As the name goes, its simply Nigerian stew made with snails and prawns with very little spice. Snails and prawns are highly nutritious and are packed with a lot of flavor. This peppered stew is delicious like kilode! This is the type of stew you set before hubby when you are currying some favor. Every response you will get after the meal is "Yes" all the way.
Ingredients
- Fresh tomatoes, pepper, tatase & red onions mixture
- Additional red onions
- Snails
- Giant prawns
- Alum for washing the snails
- Salt for seasoning & snail washing
- Vegetable oil
- Seasoning cube
- Green pepper
- Curry
- Thyme
- Tin Tomatoe
- Nutmeg (seed is best)
Directions
- 1Clean and wash your fresh pepper, tomatoes, onions, tatashe and blend to your preferred texture (i prefer blending till very smooth. Since its peppered stew you should have some good amount of pepper blended in.
- 2Pour tomatoe-pepper-tatashe-onion mixture in an empty pot and boil till you have little water left (particularly because this is going to be a dry stew). Don't forget to stir intermittently until you are happy with the level of water left in it.
- 3Time to attend to your snails. Snails must have been de-shelled in the market (make sure they only de-shell and they don't attempt to use lime to wash it). Soak some alum in water in a big bowl and set aside. Pour snails into a dry bowl, massage the snail and pull out the slime. Do that about 3 times then pour a lot of salt onto the snails and repeat the massaging process and clear out the slime. Use more salt and repeat the massaging process and clear out the slime once more.
- 4Next pour some of the alum water in and wash the snails. Discard the wash water, use a knife to split the snail like a butterfly split with the 2 parts still joined (you can also just divide it into 2 equal parts depending on the size of the snail). Pour in more alum water and scrub every corner of the snail thoroughly. Once satisfied that all the slime is gone, rinse with ordinary water.
- 5Put washed snails in an empty pot and garnish with dried pepper (I love to use dried Cameroon pepper but any dried pepper will do), salt and seasoning cube and water enough to almost cover the snail. Boil for about 20mins (depends on how soft you like your snails). Once done please set aside.
- 6Clean the giant prawns by picking its tail and head (if it came complete) and take off its intestine (small vein like material behind it). Just rinse if you bought an already cleaned prawn. No need to parboil this as prawns are not supposed to cook for long otherwise they turn hard and rubbery.
- 7Clean and chop your green peppers and set aside. It will be used as a garnish eventually. You will love the flavour it brings to the stew trust me. Do likewise for some onions
- 8Time to assemble! Place an empty pot on the fire to dry out. Put in some vegetable oil (about 3 kitchen spoon full). When hot, put in your onions and fry till onion is soft and gives off a sweet aroma then in goes your boiled tomatoes-pepper-tatashe-onion mixture. Fry a bit then put in your tin tomatoes then spices (salt, seasoning cube, curry thyme, nutmeg to your taste but remember, less is more) and stir. Fry mixture till you see mixture separate in the oil then in goes your snails, just fry that a bit then add little water to loosen the stew (like half a regular size mug) and stir.When the stew starts to bubble then its almost ready.
- 9Throw in your prawns and cook for 4 to 5mins then in goes your green pepper for another 2mins and please taste to ensure the stew is balanced before serving.
- 10You can serve with boiled rice, boiled/fried yam, boiled/fried plantain and anything else that you fancy.
