Plantain porridge (Unripe plantain)

Plantain or cooking plantain is one of the less sweet cultivated varieties (cultivars) of the genus Musa whose fruit is also known as the banana.

Plantains are typically eaten cooked and are usually large, angular and starchy, in contrast to common or “dessert” bananas, which are typically eaten raw and without the peel, usually being smaller, more rounded and sugary; however, there is no formal scientific distinction between plantains and bananas.

Photo: Unripe plantain.

Plantains are a member of the banana family. They are a starchy, low in sugar variety that is cooked before serving as it is unsuitable raw. It is used in many savory dishes somewhat like a potato would be used and is very popular in Western Africa and the Caribbean countries, more so, in Nigeria. It is usually fried, baked or cooked as a porridge, much like the yam porridge or porridge yam.

The plantain averages about 65% moisture content and grows best in areas with constant warm temperatures and protection from strong winds.

Today, we shall be talking about the ingredients for cooking the plantain porridge. The ingredients are the same with most porridges but this porridge is cooked with the unriped plantain not with the ripe plantain which is usually fried.

The unripe plantain porridge is somewhat native to the Niger Delta region of Nigeria – especially in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta. The people of Bayelsa state and some people from the nearby Delta state in Nigeria eat this unripe plantain porridge as food delicacy (photo: below left, cut unripe plantain & right, cooked unripe plantain porridge).