I have went to the African food blogs again and I tried making this very simple garden egg dish. What is garden egg, you wonder? I was curious too myself when I had asked the same question. I typed it in Google, What is a garden egg? The answer I got afterwords was eggplant. However you can use the purple or even green eggplant for this dish. Also you can use any size of eggplant you wish. If you are using the big ones then use 1 or 2 and it depends on how many people you are feeding.
I used the baby eggplants I had 10 of them so that is what I had used. I had 1 yam I peeled it then washed and sliced it and put it on the stove to boil on high heat for 45 minutes or until fork tender.
I drained the yam and put it in a bowl with a lid and set it aside. I also boiled the eggplant also on high heat in 1 gallon of water or 4 liters each. When they was soft but not mushy I drained those too and also set this aside.
I made the stew base by putting in my blender 1 tomato, 2 cloves of garlic, either 1 habenero or scotch bonnet chilli, 1 onion and 1 red bell pepper to make the blended pepper sauce and set it aside.
I added to the pot 1 cookingspoon of red palm oil, 1 bullion cube, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, 1 pinch each of dawadawa powder, curry powder, boni bonga fish powder, crayfish, 2 dried smoked shrimp, 1 pinch either basil or thyme or both. It is up to you and you decide. I added both.
I added the pepper sauce and turned it on to high heat. I added 1 tbs of tomato paste. I had some smoked trout and I decided I should use that. I just pulled the skin off and taken the bones out and added it to the pot then the eggplant I had precooked. You can add any type of smoked fish you like. If you use the others that may be salty, either soak it overnight in water and I think 1 piece would work splendedly. It also depends on the size of the fish pieces.
1 can of mackeral in tomato sauce or 1 can of sardines in tomato sauce or oil can be added. Mix very well with the eggplant and lightly fry. Enjoy with boiled yam or plain rice of your choice.
Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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