My mum is going to read this and be shocked for sure. You Know why? I gave her enough grief over Garden eggs to last through 5 children. I rarely, if ever use the word hate in the same sentence as food, but I hate garden egg with a passion. The taste, the smell, the look, was enough to induce tears. My mum repeated this phrase so much in my childhood, it should have been our family emblem. It is a phrase in Yoruba, which I will translate. “Nkan ti iya bani lo fun omo je”. This means, whatever a mother has, is what she feeds her child. End of. On the radio a few days ago, I was hearing about a study being conducted which showed that mothers are now preparing 2 or sometimes 3 meals for dinner because of fussy eaters. I laughed my head off. In my mother’s house, 2 different dinners. WHAT. Who is the child, that is refusing to eat what was prepared for the whole family? You are not hungry. I was so pleased to hear many callers rejecting this new trend. They all said it is a new thing, because in their time, you ate whatever your mum put in front of you, no question or you go hungry. It was that simple.
My mum never threw food away, neither would she reheat it, so if lunch or dinner took you two hours, so be it. You must empty your plate, tears and all. I eat so many cold lunches and dinners in my childhood, I am scarred for life. Honestly, I eat my food straight from the cooker. Warm food, just shuts off my taste buds, no matter how delicious the food looks. Once I take a bite and it is warm or worse, cold, that’s it. I can’t enjoy food, if it is not piping hot. I have sent back so many dishes, and pissed off so many waiters at restaurants for this express reason. Someone said to me, just pray one day they don’t spit in your food. Lol. I have a few baby pictures of me at meal times. Mummy frowning at me in desperation, me looking miserable. Lol. Garden egg stew sure was one of those meals that induced tears so fast. I HATED it. My mum’s friend Aunty Niniola introduced us to garden egg stew and it caught on in our house save for me. My mum used to prepare it with boiled yam. Two things I hate, so you can imagine my despair. Lol. You may have read my journey to finally liking yam on my Yam and Plantain porridge post HERE. I haven’t thought about Garden egg since primary school. Anytime I saw it in the market, I just shuddered and walked past. Food also brings back not so nice memories. Lol. Starting this blog has further opened my mind to what you can do with food, so much so that when I saw garden eggs in a friend’s fridge, for the first time, I did not shudder. I went to the African Store the next day, and bought Garden eggs. Something I have never done before. My mum will probably fall off her chair when I tell her. Lol.
Still not knowing what to do with them, they sat in my fridge, and I was waiting or inspiration to hit me, and it did. Must I boil garden eggs, really, must I? Aubergines or egg plants are roasted in so many recipes on Food Network, that was what clinched it for me. On my way to pick up beef stock from the freezer, I saw a bowl of boiled meat, and I thought ooookay, I can combine both. Oh dear, the result was good. No toddler of mine is going to reject this. Lol. If like me you have a hate-hate relationship with garden eggs, I am about to change that for you Dooney’s Kitchen Style, so here goes.
You will need
10 Garden eggs – white or green
Leftover pieces of boiled meat, saki (tripe), cow leg and whatever scraps you can get
Sunflower oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper – dry pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
Knorr Chicken
Salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tatashe – red bell pepper
3 pieces of Ata Rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
1 red onion
3 Tomatoes
How To
1. Cut off the green stalk from the garden eggs, and cut the garden eggs into the size of chunky chips. Sprinkle over the garlic powder, curry powder, thyme, seasoning cube, cayenne pepper and a pinch of salt. Drizzle over olive oil and place in the oven for 10 minutes. Alternatively, you can oil a frying pan slightly and pan fry for 5 – 7 minutes, if you are not a fan of using your oven.
2. While the garden eggs are roasting blend the tomatoes, tatashe, rodo and half of the onion. Boil the pepper paste till it thickens.
3. Check on the garden eggs. You may need to live it in the oven for an extra 2 – 3 minutes. Be careful not to burn it though, you want the garden egg chips to be golden brown.
Pick one and taste. I bet you it will be miles better than boiled garden egg. Trust me, you are going to pick another one, and another one till you have to stop yourself when you remember you are meant to use it in a stew. Lol. Chop the garden eggs into chunks and chop the meats. I carefully cut the meat into the same size, so that when you are eating the stew, the contrast of flavours and especially textures of the meat and garden egg will tickle you a bit. I loooooooooved it.
3. Chop the rest of the onions, heat up a frying pan and sauté for a few minutes until translucent.
4. Add the chopped meats to the pan and fry with the onions. Be careful it doesn’t burn, so stir often until the meats brown. This should take approximately 5 minutes.
When the meats have browned, add a pinch of curry and thyme, and let it fry
5. Add the boiled pepper to the meats and half a cup of beef stock and let it fry for 7 minutes.
6. Let the pepper fry until you see bubbles, and add more beef stock, so you get a liquidy pepper sauce.
7. Add the chopped garden eggs to the sauce and let it fry for a few minutes
8. The garden eggs will thicken the sauce, let it fry further until the sauce properly thickens. Season with seasoning cubes and salt.
9. Add more beef stock to further liquidify the sauce, and then lower the heat, till oil floats to the top. Watch for the colour of the oil, it should have a reddish-orange colour.
……….and you are done. Taste the stew, and I assure you that it will taste better than any you’ve had before. That characteristic bitter taste of the garden egg would be almost negligible.
Now to the yam. Traditionally Garden Egg Stew is eaten with boiled yam. I thought to myself, nah. I will fry it. Believe me, the combination was awesome.
Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: I will like to share a tip for frying yam. If you want the true dun dun effect, don’t simply fry the yam in hot oil. Add water to the oil. So, the yam will cook first and fry afterwards, leaving you with soft yam on the inside and crispy edges on the outside. Don’t worry, all the water will evaporate by the time the yams have fried. Leaving you with only oil at the end.
See the bubbles? That’s the water frying with the oil
Voila…………fried yam
Soft on the inside, crispy on the outside
……………………Serve the fried yam with the rich, delicious garden egg stew. Garnish with spring onions and red chilli.
How pretty and posh is that? Our very own Nigerian Fried Yam and Garden Egg stew
My Canapé styled fried yam and garden egg stew
Dooney!! Lmao! I think we a siblings! Oh my! While I did not/ do not hate garden eggs…..in fact as a child I rather enjoyed them with a peppery peanut sauce my Grams used to make,I absolutely hated ogi! And like you my mum will leave me at the table to eat the horrible cold gloopy lumpy gunk! Until I had cleaned my plate. It took over 2 decades for ,e to get over my negative association with ogi.
It ‘s so weird because I am starting a series on using local Nigerian food produce in a modern way and I had planned to roast or grill some garden eggs but had quite figured the entire recipe! So am glad for inspiration! Love! Love the presentation. I’ll let you know when my Nigerian inspired food post is up. Well done!
Lol. I still absolutely HATE Ogi. HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE. it recalls memories of throwing up in my childhood. I still have not gotten over by negative association with ogi. I have it in my freezer now and I am still thinking of what to do with it. All the best with your series.
Oh my days! Soul sisters! I have an idea to make it as a dessert. Just have to work out the kinks.
Ghen Ghen. You have given me an idea too. Lol
Lwkmd! You are a hoot! It’s good to share ideas. Please let me know how you get on.
I will. Thanks
Hi Dunni,
your email address is bouncing back. Would you mind contacting me please. I have an urgent and interesting question/challenge for you
many thanks
Bukky
Oooh, I’m intrigued. My email is working fine. [email protected]. Please send again. Thanks
Hey You…It’s me Oyinlola the baba dudu chick…. lol… You need to try the local garden egg stew (made with steamed garden egg mashed with a fork, palm oil, tomatoes , peppers and onions) An Ondo town fav…. It was and still is one one of my favorite sauce eaten with boiled yam. I know you will love it.
Hmmmn, thanks Oyinlola. That was my mother’s method and I didn’t like it. My problem with it was the steamed garden egg. I have found that roating it is better. Thanks anyway. Your baba dudu recipe will forever be legendary
Hi Dunni,
It seems we had similar taste buds as children. I hated and still hate garden egg in whatever form. The smell! Yuck! The day my mum discovered that garden egg stew of a thing was the beginning of disaster. Thankfully, the rest of the kids revolted against it except my sis who is a garden egg fan. She eats everything.
Honestly, I don’t think I’m ready enough to try out this your recipe. I just don’t think I would still like it.
A thought though. Is it possible that as kids mature to adults, our taste buds sort of become more tolerable and we find ourselves beginning to love things we hated as kids? This is the case for me now with foods like semovita, fried yam, oats etc. Perhaps same goes for you?
I still hate garden eggs though. I doubt that will change. And avocados. And ube. And breadfruit. And ogbono. I mustn’t leave out liver.
Ignore me. ( ._.)
Lol @he day my mum discovered that garden egg stew of a thing was the beginning of disaster. Tell me about it. As much as I love my Aunty Niniola, she will forever be slighted in my brain as the person who introduced my mum to garden egg stew. It could really be that with age our taste buds adjust. I still hate oats though and that is because I had soooooooo much of it as a child, to the point it was the only thing I could eat for days, and my mum was satisfied with feeding me oats if it meant she could get me to eat. Weird how I hate it now. On that premise, please try this recipe out. It is markedly different from the recipe you and I grew up hating, as I did not boil the garden eggs, plus I added chopped bits of meat, saki and orisirisi. Please let me know if I have been able to convince you. I will be interested in any results you come up with.
Wow,I have being looking for garden egg recipe.I am glad I found one.I will get back to you on how it turned out
Please let me know how it turns out
It was oats i didnt like,worse still,beans! Aaargggh. I eat both quite well now.will try this and let you know how it goes!
Ugh!!!!! Oats. I feel you Ronke. Please let me know how it goes. I always love receiving feedback after people try my recipe
Chai…….dooney….i have not eaten garden egg stew…in ages……as i hated the stew growing up……mum will now pack it full on yams for us..for school……but i luv this your take on it…….the fact that its red…is a plus….and the creative tot to bake it……ahhh…..beautiful!
Another garden egg stew hater like me. Lol. I hope Madam tries it out o.
My mother never forced us to eat garden eggs in any form. Although we took the mandatory Ugwu leaf water sometimes with malt or milk, beans, yam very bitter bitter-leaf and some others that i cannot remember now.. I sincerely thought she was trying to kill us o…{joking o}
I learnt to eat garden eggs with a lot of peanut butter on my own{ as my mouth is always looking for new hobbies}. I have tried the popular garden egg stew recipe although with a lot of crayfish which i used to hate but surprisingly like now; maybe it was because we used to used it a lot…
I will try your recipe and i am more than sure that i will like it.
You are the last person that needs a lecture on “spreading horizons and opening your mind”, but i like Ogi especially on cold and lazy days.In fact i am an expert on the subject{even though i say so myself}. Choi! Especially with fried plantain…. You can’t beat that o..
Keep up the good work Dunni…
Ogi and Fried Plantain. Wow. I admire your food combination skills. Lol. Thanks
For every other person out there wondering about this dish I made it and it is fantastic. I made the stew, had a side of spinach and onions, boiled unripe plantain and grilled fish! Over to the next dish!
Thanks Ekwitosi. Please let me know how the next dish turns out
Duns, I tried it, yippee I tried it and no bitter taste. We had it with roasted potatoes n I garnished with spring onions n parsley. Fab! Thanks for the inspiration.
Oh wonderful. Glad you enjoyed it
Lolzzzzz….. Dooney u are an interesting writer as u are a cook. I am not really a fan of garden egg stew bt I will definitely give this a try. But can I use the big dark green garden egg found in stores cos the African market that sells garden egg is quite far from where I live. Thanks
Thank you Lois. Yes, you can use the big dark green one. Just make sure you season and grill well to get rid of the bitterness
Dunni, i have never made or had gardden egg stew but i have always imagined that boiling it will look funny.
I made this dish yesterday and served with boiled yam for dinner and my husband literally bathed me with kisses….lol
he asked me where i learnt it and i made the mistake of sending him your blog link. I call it a mistake because he now has a list of food he wants me to try……….lol……..
so, before the end of day, i just look for what i will make for dinner and i decided on ur michelin star boli….lol…i will just buy boli from the road because Nepa in nigeria wont let me use my grill.
You just got a new fan………
I was in traffic when I read your comment, I was just dancing on the seat and smiling. I really like receiving feedback like this. it makes my day. Double well done for you. Please let me know how the other recipes turn out, especially the boli. If Bros wants you to cook all the meals on the blog, just kindly buy him an apron, my recipes are easy to follow, male or female. Lol
I sure will buy him d apron.
The boli didn’t turn out as I wanted. I bought the boli but before I could get out of traffic after work, the market was already closing up, so I couldn’t get what I wanted, so I remembered my grandmas receipe.
She would roast plantain over her cooking firewood, pound it in a mortar, more like break it cz it won’t be well mashed and mix it with red oil, ogiri, akpaka, salt and pieces of dry of smoked fish(as if you are mixing vegetable yam) and it would taste heavenly. So that’s what I used my boli for and though it didn’t taste as good as grandmas own, it worked its magic.
Was so busy today, so no food practice….lol
I will let you know how any other meal I try turns out, meanwhile, I wish you were in nigeria, you would have become my immediate bff….lol
Wanted to ask, what do I use in place of cream? Cz I have never bought cream and I wouldn’t know what or where to look for it.
Aaaaaw, you can still make it again. I am really intrigued by your grandma’s recipe. What is akpaka please. Cream is one of the derivatives of milk. You should be able to find in shoprite and places like spar
i will look for the cream in shoprite. thx
i think the akpaka is called oil bean in english. It is usually sliced long and thin and igbos use it a lot, mostly for abacha(african salad).
I dont know what ogiri is in english.
oh,, beautiful. What is the name of the dish overall, because i want to make it myself
Hi. Ogiri is fermented locust beans. Iru in Yoruba
This blog is exactly what I need to beef up my culinary skills! I have felt a tugging in my heart to do so for a while now, but I have used “school’s busyness” as an excuse.” Thanks!
Oh and your native soup and onunu on bella naija made my mouth water. I used to live in Port Harcourt and the seafood there is amazing. I guess it’s off to chinatown for me….going to hunt down all the seafood you used.
Aaaaaw, you are welcome. I hope I get you cooking again. Please let me know how yours turns out
pls can it go with rice
Yes it can
I came across this post while googling recipes with the garden eggs a houseguest had abandoned in my fridge. I was so excited I couldnt wait to go grocery shopping and had to make my version that very minute.
I didnt have any meat so I made use of some dry badagry fish; i didnt have any tatashe either so i made use of the few pieces of tomatoes, atarodo and half an onion I had in the fridge. Oh and i used ‘scenting pepper’ instead of the cayenne pepper. Also I didnt have anything to mash the sauteed garden eggs with so mine looks very different from your own complete product. i just might send you a picture if you like.
I must say it turned out amazing ‘ifadosaysomaself’ lol. I have had it with sweet potatoes and cous cous on 2 occasions now.
I want to have what is left with the dun dun you have described, please can you help with the quantity of water to put in the oil? like 1 cup oil, 1/2 cup water or something like that? Plus would it make a difference if I dump the yam in the pan and then cover it up or do I have to fry it openly? I HATE frying stuff because of the splashing oil ugh!
Anyways, thanks a lot for the inspiration, I have seen other recipes I will be trying soon as well…well done!!
Wow, Wow, Wow. Love the creativity. Well done. Glad you enjoyed it
Thank you ma’am, but you havent confirmed what ratio of oil to water I can use for the dundun and if i can cover the pan while frying..please naaaaaaaaaaaa
There is no ratio really, you just add a little water, roughly half a cup (125ml). No, don’t cover the pan because you will need the water to evaporate
Hi Dunni,
I havent seen garden eggs where i live. Will the purple eggplants give the same effects?
A reader asked me this question a few months ago, and she came back to say it was quite close to the garden egg taste. So, you can try it
Hi dooney,
Can I boil goat meat, shaki and pomo together? Also can the stock be used for this sauce?
Yes you can
duuuuuuuunnnnnnniiiiiiiii ooooooooooo! I cooked this last night and it was BeaYouTeeFul! I dont really give credit to food I cook but last night I had to give credit meanwhile hubby enjoyed it so much that he asked for more!!!!
Lol. Give credit to yourself please, you did all the work. Well done. I am glad you enjoyed it. Garden eggs can be such an acquired taste, and I am very pleased to read that you enjoyed my new way of cooking it in stew. Well done again