This recipe was given to me by a friend of mine who runs West African cookery classes. I attended one of her classes recently and this is one of the dishes that we were taught. We were told that the base stew recipe forms the basis for a lot of West African dishes, if you can get this recipe right, then the rest will fall into place.

1 onion finely chopped
1 pepper finely chopped
4 fresh tomatoes chopped or 1 tin of tomatoes when not in season
2 scotch bonnet chillies finely chopped
15g West African seasoning mix
5g fish rub
10g dried crayfish, if you can't get these then dried shrimp can be used instead
150ml stock (fish or vegetable)
200g monk fish or halibut, sliced into 50g chunks, you can also use prawns or mussels 
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper to season

Fry off the onions on a low heat until soft and glossy
Add the peppers, chillies and tomatoes and cook through for another 5 minutes
Add the West African seasoning mix and cook out for 5 minutes
Pour in the stock, add the dried crayfish and cook for a further 10 minutes on a medium heat until you have a nice thick base




Before adding the fish, coat in the fish rub
Lower the heat and add the fish
Place a lid on your pan and cook for 10 minutes until the fish has cooked through 
If using prawns or mussels; cook the prawns for at least 7 minutes until they are pink on both sides, mussels will need at least 10 minutes and ensure they are open when cooked

This can also be cooked on the BBQ in a cast iron casserole or Dutch oven
Set your BBQ up for indirect cooking at 150c
Fry off the onions in some oil as above, follow with the peppers, chillies and tomatoes 
Add the West African seasoning and cook out for 2-3 minutes
Add the stock and dried crayfish and place the cooking pot on the BBQ with the lid off
Cook for 10 minutes until you see the sauce has reduced
Add the fish, place the lid on your pot and continue to cook for 10 minutes


For more information on the spices, check out Ataro Foods