A Box of the Tropics

So welcome on a cold Wyoming morning when it is -15°F

Rice and Beans with Jamaican Plantain Fritters

We are blessed with generous children. Our son Al and his wife Mary surprised us in December with a box of tropical fruits and vegetables meant to take the chill off our Wyoming winter. It arrived around the solstice, and I just looked at the contents for a while and wondered what I could do with it all. Now, a month later, most of the box has been used, enjoyed, and marveled over, but it is not all gone yet.

From the top left: cacao pods, tamarillo, red bananas, pink pineapple, pumpkin, yuca, mango, plantains, ground cherry, and in the center, chayote and malanga.

I fretted over the plantains. I had not used them before I left for my Kumihimo interlude in Pennsylvania and they greeted me on my return. I had intended to make tostones, but that didn’t happen. By the time got back, they were no longer green. They were no longer yellow. John had given one to Rose, and she never got to hers either. But the one plantain that met me on my return lingered in the fruit basket on the counter, intimidating me. Use me! Use me! I put on my thinking toque.

The tropical fruit came in hand at Christmas for a fruit platter, a salsa, and on the Boxing Day salad.a

Some of the interesting items were easy to use. A fruit platter for Rose’s Christmas Eve party featured a delicious mango and the surprising Costa Rican pink pineapple that was super sweet. I used the tree tomatoes (aka tamarillo or tomate de arbol) in a spicy salsa for the party, and that was popular. The physalis, or ground cherry, was also good on the fruit platter and the Boxing Day salad, the bright orange color its own little orb of sunshine.

Cacao pods and beans, fermenting Wyoming-style.

The cacao pods from Ecuador were a challenge—and there were many of them. The box included a chocolate recipe made from the nibs and a silicone mold of tiny heart shapes. The pods were much easier to slice in half than I anticipated, and the beans therein were most interesting, encased in a cozy fibrous network. I cleaned them according to the instructions but had difficulty fermenting them at 100-110°F in Wyoming in the winter. I rigged up a crockpot on warm and vented the top, but it wasn’t ideal. After two days of nursing them along and smelling a most delicious chocolate aroma, I roasted them in the oven at 250°F for half an hour—and then I let them cool, stashed them in the freezer, and left town. The rest of the chocolate-making will be our Valentine’s Day project with the kids.

Iris helped make the Banana Bread--and added custom ingredients.

The red bananas from Ecuador were easier to incorporate and were nice and soft for a banana bread-baking session with Iris. She opted to add a pack of healthy snack mix within her grasp on the counter to the batter, which was just fine. She calls the shots.

Don't give up on what looks like a plantain gone over the hill! The plantain needs to be really black and soft for this delicious recipe.

And that thoroughly blackened and soft plantain met its match this morning in a Jamaican recipe I found online for a fritter. It was perfect for the dish, and the little pancakes went very nicely with our favorite Costa Rican black beans and rice. It was a perfect tropical breakfast for a day when the thermometer read -15°.

The tropical treats warmed our plates—and our hearts. And I still have the pumpkin, the yuca, and another mysterious root or two to tackle. Until we can travel south, these flavors will sustain us and our dreams of beaches, palm trees, and blue waters filled with stone crab.

A tropical breakfast will warm you up on a cold Wyoming morning.

Jamaican Plantain Fritters

Makes about 16 small fritters

Adapted from Lesa’s recipe on the website jamaicanfoodsandrecipes.com

One very ripe plantain, black on the exterior, and soft

½ cup AP flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon salt

Neutral oil for frying

Turn the oven on to warm to hold the finished fritters. Mash up the plantain in a bowl with a fork. Add the remaining dry ingredients and stir until smooth. Add a little water if the batter is too thick. Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan about a quarter-inch deep. When the oil is hot, scoop out the batter into the pan and fry until golden brown on one side before flipping and frying the other side. Place the fritters on a paper towel-lined baking sheet and hold them in a warm oven until all the fritters are ready.

Enjoy the fritters with rice and beans with an egg on the side or as a quick snack at any time of day.

The view out our front door in Alpine, Wyoming.