Futu banane

One of my colleagues recently invited me over to make futu banane, which is a popular food here. It is basically pounded banana and manioc, the starch you serve with all kinds of different sauces. First you boil bananas and manioc. Then you pound them until they get the right consistency, which is a like mashed potatoes but sticky-er. You pound the bananas and the manioc separately, with a big mortar and pestle, then you combine them and pound some more. I tried doing some pounding and it is hard work! I lasted about 30 seconds.

Here are the boiled bananas and manioc underneath:

My colleague showing me how it's done:


Instead I helped with the sauce: the sauce we made was a mix of eggplant, spinach, and lots of peppers. All these ingredients are cooked and then mixed together. Then this is folded with a meat sauce: grilled or smoked fish, beef, agouti (bush rat), escargots... They eat it all here! This is the sauce before it was combined with the smoked fish:
Here is the final product. To eat you use your hands, break off a small piece, and dip into your sauce. FYI, they also make pounded manioc and pounded yam (igname pilé) in the same way.
The whole process of making an African meal of futu banane plus a sauce takes about 2 hours. A lot of women do this twice a day! In Cote d'Ivoire, this is typically a women's job. Men and even boys don't help with the cooking.