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Mayotte Mataba

Mayotte Mataba is a traditional Mahoran (from Mayotte) recipe for a classic accompaniment of cassava leaves pounded with onion and chilli that's cooked in coconut milk until almost dry. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Mahoran version of: Mayotte Mataba.

prep time

180 minutes

cook time

120 minutes

Total Time:

300 minutes

Serves:

4

Rating:

Tags : Vegetarian RecipesMayotte Recipes

Mataba is a classic Mayotte dish of cassava leaves cooked in coconut milk. I'm going to describe how to make this dish from scratch, but in Africa you can buy already prepared cassava leaves that only require manual shredding or passing through a mechanical mincer. In Europe you can buy frozen shredded cassava leaves in African stores (I get mine from the local Nigerian food shop).

Ingredients:

500g young cassava leaves
1 onion, chopped
1 hot chilli, chopped
3 dry coconuts (the only variety you find, in Europe)
salt, to taste
(optional, fillets of a small fish eg anchovies, whitebait)

Method:

Separate the cassava leaves from their stems than roll the leaves up and shred finely with a sharp knife. Transfer the shredded leaves to a mortar, add the onion and chilli then pound to a fine paste (takes at least an hour).

Prepare coconut cream from the coconuts according to the coconut cream recipe.

Scrape the cassava leaf paste into a saucepan and pour over the coconut cream. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 2 hours (top up the water as needed to ensure the mixture does not go dry).

Towards the end of cooking, allow the mixture to dry as much as possible, stirring constantly to prevent cooking.

The greens can be served as they are but you can also stir in fillets of small fish previously boiled in water.

Serve accompanied by rice.