Nigerian Stock Recipe

Nigerian inventory is the spine of my Nigerian kitchen, an critical component of classics like jollof rice, fried rice, stew, Nigerian chicken curry, and rooster and meat pies, as well as more modern recipes and a host of other factors. It is commonly seasoned with Nigerian/Caribbean-style curry powder, dried thyme, ginger, pink onion, and garlic and can incorporate extra than a single sort of meat, normally a mixture of two from alternatives like beef, hen, turkey, and goat. The flavors are distinct ample from Western-type stocks, which generally use only one particular form of meat and ordinarily function aromatics like celery, carrots, and white or yellow onions.

I just about generally make inventory as the to start with phase in the journey to a pot of Nigerian stew or jollof rice. This does incorporate to the total cooking time, but it is truly worth pointing out that Nigerian stock is not commonly simmered for as long as a Western-fashion stock: the target is to extract taste from the meat and bones, but not to establish a really gelatinous inventory by the lengthier procedure of melting tricky, collagen-wealthy connective tissue into gelatin.

When creating the inventory as portion of a larger sized recipe, I use stewing cuts, and favor kinds that have bones hooked up like ribs, brisket, shank, and neck. This lets me to use the cooked chunks of meat immediately after simmering them in the inventory, either in the dish alone (this sort of as for stew) or served alongside dishes like jollof rice right after frying the meat in oil or roasting it in the oven or in an air-fryer till browned and crisp—an productive, no-waste strategy.

It was only a number of several years ago that I began making inventory as a stand-alone recipe, so that I could keep it frozen and have it on hand for ease sake, specially for recipes wherever I really don’t usually need or system to provide the meat from the broth together with or in the concluded dish. In all those scenarios, I ordinarily use bones—most usually 50 % beef and 50 percent chicken—which are typically considerably less high-priced than stewing cuts, and allow for me to make the most of scraps saved from leftovers (though they’re effortless adequate to also purchase for inexpensive at the butcher). This way, I can have a batch of inventory prepared for recipes in which I really don’t will need the full enhance of meat as an accompaniment to the meal or the meat in the recipe itself will arrive from a different source, these types of as when I’m producing meat pies, moinmoin, or Nigerian hen curry. 

For many many years, I’d discard the onions and bell pepper once the inventory was cooked, but I have stopped accomplishing that in favor of blending them back again into the stock for a entire-bodied, relatively thicker outcome. The concluded stock should really be rich with spicy notes of ginger and garlic, vegetal kinds from the eco-friendly bell pepper, the warmth of curry powder, and some herbiness from the bay leaf and dried thyme.