The ‘designer’ Ayamase sauce

November 26, 2022

AYAMASE sauce, popularly called ‘ofada sauce’ or ‘designer stew’ is a green bell pepper sauce, which is a popular delicacy in the western part of Nigeria. Its origin can be traced to a town called Ikenne-Remo, located in Ogun State.

It is called ‘ofada sauce’ because it is mostly served with ofada rice.

The sauce, with its unique bleached palm oil flavour, assorted meats and boiled eggs is one of the easiest stews to make.

INGREDIENTS

Green bell pepper

Onion

Crayfish

Locust bean

Meat stock

Palm oil

Salt

Seasoning cubes

Beef/assorted meat

Boiled eggs

METHOD

Remove the seeds of the green pepper, then rinse with the onions, and blend. While blending, add as little water as possible so it doesn’t become watery.

Pour the blended pepper into a pot and then boil it until most of the water is gone.

Put another pot on medium heat, then add palm oil. The palm oil needs to be bleached, so cover it up and let it heat up until the colour turns to honey-brown. Because of intense smoke, do not open the lid of the pot, just turn off the stove and leave it to cool.

When the oil has cooled down, place it back on fire and let it heat up a little bit more. Add the diced onions and locust bean and fry until the onions begin to float in the oil.

Thereafter, pour in the boiled pepper, crayfish, meat stock, salt and seasoning cubes and stir it all together. Cover it up and allow it to cook until the oil begins to float over the pepper sauce.

Add the cooked beef/assorted meat and boiled eggs and let it simmer for few minutes more.

You can also serve the ayamase stew with boiled/fried plantain or yam.

Enjoy!

PHOTOS: Internet

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