Quick & Easy Sweet & Spicy Sauteed Plantain

I bought a plantain last weekend that had a cool little sticker on it that read:

Green - Use like a potato! Perfect as a side dish, in soups and stews, or deep fried.
Yellow with Brown Spots - Great fried and mashed.
Black - Sweet and mainly used as a dessert.

Mine was slightly green/mostly yellow last week, so I let it sit in our hot summer kitchen on a shelf for slightly over a week. It turned yellow with a fair amount of solid brown at the ends with some spots here and there in between. It was soft to the touch.

I peeled it and it was almost the colour of orange sherbet, a nice, bright, slightly orange-y gold colour. I sliced it in quarters and then sliced the quarters into halves and fried them all in butter, turning frequently for about 10 minutes on low - medium heat, until they were lightly crispy and browned on some surfaces and soft with that glassy look of doneness (versus the dry look before I fried it).

I put the fried plantain pieces in a bowl and covered them with cinnamon for the best tasting dessert I've had in months. The taste was sweet and buttery and spicy, and no sugar or carb rush since there's not as much sugar in these as in their banana cousins, and plenty of stomach-soothing mucilagenous fibre to fill you up for several hours. Simple and delicious!

EZ Tomato BBQ Sauce

Here's an easy BBQ sauce for the times when you run out of the storebought version:

• 1 can chopped tomatoes (can use roasted tomatoes depending on your taste)
• 1-2 tb finely chopped white onion
• 4 - 6 sections garlic, crushed & chopped
• 1 tb cider vinegar
  
• 2 tb agave nectar or molasses (or more to taste)

You can stop here, or use these variations* for flavor's sake:

• 1 tsp turmeric*
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder*
• Small sprinkle of cayenne pepper*
  

Combine all ingredients in medium saucepan, stirring frequently over lo-medium heat for 20 minutes or so (the longer the better). And dammit, don't let it overcook to the point where it loses moisture or gets burned at the bottom of the saucepan! Use it to baste barbecue meats, fish, this even works as a topping for hot dogs. There is no added salt, and it has very low glycemic/sugar content while being quite flavourful.

*These three ingredients were used as a substitute for mustard powder, which I did not have on hand. Some other substitutes you might consider:

• No vinegar on hand? Try lemon juice or even orange juice and wine.
• Any sweetener or sugar substitute will work. Simply taste-test to your preferred sweetness amount and make a note of how much and what you used.
• Other substitutes for mustard: horseradish, regular liquid mustard, wasabi powder, mustard seed, etc.