The versitility of matooke

On Monday, December 14th, we harvested a big bunch of matooke from our yard. (Mel didn't find it very tasty) Despite the fact that we split it with the deJongs, we've still eaten it almost two meals every day for over a week... Oh, and guess what? Another whole bunch was ready on the 22nd! So we have been experimenting with more ways to eat matooke than our traditional bean/carrot/onion sauce, peanut sauce, and just plain tomato sauce. Since matooke is fairly similar to green plantains, we thought we would see if tostones made out of matooke would be any good. And they are!
To make tostones, you cut the plantain/matooke into about 1 inch circles, then fry in oil it on both sides.
After that, you take the rounds out of the oil and smash them with the bottom of a solid cup or something similar.
Then, put them back into the oil and fry again on both sides.
Finally, drain the pieces and sprinkle salt on them.

The only problem with the matooke as opposed to plantains, is that they don't smash very well. They actually kind of disintegrate. So we tried making matooke chips instead and that stayed together much better (didn't require any smashing). We just cut the matooke in half lengthwise, then cut each of those pieces in half and fried once.

Here's another matooke option. We cooked the matooke, then mashed it with some garlic powder, milk, and butter, and added grated cheese and cooked collard greens. It was very tasty. In fact, it tasted a lot like a dish we would make in the US with potatoes (mashed, mixed with milk, butter, leeks, kale, and Parmesan cheese).


And then, we tried cooking the matooke, mashing it, and putting a sauce on top made from green peas cooked in chicken broth with onions, cumin, and