Luwombo, hangover cure of Africa’s hardest drinkers

The Ugandan cure for hangovers luwombo.

We already gave you some tips and tricks to get rid of your hangover. But every country has its own traditional dishes to make the process go faster. We like to give you a taste of the international anti-hangover cuisine. This time we visit the African continent again. To be more precise our destination is Uganda, the number one African country in alcohol consumption. The favorite hangover cure is a dish called luwombo, meat and mushrooms steamed in banana leaves.

As said in the intro Uganda is the number one country in Africa where it comes to alcohol consumption. Research by CNN showed that the Central African nation is even 8th on the world ranking. A popular drink is waragi, the Ugandan kind of gin. Also there’s a lively market in illegal made liquor, especially banana flavoured booze. And than there’s ajono, beer made from millet that’s drunk together with large straws. So if you ever decide to visit Uganda it shouldn’t be too hard to get extremely hammered. In that case it’s good to know there’s a solid hangover cure too: luwombo.

Ingredients:
1 kilo chicken (or pork) meat
800 grams peanut butter
2 onions
4 tomatoes
1 cube chicken stock
Salt and black pepper
Banana leaves (if not available use greaseproof paper)
400 grams mushrooms
1 smoked fish
4 plantains

Preparation:
Cut up the meat and cook it in an oiled frying pan. When the pieces are brown (not cooked) remove them from the pan and set aside. Now heat up some oil in a saucepan and add the onion. After a minute also add the chopped tomatoes, cube of chicken stock, peanut butter, flesh from the smoked fish, mushrooms and salt and pepper to taste. You can add a little water to form a smooth sauce. Mix all ingredients and get it to cook.
Plunge the banana leaves in boiling water, so they’ll get softer. Then remove the mid-rib and cut off the pointy ends of the leaves. Place a portion of meat on the leaf, with some sauce on top. Now fold the leaf over from both sides and tie the package with oven-proof string. Keep making these packages till there’s no mixture left.
Put all the packages in a casserole dish or a large stew pan. Add a little water on the bottom and the pealed plantains on top. Then cover the dish. Bring the whole thing to a boil and steam the packages for at least an hour.
Now remove the plantains and mash them with a fork. Serve it with the meat and sauce from the banana leaves.

Micky Bumbar

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