Recettes

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Shito Sauce

Shito is Ghana's dark chilli condiment, and it is one of the few West African sauces that keeps for months. Dried shrimp, ground smoked fish, chilli, onion, ginger and garlic are cooked down slowly in a large quantity of oil until the whole thing turns nearly black, and the oil that rises to the top is what preserves it. The name is simply the Ga word for pepper. It is made differently in every region and village, and it comes coarse or smooth, medium or extremely hot, depending on the household. What does not change is the smokiness, which comes from ground smoked fish and dried shrimp rather than from any smoking of the sauce itself. That combination has been compared to Malaysian sambal belacan, which works on the same principle of dried seafood cooked into chilli paste. It goes with almost everything: waakye, kenkey, plain rice, fried plantain, yam, beans. Ghanaians abroad travel with jars of it. Its keeping quality is the practical reason it exists in the quantities it does, since a batch made once will sit in the cupboard for two or three months with the oil layer intact, and in the fridge after that.

Les mieux notées

50 minMediumGhana

Recette de Jennifer · Africook

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Ayamase Stew

Ayamase is the green pepper stew of southwestern Nigeria, known almost as widely by two other names, ofada sauce, after the rice it is served with, and designer stew, which is what Lagos took to calling it. It is defined by two things that would be faults in almost any other stew. The peppers are green rather than red, which gives the sauce its unusual dark olive colour. And the palm oil is deliberately bleached, heated until it stops smoking and loses its red pigment, which strips out the characteristic palm flavour and leaves something nuttier and smokier behind. That bleaching step is the whole signature of the dish, and a version made with unbleached oil is a different sauce. Around that sit iru, the fermented locust bean that carries the deep savoury note, assorted meats including offal, and boiled eggs, which are close to obligatory. The name points to a person. Ayamase is traced to Ikenne-Remo in Ogun State and to a woman remembered as Mrs Felicia, Iya Mase, the wife of Mase, who is credited with the dish. It travelled from there into Lagos party food, where its reputation as something special was made. It is served with ofada rice, the short, unpolished local rice whose earthy flavour is the intended partner.

Les mieux notées

55 minMediumNigeria · African

Recette de donbuffy · Africook

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Catfish and Carrot Sauce

Catfish is everywhere in Nigeria now, and the reason is farming rather than fishing. Catfish aquaculture expanded enormously across the country from the 1990s onward, at both household and commercial scale, and a fish that was once a river catch became one of the most available proteins in the market. Dishes built around it have multiplied accordingly. This one is a contemporary Nigerian preparation rather than an inherited dish. Carrot and tomato are blended into a sauce in a three to one ratio, so the carrot rather than the tomato carries it, giving a sweeter and thicker base than a standard Nigerian stew. The fish is marinated, grilled or baked separately, and set into the sauce at the end rather than cooked in it. Cleaning is the part that determines whether it works. Catfish is naturally slimy and has to be scrubbed with salt, alum, potash or maize chaff, and soaking it briefly in hot water both removes the remaining slime and firms the flesh so it holds together instead of breaking apart. Grilling rather than frying keeps that firmness. It is served with rice, potato or yam.

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50 minEasyNigeria

Recette de Maryam · Africook

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Cassava Leaf Soup with Peanut Butter

Cassava leaf soup is eaten across West and Central Africa, and its names map the geography: saka saka and pondu in the Congo basin, and simply cassava leaf in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Wherever cassava is grown for its root, the leaves are eaten too, and a great many countries have arrived at some version of this independently. The West African version this recipe follows is built on groundnut. Peanut butter goes in with the leaves and palm oil, which gives a thicker, richer, nuttier result than the Central African versions that lean on palm oil alone. Smoked turkey, fish or chicken supplies the savoury depth, and scotch bonnet supplies the heat. The leaves themselves carry very little flavour, which is precisely why the dish works: they absorb whatever they are cooked with, so the palm oil, the groundnut and the smoked protein are doing all the talking. That also means the quality of those three decides the pot. It is served over rice, and the one non negotiable is cooking: cassava leaves must be thoroughly cooked, since they are not safe raw. Frozen leaves sold commercially have generally been blanched already, which is why this version cooks relatively briefly.

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1 hrEasyLiberia · West African

Recette de Debby · Africook

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