Plantain soup with Crème Fraiche (alias: white hat)

Intro

I have never heard of anyone making soup from plantain and that is why we are giving it a try, you and I. The results will blew your mind. Today I am sharing this recipe with you. Try it, love it and leave a comment. And always remember

                            cooking is not an exact science ... get creative!

Tips

1. Before you begin, chop all the ingredients you will need and lay them out, so you wouldn't forget anything. 
2. Secondly also lay out all the utensils you will need, so that when you begin every single action will flow seamlessly like the rivers of Babylon back in the day :).

Expected Taste

An initial delicious and distinctive spiciness, overflowing and collapsing into a gentle sweetness that refreshes your soul!

Et Viola

Recipe:    Plantain Soup with Crème Fraiche
Alias:       White Hat
Time:       45 Minutes
Amount:   4 people

Ingredients

• 1 onion (about 100 - 120 g)
• 1 tomato (about 100g)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 teaspoons of olive oil
• 200g Crème Fraiche
• 1 liter of broth or stock (preferably already seasoned)
• 2 ripe plantains (about 500g peeled)
• 1/2 teaspoon of Salt
• 2 bay leaves
• Pepper

Utensils

• German cook's knife (Kockmesser)
• Cutting board
• Garlic Press
• Measuring Cup
• Stock pot
• Stick blender
• Ladle
• Scale

Procedure

1. Peel and slice the onions to small bits.
2. Peel the garlic and press using the garlic press or slice to tiny bits.
3. Wash the tomato and slice to small bits.
4. Peel plantains and cut to tiny bits.
5. Heat oil in the pot, add onions and garlic and fry for about a minute.
6. Under low heat, add tomato, salt and pepper and fry again for about 4 Minutes.
7. Finally add plantains to the mix and fry for about 5 more minutes.
8. Add 3/4 of the stock (broth), the bay leaves and cover to cook for 15 minutes or until the plantain is tender.
9. Depending on how watery you want your soup, you could add a bit more stock and cook a gain for a minute or two.
10. Take the pot off the cooker and remove the bay leaves.
11. Using the stick blender, blend the mix into a soup.
12. Add 100 to 150g of Crème Fraiche to the mix, blend again and serve

Serving

1. When serving, honour your soup by giving it a white hat in form of a small ball of Crème Fraiche. This may stay on the top or not. Will depend on how watery you make your soup. 
2. Best served with garlic bread

Hints

1. The plantains should not be too ripe, else the soup will be too sweet and you will have to use more Crème Fraiche to neutralize the sweetness. If you discover your soup is extremely sweet, neutralise it with Crème Fraiche but don't over do it. This can happen if the plantains are just naturally too sweet. Happened to me once when I was visiting in Holland and decided to prepare a plantain dish for my friends. If I hadn't bought the plantains and prepared the meal myself, I would have swore someone added lots of sugar to my food.If you discover the the plantains you get from your local store are generally too sweet, then replace half of the plantains with potatoes or at least a quarter.
2. The second hint is about the stock or broth you use. Notice I am using these terms interchangeably, but normally stock wouldn't be seasoned and broth would be. The estimated cooking time assumes you already have your stock ready. You can get broth from you local super market or cook it yourself.  I recommend the cube-like soup thingys you can just buy and dissolve in hot water or the powder-like broth in jars, also for dissolving in hot water. When buying, watch out for the salt content. It shouldn't be too high. What ever variant you choose (chicken, meat or veggie) is up to you, but do let us know your experience. I used meat broth while preparing this recipe. 

Conclusion

I very much hope most of you will try out this recipe and leave comments. I promise to take you comments seriously and integrate them to the refinement process to make white hat the best soup ever.
If you have a suggestion for toppings for the soup, I will appreciate it. The only topping right now, is Crème Fraiche, which gives it its' current name "white hat". If you have a better suggestion for a name, please leave a comment.

Next recipe will be a plantain casserole, lasagne or quiche dish, haven't decided yet.

Thanks for reading. Happy cooking and always remember ... cooking is not a exact science, be creative!

Adios amigos
King of the kitchen

Introduction to Viban's Food club - Musa Paradisiaca alias Mr. P -

Main Actor: Plantain (Mr. P)                                  
Scientific Name: Musa paradisiaca
Evangelist: Terence Viban

Anyone who knows me closely, knows that two things are absolutely essential for my well being;

• Plantain and 
• the medicinal qualities (I stress medicinal lol) qualities of Jägermeister - but this is a story for a different day or entirely different blog

According to Wikipedia and I agree

"A cooking plantain or plantain occasionally is one of the cultivated varieties of the genus Musa whose fruit is intended to be consumed only after cooking or other processing, rather than being eaten raw. The shoot is also used to make food and soups in various cuisines and the leaves and fibers are also used."

Plantain is predominantly eaten in Latin America and in Africa and in some parts of Asia.

The main purpose of this blog will be to introduce Mr. P to those of you who do not know him yet and to show those of you who grew up with him, that frying, boiling, pounding etc are just some of the few things you can do with Mr P.


I will be posting a couple of recipes on a weekly basis, sometimes more often if I am chanced. I will appreciate it if you could try out the recipes and write you feedback in the comments. My Motto is and will always be:




"cooking is not an exact science, be creative!"

My recipes will offer the basis to get you going, follow them closely and make suggestions for improvement or get creative.


If you come with something magical please share it with us in the comments.

This might sound silly to some of you, but I don't just want to call my recipes "Plantain Soup with bla bla" or "Plantain Casserole with blub blab" etc. So if you have a good suggestion for a suitable name for a recipe, please post it in the comments. I am still thinking of a way to reward the person with the best suggestion.  I hope you will all enthusiastically participate an make it fun.




Watch out for the first recipe tomorrow - Plantain Soup with Créme Fraich.


Happy Cooking & adios amigos
(King of the Kitchen)