Cooking local style

One of the common, favorite foods for Ugandans here is Matooke, a banana that is soft when cooked and served with sauces of various kinds. Heritage School organized an appreciation lunch for support staff this week. Each of us was asked to bring some food for them.

I decided to make matooke. How hard could it be?? It is a lot like mashed potatoes.


So, one bunch of matooke




broken/cut off into a pile and ready to peel




Peeling the green skin and the underlayer takes more skill and time than I'd imagined.




Finally, after 2+ hours, all the fingers are peeled. See all the dark on my hands and knife? Just the sap from the matooke. It does scrub off.




Thanks to Ali, there were banana leaves to wrap the matooke in for cooking; banana leaf stems and fibers to line the bottom of the pan to prevent burning and banana fibers to tie it all together so it can be lifted from the pot when done.




Pan filled with stems.....check banana fibers laid cross wise.....check




banana leaves laid in....whoops, needed to wash them first as they were dusty




load in the banana fingers.......oh no see all the dark lines on the fingers?? I didn't peel correctly, have to redo almost every one




Finally have a full pan, leaves pushed around the pot, fibers tied, pot on top to hold the steam and whole thing on the stove.






On to the second one! Oh my, I'm running out of time, the food is to be at school at 1 and I haven't booked the car yet to carry me and the hot stuff down.

That done, worked up the second pot. At 12:15 called it done and tied that one off. At 12:30 took the first pot from the stove. Went to lift out the matooke and all the leaves holding it came apart!!



Matooke in the pot,on the counter, what a mess. Salvaged by grabbing my largest glass bowl and putting all the matooke into it, pressing it with banana leaves on top.




The car arrived. I turned off the stove, pressed the leaves in the pot. All seemed done. Drained the pot, pressed some more. With the help of potholders, loaded into the car, down to scholl and into a warming oven to be held for the lunch at 1:30.


Whew!! Fixing matooke isn't as easy as it looks. I'll be much more appreciative of those who fix it for me. Next time, I'll just make katogo (matooke stew), thank you very much.