Nigeria – Asun

by Mimi Joseph

From the picture itself, you may get a blur picture on how the cuisine looks like and even it’s taste. This is Asun the peppered goat recipe, one among the lovable cuisines from Yoruba speaking Ondo people in Western Nigeria.

Nigeria is a country located in the western part of Africa. It is bordered with Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Asun is prepared with the mix of goat meat, habanero, garlic, onions, bell peppers and other ingredients of one choice.

Habanero counts more in the recipe after goat meat. It is a secret add up taste of the Asun cuisine. Other peppers balances the sweetness and the bitterness of the cuisine to give outstanding taste.

The habanero pepper is so hot, therefore you may replace with the favored one of your choice. Goat meat sometimes it is so stinky, especially a male goat, this may make your recipe unfavorable to some people who can’t hold up with the smell. Marinating it throughout the night in a refrigerator may cut off the smell.

Asun has a bigger difference from normal goat meat roast. It passes through slow cooking process as well as oven cooking stage before mixed with a sauce to accomplish it. Welcome to the recipe preparation and cooking.

Ingredients

• 1/2 kg of goat meat
• 1 habanero pepper
• 1 onion
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp bouillon powder
• green bell pepper
• red bell pepper
• yellow bell pepper
• garlic
• olive oil
• salt

Cooking

• Prepare goat meat by cut it into small pieces. Wash it well and place into a cooking pan. If the goat smell persist marinate it with ginger, cinnamon, salt, lemon, curry all over the night while refrigerating it.
• Preheat oven to 350 degree Celsius.
• Chop onions and add into the cooking pan about 1/4 of the chopped onions together with the bouillon powder then stir to mix, boil under medium heat for about 20 minutes.
• While boiling chop up the peppers to one cup each, peppers are red, yellow, green and habanero peppers. Grin 1 garlic clove.
• After slow boiling spread up a baking pan with aluminum foil and then spread the meat on one layer. Bale for 30 to 35 minutes in the oven. You may need to stir it in a half time to 30 or 35 minutes.
• After 30 minutes of oven cooking ends, start to fry onions and garlic for 40 seconds in a saucepan, add the peppers and cook for 5 minutes.
• Add meat from the oven into the saucepan and cook for 5 minutes with medium heat.
• Add salt for taste, our cuisine is ready.

Asun can be taken as it is or with rice. Some people like it with stiff porridge too.