Recettes

Parcourez les archives par pays, par plat et par temps de cuisson.

Filtres actifs

Fish Seasoning

This is a dry spice rub for fish, and it belongs to no particular cuisine. Paprika, thyme, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper and cayenne is a broadly Western seasoning profile, and the source claims no country for it. That is worth stating plainly on a platform documenting African food, because Africa has a great many specific fish seasonings that this is not. Nigerian fish is seasoned with blended pepper, ginger and stock cubes. Senegalese fish carries rof, a stuffing of parsley, garlic and chilli pushed into slashes in the flesh. Moroccan fish is marinated in chermoula, built on coriander, cumin, paprika and preserved lemon. Any of those would be the regional answer to the question this recipe is asking. What is here is a competent all purpose blend, useful for grilling, baking or pan frying, and it keeps for months in a sealed jar. It is filed under Worldwide Recipes rather than presented as African, since inventing a heritage for a paprika and oregano rub would be exactly the kind of claim this archive should not make.

Les mieux notées

10 minEasy

Recette de Debby · Africook

Voir la recette →

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

Voir la recette →

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

Voir la recette →

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.

Les mieux notées

50 minEasyNigeria

Recette de Maryam · Africook

Voir la recette →