Ndizi na nyama

Ingredients

• Beef — diced600 g
• Green bananas8
• Coconut milk400 ml
• Onions2
• Tomatoes3
• Garlic4 clove
• Ginger30 g
• Curry powder1 tbsp
• Coriander30 g
• Vegetable oil50 ml
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Brown the beef, add the onion, garlic and ginger and fry until soft.

   15 min

2. 2

   Add the tomatoes and curry powder and cook five minutes, until the tomatoes break down.

   7 min

3. 3

   Add water level with the meat, season and stew thirty minutes, covered.

   32 min

4. 4

   Peel the bananas under running water and cut them into thick rounds.

   12 min

5. 5

   Add the bananas to the pot and cook twenty minutes, until tender.

   22 min

6. 6

   Pour in the coconut milk and warm five minutes without letting it boil. Scatter with coriander.

   7 min

About the dish

The bananas are green and starchy — they behave like potatoes and hold their shape. Ripe ones collapse into a sweet purée within twenty minutes.

Peel them under water or with oiled hands: the sap of green bananas leaves dark stains on skin that take days to wear off.

The coconut milk goes in at the end and is not boiled. Long boiling splits it into oil and curds, and the sauce loses its creaminess.

Worth knowing

• — Peeled bananas darken. Keep them in acidulated water if you peel them ahead.
• — The sauce should be thick but not a paste. If it has reduced too far, add water rather than more coconut milk, or it turns greasy.
• — Plantain works instead of green bananas, but it is larger and needs five minutes more.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

34 g

Fat

30 g

Carbs

56 g

More from Tanzania

• Zanzibar pilau — Rice with beef on the island's spices: clove, cardamom, cinnamon and black pepper, and no turmeric at all.