Alafia Tomato Sauce

THE ALAFIA TOMATO STEW

THE NIGERIAN TOMATO STEW

The Nigerian Stew is eaten throughout Nigeria. Other Africans tell me it is peculiar to Nigeria's culinary culture. It is a bit like the Italian Ratatouille, but much thicker and full of flavour. Today this remarkable stew can be purchased as a ready made cooking sauce. If you desire to make a large quantity of Nigerian tomato beef or lamb stew, you would need to put aside some stock from your boiled lamb or beef and add it to the stewed lamb or beef right at the end of the cooking.

Ingredients

one leg of lamb or shoulder of lamb cut up into cubes (your local butcher can cube your meat for you)

3 jars of Alafia tomato cooking sauce.

2 vegetable oxo cubes

2 teaspoonful of salt.

1 onion chopped

80mls of vegetable oil.

Method

Boil your meat with the salt and chopped onions for 10 minutes or until tender.

Empty jars of cooking sauces into boiled meat.

Add the oxo cubes and vegetable oil.

Stir contents of pot .

Bring to the boil rapidly for 5 minutes.

Reduce heat and simmer stew under gentle heat for 30 - 40 minutes.

Serve with boiled Rice, Pasta, chips, black eye beans, crusty bread or any carbohydrate of our choice.

VEGETARIAN VERSION

It is possible to make a vegetarian alternative of the Nigerian tomato stew

Empty 3 jars of Alafia tomato cooking sauce into a cooking pan

Add the 80mls of vegetable oil

Add 2 teaspoonful of salt

Add 2 vegetable oxo cubes.

30mls of warm water.

Cover tightly with a lid.

Simmer for 12 - 15 minutes under medium heat.

Add one cut up or cubed courgette and some cut up button mushrooms (allow vegetables to cook for a minute or two just to allow vegetables to soften up a little.)

Taste for salt before serving with some rice, chips or pasta.

*****Vegetarians who enjoy eating fish can substitute mushrooms or courgettes for steaks of Salmon or Cod . This creates a most delectable fish stew that goes down well with most carbohydrate dishes.

JOLLOF RICE

Jollof rice is the progenitor of the Jambalaya. It appears in the culinary cultures of several nations. It is known as Paella in Spain, Pillaf in India, Risotto in Italy, Ploff in Russia and Jambalaya amongst African Americans.

Jollof rice is enjoyed through out the length and breadth of West Africa and Nigeria in particular. Black women taken from the African continent took the dish into the African Diaspora and popularised it.

Ingredients

One jar of Alafia Tomato cooking sauce.

1kg bag of long grain rice.

90gms of desiccated coconut.

One large onion - chopped.

One small bag of frozen mixed vegetables.

2 vegetable Oxo cubes.

190 mls of vegetable oil.

One level desert spoonful of salt.

500mls of warm water.

Method

Pour vegetable oil, rice, onion and desiccated coconut, into a large cooking pot. Crumble Oxo cubes into contents of pot.

Add salt and begin to gently stir fry contents of pot on a low to medium heat for

5 minutes or until rice and onions begin to brown.

Turn heat down to very low and then add warm water to rice without stirring.

Spoon in half a jar of the Alafia tomato sauce (do not stir!).

Pour frozen mixed vegetable onto the rice (without stirring). Stirring at this stage will cause rice to begin to burn at the base without cooking through.

Cover pot tightly with a lid or kitchen foil and allow to simmer or steam through for 10 - 15 minutes.

Open after at least 10 minutes to see if rice is cooked and softened.

If rice is still not softened add a little more water if the pot is drying out. Cover and allow to cook or steam through for another 5 - 10 minutes.

Gently stir the entire contents of pot together before serving. Broccoli stewed in Naija Potent peanut is a lovely accompaniment to Jollof rice.

MOI-MOI

Moi-Moi (bean pudding) is a popular Nigerian delicacy. It is often served at parties as a bean accompaniment to a rice dish such as Jollof rice (best with Zamfara Rice), or rice and tomato stew. This bean pudding is also delightful with ripe fried plantains or Odeiga House's Corn Ogi.

Ingredients

One jar of Alafia cooking sauce.

*500gms of bean flour.

400mls of warm water to make a smooth paste from bean flour.

180mls of vegetable oil.

250gm bag of frozen prawns.

2 cans of Mackerel in sunflower oil.

1 teaspoonful of salt.

1 Oxo cube (crushed into a powder)

A kettle of hot boiled water (to make a ban marie)

METHOD

Pour bean flour into a mixing bowl.

Add the salt and crushed Oxo cube.

Gently add warm water and the vegetable oil to make a smooth paste.

Empty cans of mackerel into a plate or bowl, use a fork to break up mackerel fillets into smaller chunks before adding to bean paste.

Spoon in the Alafia tomato cooking sauce.

Tip bag of prawns into paste.

Gently stir paste to get ingredients well blended in.

Taste paste for salt. Add more salt if required.

Use a serving spoon to scoop the batter-like paste into well oiled foil baking pans. Cover with lid (ensure that the foil surface is face down covering the paste)

Place onto baking tray. Pour hot boiled water into baking tray until it reaches halfway up the side of the foil pan in the baking tray. Cover the tray and its contents with paper foil, sealing the corners; this creates steam.

Place in an oven and bake for an hour , gas mark 4 or 180 - 190 degrees C.

Check after forty minutes by plunging a knife into the middle of the Moi-Moi (bean pudding) - if it comes out clean then dish is ready. If knife satins with the batter, then cook for a further 20 minutes.

Allow the Moi-Moi to cool down. This will assure that the Moi-Moi pudding can be easily lifted or tipped out of the foil pans unto serving plates.