Kaklo or Krakro are Ghanaian spicy plantain balls that are good snacks or appetizers. Over-ripe, black, and squishy bananas are perfect for these plantain fritters.
Ghana cuisine uses an abundance of plantains in their cooking and I was amazed to see so many vegetarian snacks that I could make with them. Most of the recipes (if not all) called for over-ripe plantains.
When they mean overripe, they mean the absolutely black and squishy ones, and it was mentioned all over the book that those were the perfect plantains for this Krakro recipe.
I had bookmarked this particular recipe, Krakro, and was excited to find a few over-ripe plantains in the grocery store. Do not confuse the plantains with the regular bananas.
Plantains are the large ones that you find in the grocery and they taste entirely different from the regular green bananas. The plantains are called the nenthrampazham in Tamil and Malayalam and are consumed by Kerala folks a lot.
My favorite dish ever with the plantains are the chips (Nenthrankkai chips) that are made with raw Plantains.
Just after I got married, and my husband ate often at a Chinese take-out place in Connecticut and they served these delicious deep fried sweet plantains. Those were something I was never able to eat anywhere else.
When I was looking at this recipe, it sort of reminded me of the deep-fried plantains, though textually they are very different from each other.
This Plantain Fritters recipe uses just a few ingredients and the plantains are the star. I used some jalapeno pepper for heat. The only trick to making them perfect is frying them in pretty low to medium heat.
If not, the plantain balls will become dark on the outside and will remain raw inside. Deep fried plantain fritters tasted awesome, but they did suck up quite a bit of oil.
That is when I tried to make a batch of it in the appam pan and they turned out perfect. Again, cooking them at low heat is very important, and also using a lid to cover the pan when frying is essential as it allows the inside of the plantain balls to cook.
The Kaklo are slightly crisp on the outside and soft inside. You can serve it with some hot sauce or just as is. They can be served warm or at room temperature. I personally liked it at room temperature.
My other recipes this Marathon –
Soups
Day 2 - Vegan Chickpeas Soup (Middle Eastern)
Day 3 - Roasted Butternut Squash Soup - (Mexican)
Appertizers / Snacks
Preparation time – 10 minutes
Cooking time – 30 minutes
Difficulty level – medium
Recipe adapted from – The Ghana Cookbook
Ingredients To Make Plantain Fritters – (Makes 20 Fritters)
Overripe plantains – 3 (not bananas)
Jalapeno – ½ of a large one
Onion – 3 tbsp
All-purpose flour – ½ cup
Baking powder – ½ tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Oil – to deep fry
Procedure To Make Plantain Fritters –
- In a blender jar, add the onion and the jalapeno along with 2 to 3 tablespoon of water and blend it.
- If using a mortar and pestle, add the peeled plantains into the mortar and make it into a smooth puree. I don’t have a large mortar and pestle and hence used my blender itself to blend the plantains.
- Once the onions and jalapenos have become a smooth paste, add the chopped plantains to the blender jar and blend them a couple of times to make them into a smooth paste.
- Transfer this mixture into a large bowl and add the baking powder, flour, and salt to it.
- Mix it well and leave it aside for 10 to 15 minutes.
- In the meantime, heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Do not let the oil become too hot. The oil should be at medium heat throughout the cooking process so that the inside of the plantain balls is cooked as well. If the oil is too hot, it will brown up on the outside too quickly, and the inside will be raw.
- Take a spoonful of the batter and gently slide it into the oil. Add a few balls in the oil without overcrowding them. Let the Plantain Fritters cook on all the sides until deep brown. Make sure that you cook it in low to medium flame.
- Drain Kaklo on a paper towel-lined dish and serve when it cools down a bit. Personally, I liked the Krakro at room temperature.
- I also made a batch of Kaklo in the appam pan / Appe pan and it used up way less oil than the deep frying method. Taste-wise, definitely the deep-fried were much better but the appam pan made up for a healthy alternative.
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Recipe
Plantain Balls | Kaklo | Krakro | Ghanaian Spicy Plantain Fritters
Equipment
- bowl
- Appa Pan
- spatula
Ingredients
- 3 Over ripe plantains Not bananas
- ½ large one Jalapeno
- 3 tablespoon Onion
- ½ cup All-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- to deep fry Oil
Instructions
- In a blender jar, add the onion and the jalapeno along with 2 to 3 tablespoon of water and blend it.
- If using a mortar and pestle, add the peeled plantains into the mortar and make it into a smooth puree. I don’t have a large mortar and pestle and hence used my blender itself to blend the plantains.
- Once the onions and jalapenos have become a smooth paste, add the chopped plantains to the blender jar and blend it a couple of times to make it into a smooth paste.
- Transfer this mixture into a large bowl and add the baking powder, flour, and salt to it.
- Mix it well and leave it aside for 10 to 15 minutes.
- In the meantime heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Do not let the oil become too hot. The oil should be in medium heat through the cooking process so that the inside of the plantain balls are cooked as well. If the oil is too hot, it will brown up on the outside too quickly and the inside would be raw.
- Take a spoonful of the batter and gently slide it into the oil. Add a few balls in the oil without overcrowding them. Let it cook on all the sides until deep brown. Make sure that you cook it in low to medium flame.
- Drain it on a paper towel lined dish and serve when it cools down a bit. Personally I liked them in room temperature.
- I also made a batch of it in the appam pan / Appe pan and it used up way less oil than the deep frying method. Taste wise, definitely the deep fried were much better but the appam pan made up for a healthy alternative.
Juliet says
Krakro is really tasty, your pictures of it is amazing!
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
Thanks Juliet!