Matoki Fritters

Growing up, my Mother used to make a delicious "Matoki nu shaak." Matoki for anyone from Africa, will recognize this vegetable as a completely green, unripe banana from the plantain family. It is so green and raw, that you cannot even peel it like a regular ripe banana. Eww, I hear you cry! That was you wasn't it? Well, let's put it this way, a Matoki does not taste like a banana or smell like a banana. Think of a potato with a creamy, wholesome and slightly nutty taste.  So, anyway, as I was saying, my Mother used to make a scrumptious curry out of it. Once, when I tried to make it, it turned out a little mushy... So I mushed it out completely, added some ground peanuts, formed patties out of these and grilled these on a frying pan. Voila! A new and tasty dish!

And I think I'm also getting better at remembering how much I put of what into the recipe, when there is no recipe to follow!

• 7 Matokis (green bananas, plantains)
• 1 large red onion, finely diced
• 3 plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 can white garbanzo beans, drained and washed
• 4 cloves garlic - minced
• 1 inch stem of ginger - minced
• 4 green birds-eye chilles - minced
• 2 cups of ground peanuts (If you have a peanut allergy, then use breadcrumbs. But the nuts really bring out the taste in this recipe!)
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• Lemon juice (I used one whole fresh lemon)
• Handful of Corriander leaves, minced finely
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1 tsp Salt - according to taste
• 1 tsp Garam masala - according to taste
• 1 tbsp of oil
• A pinch of turmeric powder
• A little cornflour or semolina flour - used to coat the patty

1. Peel the matokis, and slice into ½ inch pieces. Add these into a pan of water with a little salt and tumeric and allow to boil, until the Matoki pieces are a little soft. (When you peel Matokis, your hands do become very sticky, so I just put a little bit of cooking oil on my hands. Works a treat!) 
2. In a pan, heat the oil, when hot, temper the Cumin seeds, and add the minced ginger, garlic and chopped onions. 
3. Once the onions are half cooked, add the minced green chillies and the tomatoes. And then let everything just cook into a mush 
4. Add the salt, and garam masala to this mixture 
5. Meanwhile, the matokis are probably cooked through. Check, and if they are, drain, and allow to cool. 
6. Crush the garbanzo beans so that these too are mushed up, and there are no whole beans left. (A bean split into half is okay, but make sure that there aren't too many of these) and add to the mixture cooking. 
7. When the matokis have cooled, crush these and add to the mixture. 
8. Just mix everything well, and it should look heavy and like a thick paste 
9. Add peanut powder and fresh lemon juice and cilantro. (And wow! The aroma is just heavenly now! I can just eat this out of the bowl!) 
10. The texture not should be like a very soft dough. If not, then you can add more peanut powder, or even breadcrumbs
11. While the mixture cools, heat he oven to 400F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper
12. With the cool mixture, take an ice cream scoop size ball, roll it in the semolina, then flatten into a patty, and place on the baking sheet. Repeat... :)
13. Bake in the oven for 20 mins, flip over then bake for another 20 mins. The outside should crisp up, whilst the inside is still soft.

Okay, so I didn't have enough peanuts... What to do? I had hazelnuts! And so I put a cupful in the food processor, created a near-breadcrumb like grind, and then added these as well!

I did use an ice cream scoop to get the same sized patties each time, and with about ingredients, I made 15 patties each about 3 inches in diameter and ½ inch thick.  These freeze well. Just put a piece of greaseproof paper in between each patty, wrap the cylinder pile in foil, and then put in a zip lock bag for extra protection from freezer-burn! :))