Matoke

Ingredients

• Green matoke bananas12
• Banana leaves6
• Onion1
• Tomatoes2
• Peanut paste — for the sauce100 g
• Vegetable oil40 ml
• Saltto 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

   Peel the bananas with oiled hands; their sap stains the skin black.

   20 min

2. 2

   Pass the banana leaves over a flame for ten seconds so they turn pliable.

   8 min

3. 3

   Line the bottom of the pot with the leaf ribs; they keep the parcel off the water.

   6 min

4. 4

   Wrap the bananas in the leaves into a tight parcel and set it on that platform.

   10 min

5. 5

   Add water two fingers deep, cover and steam for an hour and twenty, topping up with boiling water.

   85 min

6. 6

   Without unwrapping, press the parcel through the leaves into an even purée and return it to the steam for ten minutes.

   14 min

7. 7

   Serve with peanut sauce or stewed beef, straight onto the leaf.

   10 min

About the dish

The bananas are wrapped in their own leaves and steamed for an hour or more. The leaves keep them from touching the water, and matoke comes out dense rather than watery.

It is mashed inside the parcel without unwrapping: the bundle goes on a board and is pressed through the leaves. The purée then neither cools nor takes in air.

The colour should be yellow, not white. Yellow comes from long steaming in a sealed parcel; boiling in water leaves the bananas pale and bland.

Worth knowing

• — Without banana leaves, foil does the job — the principle is the same, but the colour stays paler, and that is worth admitting.
• — The bananas have to be matoke, starchy and fully green. Ripe ones give a sweet purée rather than a side dish.
• — Top up only with boiling water. Cold water stops the steam and the bananas cook unevenly.

Nutrition

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

Calories

340 kcal

Protein

6 g

Fat

10 g

Carbs

62 g

More from Uganda

• Rolex — A vegetable omelette rolled in a chapati. Kampala street food, the name a slur of "rolled eggs".