Ayamase (Designer Stew / Ofada Stew)
Ayamase stew also called Designer stew or Ofada sauce is a green bell peppers stew, which happens to be a delicacy common in the western part of Nigeria. This green bell peppers sauce may not have the best of colors, but the rich flavor will definitely get you saying 'mama put'
Ingredients
- 10-12 large green bell peppers (or 3 cups of my green pepper stew base. see note 1)
- 2 cups bleached palmoil
- 3 green habanero/ scotch bonnet pepper
- 2 medium onions (chopped)
- ¼ cup iru
- 2 ½ lbs (1.2 kg) Assorted meats (Precooked see note 3)
- 3 cups beef stock
- 2 tablespoon ground crayfish (Optional but recommended)
- 10 boiled eggs
- Salt/ bouillon cube to taste
Instructions
Using the Stew base.
- Saute onions in bleached palm oil, add the iru and stir.
- Then pour in the thawed stew base, ground cray fish, the meat stock, stir and allow to cook for about 20 mins until the stew begins to thicken again. Stir at close intervals to prevent it from burning. (the thickness of the sauce is a personal choice. I like mine thick but not too thick.)
- Taste for seasoning and adjust with more if needed. When the sauce has reached your desired consistency, add the precooked assorted meats, lower heat to a simmer to warm meat through for about 5 mins. Turn off heat the add the boiled eggs. The residual heat would warm the eggs through.
- Serve with ofada rice or any medium or long grain rice.
If using Freshly blended green bell peppers
- Clean and deseed the green bell peppers. Blend with as little water as you can manage without over working your blender. alternatively, blend and sieve or roast and blend.
- Heat up in a sauce pan, sauté onions in bleached palm oil, then add the iru (locust beans.)
- Pour in the freshly blended green bell peppers into the oil. Add the crayfish and meat stock. Stir to ombiner. Cook till the sauce thickens to your desired consistency. This can take up to 30 mins depending on the quantity.
- Add precooked assorted meats. Lower heat and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes then turn heat off before adding the boiled eggs.
Notes
- If you intend to roast the peppers, I suggest you do that a day before to save you time. Alteratively, blend peppers and sieve out the liquid to cut down on cooking time. This is the stew base I use when I have it available.
- Preparing ingredients ahead helps save time when cooking African dishes. If possible bleach your palm oil ahead. Bleached palm oil can be made and stored up to 1 month ahead.
- I pre cook the meats the day before most of the time. If you are cooking meat from fresh, add 30 mins more to this cook time in this recipe. Cook the meats first, then follow the rest of the instructions.
- The nutritional information doesn't include the iru (locust beans) at the time of this recipe card was published, my nutritional info database didn't have it.
- See body of post for answers to more frequently asked questions.
Nutrition
Calories: 312kcal
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