I say 'banana', you say...?

In Uganda Matooke (mar-took-ay) is served with almost every dish... at least every second dish! I have eaten it straight from the tree, served with a ground nut sauce, as an accompaniment to Nile Perch, or just with posho (cornmeal), rice or beans...

For the first week I thought I was eating sweet potato. 

Then someone said: "Did you like the banana?". 

I said: "I liked the potato". 

She said: "No, the banana we had for lunch". 

I said: "Wasn't that potato?". 

She said: "No it was banana! Potato is sweet!".

Go figure.

So Here's an explanation of how to cook it.... enjoy :) 

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One popular local dish is matooke (bananas of the plantain type...ie when they are green) which are cooked boiled in a sauce of peanuts, fresh fish, meat or entrails. Matooke really goes with any relish, except that the best and most respectable way the Baganda cook it is to tie up the peeled fingers into a bundle of banana leaves which is then put in a cooking pan with just enough water to steam the leaves.

Real process

When properly ready and tender, the bundle is removed and squeezed to get a smooth soft and golden yellow mash, served hot with all the banana leaves around to keep it hot. In Buganda, the food production process revolves around the banana tree.

Tender banana tree shoots are removed from the plant and singed over fire to make a fine foil into which chunks of pork or beef are tied up and steamed on top of a bundle of bananas.

This style of cooking preserves all the flavours and cooks up food like a pressure cooker, if not better. Dry banana leaves are used like bandages when bundles of matooke are being wrapped up for steaming.

Strips and chunks cut from the banana tree stem can be used as a foundation at the bottom of the cooking pan so as to avoid the boiling water touching the bundle of the matooke being steamed.