Some recipes from Sierra leone

In Sierra Leone, West Africa, the stew is a popular dish of varying status.  The status comes with the type and variety of meat used.    The highest status is reserved for the Jollof rice stew, the accompaniment to Freetown Jollof rice.  The Jollof rice stew traditionally uses all or a subset of these: beef, pork, chicken and pigs' trotters - no fish.  Fish stews are lower down the ladder with the cheapest fish having the lowest status of all stews.  Besides the meat, the standard stew ingredients are vegetable oil, onions (chopped and sliced),  sweet and chilli peppers (diced), tomato puree and water. 

To prepare:

1. Peel 2 medium onions; thinly slice one and dice the other. 
2. Dice 3 sweet peppers of different colours 
3. Remove the skin from 2 Costament smoke-dried mackerel; break into large flakes, removing all bones in the process.
4. Put 5 tablespoons of vegetable oil into a frying pan and heat.  Add the onions and pepper and fry stirring occasionally. When the onions are translucent and beginning to brown at the edges,   add two tablespoons of tomato puree paste and mix thoroughly with the onions and pepper. Turn the heat down and continue to fry with occasional stirring until the tomato paste loses its redness and becomes dark.  
5. Add 250mls of water, stir, cover with the lid and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Add the mackerel flakes and simmer for another 20 minutes. Season to taste and add more oil if required. The oil/water ration is what will determine if you end up with a stew or a soup.

And there you have it.  A stew that will go with any carbohydrate - bread, boiled rice, pasta, boiled potatoes, couscous, yam etc.  

The mackerel can be replaced with fried fish, fried chicken, fried pork or any combination of these.  If you choose not to fry these items and use them fresh, then you have moved from "Fry Soup" to "Boil Stew".

More to come