Growing up, rice dishes especially with stew was a weekly essential, so if I do not have rice at least once in a week then .......... Until recently, I had been used to the regulars; rice and stew, jollof rice, rice and beans, ofe akwu rice but now I have graduated to preparing other diverse cuisines which I can attest are super delicious as well.
I love rice, if not even one of my favorites and I usually prepare it in different ways for different cuisines. I try not to compare the different rice dishes because each one is totally/slightly different from one another although the most important thing is that they all taste very palatable and tasty.
No doubt there are several rice recipes, however this post features a special local stew, which is often eaten together with a special rice known as ofada rice- - - - Ayamase Stew!
This stew is a popular Yoruba stew that is often prepared with loads of local ingredients which renders some distinctive appetizing aroma and taste to the stew.
Ayamase stew is such an interesting stew you can think of if you are passionate about traditional food because the local spices used for the preparation are such that will awaken your traditional taste bud {Winks}. Sounds funny yeah, but it is true because the stew is so delicious that you will want to go for a second round.
Although it is not as classy as the regular tomato stew but yet the taste is very superb and worth giving a try. The local spices {Iru, dawadawa and ogiri okpei} used for preparing the stew gives the ayamase stew a very strong aroma that can even attract your neighbours from far and near and personally, I think this is the best part of this stew. The ayamesa stew is basically served with ofada rice and the pair are just a perfect combination.
When cooking the ayamase stew, I usually sieve the blended habanero and bell peppers to get rid of excess water which helps to reduce the frying time as well as helps get the peppers dry up very easily. This sometimes involves blending the peppers a lot more earlier and putting it in the sieve for few minutes before I start the actual cooking and this works perfectly fine for me.
The first step to preparing ayamesa stew is to boil the assorted meat with spices, salt and herbs, then blend the bell peppers, habanero peppers, red chilli peppers and onions together and then pour it into a sieve to drain excess water.
Red palm oil is the main oil used for this stew however, some people use vegetable oil or sunflower oil for the preparation. For this recipe, I have decided to use palm oil. So add the oil in a slightly heated saucepan, place the oil on a low heat and allow to bleach.
Oil bleaching simply means heating up oil until the color changes from red to light yellowish color. Most importantly, never abandon the oil to do some other things while bleaching as this can cause the oil to overheat due to high temperature which can cause the oil to catch fire.
The easiest way of bleaching palm oil is to cover it up with a transparent pot cover which will help you to detect when the oil has changed colour. Once the oil has changed colour, still leave the pot covered and place it close to the window or a ventilated area where the fumes can disappear from without spreading through the kitchen.
Allow the bleached oil to cool down before stirring in onions. Don't forget to allow the oil to cool down so as to avoid oil splash when adding the cooking ingredients. Place the oil back on medium heat, slightly saute the onions then pour in the blended mixtures.
Continue stirring the blended peppers until cooked and dry. Then grind the iru, ogiri okpei, locust bean spices and crayfish before adding it to the stew. At this stage, you can also add the already cooked meat into the ayamase and then continue cooking until the stew is done.
Ayamesa stew is so delicious and I encourage you to give this stew a try and I bet you will enjoy it.
Ingredients:
- 150g shaki
- 150g dry fish
- 1 cow feet (cut)
- 2 onions
- Salt to taste
- 4 maggi cubes
- 150g beef
- 200ml red palm oil
- 10 bell peppers
- 4 red chilli peppers
- 1 red pepper
- 1 ogiri okpei
- 10 iru seeds (locust beans)
- 1 dawadawa
- 2 handfuls crayfish
Instructions:
- Wash all the meat, add in a clean pot, add water, season with spices, salt and maggi cubes before cooking until done.
- Meanwhile blend all the peppers with onions together and add into a sieve to drain excess water.
- Heat up the saucepan on a low heat, add red palm oil and allow to bleach.
- Bring down the bleached oil from heat and allow to cool down.
- Then place back the oil on a medium heat, stir in salt and onions to saute.
- Pour the blended mixtures and continue stirring until dry and cooked.
- Grind the crayfish, iru, dawadawa and ogiri okpei together and add into the stew.
- Simmer for another 5 minutes before bringing down from heat.
- Serve with rice but preferably ofada rice.
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