Nigeria – Stew Sauce

by Verdzekov Bernard

The question about cuisines and their origin has been a thought that I have been thinking of. The are many cuisines around the world coming from different tribes and regions. The question I use to ask myself is, how where the cuisines formed. “Back then when they were no cars, in my country, an old man said, they often rely on heavy meals and not just meals that where delicious. This was because they needed energy to cover long distances on foot and also, he said, there are many spices that exist now that they knew only after very long stay on earth. Normally, with the combination of spices, spices of different kind, a particular cuisine is formed. Some of this spice are not just spices, but medicinal spices, which when eating could cure you from a particular weakness your body is suffering from. Though generally it is said vegetables are good for the health, there are some spices that play particular healing rule. We have onions, garlics, ginger etc. This are ingredients that are often found in African cuisines. To prepare Nigeria stew, follow guide below;

Ingredients

• Caw feet
• Chicken
• Green spices
• 4 onions 
• Salt to taste
• Maggi 
• Garlics 
• Ginger 
• Curry powder
• Green bell pepper  
• Vegetable oil 
• Palm oil 

Kitchen tools you will use 

• Chopping board
• Knife 
• Cooking spoon 
• Cooking pot 
• Blender

Process

• Chop your garlics, ginger, tomatoes, onions and green bell pepper and keep aside. 
• Wash your caw feet well using a sponge and cut into slices. 
• Cut your chicken into slices and keep aside.
• Blend your green spices with garlics, green bell pepper, ginger. Keep aside. Blend your tomatoes and onions separately. Keep aside.
• Boil caw feet using some chopped slices of onions, garlics and ginger. This should take 25-30min. keep stock.
• Do same for the chicken and keep stock.
• Using your main cooking pot, add half glass vegetable oil and allow to heat up. 2min
• Add half glass of palm oil and allow to heat up. The use of vegetable oil and palm oil is purposely to give the stew a nice look and too it is a common practiced in Nigeria and Cameroon to use both cooking oils.
• When oil has been heated, add your blend spices and allow to fry well. 4min
• Add chicken and caw feet stock. Stir well and cover pot. 6min
• When stew is boiling, if you want the stew to look more colorful, add a tin of already processed tomatoes. Stir well. Add salt to taste and maggi then you stir. 
• Stew should be bobbling, add your chicken and stir. Add your caw feet and stir well. Add some more stock if need be. Reduce heat, add your curry powder and stir well. Slice some more onions and add to the pot. Close pot and allow flavor to be absorb by your chicken and meet. this should take about 15min-20min.
• Using another pot, put water in it and stand on heat. Allow it to heat up. Measure 4 cups of rice, wash and put into the boiling water with salt to taste. When boiling rice take note of the quantity of water you use. If you are to boil 4 cups of rice, use 3 bowls of water for the start. During boiling process, you may be needing more water, but take note of the quantity of water that you use. Boiling your rice should take approximately 20-25min. 
• Remove and serve stew with rice. 
• You could as well serve the stew with cooked garri, fried ripe plantains or boiled ripe plantains. It is all your choice to make. But stew is best served with boiled white rice or fried ripe plantains.  

Enjoy…