Yassa Fish and Shrimp
Senegal
Master Africook
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Poisson yassa is the fish version of Senegal's best known dish, and it works on the same principle as chicken yassa: a marinade of lemon, mustard, garlic and onion that becomes the sauce, with a very large quantity of onion cooked down into it. Yassa comes from the Casamance region in southern Senegal and is now made across the country and throughout the Senegalese diaspora. The mustard is a French ingredient absorbed entirely into a Senegalese idiom, and the resemblance the source draws to a French sauce à l'onion is fair as far as it goes, though yassa is sharper and carries far more onion. Four large onions to two and a half pounds of fish is the ratio, and it is not a mistake. The onions cook down into a soft, tangy mass that is as much the dish as the fish is. The technique is straightforward: marinate, cook the fish and set it aside, cook the onions in the leftover marinade, then return the fish to warm through in the sauce. Shrimp can go in alongside. It is served with rice most often, though this version suggests potatoes.
Yassa originates in the Casamance region of southern Senegal and is made with a marinade of lemon, mustard, garlic and onion. Poisson yassa is the fish version of the dish.
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.
Combine the lemon juice, mustard, garlic, ginger, bouillon, salt and pepper into a marinade.
Douse the fish with the marinade and refrigerate for an hour, or preferably overnight.
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat until hot, then add the fish. Cook each side for about 5 to 7 minutes until cooked through and crisp on both sides. Remove the fish and set aside.
In the same pan, fry the sliced onions along with the marinade left over from the fish for about 5 minutes.
Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
Return the fish to the onion sauce, adding shrimp at this point if using.
Simmer for another 5 to 8 minutes until the flavours come together.
Serve with rice, or with baked and fried potatoes.
2 reviews
used red snapper steaks from the butcher near Seven Sisters station since i couldnt get bream. those 4 large onions need a bit longer than 5 minutes to really soften and absorb the leftover mustard marinade in the pan, so give them time oo. taste just like my senegalese friends mothers version paa
Got some fresh croaker steaks and jumbo shrimp from Your DeKalb Farmers Market yesterday to try this. abeg make sure you really let the fish sit in that mustard and garlic marinade overnight, it makes all the difference! Frying the sliced onions in the leftover pan oil after taking the fish out gave them so much flavor o. E sweet no be small thing.