On our menu today is the plantain dish, ukpo ogede. Two principal ingredients used in its preparation are plantain and corn meal.
Ukpo ogede, also known as plantain moi moi, is a great way to make use of that overripe plantain in your kitchen. Thus, if you haven’t tried it before, do so the next time you have overripe plantain. I used eggs as my filling for today’s recipe. And even though overripe plantain is commonly used in the preparation of ukpo ogede, both ripe and unripe plantain can be used as well. Also, in the absence of corn meal, all purpose flour can be used.
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Ingredients
Overripe plantain
Corn meal
Fresh pepper
Onions
Crayfish
Seasoning cubes
Salt
Hard boiled eggs
Uma leaves
Method of Preparation
Peel the onions and destalk the pepper. Rinse both and set aside for later use. Remove the leaf stalk from the uma leaves and rinse them thoroughly. Boil the eggs and when they are ready, peel and divide them as you like.
Peel and cut the plantain into small chunks. Blend the plantain, fresh pepper, onions and crayfish till you have a smooth puree. Empty the pureed mix into a clean, sizeable bowl. Then add the corn meal, seasoning cubes and salt to the puree and mix till you have a well combined batter.
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Rinse a pot large enough to accommodate the quantity of ukpo ogede that you are to make. Pad the base of the pot. (I measured, cut off and rinsed a small piece of an empty bag of rice and I used it to pad my pot. Bear in mind that the stalk of uma leaves or scraps of aluminium foil can also be used to pad the pot.) Add a little water to the pot. For the records, the water should be on the same level with the pot pad or slightly above it. Cover the pot and set it to boil on medium heat.
Scoop the plantain batter into folded uma leaves. Add egg to each one before wrapping. When the water comes to the boil, gently drop the wraps of ukpo ogede into the pot. When you’ve exhausted the batter, cover the pot and allow the content to steam for 30 to 45 minutes.
Check the pot intermittently to ensure it has enough water to steam the food. When it’s ready, turn off the heat.
Ukpo ogede can be served with pap, custard or chilled drink.
Sources:
My Active Kitchen
Nigerian Food TV
Featured image source: Christian Partners in Africa
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