Last weekend we had the chance to dine with new friends here in town; it ended up being one of the more interesting food experiences we’ve had in a while.
Turns out the hostess grew up traveling around the Caribbean; her grandparents owned a small, Caribbean-based sail touring company with two large double-masted ships that sailed private parties to a host of destinations year-round.
Our hostess loves to cook and prepared a mind-bogglingly good jerk chicken (from scratch ingredients, of course) and served several very authentic side dishes, including Jamaican rice and peas, a spicy papaya salad, and these Hot Damn Glazed Plantains.
It was all delicious, though the plantains were for whatever reason particularly tasty in my book – plantains have such an interesting texture, and she used a very spicy habanero pineapple jelly she’d brought back from their last trip down.
Insanely good. And shamefully easy.
You’ll want to save this one for the next time you have meat on the grill or in the smoker, though I’d guess it’s best pairing would probably be a jerk pork…
3 ripe plantains, peeled and sliced thin
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tbsp (scant) ground allspice (Jamaican if you can)
3 tbsp of your favorite pepper jelly (she likes habanero with either pineapple or peach)
Preheat your trusty oven to 325 and liberally grease a rimmed sheet pan.
Combine the orange juice, brown sugar, allspice and jelly in a small bowl and whisk until smooth and even.
Place the plantains in the prepared pan, close together, and then pour / spread the jelly mixture over the plantains.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, checking at 25 minutes to make sure they’re not drying out (add a bit more orange juice if needed).
Serve hot with some of the reduced jelly mixture scraped from the pan.
Enjoy.
