Malewa (Bamboo and Peanut Soup) is a traditional Ugandan recipe for a classic vegetarian dish of smoked and dried bamboo shoots that are cooked and served in a peanut soup base. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ugandan version of: Bamboo and Peanut Soup (Malewa).
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When I was living in South Africa, I was on a sugarcane plantation. One of the former directors of the station was an avid plant collector and there was an eclectic collection of plants, including bamboos. I spent some of my time prospecting for edible bamboo shoots. I found that most of the bamboos were introduced and not native, which got me thinking about native African bamboos. It turns out that there are bamboos native to Africa, including South Africa but most grow on mountainsides about 1000 to 1400 metres above sea level.
An interesting one was Oldeania alpina a native of Uganda, which is a staple for the mountain gorilla. It's also foraged by humans and the shoots are split and dried in mountain caves. They are generally smoked and dried before being sold in markets. They're used in the preparation of a particular Ugandan form of peanut or groundnut soup.
Malewa is the Ugandan name for these dried edible bamboo shoots and it's also the name for the peanut soup in which they form a base.
Malewa is boiled in water to clean it (or soaked overnight to make it softer before cleaning it) and then the nodes (the knobbly joints between stem pieces; which stay hard even after the boiling or soaking) of the shoot are cut off leaving the middle parts (which become softer after boiling or soaking) are cut into smaller pieces. Rock salt or Baking soda or Soda Ash is added to the boiled malewa to make it more tender. Finally peanut paste and salt are added and the sauce is simmered to acquire taste.
Ingredients:
300g Malewa (smoked and dried bamboo shoots)
Water
Soda ash (locally made by sun drying Matooke/Banana peels and then burning them to form ash) or Rock Salt or Baking soda
1 batch binyewa (groundnut sauce)
Method:
Place the dried malewa in a large pan, cover with water, bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes. At the end of this time pour off the water.
Allow the malewa to cool until it can be handled then take each piece and slice off the nodes (the joints). These are inedible and will never soften. It's the portions between these (the internodes) that you want to eat.
Cut the internode pieces into smaller bite-sized portions then rinse, return to a pan, cover with water add 1/2 tsp soda ash or baking soda, then bring to a boil and cook for further 30 minutes. This will soften the bamboo even further.
Drain the bamboo and rinse once again. Add to the binyewa (groundnut sauce) base, and cook gently for 5 minutes to heat everything through.
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