(Please find Part I here ).
For both fried plantains as for fried corn nuts, the biggest appeal of making them is in attesting and identifying their different stages of transformation by the shade of yellow they wear. They both start out a pale yellow, equivalent to the ideal colour of homemade mayonnaise; subsequently they mimick both sunshine and sunflowers to finally end in, not the hues of a sunset, but bearing the tonalities of precious metals: plantains mimicking gold, and corn nuts in the perfectly imperfect tinge between gold and copper.
You can find the recipe for Fried Plantains in the link above, whereas in this post we shall proceed with making:
Fried Corn Nuts
You will need:
- 2- 3 cups of raw corn nuts
- 1/3 cup of coarsely chopped onions (whichever varieties you have lying around in your fridge: yellow, red, green, etc.; I encourage you to use more than one variety)
- 5 - 6 cloves of garlic (peeled and whole)
- vegetable oil for frying deep frying = total submersion, i.e., whatever you're frying has to be as if swimming, with enough vertical space to float)
What to do:
1. Fill a bowl with lukewarm water and soak the raw corn nuts for at least an hour.
2. Remove the corn nuts from the water and dry thoroughly.
3. Fill your trusty and heavy pot with vegetable oil (half-way and a little more) and bring it to temperature over medium high heat. Let exactly 2 minutes go by before pouring in the well-dried corn nuts.
Notice that we don't want the oil to be not hot enough for the corn to pop or deep fry. We just want the oil to be warm enough to embrace the kernels as they slowly dance and swirl as the temperature rises and they gradually cook on the inside and crunch up outside.
Using a slotted stainless spoon keep watch of your corn nuts, swirling them around every now and then, making sure the temperature of the oil doesn't rise above 160°C/320°F.
*Kernels might randomly pop every so often so do be cautious, keep your face distant from the pot.
After fifteen minutes, put the onion chunks and garlic cloves into the pot alongside your corn nuts. The purpose of these newcomers is to scent the corn kernels with their sweetness.
Keep stirring and checking the temperature of the oil and the colour of the kernels from 15 more minutes or until they reach the following colour:
Season with salt-
And make the most of them.