Mofonggo, a Latin American dish, features plantain and pork, but I feel that our own Saba or Cardava Bananas, work so much better because they’re sweeter and less starchy. Of course, it naturally led me to thinking about Arroz a la Cubana and this is the recipe I came up with. This is a great dish too if you’re avoiding rice.

Ingredients (serves 4)

6 pcs ripe saba, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup cooking oil
250 g minced pork
2 eggplants, cut into small cubes
oregano
2 tbsps tomato paste
4 eggs
chili flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. In a saute pan, saute saba and half the garlic in 2 tbsps oil.  Once caramelized, remove from the pan and mash the bananas into a paste.
  2. In another saute pan, saute pork in the remaining oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Once dry, add in the eggplant and oregano.  Add in tomato paste and saute for 2 minutes more.  Add enough water to just cover the pork and eggplant and simmer until almost dry.
  3. Meanwhile, fry the eggs sunny side up.
  4. To serve, place some of the mashed bananas on the plate, top with meat mixture and then fried egg.