Ayamase Stew
Overview
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.
AFN Heritage Note
Ayamase is traced to Ikenne-Remo in Ogun State, southwestern Nigeria, and its name is recorded as deriving from Iya Mase, the woman credited with the dish. The bleaching of palm oil, heating it until the red pigment breaks down, is the technique that distinguishes it from other Yoruba stews.
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
Wash and blend the peppers with half of the onion. Remember to remove the seeds from the green tatashe or the green bell peppers.
- 2
Pour in a strainer to drain excess water, Some choose to parboil the pepper mixture to remove excess water, this is an unnecessary step as you can achieve the same goal by simply straining.
- 3
Grind the crayfish and the locust bean with a dry mill.
- 4
Season and cook the meat with the stock fish till well done.
- 5
Pour the red palm oil into a clean dry pot and bleach till it turns clear. It should look like vegetable oil when done. It should take about 12 minutes on low to medium heat to bleach but timing depends on the type of heater you have and the quantity of oil.
- 6
It will definitely get smoky, leave the pot covered throughout the bleaching process. If you have a backyard or balcony, gently take the pot out when the oil is bleached. Open the pot and leave outside until all the smoke is gone. If you can’t take the pot outside, turn off the heat, open the pot slightly and leave to rest until all the smoke is gone.
- 7
Return the oil to high heat, chop and add the leftover onion and fry till it gets bit golden.
- 8
Add pepper puree and fry till all remaining water dries up.
- 9
Add the smoked fish, crayfish, locust bean and the parboiled meat with stockfish and stir well.
- 10
Add salt to taste, Decrease the heat to low-medium, cook the sauce until oil floats to the top.
- 11
Serve with ofada rice or any medium or long grain rice.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Kevin Eze- Bleach the oil outdoors or with the extractor on full. It smokes heavily and the smell carries through a house for hours.
- Stop bleaching when the oil turns clear and pale. Past that point it goes bitter and there is no recovering it.
- Use green bell peppers with a few scotch bonnets for heat. Red peppers will taste fine but the colour is then wrong for the dish.
- Drain the blended peppers well. Excess water makes the sauce watery and stops the oil separating properly.
- The boiled eggs are not a garnish, halve them into the finished sauce and let them sit in it before serving.
Reviews
4 reviews
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set off my smoke alarm twice trying to bleach 20cl of red oil in my tiny flat kitchen off rye lane! next time i will turn the extractor fan on full boost before starting. couldn't get green tatashe so used 3 green bell peppers with extra atarodo. taste took me straight back to lagos weddings, especially with the shaki and the boiled eggs soaked in the oil.
Straining the blended green peppers instead of parboiling saved me so much time today. I used cow tripe and beef with plenty dawadawa from the market here in Jos. The oil took almost 15 minutes to bleach fully on my burner, but once the fried aroma hit, my neighbors knew what was happening. E sweet well well with boiled eggs.
Herh, bleaching palm oil inside the kitchen for 12 minutes is a dangerous game chale! The smoke almost called the fire service. But the flavour from the dawadawa and the smoked fish is deep paa. We make a similar green pepper stew in Ghana but adding the hard boiled eggs straight into the oil at the end makes it special oo.
my mama always pounded ogiri okpei into the pepper mix instead of dry grinding it with crayfish. tried your method of draining with a sieve instead of boiling down the green tatashe water first, was worried it would be too watery but it fried nicely in the bleached oil sha.