Equatorial Guinea - Akwadu

When I was in second grade (in Colombia) my Spanish teacher decided that they way we would learn the imperative was to follow a recipe. It was an awesome class. We marched down to the school cafeteria where the kitchen staff had set up two huge ovens next to the tables and we had to pair up with another girl in the class. The recipe was simple to follow, peel a banana cut into it at regular intervals without going all the way through. Then pour orange juice over it, add butter and coconut flakes, then bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve warm and enjoy.

There was something magical about that day, it was more than just the fact I wasn’t stuck in a classroom repeating imperative verbs or the fact that my best (and only friend) wasn’t in school that say so I bonded with someone else. I found the recipe eye opening; it had never occurred to me to drench a fruit in juice and bake it with some butter. The dish was sublime, the orange juice intensified in the heat and once the butter had melted into it a whole new degree of warm, buttery and acidic orange juice entered my world. Needless to say, it worked wonderfully with the banana and coconut. I have cooked this for myself on a couple of occasions since, never really knowing where the recipe came from other than a tatty old magazine my Spanish teacher had with her that day.

So when I was researching the food from Equatorial Guinea you can imagine my excitement when I finally found the source of this dish and I decided that I just had to make it for the blog. As it turns out the dish can be made with ripe plantains as well as banana, and there are a few different ways to prepare it. Including slicing the banana or plantain lengthways and then baking it in the skin, or simply cutting it into pieces.

I was intrigued about the first method as it was much more photogenic but decided that I didn’t want to risk the skin of the banana changing the delectable taste of the buttery orange juice. The recipe I chose had 3 additional ingredients to the one I cooked the first time and in the interest of authenticity I decided to give it a go. These were: lemon juice, sugar and honey. In hindsight I would omit the honey. The banana’s natural sweetness intensifies as it cooks and this dish was almost overwhelmingly sweet, saved mainly by the added acidity of the lemon juice. The sugar added crunch as it caramelised in the oven and so I think it added more to the overall dish than the honey.

I used this recipe! But only made enough for 1 so see below!

Ingredients

· 1 banana

· 1tbsp shredded coconut

· ¼ cup orange juice

· 1tbsp sugar

· 1 tbsp butter melted

· Squeeze of lemon juice

· Drizzle of Honey

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Cut the banana into 1cm thick slices and place them into a small dish, in one layer (so they all get a bit of orange juice)

3. Place small bits of butter over the banana and then pour the orange and lemon juice over.

4. Sprinkle with the sugar and coconut.

5. Bake for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and drizzle lightly with honey. Then grill for 5 minutes or until golden brown.