Turkey fried plantain platter

Here’s how to make a turkey fried plantain platter

In keeping with the Thanksgiving holiday spirit, I decided to create a turkey fried plantain platter. I’d seen some platters with vegetables, others with cheese and crackers, and thought, why not create one with one of my favorite foods, plantains. A turkey plantain platter also presented an opportunity to highlight a food used as a creative alternative to turkey for non meat eaters.

So I ventured out to two of my favorite fresh produce spot in the Bay Area to get as many plantains as I needed for this project. I visited El Mercadito and Mi Rancho, both in Redwood City. From both stores, purchased a total 15 of their ripest plantains. The strategy was to cut some in long slices for the tail. I would need medium angled slices for the shorter feathers and a few circle ones for the inner feathers. So I needed a variety of plantains to carry out this project.

The presentation pieces

This turkey project would be a large one, and I wanted to make sure that I had a large surface area to plate the plantains. I realized that I would need a larger board than I owned. So I went on to Home Goods and found a giant board. If I couldn’t find the board, I was determined to use a large cardboard/ foam board, covered with foil, saran wrap or grease proof paper. I also needed to make sure that I had a bowl with two sections to emulate a turkey’s head and stomach. Thank goodness, I had purchased one last year from Uncommon Goods.

To fry the plantains, I bought a bottle of vegetable oil for a saucepan that was deep enough for deep-frying. It would also help me control the shading of the plantains better. Since they were above the base of the pan the heat from oil is browns the plantain, instead of the heat from the bottom of the pan.

For the dips, I used guacamole and Dominican homemade cheese dip. I made my famous guacamole recipe and excluded tomato, as I wanted to keep the vivid green guac color. The cheese dip is one of my go tos, and a compliment generator. When I hosted regular dinner parties, it would always be part of my charcuterie board as this dip that goes with everything. Please see below for the cheese spread recipe.

Important tips for your turkey fried plantain platter

Purchase your ripe plantains ahead of time to make sure that they will be very ripe when you need to use them
Place them in a brown paper bag to speed up the ripening process
After removing plantains from pan, drain on a paper towel to get rid of the oil
Resist eating all the plantains before serving. You’ll feel a strong need to do so 🙂

How to make a turkey plantain platter

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Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Dessert, dinner, lunch, Main Course, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine Caribbean, Dominican, Filipino, Mexican, South Pacific, vietnamese

Equipment

Deep sauce pan or deep-fryer
Large platter or board
Two section dipping bowl
Small bowl for mixing cheese dip

Ingredients

10 plantains
2 cups vegetable oil
kale
cranberries
micro radish
edible flower
homemade cheese spread see recipe below
guacamole

Ingredients for the cheese dip

2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp mustard
1 teaspoon grated onion
1 tbsp hot sauce you may increase the quantity

Instructions

For the cheese dip

Using a fork, mix ingredients together while pressing gently against the edges of the bowl to break up the grated cheese.
Mix until ingredients have nicely commingled with a great smooth but slightly textured consistency.

For the turkey plantain

Cut plantains into desired length diagonally
deep fry plantains
Lay plantains on board starting with the longest pieces first (tail)
Build into the body with shorter pieces
Add bowl with dips and edible flowers for turkey gobble
Garnish with kale and cranberries
Add micro radish sprouts for legs

Notes

Purchase more plantains than you think that you’ll need.

Keyword fried plantains, platter, turkey