If you live in Uganda or any country in the tropics) you have no doubt been surrounded by bananas; green ones, red ones, yellow ones, blue ones (they turn yellow when ripe). Some can be eaten ripe others and yet others raw. Gonja or plantain is one of those that needs to be cooked first and this has opened it up to about a million recipes. To that end, here are 5 ways to cook gonja.
1. Fry it
Naturally, the more ripe, the sweeter. Just slice up your gonja and dip in oil till golden and voila! You’re done.
(Photo courtesy of africanbites.com)
2. Steam it
For this, you can use not-very-ripe gonja. Go the extra mile and wrap them in banana leaves, ndagala, for that that irreplicable aroma.
3. Roast it
I’m actually surprised that gonja doesn’t show up more at barbecues. Put the meats on ones side and the gonja on the other. If you don’t have the patience for that, buy it from the streets for a few shillings.
4. Spice it up and make Kelewele
In Ghana, gonja is cut up like chips and spiced with chilli and ginger and fried. Looks delicious. Peep the recipe here at Nanaaba’s kitchen.
5. Plantain donuts
If you love to cook and you are not following A Kitchen in Uganda, you need to do sum’n about that right now. She has an interesting recipe to make plaintain donuts. Check it out here.