Suriname Fried Plantains & Peanut Sauce: Bakabana

Suriname is a small country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It was long a colony of the Netherlands, dating back to the mid 1600s, and Suriname only gained its independence in late 1975. Dutch is the official language, although a form of English (a creole) is also spoken, along with some native languages and dialects. The little nation not only has influences from the Dutch, but also from the former Dutch colony of the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, with immigrant indentured servants from there, India and China coming to form a substantial part of Suriname's population, which is now around 590,000. African people are largely descendants of slaves and Brazilian immigrants have frequently come to work in Suriname's gold mines.   

 

Making the peanut sauce the way some Surinamese do for this dish can be involved, as the Surinamese fry the peanuts and other ingredients and then they grind everything for the sauce. They use Surinamese chili peppers, which are very hot, but they are not likely to be easily found outside of Suriname, so you can substitute habenero or Scotch bonnet chilies. Habenero peppers have a powerful reputation for heat, but all habanero peppers are not the same. I've bought some that barely moved the needle on the heat meter, while at other times, a small section of a habanero would send smoke billowing from my mouth. When I've made this sauce, if the result is too tame, I add some good hot ground red pepper (usually cayenne pepper) to give it the proper kick. Of course, the "proper kick" is the heat level you prefer. The plantains should be ripe; that is, the peel should be almost black, and if it's actually black, that's fine.   

 

Ingredients:

 

For the plantains:

 

2 large ripe plantains, peeled (or 3 or 4 smaller plantains)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 egg

2 tablespoons buttermilk

2 or 3 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons brown sugar

pinch of salt (a bit more salt for seasoning the fried plantain pieces)

oil for frying

 

Cut off the end tips of each plantain, then make a cut into the plantain skin lengthwise, so you can then peel off the skin. Cut the plantains into segments of about 2 or 3 inches long, then split those segments into 2 or 3 pieces (lengthwise again) that should make them about 1/3 inch thick. In a heavy skillet or pan, heat enough oil to make a depth of about 2 inches. Heat the oil until a crouton of bread sizzles and then browns in 50 seconds, but not more than 1 minute (if you have a thermometer, the oil should be 350 to 360 F). Mix together the flour, cornstarch, egg, buttermilk, water, sugar and salt. The batter needs to be smooth and thick enough to stick to and coat the plantain pieces well (if the batter is too thick, add and stir in a teaspoon of water at a time until a good consistency is reached). Line a plate with some paper towels so that you can place the fried plantain pieces there to drain off excess oil. Dip the plantain pieces into the batter to coat them, then put them into the hot oil. Fry the plantains until golden brown all over, which should be about 3 minutes (don't overcrowd the pan). Remove fried plantain pieces to the plate with paper towels. Immediately sprinkle on a little salt. Serve with peanut sauce.   

For the peanut sauce:

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

2 tablespoons kecap (ketjap) manis or soy sauce*

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons lime juice (or tamarind paste**)

1/2 teaspoon habenero or scotch bonnet chili pepper (or Surinamese chili pepper, if you have access)

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons peanut oil

3 tablespoons water

 

Put all of the ingredients into a pan over low heat. Stir well to mix and continue to stir until the sauce is well heated (about 5 to 6 minutes).     

 

* "Kecap (also Ketjap) Manis" is Indonesian soy sauce, which is syrupy and sweet. Some supermarkets or Asian markets will likely have "ketjap manis," but the keyword here is, "some." You can substitute regular soy sauce with some molasses, or even brown sugar, cooked together for just a few minutes.

 

** Tamarind paste is a fruit pulp, dark in color, with a sour taste used in cuisines all over the world, but especially in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, both of which have had lots of influence on the cuisine of Suriname. By the way, it is one of the ingredients in Worcestershire sauce and in some steak sauces. Tamarind can definitely be found in Indian/Pakistani shops, as well as other Asian grocers, but some supermarkets likely have it too. 

 

WORD HISTORY: 

Brown-This word is related to "burnish," a Germanic based word absorbed into French from Germanic Frankish and then borrowed by English from French, and to "bear," the noun for the animal, a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "bruin," a Germanic derived word borrowed by English from Dutch. "Brown" goes back to Indo European "bher," which meant, "brown, dark," but also "bright, shining," perhaps from the glistening of some brown and dark objects. This gave Old Germanic "brunaz," which meant "dark, brown, shining/shiny," and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "brun," with the same meanings, and this then became "broun," before the modern form. The meaning of "brown," the name for the color, didn't really become set until the late 1200s. The verb form developed in the early part of the 1300s, but it initially meant, "to become or turn brown," and it wasn't until the 1500s that the meaning "to make something brown, to turn something brown" became prevalent. "Brown's" Germanic relatives are German "braun" (pronounced pretty much like its English cousin, not like "brawn," as many pronounce it), Low German "bruun" (Low German is not a standard language, but rather a number of dialects, and in some of those dialects the word is "brun"), West Frisian "brún," Dutch "bruin," Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all have "brun," and Icelandic has "brúnn." Latin borrowed the word from Germanic Frankish; thus, there are forms in a number of Latin-based languages.