Tomato Stew

Nigerian tomato stew is one of the most popular Nigerian food recipes, it is easy to make and I would include this recipe on my list of “easy Nigerian recipes”,

Reason for this would be that the ingredients needed could be found in almost every part of the world and almost anybody can put up this stew in less than 90 minutes.

What you have above is a large bowl of tomato stew, every thing you read below is exactly how I made this stew.
I promised to take you through the guide on how to lose the sour taste of tomatoes easily. Most people end up with tomato stew that has soured taste, it is a very common mistake that can easily be avoided. I am going to show you how to eliminate that taste, at least the way I go about it.
Ingredients For Making Nigerian Tomato stew (like I always say, these ingredients could be doubled or reduced depending on the number of people you are looking to feed and their stomach size).
Ingredients | Serving 6×2
2kg Meat of choice (fresh chicken, goat meat, turkey or beef)
Ground tomatoes – 1500ml
Ground Fresh Red Pepper – 50-100ml
1 cup of sliced onions
Teaspoon of ground nutmeg
teaspoon each of curry and thyme.
Vegetable (optional)(curry leaves, pumpkin leaves etc)
Vegetable oil – 400ml
stock cubes – 3
Crayfish – 2 tablespoons (optional)
Salt to taste.

The image above is that of fresh tomatoes, pre-cooked goat meat, curry leaves, peppers, and about 400ml of oil

STEP1
Wash the tomatoes and blend alongside the fresh pepper, also blend the crayfish alongside the nutmeg seed (1).

Wash the
meat (Goatmeat in my case) and parboil with three stock cubes, a teaspoon of salt, teaspoon each of curry and thyme, a teaspoon of kitchen glory beef seasoning and half cup of sliced onions (I like to use lots of ingredients while parboiling the meat and then use little or none while making the real foods, this practice is necessary if you want to end up with very tasty meats. Beside you can then use the meat stock [water from the meat] for the main cooking.

Cook until the meat is soft enough for consumption

STEP 2
Most times I chose to fry the tomatoes in a frying pan separately and then add it to the cooked meat in the pot.

Slice the onion and set your frying pan on heat, add about 400ml of vegetable oil. Add the sliced onions and fry for about 2 minutes to release the scent into the oil then pour in the tomatoes and fry (stirring occasionally to avoid burning).




 
stir and allow to simmer for two minutes after adding the vegetables.
This is just where most people miss it, have you made a tomato stew with sour taste? Something that tasted less than what you eat at the restaurants? You can correct that now.

The secret to loosing the sour taste is just by frying with lots of oil (which could be reduced after frying) and then the use of onions. Then you have to keep stiring for the next 20-30 minute, you dont wanna end up with burned tomato stew.

Fry till the tomatoes boils in oil alone. Then you can transfer the pre-cooked meat and add the spices, add extra stock cube (optional), add the ground crayfish/nutmeg and allow to cook ten minutes before adding the vegetable (optional and you are done with the preparation of tomato stew.








This is how to make tomato stew, it could be served as you see below or with yam, beans, I even eat bread and stew often – it is delicious.