Ayamase green pepper stew with eggs

Plan a week with Nigerian dishes

Let's cook

1. Cook the rice first. Ofada rice often has small stones and husks in it: spread it on a tray, pick them out, then wash it in several changes of cold water. Boil it in plenty of water for 25 to 30 minutes until tender, then drain and keep it warm with the lid on.
2. Boil the eggs. Lower them into boiling water, cook for 9 minutes, then cool them in cold water and peel.
3. Make the green base. Cut the peppers into chunks, taking out the seeds. Put them in a blender with the scotch bonnets and 1 roughly chopped onion. Pulse to a coarse paste, not a smooth purée: ayamase should have some texture.
4. Tip the paste into a pan and boil it uncovered on a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring now and then, to cook off most of the water. Set aside.
5. Lighten the palm oil, which gives ayamase its special taste. Open a window and turn on the extractor fan. Heat the oil in a heavy pot on a low to medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes, until it turns from deep red to a paler gold. Stay with the pot the whole time; if it smokes hard, turn the heat off at once. Leave it to cool for 2 minutes.
6. Add the sliced onion and iru to the oil and fry on a medium heat for 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and fry for 5 minutes.
7. Add the green base, crumble in the stock cube and add the salt. Fry for 15 minutes, stirring often, until the stew is thick and the oil rises to the top.
8. Halve the eggs and nestle them into the stew. Warm through for 3 minutes. Taste and add more salt if needed.
9. Serve the rice on one plate and the stew in a bowl beside it, with the eggs on top.

Tips

• Ofada rice is a local Nigerian rice with a strong, nutty smell, sold in African shops. Brown rice is the nearest swap.
• If you prefer not to heat the palm oil so long, use half palm oil and half vegetable oil and just heat it normally. The stew will be redder and a little milder in taste.
• The stew keeps in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat it until steaming hot.

Swaps

• Vegan: leave out the eggs and add a drained 400g tin of black-eyed beans with the mushrooms.
• Milder: use 1 scotch bonnet and add an extra green pepper.
• With meat: ayamase is often cooked with beef; simmer 500g diced beef until tender and add it with the green base.

More in the Nigerian meal plan

Our own recipe. The photograph is AI-generated.