Palm Nut Stew (Ofe Akwu)

I like to make this stew for Sunday lunch this is because it takes quite some time to make. So I reserve it for Sunday afternoons when I have that much time to cook. Though the only time consuming part is actually preparing the palm nut to extract the sauce but this can be avoided if using the palm sauce that comes in a can which can be gotten from most market within Lagos or any African shop. I love to make this stew with dried fish or dried shrimps which gives me little bite size bits to chew on with every bite. Any type of meat or fish can be used but I prefer beef with tripe which I think makes a more delicious stew.This recipe can be adjusted to suit your palate.

Ingredients
2 Kg Palm Nut Fruit or 1 can of the palm nut sauce
500g Beef
500g Tripe
1 large onions
1 cup shredded basil leaves or mint leaves
pepper to taste
Opeyi this is a seasoning make from locust beans(optional)
dry crayfish
dried fish or dried shrimp
salt to taste
beef seasoning

The beef and tripe should be cut up and boiled with about 1.5 liters of water seasoned with a few slices of onions add a tsp of salt and two cubes of beef seasoning.

In another pot bring the palm nut to a briskly boil. Once it starts to boil allow it to boil for another 15 minutes to make it very tender.

The actual bulk of the work lies at this stage once the palm nut are boiled drain in a colander and put into a mortar and pound. The pounding should be done so that the husk are pulled away from the nuts but not strong enough to crack the nuts. I have actually seen some people do this extracting with their palms without having to pound. This is achieved by allowing the nuts to cool down a bit so as to be handled by hand. The nuts are gently squeezed to remove the husk from the nut when all are remove then the husk can be bashed with a meat mallet. But if you can get your hands on a can of palm nut sauce use it, you would only be missing a great chance of burning some calorie from pounding the palm nuts.

Use the beef stock derived from the boiled beef pour it into the pounded nut and give it a good swirl drain in a colander placed over a pot the resulting sauce in the pot is the base for this dish. If using a canned sauce scoop this into the boiled beef and stock.

Bring the palm nut to a boil care should be taken so that the sauce is not too watery the thicker it is the better. Add the dried shrimps or dried fish which has been washed and broken into bite size let it boil for about 5 minutes then add the the onions, crayfish, opeyi and pepper all blender up together. I usually blend the first three before adding the pepper it more appealing and colourful seeing bits of pepper.I love blended onions in my dishes I think once an onion is blender it adds more sweetness and aroma to a dish.

Allow this to cook for another ten minutes then finally add the basil. I tried mints leaves once when I couldn't get fragrant basil which is locally called scent leave the mints added a new dimension to the dish though it wasn't bad but the basil are better. Add salt to taste and cube seasoning let it boil for another 3 minutes.

Serve with boiled white rice.