Seafood Garden Egg Stew
Overview
Garden egg stew is a West African palm oil stew built on garden eggs, the small white and green African aubergines that are nothing like the large purple ones sold in most supermarkets. They are firmer, more bitter and hold their shape, and they are eaten across Ghana and Nigeria both cooked and raw. This version is a seafood one, with prawns, shrimp and smoked mackerel, and it departs from the plain garden egg stew in one further respect: a spoonful of peanut butter goes into the ground pepper base. That is not universal but it is a recognised West African move, giving body and a background richness that thickens the stew without flour. What it is served with is the point. The stew is made to go with yam, plantain and cocoyam, all cooked plain, and the contributor is explicit that palm oil is what makes that combination work. Vegetable oil is possible and gives a different, lighter dish. The method also uses an air fryer to char the peppers, tomatoes and onion before grinding, which is a modern substitute for roasting them over an open flame, and it produces the same smokiness. Contains peanut.
AFN Heritage Note
Garden eggs are small African aubergines eaten across Ghana and Nigeria, and garden egg stew is a palm oil stew conventionally served with boiled yam, plantain and cocoyam.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Clean and wash the garden eggs properly and cut them into smaller pieces.
- 2
Put them into a saucepan with water and bring to the boil.
- 3
Clean and wash the tomatoes, one onion, the fresh chilli and the scotch bonnets.
- 4
Put them into a preheated air fryer and set the time to 10 minutes.
- 5
Clean and slice the second onion and set aside.
- 6
Peel the yam, cocoyam and plantain and cook them in a pan of water.
- 7
Wash the shrimp and prawns and fry them in a pan of palm oil.
- 8
To the same oil, add the chopped onions and the seasoning cube.
- 9
Grind the air fried peppers, onions and tomatoes in a grinder.
- 10
Add the peanut butter and grind together.
- 11
Add the cooked garden eggs to the mixture and grind until roughly ground, then salt to taste.
- 12
Pour the palm oil with the onions, shrimp and prawns over the ground mixture.
- 13
Garnish with the smoked mackerel, hard eggs and sliced avocado.
- 14
Serve the yam, plantain and cocoyam alongside.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Rashidatu Alhassan- Grind the garden eggs roughly rather than smooth. The texture is part of the dish and a purée loses it entirely.
- Char the peppers, tomatoes and onion before grinding, whether in an air fryer, under a grill or over a flame. That smokiness is what lifts the stew.
- Cook the garden eggs until genuinely soft before grinding. Underdone, they stay bitter and fibrous.
- Palm oil is what makes this work with yam and plantain. Vegetable oil gives a lighter, quite different stew.
- The peanut butter is a thickener as much as a flavour, so do not skip it unless you need to avoid peanuts.
- Add the fried prawns and their oil over the ground mixture at the end rather than cooking them into it, so they keep their texture.
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