Substitute

It’s that time again. Fish and apples. This week I was inspired to reform myself, not a whole lot, just slightly, and instead of ordering chicken and beef enchiladas at the local taquería, I decided to go vegetarian and get the shrimp.  They were so good I got some more shrimp at the supermarket and fried them with a little olive oil and some Asian fish curry spices and ate it with spaghetti and tomato/basil sauce. Tonight the last of the shrimp gets the Australian treatment, along with an apple.  Only I don’t have all the right ingredients, so I will make do.

Fish and Bananas with Stone’s Ginger Wine
Bananas
Stone’s Ginger Wine
Substitute shrimp for fish
Red chili powder
Salt

Apples with raisins and Australian port
Apple (Granny Smith)
Bananas
Raisins
Substitute maple syrup (real) for honey
Cinnamon
Ground walnuts
Substitute key lime peel for lemon peel
Substitute black walnut ice cream for vanilla ice cream
Substitute brandy for port

By rights, this should be eaten with a small glass of the same Australian port used to flavor the apples, so I will substitute mulled ginger wine from the comments here (ingredients: Stone’s  ginger wine, brandy, fat-free half and half, pinch mahlab Arab baking spice).

Comment: The outcome?  Not good.  Everything was overcooked, except the ice cream.  I’m task oriented, not time oriented.  Next time everything will be stir fried in olive oil on top of the stove where I can see it cook.

Recipe for Dodo (Fried Plantain)

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(?)