Don't Say Banana - Say Matoke

Uganda is probably the banana basket of east Africa. There are so many types of banana, that there is not one general name for banana in the local language. Here is an introduction to some types of banana from Uganda.

The king of bananas in Uganda is definitely matoke. The term matoke is a generic name for a family of banana that are similar in characteristics. The matoke banana is a small, green banana which grows tightly on large bunches. It is a cooking banana. Ripe matoke bananas are also edible - as a last resort, instead of throwing them away.

The matoke banana tastes best peeled and steamed in banana leaves. It then develops a rich yellow colour. Matoke also tastes good roasted, as a snack.

Its soft, neutral taste is ideal as an accompaniment to fish, meat, groundnut, vegetable and pulse sauces.

Although the matoke has a reputation of not being particularly nutritious, it is very much beloved. It is often preferred to maize meal bread (posho), millet meal bread (kalo), rice, or boiled cassava, sweet potato, yam or arrow root. However, since matoke is expensive, it is often served with one or more of the above.

The price of matoke is one of the most reliable reflections of socio-economic realities. While 20% inflation may sound abstract to many,the same information, stated as the increase in the price of a bunch of matoke from two thousand shillings to twenty thousand shillings, lends immediate relevance and understanding of the state of affairs.

The other popular banana is the bogoya. The bogoya is a long, curved, rather elegant, yellow banana. The bogoya is a fruit banana, eaten yellow and sweet as a snack.

Menvu is the name of a short (finger-length) banana, very yellow and very sweet. And then there isomwenge, which is only fit for brewing banana beer.

As well as lots of red and yellow bananas, which cannot be eaten raw or ripe, but must be roasted or boiled in the peel.

Bananas such as bogoya and menvu are often sold at markets or roadside stands. Matoke is serious business, and has whole sections dedicated to it in many markets. Many roadside eating places also roast bananas alongside sweet potato and cassava as take-away snacks for hungry travellers.

If you are ever walking along such a stand in Uganda, or at a market, you cannot just say banana. You have to say matoke. Or bogoya. Or menvu.

Or a host of other delicious lovely fruit.

Matoke gets an emotional mention in Lamaro Schoenleber's new full-length memoirs; Sauerkraut in Odii - add love to taste, available at amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/author/lamarolaker

Know How Oxygen Absorbers Enhance the Shelf Life of Food

The presence of oxygen encourages the proliferation of microbial growth. This particular aspect is a concern when it comes to the storage of food and drugs. Using oxygen absorbers can help reduce oxygen from the immediate environment. It is evident from this that while oxygen is required by every living being, in some cases it can cause significant damage. It leads to the deterioration of different types of food items and metals. But by doing away with this gas from the immediate atmosphere, the growth of microorganisms and other bacteria can also be put to a stop. There are various packets and stripes that contain desiccants that absorb oxygen from the air. By using these, stored food products and drugs can be saved from change in taste or color. In the past, expensive methods such as vacuum packing or gas flushing had to be used to eliminate oxygen. But desiccants are a very economical way to carry out the same function in a safe manner. Below are some of the advantages of using oxygen absorbers:

    They help to increase the shelf life of products. This aspect is particularly important in the retail sector where food products need to be preserved for several months. A product with a short shelf life also gives rise to several logistical problems.

    Also, these materials play an important part in preserving the original taste, smell, texture and taste of different types of snacks, dry fruits, grains, tea and coffee etc. As we know, when these products come in contact with oxygen or moisture, they lose their original taste and flavor.

    Foodstuffs contain a number of vital vitamins that need to be preserved. When these vitamins come in contact with oxygen, they get oxidized. So if you need to preserve vitamins such as A, C and E in your food products, you could use an oxygen absorber.

    While certain types of bacteria are acceptable in food products, the presence of pathogens can be a health hazard. If oxygen is not eliminated from the food product in question, pathogens could rapidly breed.

    Also, dairy products are very delicate and perishable. Oxygen absorbers are highly useful in retaining the delicate flavors and texture of cheese, yogurt, and fermented dairy products.

    Apart from food stuff, they are used for protecting diagnostic kits, and other pharmaceutical items.

Purchasing these materials is a small investment, but it goes a long way in ensuring the safety and taste of your food products. However, prior to using oxygen absorbers, it is important to discuss their compatibility with different food and pharmaceutical products. In most cases, they are safe to use because they do not release any toxic gases or harmful chemicals.

I am into moisture absorption and moisture control industry for more than 10 years. Oxygen Absorbers and Case Ready Meat Packaging are perfect solution for all your food safety concerns.

Dunking Bread, Donuts or Whatever

Sticking a piece of bread into some sauce or dressing is known as dunking. This is a simple, almost primal activity. Any nationality or race of man that uses bread as a staple part of that diet will dunk.The specifics will be laid out below. You can dunk during dinner,breakfast, snack time or dessert.

First, the proper substrate. Always dunk with a piece of firm bread.

Dunking should be done with a piece of a slice of bread. That piece should be mostly crust with a small amount of the actual bread. Approximately 2/3 crust to one third bread. This is done to prevent sogginess and maintain maximum flavor of the bread and whatever you dunk in.

If you try dunking with a piece of American Bread, (the rules are there are no rules). But why? When you use that type of bread it gets absolutely mushy. The full effect should be- something soft, yet fairly crispy and firm.

Softening, but not too much from the moisture of the sauce or dressing is essential. I prefer dunking with a piece of Italian Bread.Let's face it, who likes soggy bread? It's like eating a cotton ball.

Dunking allows you to control the ultimate texture of your bread. The longer you place your chunk of bread in the sauce or dressing or juice, the soggier it gets. When a piece of bread gets too soggy, the mixture of flavors goes away. You are in control of the ultimate flavor and texture. You can do it right.

When I was growing up, there was always a pot of tomato sauce bubbling on the stove top on Sunday morning and there was always a fresh loaf of Italian Bread on the counter. I could not and still do not ever resist testing out the tomato sauce. That is my right and obligation as an Italian. (yuk,yuk)

Sometimes, when the salad dressing has a little bit too much vinegar in it, that's the time to dunk. That is one of the reasons for croutons. The bread will lower the acidity of the dressing and therefore, resurrect it. Sometimes my mother was heavy handed with the vinegar. Overall, the meal was great so, who had the nerve to complain?

Breakfast. Dunk a piece of your doughnut or bagel into your coffee, tea or milk. You will be sent to another place by the flavor combination.

Snack time. Dunk your cookie into your glass of milk. Great things happen. I prefer to use Oreos, but I also love using chocolate chip cookies or biscotti.

When you dunk you become a food chemist and your dining room your lab. Dunk whenever you can. You will be that much better for it and you might never stop.

Thank You Very Much For Reading My Article. I hope you enjoyed it.

Would you like to know more about Big Italian Cooking? Grab FREE copies of my Cookbooks, "Big Italian Tight Budget" and "Christmas Eve Italian Style" at:

How To Flavor And Prepare Black-Eyed Peas

Black-eyed peas, also called cowpeas and cousin to the smaller field peas, probably came to America via the slave trade. They had more use as animal fodder before coming to the table of the two-legged. The beans themselves are beige in color, but have a black "eye" that gives them the name. You can buy them canned, fresh (frozen) or dried.

Although more popular in the South, make these potassium and protein rich, fiber-filled peas unique to your own diet by spicing them with your favorite flavors. As with many legumes, they are neutral in taste and easy to enhance with seasonings. In the South folks like to add the flavor of crisp crumbled bacon, along with red or green bell peppers, chopped onions, chili powder and black pepper. To be authentic you should use ham hocks (or a ham bone) or fatback to aid in flavoring. It is the pork's fat and salt that add that special flavor.

There are many recipes for the famous Hoppin' John dish served to celebrate a prosperous New Year. Here are some ideas and things to consider to get you experimenting no matter what the season. If you want to avoid the salty canned peas and avoid the pre-soaking, frozen is the way to go. Otherwise try the easy-to-store dry variety.

If you buy peas dry, you can quicken the cooking time by using a pressure cooker. They may take one to one and a half hours of simmering on a stove top (as do the frozen peas) compared to ten to eleven minutes in the cooker. Don't forget to soak dry peas overnight, but use fresh water before simmering. Cooked peas should be tender enough to squash with a fork. Check them after forty minutes, since some have thinner skins than others, and you don't want mushy peas.

Mix them with rice (half as much rice as peas) for a full meal and serve them with ham. Cook the rice separately fifteen minutes before adding it to the beans if simmering. Or you may cook the rice in a different pan while using a pressure cooker for the peas. Either way let the combined rice and peas simmer and blend their flavors together for an additional five minutes.

Other spices you might try with black-eyed peas are thyme, oregano, cayenne or red pepper flakes. Diced tomatoes and celery are often added. A Cajun or Creole spice blend is a great way to heat things up. Paprika or Liquid Smoke will give it that smoky flavor as will a tablespoon of molasses. Or add spices that you know you like either for their taste or nutrient value, such as cinnamon or cloves.

Many spices supposedly reduce gas, including bay leaves, thyme, cumin, ginger, caraway and mint. Some swear that throwing a carrot in the pot will reduce the side effects, others drink orange juice with the meal. If you eat beans often enough, your body creates the enzymes that aid in digestion and, thus, reduce gas. The good news is black-eyed peas are one of the least problematic of the legumes as far as "gas production" is concerned.

Think of black-eyed peas as you do any bean and consider using them in salads, with Mexican dishes, on nachos or in any hearty stew or chili. Who knows? Yours just might be the winning entry in this summer's chili cook-off.

Copyright 2012 by Linda K Murdock. Linda Murdock is the best-selling author of A Busy Cook's Guide to Spices, How to Introduce New Flavors to Everyday Meals. Unlike most spice books, you can turn to a food, whether meat, vegetable or starch, and find a list of spices that go well with that food. Recipes are included. To learn more or to sign up for more informative food and flavoring articles go to http://bellwetherbooks.com/

Try Your Hand at Wine Tasting

You don't have to be a serious or highly qualified sommelier to enjoy the art of wine tasting. It can be a great pass time to get enjoyment from whilst being educational at the same time. You can meet new friends at organised classes, or go along with friends and learn something new together.

Wine tasting is as old as the making of wine itself and has been taken to great heights in terms of qualified wine tasters being able to distinguish subtle changes in different vintages even from within the same vineyard. Many professional wine tasters have insured their taste buds for many thousand pounds.

However, for the ordinary person wanting to get more out of their wine experience, an organised group is the best way to start. Attending classes will begin to familiarise you with the terminology and simple analysis used by the experts.

Often at the end of a fixed-term course on wine tasting, students will hold a blind tasting to test their knowledge and see how well they can identify specific wines. Students are taken through all the different stages of being able to recognize a well-crafted wine starting with how the wine looks when first poured into the glass and its general appearance.

While the wine is still in the glass and before tasting it; wine tasters use their sense of smell to savour the aromas of the wine and begin the mind actual tasting experience. The nose is capable of a much wider array of stimuli than the tongue and can pick up on any fruity or woody notes, herbal or floral scents. The usual terminology for the smells that come from the wine are aroma or bouquet.

Before tasting the wine it is advisable to have the right kind of wine glass to allow the full flavour of the wine to be experienced. Glasses which are larger at the base and quite narrow at the top are thought to be ideal. Wide topped glasses are the least ideal. Having your tasting wine at the correct temperature is critical to ensuring that what you taste is going to be at its optimum.

Light bodied red wines such as a Shiraz Grenache should be kept at 10-12 deg C. White wines such as Chenin Blanc should be kept at 6-10 deg C and rose wine such as a Pinotage should be kept at 10-12 deg C. Once you have learnt the basics then you can enjoy years of fine tuning your taste buds and learning more as you go along.

Make sure you have a range of wines available for tasting such as a South Africa red wine, Californian white wine or a New Zealand rose.

Summer Drinking

It's summer, it's hot, and you want to cool down fast with a cold drink. In the refrigerator are many choices and ice cubes in the freezer make them even more enticing. Soda pop and beer are quick and easy. Just pop the top and you are on your way to a fast cool down, right? Okay, you think you know better, so you choose a flavored water or sports drink that would do the trick. Maybe you would prefer a chilled alcoholic beverage like a screwdriver, gin and tonic, or another flavored favorite. And the kids? They can have that childhood favorite of KoolAid, or a juice that comes in a box or pouch. I would like to make the case for why these drinks are not good choices, and the main reason they are not is because of the sugar they contain.

All the drinks listed above contain sugars of varying amounts and types. I would like to first address alcohol. Anything alcoholic is sugar and adding flavor just makes it worse, not to mention the fact that alcohol is very dehydrating. Drinking a dehydrating beverage on a hot day where you are losing fluid through perspiration is not a good choice. It can lead to heat exhaustion and heat stroke, or even something worse. Something like a heart attack, or even death.

Soda pops, juices and flavored waters all contain too much sugar for them to be a good choice on a hot day (or any other day for that matter). Sugar does not quench thirst. It just makes things worse for your body. First of all, your body has to metabolize the sugar. Metabolizing something you drink means increasing heat in your body. Refined sugars and fructose corn syrups are difficult for your body to process and, therefore, require more heat to be able to be digested. These sugars also wreak havoc on your body by pulling nutrients away from places, such as bones, to provide the added nutrients needed to break them down. Another problem these sugars can cause is a fatty liver. Alcoholics are no longer the only people who should be concerned with acquiring this issue.

So what can you do instead? How about good-old water? I'm not talking about the fluoridated and chlorinated stuff that comes directly out of your tap. Those chemicals are way to hard on your body. I'm talking about filtered drinking water. Boring you say? Well, dress it up. Make it an herbal iced tea, freeze some lemon flavored water as ice cubes and add it to your tea. Put a pitcher in your fridge and add lemons (organic if you use the peel) and or cucumbers. You could also add fruits such as watermelon or peaches. Yes, they contain some sugars, but they also contain the other nutrients needed to digest them. Strawberries and other berries also make a plain, boring water just a bit more interesting. Play around with it and see what you like.

It's hot outside. Make sure you make the most of your hydrating and cooling efforts by drinking beverages that support your body, not weigh it down and dehydrate it. Drink plenty of clean water and, if you need to, dress it up for some variety.

Jennifer M. Clark is the owner of Nurturing Wellbeing and creator of YOUR Body Reset. She is a certified Health Coach and is certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners as a Holistic Health Practitioner.

You can find out more about Jennifer at http://www.nurturingwellbeing.com and join in on her Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/NurturingWellbeing.

Groundnut: The Wonder Nut

Have you ever heard of groundnuts? These little-known nuts are a basic source of food for millions of people on the African continent.

Groundnuts are little red sweet nuts, which grow in the ground. They can also be peach-yellow in colour, and a little larger. Their cousin the peanut is much better-known.

The peanut does duty as a snack - roasted with salt or various spices such as wasabi or chili - or served in chocolate, or as a breakfast and sandwich spread in the form of peanut butter.

The groundnut, on the other hand, does heavy duty as a staple food for millions of families.

When freshly harvested, fresh groundnuts can be boiled unshelled with salt. They are a delicious snack to enjoy with, for example, black tea. Groundnuts can also be roasted with or without salt, and served as a snack.

In East Africa, however, particularly in Uganda, the main groundnut harvest is dried for later use. The raw dried groundnuts are pounded and sieved. A cheap but very nutritious sauce can be prepared with the powder.

The nuts are particularly rich in proteins and vitamins. Poor families that include raw groundnut powder in their daily meals can at least meet part of their protein requirements. Especially for children, this is very important if the family cannot regularly afford meat, fish or milk.

Called ebinyewa in the local language, this sauce is particularly nutritious because the cover of the raw groundnut, which contains many nutrients, is included. The sauce is also beloved because small amounts of it are enough to feed many people.

The sauce can be enriched with onions, tomatoes or spices, or cooked just as it is. The sauce is best served with steamed matoke bananas, or alternatively, boiled or steamed sweet potato.

Raw groundnut powder can also be added to various vegetable dishes to elevate their nutritive value, or to vary the taste.

This method of preparing raw groundnuts is common in southern and south-western Uganda. In northern Uganda, the groundnut is roasted, during which process it loses its testa.

The winnowed and cleaned groundnuts are then pounded and ground into a paste - odii. This paste is served as a very filling snack, along with ripe bananas, or boiled cassava or boiled sweet potato.

Mostly, however, the paste is added to boiled vegetables, meat, fish, or pulses. It thickens the sauce and adds a distinctive flavour to any food.

In both cases, the groundnut plays a key role in feeding millions of people, who use it in one form or the other as a staple food.

Some also like to eat groundnuts raw. Caution is in order, however, because raw unprocessed groundnuts easily develop fungi, which may be harmful to human health.

The groundnut is also an economic heavy-weight. Part of the economy of several African countries depend on the growth and trade in groundnuts.

The humble groundnut is nowhere near as famous as the peanut, but keeps many families alive. A real wonder nut.

Read more about groundnuts in Lamaro Schoenleber's new full-length memoirs; Sauerkraut in Odii - add love to taste, available at amazon.com right away! https://www.amazon.com/author/lamarolaker