Roasted Fish and Stewed Roasted Plantains

Okay you guys know how much I love Nigerian street food right.

So for some reason, I was craving plantains. Plantains are my go to favorite food. You can cook them anyway for me and I would eat it. My love for plantains has even rubbed off on my ajebutters. I cannot imagine life with no dodo(fried plantains)…what kind of life would that be? *Trying to imagine* Life would be meaningless without plantains. Anyway, in my bid to make some plantains, I decided to make some bole’ which is the local name for roasted plantains. But one thing stopped me. It is eaten with peanuts and I have a slight allergy to peanuts, but not peanut butter and I did not want to eat mine with, so I took to my facebook wall and asked my friends what other sides one could have plantain with…Well, Yemisi my friend replied fish and stew. Hmm! I was thrilled. She described how the fish and plantains were made and stewed in a marriage of deliciousness. Another friend Kris also  helped me out by explaining how good the food is, she mentioned the use of fried yams too, but I did not have any yams…those things seem to cost an arm and a leg on my neck of the woods. You may add sweet fried potatoes, should you wish to add any yams to yours. Also it seems like this dish is most popular in Port Harcourt Nigeria as both of them seemed to have mentioned the same city. Port Harcourt may just be have the best Bole and fish ever :)) Thank you Yemisi and Kris

Anyway, I took to my kitchen and this is what I whipped up and trust me, it was gone in 60seconds :))

This right here is a Eureka moment. I really love this dish

IMG_0928 (2)

IMG_0867 (2)

IMG_0870 (2)

IMG_0916 (2)

IMG_0915 (2)

IMG_0920 (2)

 

Okay here we go

5.0 from 1 reviews
Roasted Fish and Roasted Plantains
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • one whole tilapia(cleaned and gutted)
  • One medium sized ripe plantain
  • one medium habanero pepper? Ata-rodo
  • one small red bell pepper or tatase
  • one small onion cut into two chuncks
  • One small garlic clove(optional)
  • one finger of red cayenne or chili pepper
  • one finger of green cayenne or chili pepper
  • 1plum tomatoes
  • salt to taste
  • Half of one whole knorr cube or a small bouillon
  • 1tbsp grinded crayfish or shrimp paste
  • 1½-2tbsps of cooking oil(for cooking)
  • ½tbsp olive oil for tomato puree
for pickled onion
  • one really small onion or shallots
  • one small finger of cayenne pepper or habanero pepper(if you can stand the heat)
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1tsp of vinegar
Instructions
  1. wash and pat fish dry, score the sides with a sharp knife and set aside
  2. blend all your chilis and peppers, the knorr cube, ½tbsp of oil and one of the onion chunks.
  3. pour out half of it then add the tomatoes to the remaining half in the blender and puree
  4. season the fish with salt; then using some of the puree you poured out of the blender, give the fish a nice rub making sure you get into the nooks and crannies of the fish 🙂
  5. Sit the fish in the refrigerator for an hour or more to marinate.
  6. Slice up the onion or shallots along with with some chilies. Season with salt and vinegar and let it sit in the refrigerator to pickle until the food is ready
  7. Pre heat your oven to 350degrees
  8. Peel your plantain, by cutting through the skin with a knife. Score the sides of the plantain and sit it in a foil wrapper or non stick oven tray and spray with some oil(optional). Put the plantain into the oven and let it roast
  9. Remove the fish from the refrigerator and heat up a non stick pan(you may also spray the pan with some oil this is optional depending on you and your pan mostly). Carefully sear the fish on both sides and transfer into non stick oven tray or roasting pan(you may even sear it on a griddle or pan that is heat resistant and can go into the oven). But before you transfer the fish into the oven, use the remaining of the puree that you poured out or the blender and marinate the fish again; then into the oven it goes to roast along side the plantain
  10. Once the plantain is nicely browned, remove it from the oven and let it cool before cutting it up(You want your plantain to be nicely browned and a little moist on the inside, No one wants a dry looking or tasting plantain 🙂
  11. While the fish is cooking, heat up 1½- 2tbsps of oil in a sauce pan, slice and throw in the other half of the onion and the garlic clove. Sauté for two minutes; then add the grinded crayfish or shrimp paste and sauté for another minute, making sure it does not burn(use medium to low heat for this process). Pour in the tomato and chili puree and let it cook. Check for seasonings and add salt if needed. Once the oil floats to the top and the stew looks a bit darker; then it is done
  12. Check on the fish, once it is done, quickly brush on some of the stew on it and let it sit and soak up the tomatoes. Cut the plantains into whatever sizes that you would prefer, pour some stew over it and toss. Serve with the picked onion and pepper mix
Notes: you may season your plantain with salt and some dry chili peppers before roasting. I usually do not; as it is sweet enough for my taste buds 🙂

 

14 comments

  1. Fausta Uwague says:

    The long awaited recipe! I can’t wait to get that eureka moment with my bole n’fish, been trying out diff strategies for the sauce hoping to get that Port Harcourt taste (Ur friends are so right about PH bole), however they use roasted yam not fried. Will work on my fish, it doesn’t come out looking as yum as yours.

  2. chiommy says:

    Nice recipe. please can you tell me how many minutes did you roast the plaintain using the oven and is the 350° for both the fish and plaintain? thank you

  3. Hope says:

    Hi! I’m sorry if my post appears twice. I tried posting yesterday but am not sure it went through. I have a few questions regarding this recipe.

    1. Did you use fresh or died cayenne pepper?
    2. What is a “finger” of cayenne? Is that the size of cayenne I should use?
    3. What temperature did you sear the fish? (Medium, medium high, etc.)? Also, for about how long was it seared?
    4. What flavor knorr cube or bouillon did you use? (Chicken, fish, etc.)?
    5. Have you tried this with any other type of fish? I’m thinking of using red snapper. Will that work?
    6. Would it be okay to marinate the fish overnight?
    7. Is there a particular brand of ground crayfish that you use?

    Sorry for all the questions. This recipe looks delicious and I’m hoping to make it this weekend. Love your site!

    • Nma Okpara says:

      Hello Hope. I used fresh Cayennes, but the dried ones would work, just soak in water to soften. A finger means one little one like your finger. And yes use that size. I seared the fish on medium heat until it was brown on both sides. Any flavor of bouillon works. Red snapper or Mackerel would go great. Yes you could marinate the fish over night. I used the regular Nigerian ground crayfish. Any other works. I hope this helps.

  4. meh says:

    please ma how long does it takes for the roasted plantain to get spoiled or start spoiling, especially in a container, thank you ma

Leave a Reply to Fausta Uwague Cancel reply

Rate this recipe:  

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.