Diary of an Inconsistent Cook #62: Plantain Porridge Fail becomes Gufong Malasadas Mashup (#homecooking #itstilltastesgood)

No recipe to share today, but more of a lesson to turn failures into a success.

Sometimes when you try something new, it doesn’t pan out. In my case, I enjoy plantains but tend to forget they exist in the rush to just toss the kids apples and bananas and potatoes. I love these “savory bananas” as much as I love taro root. The flavor is starchy, yet so different than potato. If you haven’t tried either of them, I recommend it. What’s nice about plantain is that they can be used green, ripe, overripe, and “so ripe they are black and mushy”. They get sweeter as they ripen.

I made a green plantain porridge. I actually followed the recipe I found to a T and it didn’t pan out. Perhaps, I didn’t cook it long enough or the recipe proportions were off. I will find another recipe with more detailed instructions and try again. I am not going to post the one I used. That said, my son liked it, my daughter hated it (even feigned a stomach ache), and I was “uh, this doesn’t taste quite right”. It was edible. It looked better than it tasted!

Plantain porridge: green plantain, evaporated milk, water, cinnamon sticks, star anise, salt, sugar

What I did was try to turn it into gufong (goo-phone’g) which is a Cape Verdean Banana Fried Doughnut/Fritter. Now my grandmother only uses banana, flour, baking powder, sugar, and water. Other recipes passed down by families use 50/50 cornmeal and flour. I plan on making both proper gufongs in the future. For this entry, I tried to salvage the failed porridge by adding flour.

Not exactly gufong, but a salvaged plantain fritter.

I added flour to the pudding with some baking powder, adjusted the sugar, and fried in oil until a deep golden brown just like I would gufong. They came out looking more like a Portuguese malasadas and New Orleans beignets. They were declared “yummy” by the children. They definitely were better fresh than cold, but still delicious.

I posted this picture and my cousin laughed at me. Yeah, yeah. Failed gufong. Laugh it up! But considering that this was an experiment in salvage, I think they turned out.

So, the next time something you try doesn’t turn out right, see if you can turn it into an interesting opportunity instead of feeding the dog. Worst comes to worst, the Rover gets a treat.