Miris (Sudanese Stew with Lamb Fat)

Miris is a Sudanese stew of cassava and okra cooked in lamb fat with onion. It is served with asida, the stiff Sudanese porridge, or with kisra flatbread. The lamb fat is the point, and it is worth understanding rather than substituting away. Only two teaspoons go into the pot, but rendered sheep's fat carries a distinct, slightly gamey savouriness that no oil reproduces, and using it as a cooking medium rather than as a meat is characteristic of a cuisine where nothing from an animal is wasted. The source offers pork fatback, beef fat or olive oil as alternatives and is honest that they change the dish. Sudanese meals are built around a communal central dish with stews and sauces alongside, eaten with the right hand using flatbread or a stiff porridge, asida or kisra. Miris belongs to that format rather than being served as a plated course. Two notes about the recipe as written. The source's prose describes onions, dried okra and sheep's fat, while its ingredient list specifies cassava, and both have been kept since the combination is plausible. And cassava must be cooked thoroughly, the raw root contains compounds that release cyanide, and the ten minutes the method allows assumes it is already properly processed.