My Favourite Native Porridge

Hello great friends, greetings to you all.
So in my post today, I am not just going to tell you about a new recipe but about my favorite food. It is not just my favorite food but one of the native food in Nigeria and to be specific Akwa Ibom State , if this food is not prepared in any traditional marriage then the marriage food display is not complete.

It is no other but plantain, so many people especially in African countries know about plantain, it is a great source of iron and can be prepared and eaten to satisfaction based on how you choose to prepare it.

You can roast it and eat it with source, stew or fish, when it is roasted and eaten with fish it is called “Bole” and it serves as a very good snack when eaten this way.

Some people choose to boil it and eat with stew, some fry it to make plantain chips and some cook it with beans. If it is left to get ripped it could be fried and taken with tea or rice.

In all of these, the best way I love it to be prepared is porridge. Ohh yes! I love porridge plantain so much and that was what I prepared today. I had bought some plantain on Sunday and I bought the ingredients yesterday evening in preparation for today.

INGREDIENTS FOR PORRIDGE PLANTAIN

1. Plantain
2. Vegetables like pumpkin leaf, scent leaf etc
3. Fish
4. Periwinkle
5. Crayfish
6. Pepper
7. Seasoning cubes
8. Onion (optional)
9. Oil (specifically palm oil)
10. Meat (optional)
    So these are some of the ingredients required.

HOW TO PREPARE PORRIDGE PLANTAIN
After purchasing all the ingredients, it is either you cut the periwinkles or if you buy the already cut periwinkle just as I did, I soak the periwinkle in water so that all the sand and mud would come off the shell making it pretty easy to be washed.

I left the periwinkle to prepare the plantain, you have to take off the peels of the plantain using knife with water to ease the removal of the peels. After peeling, I had to wash the plantain like two times, put them in a bowel and slice them into small pieces into the pot.

Being done with preparing the plantain, I proceeded with washing the periwinkle thoroughly till I got rid of the dirt. I washed the pepper into the mortar, select and sieve the crayfish into the mortar too and then I pound them. I prepared the fish by deboning them and washing them well.

I was halfway done with the preparations so I put the pot on the cooker to start cooking, I had added some water to the plantain, not so much water but what is sufficient enough to make the plantain done.

I added salt and some seasoning cubes to taste, I closed the pot and allowed the plantain to start boiling. Once it boils, I added the grinded crayfish and pepper, fish and small salt again to taste, I also put in the periwinkle to cook alongside with it.

After it must have boiled well enough and the plantain is soft, please don’t be scared if the water in the pot appears a little black, it is because of the plantain and so just gently add your palm oil and stir.

Cover it to boil for some minutes, add the sliced vegetable, stir the pot and turn off your gas because your porridge plantain is ready to be eaten.

I love eating my food hot so I dished it out immediately, ohhh! my yummy porridge plantain is ready to be eaten.

That was how I prepared my porridge plantain, you can give it a try, I trust you would like it.

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