Ukwoka which is my offering today is basically steamed spicy corn /ripe plantain pudding in Banana leaves

This week is full of excitement as I am expecting the kids home for the holidays. .The frenzy of cooking, cleaning rooms, stocking up on foods and so on, just makes being blessed with kids so exciting. I have learnt though to take it easy on the food side as preferences have changed over the years , so I allow each child to fix their meals after the first few days of excitement of getting back home.

One thing I know will be most welcome is Ukwoka. Anything with ripe plantain just seems to be a winner with younger people. Even for me I found  myself going for second and third helpings. It was a rainy day on Saturday when I cooked this pudding. A nice  cup of tea with my Ukwoka was a natural combination and I enjoyed it. You can vary the protein filling with different types of meats. I simply stayed with smoked prawns and it was a meal to die for. I introduced some vegetable in form of garden egg and it was amazing. You can easily replace Ukwoka with Moin Moin as a breakfast option .

Recipe for making Ukwoka

Ingredients.
3/4 cups CornMeal ( sieved coarsely ground corn )
1 ripe Plantain
2 fresh pepper chopped
1 medium Tatashe
1/2 medium size Onion
Half cup of smoked Prawns
1 tablespoons ground Crayfish
2 cups Palm nut extract
Seasoning  to taste
Salt to taste
Banana leaves to wrap

Method
1, Cut the plantain into small chunks, pour in the corn meal, palm fruit extract and blend into a purée
2, In a bowl mix all the ingredients together to form a slightly thick batter. Set aside to rest for 10 min
3, Cut the banana leaves into segments and place in hot water to soften a bit .This makes them pliable so that folding the pudding parcel will be easy. You may use Moin Moin leaves or foil as alternative for wrapping.
4 Wrap the batter in banana leaves and put them in the steamer . Be sure to place some sticks at the base of the pot to elevate your pudding just like when you are steaming Moin Moin.
5, Steam gently for about 40 minutes. Add water little by little through the cooking time.
6, Serve with hot onions and pepper sauce or garden eggs as I did.

Cooking tip: To make your corn meal, take the the Corn to your neighbourhood  miller and grind the corn coarsely. Take home and sieve using a sieve with medium size holes , so that you get the gritty powder which is the corn meal. You can leave the chunky size corn for cooking some other meal. You can also buy you corn meal if you find in the shops.