Matoke
Uganda's emblematic dish: green starchy plantains steam-cooked in a tomato-and-groundnut sauce with beef, until soft and buttery. A Buganda staple.
Overview
Beef is browned and simmered with onions, garlic, ginger, tomato and a touch of curry powder. Green, unripe plantains are peeled and added to the pot to steam-cook in the sauce until tender. A loose peanut paste is stirred through near the end for body and richness. The whole dish is one pot and built in stages.
Ingredients
Beef stew
- 600 g stewing beef (chuck or shin), cut in 3 cm pieces
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 onions (chopped)
- 4 garlic cloves (crushed)
- 2 cm piece of ginger (grated)
- 2 tablespoons tomato purée
- 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon mild Curry Powder
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 Royco (or Maggi cube)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 green chilli (split lengthways, seeds in or out to taste)
- 700 ml beef (or chicken stock)
- Salt
Plantains
- 8 green plantains (large, unripe, skin firm and dark green)
- 1 lemon (juiced; for the peeling water)
Peanut sauce
- 4 tablespoons smooth natural peanut butter
- 150 ml hot water (or stock)
To finish
- Small bunch coriander (chopped)
- 1 spring onion (sliced)
Method
Stage 1 - Brown the beef and build the base
- Pat the beef dry and season with salt.
- Heat the oil in a wide lidded pot over high heat. Brown the beef in two batches until well coloured. Set aside.
- Drop heat to medium. Cook the onions in the same pot for 7 minutes until soft.
- Stir in garlic and ginger; cook 1 minute.
- Add the tomato purée; fry 3 minutes until darker.
- Add chopped tomatoes, curry powder, pepper, stock cube, bay leaves and chilli. Simmer 5 minutes.
- Return the beef and pour in the stock. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover and cook 35 minutes.
Stage 2 - Peel the plantains
- Fill a bowl with cold water and the lemon juice (the acid stops the cut flesh oxidising and turning grey).
- Top and tail each plantain. Score the skin lengthways in three places, then peel away the thick skin in strips. A small knife under the skin helps; oil your hands if the sap is sticky.
- Cut each plantain into 4-5 cm chunks; drop straight into the lemon water.
Stage 3 - Cook the plantains in the stew
- Drain the plantains and tip them into the pot, nestling them into the sauce. The liquid should come about ⅔ of the way up the plantains; top up with hot water if needed.
- Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes, turning the plantains once halfway, until they are tender and yielding to a knife.
Stage 4 - Stir in peanut and finish
- Whisk the peanut butter with the hot water in a bowl until pourable.
- Stir the peanut mixture into the pot, gently around the plantains so they do not break up.
- Simmer uncovered 5 minutes; the sauce should thicken to lightly coat a spoon.
- Taste and season with salt.
Stage 5 - Serve
- Spoon plantains, beef and sauce into wide bowls.
- Scatter coriander and spring onion over the top.
Notes
- Plantains must be green: Yellow or black-spotted plantains are too sweet and turn to mush. Look for plantains that are uniformly green, firm and heavy. Hard to find? A large East African or Caribbean grocer will stock them; some supermarkets sell them as "green plantain."
- Peeling is awkward: The skin clings. Scoring lengthways first and working with damp hands helps. Oil your knife if the sap sticks.
- Curry powder is the Ugandan touch: Indian-Ugandan history shows here. A mild yellow blend, not garam masala.
- Royco cube: A common Ugandan kitchen shortcut. Maggi or a teaspoon of bouillon paste works the same.
Variations
Vegetarian matoke: Omit beef, double the plantains and add 300 g of butter beans or red kidney beans in stage 1. Use vegetable stock. Smoked fish matoke: Replace beef with 300 g of flaked smoked mackerel, stirred in at the end of stage 3 rather than browned.
Serving
Serve with: A side of steamed sukuma wiki (collard greens) or a simple cabbage slaw to cut the richness. Garnish with: Fresh coriander and a wedge of lime.
Storage
- Keeps 2 days refrigerated.
- Not ideal for freezing: cooked plantain texture suffers.
- Reheat gently with a splash of stock to loosen the sauce.
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