Mixed Meat & Fish Efo Riro...Vegetable soup

Doesn't this just look pretty?

I love efo riro and can eat it all day. Depending on what you add into yours, it can be one of the healthiest options for someone watching their weight also (i.e. less/no oil, lean cuts of meat)

Efo riro is very versatile and can be eaten with most swallow meals, rice and pasta which makes it a good sauce to have in your fridge most times. It can also be versatile in terms of the ingredients used. Spinach, kale, shoko, efo tete,  turnip, collard greens,ugu (fluted pmpkin leaves) are some of the greens you can use alongside pretty much any cuts of meat to create this colorful beauty.

INGREDIENTS

Vegetable oil
Stock Cubes
Onions
Deboned smoked mackerel
Bell Peppers (tatashe)
Scotch Bonnet (ata rodo)
Chopped Spinach
Ground Crayfish
Spring Onions
Mixed cooked meats (Cow skin, kidney, beef, feel free to add as preferred)

I typically avoid giving quantities most times as its better to use according to your preference e.g more or less oil, more or less pepper to suit your personal taste and health preferences...

PREPARATION

Do a rough blend of all the peppers and onions.

Pour into a clean pot and boil for about 30-45 minutes to dry up the excess water and remove the raw taste (please boil for less time if your mixture is not much.

Rather than pour my blend into a pot of hot oil to fry, I opt to pour the oil into the same pot. Its pretty much the same thing since I wasn't planning to fry onions.

After a few minutes the mixed meats are added.

Add ground crayfish, stock cubes and deboned mackerel.

Stir all thoroughly and taste to know if you need more stock cubes.

The spinach goes in last.

Stir and allow to simmer for a few minutes.



And here we are...Hot steaming plate of goodness ready to go with rice, yams or any swallow of your choice!!!

MACKEREL LOADED GARDEN EGG SAUCE

Garden eggs, a variety of the egg plant is popular as a vegetable snack in a lot of African countries and people eat it on its own or with peanuts/peanut butter.
The sauce is truly beautiful and is popularly eaten with boiled yams, boiled plantains in West Africa. There is also a version that is eaten with swallow meals which we will explore in future.

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INGREDIENTS
15-20 Pieces of Garden Eggs
1-2 Medium Mackerel Cooked/Roasted, deboned and flaked
Onions, chopped
Ata rodo (scotch bonnet peppers)
Spring Onions, sliced
Ground Cray fish, about 2 tbsp
Seasoning cubes
Palm Oil
1 cup of water

*Ingredients can be adjusted for personal preferences, you could use more or less onions, chunky rather than flaked fish, bits of meat, whole dried shrimps and cowskin can also be added for a more robust sauce.

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METHOD

Chop off stalks from your garden eggs and cut into quarters or more for the bigger pieces.

Heat up some palm oil in the pot you want to cook with. 1 cooking spoon of oil or more will be needed as the garden eggs soak up the oil.

Add all your chopped and sliced ingredients beginning with the onions and ending with your garden eggs. Also add your seasoning cube.

*A lot of people would be more familiar with the other cooking method which requires boiling and mashing the garden eggs and other vegetables before frying. This method is just as effective and even faster. Also your vegetables get the opportunity of cooking in the sauce which makes it more flavorful.

Stir fry for a bit and add your ground crayfish. Allow the flavors to combine well.

After simmering for about 5 minutes, add the water and cover so the garden eggs can cook and soften. This should be under 10 minutes.

What do you think? Our garden eggs are all soft and they had the opportunity to absorb more taste since they pretty much cooked in sauce.
At this stage, it can be mashed with your cooking spoon right there in the pot. I like mine a little chunky so I'm not doing much mashing.

Add your mackerel, stir and taste for salt in case you need to add more. Cook for another 5 minutes and it's ready.

I served mine with home made boli/bolé (roasted plantains).
Give it a go and tell us what you think.