Burnt Matoke Crisps

My dear mother calls me up to ask if I’d like some matoke (plantain/green bananas) and I’m like why not. She sends my brother to drop them off. Fast forward three days later, on that Thursday I manage to get home early and instead of just making the bananas in a stew I decide to make some crisps.

the bananas

This recipe is pretty easy and quick to do. You only need  bananas, oil for frying them and salt to taste.

Start by peeling and washing the bananas.

Tip: Apply some vegetable oil on your hands before peeling the bananas to avoid the sap from sticking on your hands or you can wear a clear polythene bag as gloves and peel away.

I cut the bananas into small horizontal slices, about a centimetre thick.

the matoke

In a pan, heat oil then add the matoke slices. Ensure when putting the matoke you lay them in a single layer to avoid them from sticking to each other. Do not be tempted to keep turning them.

frying

At this point, I heard a knock on the door, on opening it was my small brother Leon, he’d been sent by my other brother Sam to pick something from me. The first batch of the crisps were already cooked so I shared them with him while catching up.

So, this lady forgot all about the other crisps in the pan and by the time I got back to the kitchen this is what I found.

burnt!!!

Imagine!!! Such disappointment. My dear friends when cooking these crisps please don’t leave the pan unattended lest you want burnt crisps. Taking of once bitten twice shy well that doesn’t apply to me since I successfully managed to burn the third bunch, unlucky much?

For the fourth and final batch I stood watch and even reduced the heat just to be on the safe side. Luckily they didn’t burn. I saved them for hubby.

matoke crisps

Though few, they are pretty tasty.

Hubby loved them.

Now, I’ve purposed to personally buy matoke and make these crisps.

Beef Stir Fry with Matoke

The same day I made matoke I decided to make some beef stir fry to serve as an accompaniment.

Ingredients:

1/4 kg beef cut into strips

4 carrots cut lengthwise into thin strips

1 bell pepper cut lengthwise

1 onion sliced

Salt

Black pepper

½ teaspoon of dried rosemary leaves

2 teaspoons of vegetable oil for frying

The trick in getting the perfect strips with the beef is to cut it while it’s still a bit cold. I had removed my meat like 20 minutes prior and I’d left it to thaw slowly on the kitchen table.

the beef strips

Heat the oil in a pan then toss in your onions, then add your salt and black pepper.

I normally don’t fry beef, since I find it to be pretty fatty by itself but since I was stir frying, I thought why not.

 Once the onions are tender, throw in the strips of beef and stir (yep stir fry) to mix it with the onion yumminess.

on to the pan

Let the strips cook for about 20 minutes stirring every 5 minutes to avoid them sticking onto the pan.The beef cooks even faster than normal since

the strips are thin.

Once it’s almost done add the remaining ingredients not forgetting the dried rosemary leaves. Stir once more then let them cook for about 5

minutes. I like when my carrots are crunchy but in case you like them tender you can cook for longer.

don’t you just love it when the food has such rich colours, yum yum

And just like that you have a scrumptious meal

Delicious!!

Verdict:

I’m known to go a bit crazy when it comes to spicing the food and fortunately or unfortunately the black pepper was a bit too much in the matoke. Still loved it though. Hubby had been hesitant to eat the matoke, so he served a small portion at first (test run I guess).

He later heaped his plate (happy wife).

 The carrots were crunchy and the beef was full rosemary and black pepper goodness :-).

If I could do it over again:

 Reduce the amount of salt in the beef (told you, I go a bit crazy when seasoning is involved) O-o.

How do you cook your bananas?

From Mother in Law with Love

Some Saturdays ago we had dinner over at my other family. We usually have a great time and never leave till it’s like pretty late.

As is my mother in law’s tradition, she gave us some goodies to carry with us once we were about to head for home. This time round she gave us some unripe bananas. I saw it as a challenge since I don’t think I’d have ever thought of cooking matoke.

As I was thinking of how I’d prepare them then ‘eureka’ I remembered that my mother had prepared matoke occasionally and I think I could remember just how she used to do it.

The ingredients

Ingredients:

A bunch of unripe bananas, around 8

Potatoes let’s say 10

A handful of carrots wedged

1 onion sliced

I whole garlic chopped

2 teaspoons of chopped ginger

1/2 bell pepper sliced lengthwise

400ml of water or stock (beef, chicken or vegetable)

Salt

Black pepper

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

First things first, peeling the bananas and potatoes. I recall that unripe bananas has some stuff which I only know their name in my mother tongue:-) that sticks on ones hands. I used to see my mum apply some cooking oil on her hands so as not to get the ‘whatchamacallit’ on her hands I faithfully did like her and peeled the bananas without a hitch “yippee”. Once everything is peeled and washed set aside and start on frying the onions.

The fried onions,garlic, ginger mixed with the salt and black pepper

Then add the carrots and bell pepper

The colours look yummy, don’t they?

I didn’t put tomatoes in this recipe since I wasn’t quite sure if they were necessary, are they?

Then add the bananas and potatoes and stir till everything is combined and cover for about 5 minutes to let the spices soak in.

You can see the black pepper on the bananas and potatoes

Then finally add in your water or stock (beef, chicken or vegetable), I used water. As for the amount, I normally measure with my eyes and I remembered that my mother used to put the water almost till the level of the bananas. Cover and let them cook over medium to low heat for about 40 minutes or until the potatoes are done.

Check the water level

You’ll wait to see the end result on my next post.

Curious Question:

Does anyone else experience the sticky stuff when peeling unripe bananas?