Banana leaves

An interesting Central African cooking method is steaming or grilling food wrapped in packets fashioned from leaves of banana trees or other plants. This is an old cooking method, predating the use of iron, maybe even clay cooking pots. It is very practical when camping or traveling as it eliminates the need to carry pots, and the leaves can also be used as plates and bowls.

Certain leaves are especially favored because they give a particular flavor to food. Kwanda, for example, is wrapped in leaf packets before its final steaming. Maboke – leaves-wrapped packets of meat or fish, with onion, tomato, maybe okra, seasoned with lemon juice or hot chili pepper-are grilled over hot coals or steamed in a pot. Crushed peanuts, or mbika, are sometimes include in the packets. Filling the banana leaves packets with mashed beans (such as black-eyes peas) and sautéed peppers, and then steaming, produces koki.

This cooking method is very healthy as avoid using excess of fat.