Nigerian Stew With Dried Fish (Obe Ata)

A happy new month to you all! May all our dreams come true. Nigerian stew is a very popular stew and it’s a staple in most homes across Nigeria, the stew can be prepared in various ways and you can use different types of meat, fish or poultry of your choice, fresh, fried, grilled, or boiled. You can eat the stew with anything I mean anything you can think of but mostly with swallow, Amala, Oatmeal fufu, Eba, pounded yam and the list goes on.

I do enjoy eating it with swallow too but my favorite will be eating it with bread. To enjoy this stew more, make it a day ahead, the fish would be softer and would have released all its flavor.

In this recipe I used dried fish, don’t stress if you can’t find dried fish as stated above you can use anything poultry you like, the different will just be in the dried fish taste. The amount of spice used for the stew will depend on the taste you’re gunning for if you like it spicy use more habanero and vice versa or add more of red bell peppers (tatashe) and tomatoes. Also, the texture or consistency of the blended pepper will your preference.

You might want to try;

Mackerel Fish Stew

Nigerian Fish Stew (Imoyo Stew)

Easy Catfish Stew

Curry Fish Recipe

Oven Grilled Mackerel Fish

Buka Stew Recipe

Nigerian Beef Stew

How To make Tomato and Pepper Paste

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Nigerian Stew With Dried Fish (Obe Ata)

Ingredients

4 Red bell peppers

2 Habanero/Rodo

2 Tomatoes

1 Onion

1 Knorr Cube/powder

Salt to taste

Dried fish

1 Teaspoon Ground crayfish

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, put fish add salt and pour hot/boiled water over it and set aside.
   
2. Remove the stalk of the peppers, deseed the red bell pepper and wash.
3. Cut the peppers and onion into chunks and blend.
4. In a pot, pour the blended pepper, place over heat and boil. Let the water dry up.
5. TIP: when boiling the pepper mixture and it's about to boil over, place a wooden spoon over the pot it will stop it.
   

6. Place another pot over medium heat.

7. Add palm oil or vegetable oil (your choice) and let it hot, don't bleach it but let it get hot enough to make a sizzling sound when you add anything to it.
8. Add ground crayfish and let it release its flavor (don't burn)
9. Add the blended pepper and fry. Add seasoning cube, don't add salt yet because of the salt in the fish.
   

10. At this stage, the stew is thick add more liquid then add fish and shake the pot or mix together. Taste to check the seasonings.

    
11. Adjust the seasoning and let it simmer for a few minutes.

12. If you like you can let the fish absorb the water more (make the consistency as you like it). I usually make mine a day ahead.

    
13. Serve with your favorite food.
    

Notes: you can make the stew base by boiling or roasting the pepper before cooking the stew. I have the procedure on my blog how to make the roasted pepper tomato and pepper paste. How To make Tomato and Pepper Paste

P.S The post was made on February 1st,2018 and pictures updated April 5th, 2019