I decided to go back to my roots by preparing a dish that originates from the western part of Nigeria; Okra Ogbono served wit Amala.

Amala is a thick brown paste made from yam which has been peeled, dried, cleaned and then blended into flour form. It is eaten primarily among the yoruba people of Nigeria.

Ingredients

500g of okra
about half a cup of ogbono
a handful of ground crayfish
2 stock cubes
ground pepper
4 cubes of frozen leaf spinach
Beef, chicken pieces (bolied and seasoned)
Stock cat fish
100ml Palm oil
Bitter leaf
King prawns(optional)
Beef stock
Amala powder


chop the okra into small pieces and leave on the side, heat the palm oil in a pan on low heat for 2 minutes and add the beef stock, stir in the stock cubes, ground crayfish, the ground pepper, stock cat fish and the bitter leaf and leave to simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Still in Low heat, add the beef and chicken pieces and stir, gradually add the blended ogbono and stir. Do not cover as this is a slimey dish and once covered, it gets too slimey and can lose its form. At this stage, you will be able to see that the ogbono has started to draw.
Add the leaf spinach as you wish, depending on how you like it, you can chop it more if you prefer. Stir the mixture and leave to simmer for a about 5 minutes. (taste it at this stage to check if you require salt or more stock cubes).

The Okra goes in next, stir and leave to simmer for 5 to 7 minutes on low heat. As the king prawn is optional, I add my king prawns at the end to avoid it shrinking when it gets in the stew (lol).

For the Amala- boil some water in a kettle and add to your pot on fire, I'll leave it for another one minute to over boil; turn your heat down and gradually add in the amala powder by continuously stirring until fine and in paste form. To avoid lumps in the amala, once thick and fine, add a bit of water and leave to boil with the mixture for 30 seconds to 1 minute and stir constantly.

Thanks for reading. xxx