Note to self: Last month Moudi and I went to Virginia and Maryland to spend Eid-ul-Fitr with his family and the highlight of the trip was having authentic Nigerian Hausa food….we had Miyan Taushe, Kosai and puff puffs! Trying food from my husbands side of the family was such an eye opening experience and I couldn’t wait to learn and try to make these dishes once we got home. Coming from a Pakistani household I was surprised at how similar some of the flavors and fragrances of the food were not to mention how long the cooking process is for each recipe. I’m super excited to share the food from the northern Hausa tribe because there’s not a lot of exposure of the culture and food here. It’s my honor to learn and have the recipes available and so they can broaden peoples taste buds. Trust me this is a definite holy grail recipe and yes while it does take some time to make, it’s totally worth the effort. The spiciness of the dish was good but definitely take out the seeds of the scotch bonnet peppers since most of the heat comes from there. Oh! and the oil used in this dish is called Red Palm oil…it’s the first time I’ve heard of this oil and not found in common grocery stores. I ordered mine’s off of amazon and this is the brand I use. It’s often used in Nigerian cooking and brings about a really nice flavor and color to most of the dishes. If you don’t have it don’t worry you can substitute regular canola oil or vegetable oil and it shouldn’t be a problem.
Now this dish is usually eaten with tuwo (nigerian rice balls) or masa/waina (a rice cake/pancake). There will be another blog posts dedicated entirely to tuwo and masa/waina. Currently the rice is soaking for the waina 🙂
Ingredients:
- 1 lb of boneless beef cubes
- 1 onion diced
- 1 tsp of garlic powder
- ⅛ tsp black pepper
- 3 maggi chicken bouillon cubes (divided)
- 1 tsp of minced garlic
- ½ tsp ginger puree (you can also use fresh ginger minced finely)
- 8 ½ cups of water
- 1 cup of pureed pumpkin
- 1 red bell pepper roughly chopped
- 4 plum tomatoes roughly chopped
- 2 scotch bonnet peppers (deseeded and roughly chopped)
- 4 tbsp of red palm oil
- 2 cups of chopped baby spinach
Directions:
- Take 1 lb of boneless beef cubes and place into a pot with water and boil for 5 minutes or until you see the fat accumulate at the top.
- Skim fat, drain water, and rinse beef.
- Place beef into a large pot, add 1 diced onion, 1 tsp garlic powder, ⅛ tsp black pepper, 1 maggi chicken bouillon cube, 1 tsp minced garlic, ½ tsp ginger puree, and 5 cups of water, mix well and cook on med-high heat.
- After 15 minutes add 1 cup of pureed pumpkin and 1 maggi chicken bouillon cube and mix well. Cover pot and let it cook on med or medium high heat.
- In a blender add 1 red bell pepper, 4 plum tomatoes, 2 scotch bonnet peppers and blend into a puree.
- Pour puree mixture into a sauce pan and add 4 tbsp of red palm oil and place on medium heat to reduce until half.
- Once it’s reduced, add the puree to the beef/pumpkin mixture and add the last maggi chicken bouillon cube, and 1 cup of water and continue cooking on medium heat.
- After 30 minutes, add 2 more cups of water, cover and turn down heat from medium to low until the meat is tender.
- After the meat is tender add ½ cup of water, and 2 cups of fresh chopped baby spinach, mix until spinach is well incorporated and cook for 3-5 minutes until spinach is wilted.
- Serve with tuwo or masa/waina.
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