Cameroon – Burning Planti and Red Oil

by Nghonazie Annabel

Burning planti and red oil is a native snack enjoyed mostly in the village and arranged by our lovely grand mothers and fathers. Though it is supposed to be snacks, some very poor families can go the whole day eating this meal and they have no problem with it since they love and they are used to it. This meal is also enjoyed when your parents or grandparents in the village are seated by the fire side and either giving the children some advice or telling them stories. This snack is also easily prepared either when a main meal that will take long like 2 hours to get ready for example when boiling coco yams for achu or when cooking Koki corn or Koki beans is on the fire. Since such dishes take long to get ready, it is better that plantains be roasted round the fire side and eaten with red oil to have some energy while waiting for the main meal. This snack can also be seen during funerals, wake keeps, some village gatherings where a very big fire place is made and plantain roasted in this fire in large quantities and shared for people to eat. Burning planti and red oil is enjoyed most when prepared by a lovely grandmother.

The cooking method

Ingredients

• A good quantity of unripe plantains
• Palm (red) oil
• Salt to taste

Cooking process

• Get some dry woods or charcoal and put on the fire side. Use a match and lit the fire and allow the coal to get red but not too hot
• Get healthy unripe plantains, using a knife peel the plantains carefully making sure you do not wound the plantains by deeping the knife in it so deep or carelessly removing the edible parts of the plantains
• Scatter the coal and place the plantains on the hot red coal or put a grillage over the coal and place the plantain on it
• Turn the sides of the plantains regularly to make sure it doesn’t get burnt and black
• Do this continuously till the plantains is ready. When the whitish color of the plantains turns to hard cream color that means the plantains is ready
• Remove carefully and clean any burns on it using a knife

Pour red oil in a bowl and add a pinch of salt

Broke the plantains into desirable sizes and put inside the bowl of red oil and salt and mix well

Burning planti and red oil is ready. It can be served with palm wine and fried groundnut.

Enjoy your meal.