Something Nigeria loves is colorful dishes. Different types of yams and other vegetables create bursts of color and this does make everything quite decadent looking. Nigeria uses all sorts of spices to add richness, variety, and flavor to their dishes and as I mentioned before when discussing Zimbabwe, they are also keen on groundnuts and have their own version of Groundnut Stew. Now along with groundnut based stews, their cuisine is bursting with soups and stews. Variety definitely has a strong role here in their soups alone.
A vast array of dishes isn't the only thing Nigeria has going on. I had no idea that Nigeria was the most populous country in Africa or that it has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. If you asked me to list countries with rapidly growing economies, Nigeria would have never crossed my mind. Of course I'm a Biochemistry major so what do I know about world economics, but it still surprised me. Perhaps a part of the reason may have something to do with Nigeria's status as an oil exporter. Putting the economy aside, I focused back on the cuisine and went with something referred to as Kekefia, which is a type of yam "porridge" or stew served with fish. I thought that this dish, among all the others I've done up to this point, would really allow me to buy some interesting ingredients.
It required a plantain for one, which is sort of like a banana but a little harder with a different flavor. My roommate during sophomore year used to fry them and they were always delicious so I figured why not stick them in a pot with some sweet potatoes? I do have to say one thing, this recipe called for smoked fish and here in Arizona smoked fish is either expensive or nonexistant and I went with smoked clams. I wish I had the fish. Clams are gritty and very strong and I only used a tablespoon or so of them. I also used my first ingredient with its eyes and heads still attached for this dish, crayfish or crawdads. I will say one thing, strange ingredients or not, this is one beautiful looking dish. The orange of the yams, the yellow from the plaintains, the green from the spinach - very lovely.
However, it doesn't taste as beautiful as it looks and by that I mean, it wasn't as flavorful as I expected. After reading about how wonderfully flavored the dishes in Nigeria were, I didn't get that from this. Perhaps it was the clams, I really think fish would have been better. I also couldn't find uzuza leaves, which I have no idea what those taste like, but they could have impacted the flavor a lot. It was slightly spicy, but more in the sense of flavor and not because it was hot. I did like the sweet potatoes and spinach, but it wasn't like that was anything to rave about. In the end I don't know what to think about this, there must be another way to combine these ingredients in a more delicious way. This was another meal that I ate because I was hungry and tired and I didn't exactly jump at having seconds. I've now come to the conclusion that some African food is incredibly delicious and I would make many times, and some of it is just sort so-so. This was definitely just so-so and the only redeeming factor for me was my love of yams and fish. I am going to have to return to Nigeria and try another type of soup, perhaps I just picked one with too many hard to find ingredients.
Servings: 2
ReplyDeleteAfrican Yam – I just used a regular yam
Green vegetables (spinach or other) – no quantities listed, I used maybe 1/2 cup of spinach
Plantain (slightly ripened)
Peanut oil – 1 Tbsp
Smoked Fish – 1 small – and here’s where I used smoked clams because I couldn’t find fish
Cray fish – I used 4, you should use more perhaps, the recipe said 1/2 cup, but it sounded like it meant 1/2 cup whole not just the meat, I was slightly confused but am willing to admit it
Fresh Fish – 1/2 lb – I used Tilapia, but cod or salmon would probably do as well
Onion (half bulb)
Spices:
Fresh Hot Peppers 1-3 – I used 1, didn’t want another hot hot dish
Black Pepper – 1 tsp
Ginger – 1 tsp. ground
Uzuza leaves (2-4 fresh leaves) – couldn’t find sadly
Salt — (to taste)
Curry powder – 1/2 tsp
The Preparation:
Cut yams into about two inch rounds and peel the skin of each round. Further cut the rounds through the center into approximately 3 inch squares. Wash yam squares and set aside.
Peel the plantain and dice into half inch cubes. Set aside.
Peel and chop onion into small bits and mix with meat from crayfish in a bender or small mortar. (I just minced mine with a knife, no more blending seafood for me). Reduce the crayfish and onion mixture to coarse paste. Set aside.
Remove stalks, if any, from the fresh hot peppers and wash the peppers. Reduce peppers to a fine paste or puree.
Cut the fresh fish into inch-thick stakes. Wash and season with ginger, curry powder, black pepper and salt, and set aside.
Breakup the smoked fish into large chunks and Wash in hot (boiled) water to remove sand and other debris. Set aside.
Pluck the vegetables from their stalks, discarding dead and wilted sections. Fold the plucked leaves into a pile and using a knife slice the leaves into thin strips. Set aside.
The Cooking:
Fresh Fish
Place the fresh fish stakes in a steamer or cooking pot with a thin layer of water and bring to a boil. Cook until just done (about 3 minutes) and transfer stakes into an aluminum-covered baking pan. Insert into pre-heated oven at 250 for 30 minutes.
Put the washed yam squares in a large cooking pot and add 0.5 litre of water. Place the pot on the stove at high heat.
To the yam cooking pot add:
– 1 teaspoon of black pepper
– 1 teaspoon of table salt
– 2 ladles (10ml) of palm oil
Bring the pot, now containing water, yams, salt, pepper and oil, to a boil.
As soon as the pot starts boiling, stir in the onion and crayfish paste. Add the chunks of smoked fish and cover. Add fresh hot pepper to taste.
Let boil for 3 minutes and then add the diced plantains and the uzuza spice leaves; stir briefly and cover.
After about another 5 minutes of boiling, the porridge should begin to thicken. As soon as it starts to thicken, reduce heat by half and add the green vegetables. Stir, cover and cook for additional three minutes, then turn off heat. I cooked mine until the spinach was cooked, longer than three minutes.
Serve with steamed fish.