Fish Stew & Okra

• 🧑‍🍳 Medium – Hard
• ⏱ Prep: 20mins
• 🥘 Cook: 20mins
• 🍴 Serves 4

This one is no simple mid-week dinner. This is better suited to the weekend or one of those days where you have the time or patience to try a new recipe / dish. Make sure you prep, prep, prep beforehand. This would make the preparation of this meal so much easier and straight forward. I like to spend less and less time in my kitchen and food prep has really helped me achieve this over the years.

Amala and okra with stew is a typical Nigerian dish. It is a staple swallow food native to the Yoruba ethnic group of Southwestern Nigeria.^[1] It is made of yam, cassava flour, or unripe plantain flour. 2 Tubers of yams are peeled, sliced, cleaned, dried and then ground into flour. It is also called èlùbọ́.

Fish Stew & Okra Ingredients

Stew Ingredients

• 2 good-quality red bream, descaled, washed and cut in four pieces (about 200g each).
• 2 red onions, cut into wedges.
• 2 red bell peppers, sliced into strips.
• 5 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle.
• 3 pieces of red lantern chilli (alternative for a little kick of spice).

Okra Ingredients

• 20 pieces of okra, washed

To Serve

• Swallow of choice (amala was used in this recipe). Other alternatives include cassava paste (eba), mashed yam (iyan), fufu or less caloric oat poundo.

Fish Stew Preparation

1. Tumble the onions, peppers and chilli into the blender and blitz until smooth.
2. Pour blended peppers into a clean pot and add 5 tbsp olive oil, season with sea salt, then close the pot with lid. Allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the red bream to the stew pot and close to cook for 10-15 minutes. Allow fish to be fully immersed in the pepper, cook and set aside.

Okra Preparation

1. In a separate step, add your okra to a food processor or blender and blitz okra. Do not fully blend and do not make fine.
2. Add the okra to a clean sauce pan with a pinch of salt (1/4 tsp). Allow to simmer for 5-6 minutes under medium heat. Set aside to cool.

Serving: My usual plate normally contains a portion of fish stew, okra and amala ©

💡All in one for dinner. Can be eaten as lunch as it has a high caloric content.