Nigerian fish stew (Imoyo)
The Nigerian fish stew is a thin sauce, not pepper soup thin but not as thick as the regular Nigerian tomato stew.
Ingredients
- 1 kg fish (Croaker, tilapia, catfish etc.)
- 150 g onions sliced (1½ medium)
- 350 g onions
- 400 g tomato
- 300 g tatashe
- 70 g shombo (cayenne)
- 160 g scotch bonnet (fresh pepper)
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1 cup Palm oil
- 5 seasoning cubes
- salt
Instructions
- Clean, gut and wash fish, cut into the desired size.
- Place fish in a bowl, sprinkle salt and 2 seasoning cubes on it, mix well.
- Slice the 150g onions and sprinkle some on the fish, set aside to marinate.
- Reserve the other part of the sliced onions.
- Remove seeds from tatashe, wash 350g onions, tomatoes, tatashe, shombo and scotch bonnet.
- Blend to a smooth puree.
- Mix with the tomato paste and set aside.
- Pour palm oil into a dry pot and set over medium-high heat. When very hot, add the reserved sliced onions.
- Fry until the onion begins to turn brown.
- Pour in blended tomato, add seasoning cubes and salt, stir and leave to boil.
- Boil until the stew has reduced and some oil starts to float on top of the boiling stew, about 20 minutes.
- Add the fish with onions and 2 cups of water (the water cooks the fish without drying out the stew).
- Gently shake and rotate the pot and push the fish in, submerging it in the stew, cover and cook until fish has softened about 10 minutes.
- Taste and correct seasoning.
- Take off the heat and enjoy.
- Serve your Nigerian fish stew with boiled yam, plantain, sweet and Irish potato, any fufu of your choice paired with some steamed vegetables e.g okro, ewedu (jute leaves), spinach etc.
Notes
- If using croaker fish, remove scales, pour salt and rub in, then pour warm water over it. Leave to stand a few minutes, drain and rinse well in cold water.
- If using frozen fish, defrost fully before using. This also applies to the cooked stew, leave to defrost fully in the refrigerator before reheating.
- Be cautious about the quantity of scotch bonnet used bearing in mind that shombo (cayenne pepper) is also hot, reduce to suit your heat tolerance.
- Do not bleach your palm oil, this stew needs the flavour of unbleached palm oil.
- When the tomato is poured into the hot oil, it will spit a lot, so be careful.
- If the stew is way too light/watery, you can pick out the fish and give the stew a few more minutes of boiling, then put the fish back.
- Fish stew needs more seasoning than meat stew because meat produces a richer stock than fish.