Title: Peanut Soup with Fowl and Fufu
Categories: African, Soups, Pork, Chicken, Fish
Yield: 4 Servings
PEANUT SOUP:
2 lb Lean meat e.g. chops or
-jointed poultry
Salt and pepper to taste
2 lg Onions; finely chopped
4 Large; ripe tomatoes
6 1/2 oz Peanut paste
3 1/2 pt Boiling water
Red chillies; fresh or
-ground
8 Mushrooms
2 lb Fish cutlets; salted,
-smoked, grilled,
-deep fried or sun dried
FUFU:
1 1/2 pt Boiling water
3 oz Potato flour
7 fl Cold water
6 oz Potato flakes
Peanut Soup: Put the meat or poultry in a very large, heavy based
saucepan (not a crockpot because the initial process of cooking
requires fairly high heat and a crockpot does not provide enough
heat to start with).
Season meat with salt and pepper. Add the onions, stir together and
cook 'dry' on medium heat, stirring continuously until the outside of
the meat is slightly cooked and sealed.
Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water, peel off the skin and blend the
fish to a smooth juice. If using canned tomatoes, blend, then pour
them into the meat and onion mixture and continue to simmer.
Put the peanut paste or peanut butter into a big bowl, add 3/4 pint
of the boiling water and use a wooden spoon or a blender to blend the
paste and water carefully together to form a creamy, smooth sauce.
Add this to the meat mixture with chillies and mushrooms. Continue to
simmer, stirring only occasionally to prevent the food sticking to the
bottom of the pan. This is now the basic soup.
Pour the rest of the boiling water into the soup and simmer slowly on
medium heat to cook the meat for about 30-40 minutes, depending on
the type of meat used (guinea fowl takes longer).
Prepare your choice of fish by removing any residual bones. Add the
fish either whole or in chunks to the soup towards the end of the
cooking (during the last 30 minutes), to prevent it from breaking up
in the soup. Once all the ingredients have been added, simmer slowly
until the soup thickens.
Fufu: Warm a medium saucepan with 7 fl oz of the boiling water. In a
small jug, blend the potato flour with 7floz lukewarm water (mixing
some of the boiling water with part of the cold water, the water must
not be hot or it will cook the starch) to form a creamy mixture.
Empty the water from the warmed saucepan. Pour the potato flakes into
the saucepan and add the remaining boiling water, enough to fully
cover the potato flakes. Do not stir yet.
Using a wooden spoon, stir the potato flour mixture in the jug and
quickly add this to the saucepan. Speed is of the essence here, as is
dexterity. Stir the two mixtures together vigorously, pulling the
dough in from the centre against the inside of the saucepan with one
hand and gripping the pan firmly with the other.
When the dough is firm and smooth, moisten a small bowl with small
quantities of the cold water and scoop the dough into this bowl,
either as one large ball or individual balls and serve with the soup.
