Cassava Leaves and Rice

Cassava Leaves and Rice

Happy Independence Day mama Sierra Leone! What better day to make the nation’s favourite dish (in my opinion). Cassava Leaves is the leaf of the root vegetable cassava most commonly used as a staple food across West Africa. It is prepared as a sauce to be served with rice. 

 Almost every Sierra Leonean will say Cassava leaves is their favourite dish. There is a debate in Sierra Leone about which tribe cooks the best cassava leaves. In my opinion, the draw is between The Mendes and The Fullahs. The best I’ve had was when I first visited Kambia district during the Christmas holidays in 2007. The dish was inexplicably delicious. I still remember to this day how much I enjoyed it. Yum, yum yum!

Ingredients

Follow the simple steps below and bring a party to your taste buds. Aprons on!

 

Ingredients

1.      A pack of grounded Cassava Leaves

2.      300ml of Palm oil

3.      Pack of Ogiri

4.      4 table spoons Peanut butter (smooth)

5.      Meat or chicken

6.      smoked fish

7.      Scotch bonnet pepper (to your taste)

8.      3 Onions

9.      Maggie season

10.   Salt (to your taste)

11.  Tola (This a powdered condiment that has a slimy effect when add to sauces) or okra

Pot of Cassava Leaves

Directions

1.      Blend onions and scotch pepper with ogiri. This should look like a thick smooth paste.

2.      Add the above mixture and your meat in a pot then and add 2 pints of water.

3.      Boil for 20 minutes or until the meat is soft.

4.      Meanwhile mix the peanut better with 50ml of water so it is slightly watery.

5.      Add cassava leaves, peanut butter a cup of water and leave to boil for 20-30min or until the leaves have a slight brown colour and you cannot smell the rawness of the leaves.

6.      Add the palm oil, maggie season, and salt to taste then, leave pot to boil for a further 15min.

7.      Finally add okra or tola whichever is at your disposal and let the sauce cook for a further 5-10 min or until the palm oil is floating.

Voila! Dish is done! 

Cassava Leaves and Rice

Good Friday Feast

Fried plantain, sweet potato, orlehleh and gungo beans stew

Happy Easter NCC readers! Christ is risen! Hope you've all enjoyed your Easter break so far. Today’s post is a Good Friday feast. As a tradition in Sierra Leone, on Good Friday we tend to stay away from cooking meat and instead make lots of tasty savoury treats with or without fish. 

I decided to make Gungo Beans Stew with fish, Fried Plantain, Fried Sweet Potato and Beans Dumplings known as “Orlehleh” or “Moi Moi” by Nigerians. Moi Moi is slighty different from the Sierra Leone “Orlehleh” as other ingredients such as corned beef is added to thicken the mixture before cooking and boiled egg is also added as garnish. 

The “Orlehleh” mixtue can be made by using readymade beans flour or using raw black-eyed beans. The beans will have to be soaked in water overnight. This will help remove the skin/chaff and the “black eye” from the beans easily. Next rub the beans with both hands thoroughly to remove the skin/chaff and the “black eye” from the beans. Once all the skin/chaff and the “black eye” have been removed, put the beans in a blender and blend to a smooth consistency. After the above steps, the mixture is now ready to be mixed with other ingredients for the “Orlehleh”. Enjoy reading the rest of the post. Aprons on!

Ingredients

Ingredients 

1. Pack of Gungo Beans
2. Plantain
3. Sweet Potato
4. Black eye beans flour
5. 6 dried bonga fish
6. 1 tin of chopped tomato
7. 6 medium size onions
8. 4 scotch peppers
9. Seasoning
10. Oil
11. Tomato puree

  

Cooking Instructions

Beans Dumpling “Orlehleh”

1.      Add two cups beans flour into mixing bowl and add one cup of water and mix together until you have a smooth consistency

2.      Add to blender with one onion, two scotch peppers and one tin chopped tomato, two maggie cube season, half a teaspoon of salt, 50ml olive or vegetable oil and blend together.

3.      Pour mixture into a mixing bowl. The mixture should be a slightly thick consistency. If it is too runny add as much bean flour to thickening it up.

4.      Peel and break 2 bonga fish into small pieces and add to the mixture and mix together with a wooden

orlehleh mixture wrapped in banana leaves

spoon.

5.      Wash and dry banana leaves or you can use tin foil containers or small plastic bowls with covers as an alternative.

6.      Smear the banana leaves or container with a bit of oil.

7.      Scoop a ladle spoon full of the mixture and pour into banana leaves or containers that you have at your disposal.

8.      If using banana leaves wrap the mixture, with the leaves left, right top and bottom and flip upside and put all wrapped mixture or containers in plastic shopping bag bowl.

9.      Take a sizable pot that will fit all the wrapped mixture or container.

10.  Layer the pot with foil. Pour a kettle full of boiled water into the pot and then put the plastic bag into the pot. Tie the bag loosely and cover the pot.

11.  Leave the pot to steam in low heat for 45-60 mins.

12.  After 60 min open wrap or container to see if the mixture has hardened up and has cooked.

Plantain 

Steamed Orlehleh

1. Peel plantain and slice them side ways
2. Deep fry the plantains until they are golden brown and put them aside

Sweet Potato

1. Peel sweet potato and slice them to a shape of your desire. 
2. Deep fry the sweet potato until they are golden brown and put them aside   

Guno Beans Stew

1.      Wash and bring to beans to boil until soft approximately 1hr 30 min

2.      Peel and slice onoins then blend one onion with 2 scotch peppers

3.      Peel and break bonga fish into small pieces and put aside.

4.      Pour about 100ml of oil into hot sauce pan and heat to cooking temperature.

5.      Once oil is heated, fry sliced onions, chopped tomato and bonga fish together.

6.      Add bits of blended pepper and onions into the stew whilst the above is cooking.

7.      Add season and salt for flavour and 2 squeezes of tomato puree to give the stew colour.

8.      Add boil beans to the pot with fried stew. Mix together and turn the heat low.

9.      Leave stew to cook for a further 15 minutes or until all the water from the stew has evaporated and you have a really dry stew.

Fried plantain, sweet potato, orlehleh and gungo beans stew

Voila! Dish is done!