Plantains would be perfect!

Most every Saturday night my friend Rachelle hosts a dinner party with a theme, usually taking us to exotic regions of the world for at least an evening. We have been to Greece and Italy, Mexico and beyond. Regardless the dinners are always fun and full of good food!

This past Saturday night was Jamaica, which I took allowances to mean anything in the Caribbean and I'll tell you why: I wanted fried plantains!

If you have ever had these little delights, you know why I crave them, and if you haven't had them, it's high time you tried them. My favorites are at a Lafayette restaurant called Guamas (more on them at a later date). Unfortunately for me, calls around Shreveport yielded no plantains. Our dinner was Cuban-less. No black beans either, which are another of my favorites.

Instead we had fried coconut shrimp that are always delicious, even though I'm not a huge fried food fan. It's a pretty simple recipe for yummy shrimp, even for those of us (ahem, me) who don't like coconut. It's "stolen" from Red Lobster, but you can try it at home and see for yourself.

It has a pineapple, coconutty dipping sauce that I decided to add a little zing to, by way of dijon mustard, soy sauce and horseradish. Yeah, it was pretty good. My other advice: taste the sauce before adding the sugar. It gets sweet IN A HURRY!

Paired with this fried treat we had Jamaican Jerk chicken that Rachelle had marinating and threw on the grill as well as a zucchini casserole, a la Giada, called Verdure al Forno. I made this casserole, which was easy and yummy. Definitely worth a try with all the zucchini available in the grocery stores right now. If you want cheesy goodness, this casserole is for you!

Now, our dinner would not be complete without dessert and Rachelle chose a tres de leche cake with mangoes on top. I regret I do not have this recipe to share but I will say that I think I am now in love with mangoes. I don't eat them often but have had them before. We heated these with sugar and served them on the cake and it was just delish. I'm going to buy some mangoes and pour them on every cake, all summer long.

On the plantain front, do not fear, I found some today and expect to fry one of them and salt some of them and sprinkle some with cinnamon and sugar. With the other plantain, I am going to pan-sautee it to capture the full texture and flavor. I like them both ways. It will be my first plantain endeavor so wish me luck!

If you are a plantain virgin, it is a fruit I like to say is kind of a mix between a banana and a potato as far as taste-texture is concerned. I mean, it is more banana but it is a muted banana flavor, hence my potato reference I guess. Maybe I think potato because I love them fried! Who knows, but come back for updates on the plantain cooking experience. Should be fun!!

*photos courtesy of Google images