How to Cook Nigerian Fried Fish Stew

The major challenge when preparing Nigerian Fish Stew is that the fish scatters in the stew. In this recipe, I will show how to prepare this stew and the fish will still be intact.

Like the Beef and Chicken Stew, the Nigerian Fish Stew can be prepared in large quantities and stored in the freezer for up to a month. This stew goes well with:

1. Boiled Rice
2. Boiled/Fried Plantains
3. Boiled Beans (plain)
4. Boiled/Fried Yam
5. Boiled/Fried Potatoes
6. White Agidi
7. Plain Boiled Beans
8. White Bread

You can see that this stew goes well with virtually every major staple food so you should always have it in your freezer.
Ingredients for Nigerian Fried Fish Stew

1. 800 mls Tomato Stew
2. 1 big Mackerel (a.k.a. Titus in Nigeria)
3. 2 teaspoons thyme
4. 2 medium onions
5. 1 big stock cube or boullion cube
6. 1 habanero pepper (Atarodo, Ose Oyibo, Atarugu)
7. Salt (to taste)

Important notes on the ingredients

1. Tomato Stew is fresh puree tomato and the tinned tomato paste that has been boiled and fried in vegetable oil to remove all traces of water and the sour taste of tomatoes. It is the base stew for all Nigerian Red Stews and Jollof Rice recipes. This is not raw tomato puree.
2. Mackerel (also known as Titus in Nigeria) is the most popular fish for preparing the Nigerian Fish Stew but feel free to use any fish of your choice. Some fish are too soft when cooked and will scatter in the stew because of all that stirring. It is not advisable to use such fish.
3. I prefer red onions for the Nigerian Fish Stew but your can use white or yellow onions if they are the only ones you have.
4. Stock cubes are the seasoning cubes we add to our cooking.

The quantities for the seasonings are for guidance only so add the thyme, pepper and salt to your taste.

1. Before you cook Nigerian Fried Fish Stew
2. Prepare the tomato stew by following the steps at: How to Prepare Tomato Stew
3. Cut the fish into 1 inch thick cuts and remove the intestine. It is advisable to cut the fish while it is still a little bit frozen. This helps you get perfect straight cuts and keeps the fish from disintegrating.
4. Sprinkle some salt on the fish, rub the salt into the fish cuts with your hands and set aside.
5. Slice one of the onions and dice the other one.
6. Pound or blend the habanero pepper (atarodo, ose oyibo, atarugu).

Cooking Directions

1. Place the diced onions, crushed stock cubes and thyme in a clean pot.
2. Pour a small amount of water and bring to a boil.
3. Add the fish and leave to boil for 2 minutes. Turn the fish on the other side and allow to boil for another 2 minutes then take them out from the fish stock.

1. Note:
2. We can fry the fish straight away without doing all this but we need to boil the fish for the following reasons:
3. For a delicious stew, we need some fish stock (fish water lol) from the fish. The seasoning we add to the fish goes into the fish to make it taste better while the juice from the fish goes into the surrounding water to give it some nice taste that will make the stew delicious.
4. This boiling process helps toughen the fish thereby preventing it from disintegrating in the stew.
5. Set the fish stock aside.
6. Shallow-fry the fish in a small quantity of vegetable oil till golden. The difference between deep-frying and shallow-frying is that in shallow frying, you use less amount of oil and the fish is not immersed in the oil. Both of them are great but I just think there is no need to use all that oil in frying especially when I can achieve the same thing with shallow frying. Also, I do not like my fish bone-dry as that is what we often aim for with deep-frying.
7. Set the fish aside and set the pot with the fish stock back on this stove (medium heat).
8. Once it boils again, add the tomato stew and habanero pepper.
9. Add some water to bring the stew to the consistency you like for your stews. Some people like their stew watery, some like it conc and some like it somewhere in the middle.
10. Add salt, stir and cover the pot and leave to simmer (boil) till you see some oil float to the surface of the stew. This is the oil from frying the Tomato Stew, no extra oil is added to Fish Stew. While waiting to see the oil, stir the stew at intervals so it does not burn.
11. Once you see the oil at the top (watch the video below for what it should look like), add the fried fish.
12. Stir, cover and once it boils again, the stew is ready!

Turmeric Rice also know as Yellow Rice

Turmeric Rice is one of the most basic yet delicious rice recipes to prepare in your kitchen. There's no tomato stew to make in this recipe so what can stop you from preparing this rice dish?

Ingredients

• Long grain parboiled rice
• If you are in the USA/UK, use 2 cups.
• If you are in Nigeria, use ½ De Rica cup.
• If you have a weighing scale, use 350g or 0.8lbs.
• 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon Nigerian curry powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
• 1 small red onion
• 2-3 cups chicken stock
• A small quantity of red pepper
• A handful green peas
• Salt (to taste)

Notes about the ingredient

1. Use enough turmeric powder to colour the rice. Please note that the rice may not look so yellow when you add the parboiled rice to the turmeric mix in the pot but when the rice is done, it will become very yellow.
2. Turmeric is known as yellow ginger in Nigeria. It is known as ajo or ata ile pupa in Yoruba and kurkum in Hausa. You can buy turmeric powder in big supermarkets eg Shoprite in Nigeria.
3. I used chicken stock for this recipe because I served the rice with Onion Baked Chicken. I used soft chicken which I baked from raw so no boiling of the chicken done to get some chicken stock. This means that for taste, I added chicken stock which I always have in my freezer. I get this chicken stock when I prepare side dishes like Peppered Chicken.
4. If you want to prepare this with Fried Chicken or Grilled Chicken, cook the chicken with thyme, onions, stock cubes and whatever else you use to season your chicken. Then add the water from cooking that chicken (chicken stock) to the rice during Step 1 in the cooking directions.
5. If you are in Nigeria, red bell peppers are available in big foreign supermarkets. Use tatashe as alternative to the red pepper. The quantity of red pepper you need is so small, see the video below.

Before you cook Turmeric Rice or Yellow Rice

1. Rinse and cut the red onions into small pieces.
2. Rinse, remove the seeds and cut the red pepper into small pieces.
3. Prepare the chicken you will serve it with. You can serve with Peppered Chicken or Onion Baked Chicken.
4. Parboil the long grain parboiled rice. For the quantity of rice stated above, add to boiling water, stir, cover the pot and once it boils again, leave to boil for 10 minutes or till you can easily cut the grain of rice with your finger nails.

Cooking Directions

1. Pour the chicken stock into a sizeable pot.
2. Add the turmeric powder, Nigerian curry powder and black pepper.
3. Cover and cook till it boils.
4. Add the parboiled rice, stir and make sure that the liquid in the pot is at the same level as the rice. If not, top it up.
5. Taste for salt and add some if necessary. Stir, cover again and start cooking on medium heat.
6. If you parboiled the rice correctly as described above, the rice should be done by the time the water dries up. Taste to confirm. If not, you will need to add more water and reduce the heat to prevent burning. Continue cooking.
7. When you can no longer see the water in the rice, add the diced red pepper, onions and green peas. Stir only the top of the rice, cover and continue cooking.
8. The rice is done when all the water dries up.
9. Stir with a spatula till the vegetables and the rice are well combined.
10. That's it!

Aquafabulous Mayonnaise

This recipe truly is a miracle – you wouldn’t believe mayonnaise would work without egg but it does! If you are vegan, allergic to eggs or pregrant and avoiding raw eggs, it’s a life-changing discovery,
and even if you aren’t it’s a great thing to know about as it tastes just the same as mayo made with egg!
INGREDIENTS
Prep time:2 minsMakes:just over 1 1/4 cups

3 tbsp of brine from a can of chickpeas
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp dijon mustard
¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp fine white pepper
1 cup neutral oil


Combine all ingredients in a tall jug, sink a hand wand blender to the bottom of the mixture and whizz until thick and creamy (about 10 seconds!). Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.