This is a classic Liberian recipe for a dish of sweet potato leaves and mixed meat cooked in a red palm oil base.
Prep time: 20 minutes/Cook time: 70 minutes/Serves: 4-6
Ingredients:
300g (2/3 lb) beef, lamb or goat, cubed
200g (7 oz) dried fish, broken into pieces
1 whole fish, (eg red snapper), cleaned scaled and cut into steaks
1 whole mackerel, cleaned, scaled and cut into steaks
300g (2/3 lb) chicken portions
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
3 habanero chillies
300g (2/3 lb) sweet potato greens
500ml (2 cups) red palm oil
1 Maggi cube
sea salt
chicken seasoning
black pepper
2 tbsp chilli flakes
seasoned salt
Method:
Combine the meat, fish and chicken in a pot. Meanwhile, mix together 1 onion, garlic, ginger and chillies in a food processor and render to a paste. Pour this paste over the fish and meat. Crumble over a Maggi cube, and add 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp chicken seasoning and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Pour over enough water to just cover the meat then place over medium heat, cooking for 20 minutes.
Wash your sweet potato greens, discarding any tough stems. Now finely shred the stems and the greens into a large bowl.
Remove the meat and fresh fish from the pot and set aside (leave in the dried fish). Add in the sweet potato greens and top with the remaining onion then mix well to combine. Scatter over the chilli flakes and 1 tsp seasoned salt.
Cover and stew for 25 minutes, then return the meat and fish to the pan. Cook for a further 10 minutes then add the red palm oil. Cover once more and cook down for 15 minutes.
Adjust the seasoning to taste and serve with plain rice.
