Ingredients For Buka Stew
- 1kg soft, gone off tomatoes
- Peppers
- Tatashe
- Shombo (a type of cayenne)
- Habanero peppers (atarodo)
- Assorted meat
- Beef cuts
- Beef intestines (roundabout)
- Cow tripe (shaki)
- Cow skin (ponmo, kanda)
- Vegetable oil
- 150g tomato paste
- 1 big mackerel fish
- 4 small seasoning cubes
- 2 onions
- 1 teaspoon thyme or to your taste
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- Salt to taste
Notes on the Buka Stew ingredients
- For buka stew, you need tomatoes that are very soft, that have developed a special kind of taste. See the video below for how to simulate that in your kitchen if you are not in Nigeria.
- Shombo has the same shape as tiny cayenne peppers but it is not as hot as cayenne peppers.
- If you do not have tatashe, use fresh paprika peppers.
Before you prepare Buka Stew
- Clean the tomatoes, de-seed the tatashe and blend the peppers and tomatoes with the heavy duty grinders in Nigerian markets. These grinders do a better job blending the soft tomatoes with the “plastic” skin than home blenders. If you do not have a heavy duty grinder close to you, use your home blender.
- Slice some of the onions and chop some.
- Clean the mackerel and cut into 1 inch thick slices.
- Clean the meat. Turn the intestines inside out and clean very well else your buka stew will taste badly.
Directions for making Buka Stew
- Pour the tomato puree in a big enough pot, boil on the stove till all the water dries up.
- Add the tomato paste, mix very well and set aside.
- Cook the meats with onions, 3 seasoning cubes and thyme.
- Boil the fish with onions and 1 seasoning cube to get the fish stock.
- Heat some vegetable oil in a pot. Add some onions and fry the fish till golden. Set aside.
- Add more onions to the oil and fry the tomato puree till perfect.
- Add curry powder, the meats, the fried fish and the fish and meat stock.
- Stir very well and add salt if necessary.
- Cover and leave to simmer and it’s done!
Serve with boiled white rice, boiled beans, boiled white yam, fried plantains, fried potatoes. Yummy!