A recipe from Nigeria for African bananas (ọgẹdẹ) (pronounced oh-geh-deh)
peel a plantain banana (they are ready to eat when they are orange or brown, not yellow; and soft, not hard)
slice it the long way
put it on a plate with salt and dried pepper powder (red)
mix together with spoon ( there is just a little, little bit of hot pepper powder, and the salt/chili pepper powder mixture is sort of mashed onto the banana with the back of the spoon)
put oil in a frying pan
put plantain in pan
fry 5 minutes
turn plantains
heat a little on the other side
Note: This is finger food and has a sweet taste although it’s a little bit salty and not really hot at all, although you can taste the chili powder in the background. The bananas were cut in circles less than a quarter inch thick.
*language=Yoruba(?)
Camel's Nose 
July 28, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Sounds great. I’ll probably have to try it.
I only cook bananas (as opposed to plantains proper, which I’ve never done) in a pan with fish. Chilli goes really well. I might add a little sweet ginger wine, too. O, I do sometimes slice bananas in alongside my trademark baked apples. Big ones with holes in the middle, stuffed with nuts and raisins, various spices, grated lemon-peel, and all bathed in lashings of good Australian port and honey – which integrate beautifully, and do not at all overbear the cinnamonic delicacy of the filling.
“Sustain me with raisins, comfort me with apples.”
July 29, 2009 at 3:46 pm
An irresistible description, especially coupled with the OT reference. The ginger wine sounds especially intriguing. I tried googling for it and got very little–maybe you have to do your own with fresh ginger. I’m afraid I cook very little-my idea of cooking with wine is to add a little Merlot to the spaghetti sauce on those few occasions when I take the trouble to get it.
Yesterday I was in the Arab neighborhood and stocked up on pita bread for the freezer, so I’ll be eating hobez خبز for a while. Even though it’s so simple, I never seem to get tired of it. This morning I had it with zait and zatter–olive oil and spices, and tea with mint from the garden. Again at lunch with leftover chicken and kufteh (ground spiced meat) from the Arab restaurant and a little hummos from one of those little single portion boxes. It doesn’t get any better than that.
July 29, 2009 at 4:04 pm
The ginger wine is Stone’s, as pictured in this Wikipedia article. Can you get that in the US? Almost certainly, I would think. It’s available everywhere in Australia.
The apples are to be eaten steaming hot, with a little rich cream, ice cream, or yoghurt.
July 29, 2009 at 4:29 pm
It’s available mail order from New York–there’s another company in NJ but they don’t ship to Illinois. Probably someone here carries it, but I wouldn’t know how to find them. It looks like a British item, but for some reason we don’t seem to have a “British neighborhood” here.
July 30, 2009 at 9:23 pm
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UPDATE: In Chicago you can buy Stone’s Ginger Wine at Binney’s Beverage Depot.
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More about ginger, wine, and making your own ginger wine:
source:
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=ginger&gwp=13