This dish is inspired by Border Grill. I’ve never been there but I’d LOVE to go!!
They have restaurants and food trucks in Las Vegas and LA. And I first discovered them on The Chef Show on Netflix . Border Grill is founded and run by two wonderful women who cook all natural modern Mexican food. They source sustainably, try to be as close to zero waste as possible and majority of their menu is plant based 👌🏻 . Sounds like heaven to me!
After watching the show I went onto their website to look for recipes. There was a plantain taco on their homepage which looked insane but they didn’t have the recipe online. Instead, this is my best attempt of replicating it just from a picture!
There's quite a few elements to this dish but don't be deterred it's well worth the grind.
Ingredients
Plantain
2x Plantain
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp hot curry powder
Salt (to taste)
1 tbsp flavourless oil (vegetable or sunflower)
Orange Salsa
1 orange
200g cherry tomatoes (I used mixed red, orange and yellow)
1 red onion, diced
½ red chilli (or more to taste)
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
For avocado crema (needs blender/food processor – can use pestle and mortar)
Handful of coriander leaves
2x ripe avocados
½ lime, juiced
1 tbsp sour cream or vegan alternative (can use yogurt too)
100 ml water
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
For pickled onions (optional)
1 red onion, strips
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
200ml apple cider vinegar
Method
1. If making the pickled onions, make 2-3 hours ahead of time, ideally leave for 24 hours. Chop onion in thin strips. Place in bowl and add vinegar, sugar and salt. Will pickle best at room temp but if leaving longer than 12 hours put in the fridge.
2. Prepare the plantain. Cut diagonally, you’ll want these to be at least 3cm thick. In a bowl cover plantain in spices and oil. Put to the side until ready to fry (salt once fried).
3. Chop tomatoes into quarters and then in half. You want small pieces. Dice onion. Finely chop chilli. Put into a bowl.
4. Supreme half of the orange (see note 1). Cut each segment into 3. Squeeze the juice out of the other half. Add orange and juice into the onion, tomatoes and chilli. Season to taste.
5. Blend avocados, sour cream, lime juice, water and seasoning (tip add water in first). You want a thick, yogurt like consistency. Add more water as needed. Add handful of coriander. (See note 2 before adding coriander if your blender is as stubborn as mine)
6. Fry plantain on medium heat. 2 mins each side or until golden brown (cooks quickly due to the high sugar content). Salt while still hot.
7. Serve! Sprinkle with fresh coriander and top with pickled onions. Eat on it’s own or with Elote (grilled mexican corn on the cob).
Note 1: This can be tricky but bear with…
1. Remove the ends of the orange so you have a flat surface.
2. Stand the fruit upright on one of the flat ends.
3. Slicing down you want to cut off the skin in sections. Be sure that you are making a clean slice and removing all the white pith.
4. Once pith is removed. Slice segments of the orange between the white membrane. This will give you orange Supremes. For this recipe only supreme half the orange, the other half will be juiced.
Note 2: If your blender throws a hissy fit when roughage or herbs hit it…
Once at a thick consistency remove ¾ of the avocado crema into a bowl. Add 2 tbsp of water into the blender and then add the coriander. Blitz until dark green and you can see flecks of coriander. Mix this into the rest of the avo crema.