After a long day on the trail during a recent trip with the American Adventurist group, I was off setting up my Outback Swag when the smells of something sweet started to drift through camp. It was not a familiar scent for me, but it sure smelled great. My nose ended up leading me to Humberto’s skottle, where he was frying up some Plantains.

After one taste I was hooked and had to have them again. I made a trip over to the farmers market the next day on my lunch break. I found the plantains and grabbed some pineapple chunks while I was there as well. On the way home from work I stopped off at the local butcher and picked up some Chicken apple sausages to add some protein to the meal.
The rest was actually quite simple.

I knew I wanted to cut up the sausage so I boiled them in a 50/50 water to beer mixture to firm them up a bit, we don’t want them falling apart when we cut them up. However, this step could be skipped if you prefer the sausage cooked whole.

While the sausage was boiling I got the plantains sliced up and started them on the Skottle, with just a touch of olive oil. That’s it, no seasoning needed.

Once the plantains started to caramelize, I slid them to the side and got the pineapple started using whatever oil was left and the juice from the pineapple.
Just like the plantains, the pineapple was pushed to the side and the sausages were added.

I sliced up the sausage and let it finish frying, then mixed it with the pineapple. For a bit of flair, I placed the sliced plantains back into the skin. This isn’t necessary, but the skin made a great way of serving the plantains in camp so I wanted to make sure I passed that along.

This could easily be done in a cast iron skillet or even a regular frying pan, but dinner is always more fun and better tasting when it comes out of a Tembo Tusk Skottle.
I have been educated today. I have never heard of plantains before and certainly never seen them here in the UK.
A quick google search gave me the low down. I shall start looking for them over here, we need to try this recipe out.
A dumb question I know, but do they taste like bananas ?
The plantains are in the same family as bananas, but are a little different. The main thing is they need to be cooked. I have only had them prepared this way but they are a little sweeter than the bananas and also a little more dense.