matooke and gnut stew recipe

provided by Paul Musungu of Cwmbale Eco-lodge ltd.

(Originating from Buganda, Uganda’s largest traditional tribe by population, this dish was and still is considered as a delicacy for most Baganda and is usually served as breakfast or lunch. To this day, children are taken through vigorous training to learn how to peel and prepare plantain. As other tribes all over the country especially in the central, west and east embraced the art of growing matooke and groundnuts, it became one of the easiest, and affordable to access for every Ugandan in these regions. In a local restaurant, you can have this dish served to you at the cost of Ugshs4000 which is equivalent to 1 US Dollar and a few cents hence making it one of the most affordable.

Ingredients

1 cluster of fully grown matooke (plantain) fingers i.e. about 15 fingers.
Quarter a kilo of roasted and ground Gnut paste (ground nut seed paste).
3 sizeable bulbs of fresh onions
2 or 3 fresh and ripe tomatoes
1 full teaspoon of curry powder(Royco/readily available spice sold in every retail shop in East Africa)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of water i.e. a litre of water.
1 bundle of leafy greens (dodo/spinach/cabbage) in this case we used Dodo; its very affordable on the local market.
Optional; a banana leaf used to wrap up the peeled fingers of plantain; this leaf helps to retain heat and provides the matooke with a lovely aroma.

Preparation Time: About 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 25-30 minutes

Servings: Based on the portions used should be able to provide 3 well-proportioned serving

Instructions:

Step 1

Peel the fingers of the plantain, drop the peeled fingers in fresh water and wash them thoroughly, get your medium sized cooking pot or saucepan, place the fingers in the sauce pan and add about two litres of water to this.

Step 2

Light your stove, setting it to cook at a relatively high heat which will cook the matooke faster. Allow the fingers to boil at high heat for between 12 to 15 minutes. After which, they should turn soft and bright yellow. At this point the matooke is ready to be eaten; locally we drain the remaining water and place the boiled fingers, one at a time into a plantain leaf, inside which we carefully wrap and mash them. This forms a bright yellow mound which you then leave in the plantain leaf and place back over the stove over very low heat. Add a litre of water to the pan and let it steam up the mashed matooke to keep it hot as you wait for the gnut sauce to get ready.

PREPARING YOUR GNUT SAUCE/STEW AND SIDE VEGETABLES/LEAFY GREENS

Step 3

Measure a litre of water and place it in a small cooking pan, place it on heat and allow the water to boil.

Step 4

When the water starts boiling, get you quarter kilo of gnut paste and add it to this boiling water. Now immediately begin to stir this mixture vigorously till the gnut paste totally dissolves in the boiling water to form a smooth flowing liquid.

Step 5

Continue to stir this mixture now over medium heat; this is to allow the mixture to thicken evenly and form a thick oily stew; do this for ten minutes.

Step 6

At this point, chop up your tomatoes and onions and add them into this mixture; allow it to cook as your stir for another 10 minutes after which you get a pinch of royco and salt, mix them in warm water to dissolve and add this to the gnut stew. After you have done this, continue to stir over medium heat for another 10 minutes then leave it to continue to boil at very low it. The stew should by now be thick, but very smooth. You can at this point add in salt as you stir to give you the desired taste.

Step 7

Chop up your leafy greens (dodo) into small pieces, do the same for two tomatoes and two onions. Get a frying pan, smear it with a little oil or locally available butter, put in the onions and tomatoes first for about 2 minutes then follow up with the leafy greens. Shallow fry these greens for only 5 minutes, add a pinch of salt and they are ready to be served.