It is a very popular dish in Guinea-Conakry if not the most popular; a vegetable stew with rice that’s flavoured with spices and dried fish powder. It’s also versatile, in that you can serve it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The spice referred to here as odji is also konwn as iru, dawadawa, sumbala and netetu and represents the dried, fermented and smoked seeds of the African locust bean Parkia biglobosa.
Prep Time: 10 minutes/Cook Time 60 minutes/Serves: 4
Ingredients:
10 okra pods
3 large aubergines (eggplants)
4 garden eggs
2 Scotch bonnet chillies
1 lime
1 tbsp of ‘bonga’ (dried fish powder)
1 tsp of salt
1 maggi cube
2 tbsp of ‘odji’ (soumbala/fermented locust beans)
500ml (2 cups) of red palm oil
700g (4 cups) of rice (parboiled rice would be typical)
1/4 onion, sliced
Method:
Wash the rice and cook according to the package instructions.
Wash all the vegetables. Peel and cut the aubergines (eggplants) in half, then lengthwise.
Transfer the okras, aubergine pieces, garden eggs and whole chillies into a deep pot, add water and bring to a boil. Once the vegetables are tender, drain the water (at the same time press the vegetables against the sides of the pot to remove any excess liquid).
Use a fork to mash them up or simply add them in a blender. Pulse to chop, then blend lightly without over processing. Two scotch bonnets can be quite spicy, which is what we like, but you can discard one at this point.
Add the maggi cube, salt, 1 tbsp of the soumbara/odji, 1 tbsp of dried fish powder, fresh lime juice and mix together. Do a taste test and adjust the seasoning to your liking.
Heat the palm oil in a pot or wok. Once the oil is hot add the sliced onions and fry them ver low heat for about 5 minutes or until they become crispy.
Arrange the cooked rice on a serving plate or a tray and spread the vegetable mixture over it. Drizzle over some palm oil then pound the remaining sounbala in a mortar and scatter this over.
