Learn how to cook Nigerian Fried Fish Stew

How to Cook Nigerian Fried Fish Stew

The major challenge when preparing Nigerian Fish Stew
is that the fish scatters in the stew. In this recipe, I will
show how to prepare this stew and the fish will still be
intact.
Like the Beef and Chicken Stew , the Nigerian Fish Stew
can be prepared in large quantities and stored in the
freezer for up to a month. This stew goes well with:
*Boiled Rice
*Boiled/Fried Plantains
*Boiled Beans (plain)
*Boiled/Fried Yam
*Boiled/Fried Potatoes
*White Agidi
*Plain Boiled Beans
*White Bread

You can see that this stew goes well with virtually every
major staple food so you should always have it in your
freezer.

Ingredients for Nigerian Fried Fish Stew

800 mls Tomato Stew
1 big Mackerel (a.k.a. Titus in Nigeria)
2 teaspoons thyme
2 medium onions
1 big stock cube or boullion cube
1 habanero pepper (Atarodo, Ose Oyibo, Atarugu)
Salt (to taste)

Important notes on the ingredients

1. Tomato Stew is fresh puree tomato and the tinned
tomato paste that has been boiled and fried in
vegetable oil to remove all traces of water and the
sour taste of tomatoes. It is the base stew for all
Nigerian Red Stews and Jollof Rice recipes. This is
not raw tomato puree.
2. Mackerel (also known as Titus in Nigeria) is the
most popular fish for preparing the Nigerian Fish
Stew but feel free to use any fish of your choice.
Some fish are too soft when cooked and will scatter
in the stew because of all that stirring. It is not
advisable to use such fish.
3. I prefer red onions for the Nigerian Fish Stew but
your can use white or yellow onions if they are the
only ones you have.
4. Stock cubes are the seasoning cubes we add to our
cooking.
5. The quantities for the seasonings are for guidance
only so add the thyme, pepper and salt to your
taste.

Before you cook Nigerian Fried Fish Stew

1. Prepare the tomato stew by following the steps at:
How to Prepare Tomato Stew
2. Cut the fish into 1 inch thick cuts and remove the
intestine. It is advisable to cut the fish while it is still
a little bit frozen. This helps you get perfect straight
cuts and keeps the fish from disintegrating.
3. Sprinkle some salt on the fish, rub the salt into the
fish cuts with your hands and set aside.
4. Slice one of the onions and dice the other one.
5. Pound or blend the habanero pepper (atarodo, ose
oyibo, atarugu).

Cooking Directions

1. Place the diced onions, crushed stock cubes and
thyme in a clean pot.
2. Pour a small amount of water and bring to a boil.

3. Add the fish and leave to boil for 2 minutes. Turn the fish on the other side and allow to boil for another 2 minutes then take them out from the fish stock.

Note: We can fry the fish straight away without doing all this but we need to boil the fish for the following reasons: For a delicious stew, we need some fish stock (fish water lol) from the fish. The seasoning we add to the fish goes into the fish to make it taste better while the juice from the fish goes into the surrounding water to give it some nice taste that will make the stew delicious.
This boiling process helps toughen the fish
thereby preventing it from disintegrating in the
stew.

4. Set the fish stock aside.

5. Shallow-fry the fish in a small quantity of vegetable
oil till golden. The difference between deep-frying
and shallow-frying is that in shallow frying, you use
less amount of oil and the fish is not immersed in
the oil. Both of them are great but I just think there
is no need to use all that oil in frying especially
when I can achieve the same thing with shallow
frying. Also, I do not like my fish bone-dry as that is
what we often aim for with deep-frying.

6. Set the fish aside and set the pot with the fish stock
back on this stove (medium heat).

7. Once it boils again, add the tomato stew and
habanero pepper.
8. Add some water to bring the stew to the consistency
you like for your stews. Some people like their stew
watery, some like it conc and some like it
somewhere in the middle.

9. Add salt, stir and cover the pot and leave to simmer
(boil) till you see some oil float to the surface of the
stew. This is the oil from frying the Tomato Stew, no
extra oil is added to Fish Stew. While waiting to see
the oil, stir the stew at intervals so it does not burn.
0. Once you see the oil at the top (watch the video
below for what it should look like), add the fried fish.
1. Stir, cover and once it boils again, the stew is ready!

Use the Fried Fish Stew to eat Boiled Rice , Fried
Plantain , Boiled Plantain, Fried Yam , Boiled Yam and Agidi , plain boiled beans, boiled potatoes or serve it with Egusi Soup.