Ayamashe
Ayamashe is the accompaniment to ofada rice that is popularly served, within the party circuits in Lagos, on banana leaves. The sauce is usually loaded with offal but this version features dried fish and cow-skin.
Unripe Scotch Bonnet Onions Locust Beans Palm Oil
Ingredients -‐500g of Unripe Scotch Bonnet (Rodo Dudu) -‐500g of Onions -‐200g of Whole Locust Beans (Iru Woro) -‐ 1 cup of palm oil -‐Salt -‐ MSG of choice Optional -‐500g of Dried Fish -‐100g Cow-‐skin (Pomo)
Equipments Blender Sieve
Instructions 1. Remove the stalk on the green scotch bonnet if there are any. If you want a milder sauce, deseed the scotch bonnet as this cuts down the heat. 2. Peel the onions and cut them into smaller chunks that would blend easily 3. Blend the onions and scotch bonnet together. The resulting paste should be really coarse and have a very little liquid. 4. Rinse the locust beans to ensure that stones and sands are cleaned off. Put it in a sieve to drain. 5. Pour the palm oil into a big pot and start warming it at very low heat1. The palm oil will take time to heat up and should take about 5-‐7minutes. Feel free to turn off the heat if you begin to feel uncomfortable. 6. When the palm oil is properly heated, add the locust beans and then turn up the heat on the oil. 7. After two minutes, add the onions and scotch bonnet blend. 8. Cook for 15 minutes and then season2. Keep cooking for 5 minutes or until the sauce is dry. 1 The process tempering the palm oil is a very dangerous process that should be done at low heat. The low heat will take a longer time to get the palm oil to the darker color that has the nutty flavor but it will also reduce the smoke produced as well as the risk of a fire. MONITOR THE PALM OIL WHILE TEMPERING. 2 Normally I would recommend that you add the seasoning after adding the paste. However, two factors need to be considered; the palm oil and the locust beans. Locust beans tends to be really salty and palm oil tends to dull the salt. It is important to taste the sauce before seasoning.
Optional-‐ Adding Dried Fish and Cowskin to Ayamashe A. For this version of Ayamashe, I am using dried fish as the add-‐on. An hour before cooking, soak the dried fish in cold water with salt. Then shortly before cooking, I take the fish out of the water and give it a good rinse under running water. B. Boil the cow-‐skin for ten minutes before cleaning. This softens up the dirt and makes it easy to peel away under running water. It also makes the skin softer so that chewing is easier. Then cut the cow-‐skin into bite-‐size pieces. C. At stage 8, shortly before adding the seasoning to the sauce, add the fish and cowskin. Cook for a couple of minutes before adding the seasoning of salt and MSG. Cook until the sauce is dry.