← Nouns Cooking · West & East African

Ingredients

• 500 g goat meat or beef, cut into chunks
• 1 Onion, half chopped, half roughly cut
• 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
• 500 g Okra
• 1 red pepper, deseeded
• 1 Scotch bonnet chilli
• 125 ml red palm oil
• 3 tbsp Ground crayfish
• 2 tbsp Iru (fermented locust beans) (optional)
• 100 g Smoked fish, boned and flaked
• 250 g raw prawns
• 200 g Spinach, chopped

Method

1. Simmer the meat with the chopped half onion, the salt and 750 ml water, covered, for 40–50 min until tender.
2. Top and tail the okra. Grate or very finely chop half of it and slice the rest into thin rounds: one half gives the stretchy "draw", the other gives bite.
3. Blend the red pepper, scotch bonnet and the rest of the onion.
4. Add the palm oil, pepper blend, crayfish, iru and smoked fish to the meat and its stock (about 500 ml). Boil for 8–10 min.
5. Add all the okra, stir and cook uncovered for 3–5 min. Do not cover or overcook it, or it loses its green colour and stretch.
6. Add the prawns and spinach and cook for 2–3 min until the prawns are pink. Season and serve straight away with eba, fufu or pounded yam.

Tips

• Contains fish and shellfish (prawns and crayfish).
• Frozen chopped okra works well; add it straight from frozen.
• Wear gloves to cut or blend scotch bonnets, keep your hands away from your eyes and wash the board, knife and blender well afterwards.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Chef Lola's Kitchen Low Carb Africa