The dressing:

Now, you could really use any dressing of your choice, but there is just something about a sweet vinaigrette that just ties together the sweet and savory aspects to this salad. Find my recipe below.

Optional meat:

I have also added meat to this salad for a delicious and light meal. Chicken goes surprisingly well with this combination of toppings. Thinly sliced steak is also great. Grilled meat gives the best flavor.

The Versatile Fruit, Nut, and Cheese Salad

The greens:

1 to 1 1/2 cups dark leafy greens per person

The fresh fruit:

1/4 cup chopped fresh fruit per person (such as strawberries, chopped apples, etc.)

The dried fruit:

1 to 2 tablespoons dried fruit per person (cranberries are my favorite)

The cheese:

2 tablespoons cheese per person (crumbled feta or blue cheese, 1/2 inch cubes cheddar, etc.)

The nuts:

1 tablespoon nuts per person (almonds, pecans, walnuts, etc). To toast the nuts, bake in a small baking sheet for about 4 to 5 minutes at 350 degrees, or until starting to brown lightly.

The onions:

1 tablespoon sliced onion per person (red onion, white onion, green onions)

To assemble:

Arrange lettuce and toppings in individual bowls or a shallow serving bowl. Serve with Sweet Vinaigrette.

Sweet Vinaigrette

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider or red wine vinegar

2 to 4 tablespoons natural sweetener (whole cane sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc.)*

1/4 teaspoon salt

Place all ingredients in a 1 pint jar. Screw the lid on tightly and shake vigorously to combine. The sweetener should cause the dressing to emulsify and thicken. Drizzle over salad just before serving.

*I prefer a tangier dressing so 2 tablespoons is enough for me, but 4 tablespoons is what most people prefer. Stevia can also be used for a low carb option, but the dressing will not emulsify.

Preparation time: 2 minutes. Yield: 3/4 to 1 cup.

Here are some other tasty combinations to try:

Strawberry Almond Salad 

(In photos above)

Leaf lettuce, or lettuce of your choice

Strawberries

Cranberries

Feta cheese

Slivered almonds

Red or white onions

Apple Walnut Salad 

(Great for fall!)

Lettuce of your choice

Chopped apple such as Fuji or Gala (toss with a bit of lemon juice to avoid turning brown)

Cranberries

Blue cheese or 1/2 inch cubes of cheddar

Walnuts

Red onion

Mango Blueberry Salad

(Pictured below)

Lettuce of your choice

Blueberries

Dried mango

Feta

Candied pecans

Green onions

Note: This combination was good, but I think it 

would have been better with fresh mango and dried blueberries instead.

Broiled Frozen Vegetables

So I just recently found out my oven has a broiler. Do all ovens come with broilers? How do I not know this???

Maybe it's because I grew up in Africa (this is a great excuse for a lot of things, by the way), and a broiler was not a common feature on most ovens. That is, when we had ovens...One year we lived with only a stove top with two burners and I learned how to bake things over a tiny charcoal grill. I was volunteering at an orphanage and one of the thank-you gifts the orphanage director and his wife gave me was a makeshift tin oven. It sat over the coals and was about 2.5 feet in diameter and one foot high, with a removable lid. Here is a photo of a Liberian charcoal grill, or "coal pot" (with traditional Palm Butter sauce cooking on top), along with my skillful illustration of what my tin oven looked like. 

I quickly learned that baking with only a thin metal layer and a few inches between hot coals worked better with some things than others. For example; Casseroles = success! Cookies = fail. It was quite the adventure and kept me busy, to say the least.

So that's a bit of my culinary history. But I'm sure you are curious as to how I broil my frozen vegetables. Basically any vegetable can be broiled. Broiling, especially with a bit of onion, gives ordinary vegetables a real sophisticated taste. Like something you'd eat at a nice restaurant.  Many frozen vegetables are considerably cheaper than the fresh versions, so if you want to eat a lot of healthy veggies, but have a tight budget, frozen is the way to go with things like green beans, broccoli, and our favorite, the Normandy blend (broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots). The good news is most frozen veggies have the same nutrition value as their fresh counterparts. Also, according to Noursishing Traditions, cooking many veggies and eating them with a bit of butter, or a healthy oil like olive oil or coconut oil, actually makes their nutriants more accessible to our bodies. So it's really a win-win situation if you don't always want to eat raw veggies and you like to drown things in butter or olive oil, like me.

Broiled Frozen Vegetables

1 16 oz bag of frozen vegetables*

1 small to medium onion, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

4 to 6 teaspoons melted butter, coconut oil, or olive oil, divided

Arrange frozen vegetables (do not thaw) on a cookie sheet with an edge. Sprinkle onion, salt, and pepper over the top. Drizzle 3 teaspoons butter or oil evenly over everything. Broil on high, about 4 inches from the heat, for about 15 to 18 minutes, or until the onions and some of the vegetables start to develop some black edges. Place in a serving dish. Drizzle with remaining oil - up to 3 teaspoons. Toss to coat.

*Choose large frozen vegetables like green beans, broccoli, or mixes with broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, not tiny things like peas and cut up carrot blends.

Preparation time: 5 minutes. Cook time: 15-18 minutes. Servings: 2-4

Here we have broiled Normandy blend veggies to which I added some 

green beans, along with my Marinated Garlic Lime Chicken. 

This was my high protein/low carb dinner the other night.

It's that easy. The caramelized flavors are quite addictive and a whole bag of veggies will only feed me and my husband. If you are trying to eat a high protein/low carb diet, these vegetables and a serving of meat make a great meal.

Southwestern Roasted Sweet Potato Salad

Once upon a time the summer before college, I worked at a little Israeli restaurant in Minneapolis called The Little Tel-Aviv. All their food was amazing. (I am a huge Middle Eastern food fan after having been exposed to it by the many Lebanese people who lived in the Ivory Coast and Liberia to do business. I lived in these countries many years as my parents are missionaries and I have also done mission work in Africa as an adult. But I digress...)

One of the deli salads The Little Tel-Aviv served was called Rainbow Salad (if I recall correctly). It had sweet potatoes and some other vegetables that I can't quite remember (eggplant may have been one of them), and was in a tomato sauce/dressing. It was simply phenomenal. It was my favorite of all the food they served. Years passed and I (still!) have not been able to find a recipe for that amazing salad. (If you know of a recipe PLEASE leave the recipe, or a link to one, in the comments section!) But in my internet search for said amazing salad, I came across this gem; Southwestern Roasted Sweet Potato Salad. I saved this recipe in my ever-growing recipe collection on my computer, then one day recently, I pulled it out and made it.

It was everything I dreamed it would be.

It is hands down my favorite non-lettuce salad recipe. The tastes and textures blend together perfectly and the slow roasted sweet potatoes give an unexpected sweet flavor. It makes a great side dish, but can also be a vegetarian main course. And as if all these things were not amazing enough, the recipe is high protein/low carb AND Nourishing Traditions approved! It's not Israeli, but it turned out to be a wonderful sister recipe to the one I was searching for. (This recipe is adapted from one I found at Taste of the South Magazine online).

Southwestern Roasted Sweet Potato Salad

5-6 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes, to make 8 cups

3 Tablespoons melted coconut oil or olive oil

1 1/4 teaspoon salt (Kosher salt or flakey sea salt works best)

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 1/2 cups black beans (see my recipe here), or one 15.5 oz can, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion (about half a medium onion), or one large Carolina sweet onion (about 2/3 cup)

1 1/2 to 2 cups grape tomatoes

1 cup feta cheese (can be omitted if you can't have dairy or don't like feta)

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 - 1 teaspoon ground chipotle chili powder*

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss the sweet potatoes with the coconut oil. Sprinkle on the salt, pepper, cumin and oregano. Stir to coat. Spread the potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet with an edge. Bake for 45-60 minutes, checking after 30 minutes as some ovens heat differently (no need to stir). Bake until the edges start to brown. (The goal is to slow roast them to caramelized perfection.) Cool.

Now this is where it gets tough. You'll want to taste one of these suckers and when you do you'll find you can't stop snitching them. I literally make extra potatoes since I know that I'll eat too many before they make it into the salad!

These suckers have perfectly caramelized flavor.

Transfer the potatoes to a large serving bowl. Add the black beans, red onion, tomatoes, feta and cilantro.

In a small bowl combine the olive oil, lemon juice and chipotle pepper powder.  Poor over the salad. Stir gently to combine all the ingredients. 

Can be eaten right away, but it tastes best if it's had at least one hour to chill.

*Chipotle pepper powder is very important to this recipe. I found mine from McCormick in the spice isle at Wal-Mart. You can also order it online.

Preparation time: 30 minutes. Cook time: 45-60 minutes: Servings: 4-5

This salad goes well with grilled meat and a green salad. It also is a great vegetarian meal. I serve it for dinner as a side one night, then eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. As a side dish it serves 4-5, but for a main dish it is about 2-3 servings.