Nigerian Spicy Stew

When you date a guy from Africa and you love him soooo much that you want him to have his comfort foods, you learn to make them.

Nigerian food. What? Nigerian food? Can I just tell you. There are no Nigerian cookbooks. There are websites with Nigerian recipes, but they use a lot of pigeon words and items that you have to ask "dear african man, what does this mean?"

The thing I like about Nigerian food is that it is almost all fresh foods and it is delicious and filling. I must confess, we have only made one dish, but it is so good! Mr. Man calls it stew. We made some last night and it was as always, awesome.

Here's the Recipe. You can really do whatever you want taste wise, this is just an idea of what we do.

2 lbs of quartered tomatoes with seeds (any variety will work, we like roma)

2 red peppers into large slices (seeds optional)

1 large onion (quartered)

1 lb of deboned red snapper or white fish (optional as well, we sometimes use fish, sometimes we don't.)

8 chicken drumsticks (you can use legs, thighs or drumsticks, it's better to use dark meat, because you are making a stew. I have yet to try this with white meat.)

1 habanero pepper (we leave the seeds in, but that makes it much hotter! You don't even have to use this pepper, but we like it spicy)

2 cups of greens (you can use kale, spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, etc. We use a mixed bag from trader joes) and this is optional also! It just makes it healthier!

1 jalapeno pepper

2 cloves of garlic

2 Tbsp of olive oil

2 Tbsp of Knorr chicken broth (to taste, more or less)

1 Tbsp of curry ( to taste)

1 tsp dried thyme

Despite the various ingredients it is very easy to make.

Step 1: If you have a cast-iron pot use that to brown the drumsticks with the Tbsp on olive oil and a little salt and pepper. About three minutes on each side or until they are light brown.

While you are browning the chicken or before hand, put the tomatoes, red peppers, onion, garlic, habenero, and jalapeno through the food processor. This turns into a very soupy liquid. Take all of it and put it in the pot with your now browned chicken.

***If you decide to use fish, you can add it at this point.

Add all your dry ingredients and let it boil on the stove until it gets to the consistency of spaghetti sauce. Turn off the heat and add the greens. (It's important to add the green last, because when they boil they loose a lot of their awesome health qualities.)

Add more seasoning to taste, add whatever you like, just keep tasting it until it's just right. There is no perfect taste, only what works for you!

This is best eaten with rice, I use brown rice and he likes white, so we make both. To cut down on the amount of meat we eat, we usually have one drumstick and one egg with it, which is delicious!