DIY Recipes: How to make Baked Kelewele

Kelewele is a popular Ghanaian street food.

The recipe is essentially sweet ripe plantains with onion and ginger-spiced mix. Like every Ghanaian recipe, the spices are very customizable. You can add some in and take some out.

Ingredients

3 ripe plantains: you want them ripe with lots of black spots but you do not want them too soft

1 thump of ginger (~an inch long)

1/3 medium red onion (red is sweeter and best)

1 tsp black peppercorn

1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp salt (add more or less depending on your preference)

3 calabash nutmeg

5 grains of selim (hwentia/uda)

1 tbsp coconut oil melted

Method

Grind up the dry spices in a mortar and pestle then set aside

Mash up the onion and ginger in the pestle

Combine the onion and ginger paste with the dry spices and salt. Mix everything very well together.

Wash, peel and chop the plantains into bite-size pieces. To do this cut it in half along the seed line. Then cut along the seed line again till it looks like four sticks from each plantain. Cut pieces diagonally for bite-size pieces.

Mix the spice blend and plantains and set aside for at least 30 mins. Mix in the spices slowly till all the plantains are well coated. You may or may not need all of the spice blend so be cautious not to overseason the plantains. If you do have some leftover, you can save it and add it to a sauce or a curry.

After marinating, mix the plantains with the melted coconut oil and place them on a lined tray.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 425 F. Check on the plantains just to make sure they are not burning. You do not have to flip them because if they are really soft, they will lose their shape and become mushy.

Once the time is up, serve with peanuts for a sweet and savoury snack.

Read Full Story