INGREDIENTS: (serves 8 people)
4lb lamb meat
2 large onions
3 medium shallot onions
5 cloves garlic
2lb of medium portabello mushrooms
1 medium stick fresh ginger
1 large bay leaf, 1 tsp. each fresh thyme, rosemary, sage
4 small cloves
2 small green onions
4 large jalapeno peppers
6 small original organic yellow eggplants**
4 tea spoons of tomato paste
1 medium can of palm nut cream concentrate**
4 cups of yam flour*
METHOD:
Marinate the lamb meat for 12 hours with chopped shalott, garlic, ginger, thyme, rosemary, sage, bay leaf.
Open the palm nut cream concentrate and place into a pot and add 8 litres of hot water, mix and bring to a boil on low heat for 30 minutes, pin the 4 cloves to 1 large onion and add to the palm nut mixture.
In a different pot, steam the marinated meat with one chopped on low heat for 20 minutes stirring ocassionaly, add salt, pepper and the tomato paste.
Transfer the boiled cream palm nut mixture into the meat pot, stir and cook all on low heat for another 40 minutes, add the yellow eggplant, mushroom, and jalapeno pepper verify the seasoning, cook for another 20 minutes.
* these ingredients can be found at African Specialty Food Stores in Vancouver on Commercial Drive, in New Westminster and Surrey ** these ingredients can be purchased in a canned format
N.B. The sauce has to be thick and meat tender, spice to your taste.
CHEF’S TIP: to thicken the sauce, remove some of the eggplant, mash and add back into the sauce.
THE YAM FOUFOU (FUFU)
Boil 1 1/2 litres of water. Remove half and put aside. Mix 3 heaping tea spoons of the yam flour in cold water. Add it in to the half pot of hot water, simmer to a boil on low heat and mix very well, let boil for 2 minutes. Use a strong wooden spoon and infuse the rest of the flour slowly stir it gradually to become consistent in texture, no lumps! Knead the flour with the wooden spoon for 10 minutes gradually add a few drops of water that was set aside to maintain the softness of the dough.
Dish the yam foufou into a large bowl or individual bowls, add the lamb and palm nut sauce.
CHEF’S NOTES: Traditionally this sauce is cooked in a clay pot.
This recipe is one of the African traditional dishes across the continent mostly on the sub Sahara and popular on the West Coast of Africa.
In my home town village AGOU ATIGBE ABAYEME a region in TOGO this food is prepared mostly for very joyful occasions like this time of the year to celebrate the first Yam or Thanksgiving.
Our Great Grand Fathers and Mothers took the best ingredients from their farms to make this copious food and celebration very memorable every year.
The Palm tree is a very precious tree in our region because it has many uses: palm wine, palm whiskey, palm oil, palm soap, palm broom, grows mushrooms from the trunk, used to make roofs from the branches, and baskets from the leaves. My home town’s first Settlers built their village in the palm tree with the palm branch, hence the name ABAYEME meaning ‘house in the palm’!
These are my Thanksgiving memories from my little village in Togo, West Africa. I’m delighted to share this fine fare from my jungle town with you.
Preparation 2 hours
HAPPY THANKSGIVING with love and peace from Chef Honoré Gbedze.
