A dense, red-orange Ivorian palm nut sauce, slowly simmered from palm nut pulp with meat, smoked fish, crab, chili, and aromatics, traditionally served with foutou.
Ingredients
- 1200 g fresh palm nuts for sauce graine
- 500 g bone-in stewing beef
- 250 g whole African smoked fish or pieces
- 2 pieces cleaned blue crabs or mangrove crabs
- 1 piece yellow onion
- 2 pieces ripe fresh tomatoes
- 1 piece fresh habanero or African chili
- 4 pieces white African eggplants or small bitter eggplants
- 120 g fresh okra
- 2 cloves fresh garlic
- 2 tsp fine salt
- 1800 ml water
- 800 g ready-to-serve plantain or yam foutou
Method
- Rinse the palm nuts, place them in a large pot, and cover them with some of the water. Bring to a vigorous boil, then cook at a strong simmer until the fruit skins soften and come away easily when pressed with your fingers.
- Drain the palm nuts, reserving the hot cooking water. Pound them in a mortar or crush them vigorously in a sturdy basin until the red pulp separates from the kernels and forms a fatty, fibrous paste.
- Gradually add the reserved hot water to the pounded pulp, knead by hand or with a spatula, then press firmly to extract the red palm juice. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing the fibers well. Repeat with the remaining water until you have an opaque, fatty red liquid. Discard the fibers and kernels.
- Put the beef in a clean pot with the onion, garlic, tomatoes, and salt. Add just enough strained palm juice to start the cooking, cover, and simmer over medium heat until the meat begins to tenderize and the onion loses its raw smell.
- Pour the remaining strained palm juice into the pot. Bring to a boil uncovered, then maintain a steady boil. The sauce should move gently without sticking, and red oil should begin to bead on the surface.
- Add the African eggplants whole or split, depending on their size, then continue cooking uncovered. When they are tender, remove them, mash them finely with a little hot sauce, and return the purée to the pot to thicken the sauce naturally.
- Clean the smoked fish by removing the large bones and overly dry parts, then add it to the sauce with the crabs. Lower the heat slightly to keep the fish from breaking apart. The sauce should simmer, smell distinctly smoky, and coat the back of a spoon.
- Add the whole chili if you want fragrance without too much heat, or split it slightly for a hotter sauce. Simmer until the red oil rises clearly to the surface and the sauce changes from cloudy red to deep, glossy red.
- Add the okra toward the end of cooking so it remains distinct and provides a light thickening without turning the sauce into a stringy paste. Cook until tender but still recognizable.
- Taste the sauce and adjust the salt. If it seems too thin, continue cooking uncovered over low heat until it becomes thick, glossy, and properly coating. If it seems too heavy, loosen it with a splash of hot water and bring it back to a brief simmer.
- Serve very hot, with pieces of meat, smoked fish, and crab in each plate, accompanied by foutou. The sauce should be generous, red, dense, fatty on the surface, and thick enough to coat the foutou.
Nutrition
Per serving
- Energy
- 2183.6 kcal
- Protein
- 49.13 g
- Carbohydrate
- 104 g
- Fat
- 184.33 g
- Fibre
- 31.03 g
- Calcium
- 22.95 mg
- Iron
- 0.62 mg
- Magnesium
- 41.42 mg
