Labouyi Bannan
Labouyi Bannan is the Haitian name for plantain porridge.Haitians love to eat Labouyi Bannan for breakfast because its ingredients aresweet tasting and provide the perfect boost to get your day started. Caribbeanislanders have been eating porridge for many generations now. There are manyvariations of it across the Caribbean islands, but Haitians put Labouyi Bannanon the highest pedestal above all other porridges. Haitians create their porridge a little bit differently,especially the Labouyi. Instead of using the traditional corn, oat, or wheatporridges, they use plantains in their Labouyi. On top of that, they add a lotof extra ingredients to make the porridge creamy and sweet. It has the samekind of consistency that you would find with light grits. Alternatively, you can make Labouyi with cornmeal andflour if you prefer the classic type of porridge. Just use all of the otheringredients mentioned below with the cornmeal and flour.
Ingredients
- 1 Green Plantain (Washed)
- 3 Cups of water
- 1 Star Anise
- ½ cup of Evaporated Milk
- ½ cup of Coconut Milk
- ½ tsp of Cinnamon Powder (or you can use 1 cinnamon stick)
- ¼ cup of Sugar
- 1 tbsp of Butter
- 1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp of Salt (for the taste)
Instructions
- Take your green plantain and start peeling off its skin. After the skinis peeled, cut the plantain into 4 to 8 smaller pieces. Don’t worry if youstill have some skin left on the plantain. There is nothing wrong withconsuming the skin because it has more nutrients in it than the actual plantainbase. The skin might affect the overall taste, though.
- Put two cups of water and the plantain pieces into a blender. Puree theingredients in the blender until the chunks are broken up and liquid smooth.
- Grab a saucepan that is 1 quart in size and put it on the stove. Addcoconut milk, evaporated milk, one cup of water, cinnamon and star anise to thesaucepan. Stir the ingredients together. Turn on the stove to medium high andwait for the mixture to boil. Stir periodically as the mixture heats up.
- When the mixture finally boils, pour the plantain puree into thesaucepan. Stir everything together as the mixture boils. Keep stirring nonstopfor 5 minutes. You should notice the thickening of the porridge by this point.
- Add the vanilla extract, salt and sugar to the saucepan.Continue to stir everything together for 10 minutes.
- Lower the heat setting to medium intensity. Continue to stir the mixturefor 10 more minutes. Taste the porridge solution periodically as you stir themixture. You’ll want to make sure it is cooked completely. When you notice acreamy texture, then it is ready to consume.
- Once you find that it is cooked all the way, turn off the heat to thestove. You should serve the porridge warm rather than hot. Labouyi Bannan isgood to eat with Haitian bread for breakfast.
Video
Notes
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