Of the West African cuisines, the cookery of Nigeria is perhaps the most well known outside its native region, as benefits Africa's most populous traditions. However, the westernized versions of Nigerian cuisines that you sometimes encounter are quite different from native Nigerian cookery.
In the main, Nigerian foods are heavily based around the use of grains with millet, sorghum, barley and cassava flours being staples. The southern part of the country tend to have fish and seafood-based stews as a large part of the diet whilst pork, veal and chicken are more common in the North of the country.
Like many West African countries hot chillies are a critical component of all Nigerian stews and they provide the majority of the vitamin C in the country's traditional diet. Tomato-based stews are also common, as are snacks based on plantains and peanuts.
Below are two classic Nigerian recipes for you to enjoy and to try at home.
Nigerian Guinea Fowl Stew
Ingredients:
1 guinea fowl jointed and cut into ~12 pieces
225g fresh scotch bonnet chillies
1kg fresh tomatoes, ground
2 large onions, ground
2 cloves garlic
1 small tin tomato purée
I tsp thyme
2 tsp chopped partminger leaves (this is an herb in the basil family, substitute Thai Holy Basil if not available)
2 onions, sliced
1 tsp curry powder
57Oml groundnut oil
salt to taste
Method:
Season the guinea fowl pieces with salt then add to a pot along with the onions, thyme and curry powder and cook in a little oil for some 35 minutes, until tender (stir frequently). Grind the 2 large onions, chillies and tomatoes together in a food processor. Add the remainin oil to a separate pot and fry the ground tomato blend in this for 20 minutes, until fairly dry. Add the tomato purée and a little stock, stir thoroughly then add to the fried guinea fowl pieces. Bring to the boil then simmer gently for a further 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Drain off any oil that rises to the surface and then stir-in the partminger (or holy basil) leaves.
Serve immediately with boiled rice or fried plantain.
Igbekere (Pantain Chips)
Ingredients:
4 half-ripe plantains
salt to taste
oil for deep frying
Method:
Peel the plantains and cut in half then slice them thinly at a diagonal to form rounds. Sprinkle with salt then heat the oil and deep fry the sliced plantains until crisp and golden. Drain onto kitchen paper and serve as a snack or as an accompaniment to drinks.
Dyfed Lloyd Evans is the creator and main author of the Celtnet Recipes site where you can find a range of Nigerian recipes which are presented as part of this West African Recipes pages, a component of his African Recipes collection.
Please Rate this Article
Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Recipes Articles Via RSS!
