Bread & Stew

Funke Koleosho's Bread & Stew Recipe

My father owned a bakery so I grew up eating the freshest, hottest bread you can imagine. I had bread every other day and I had it with virtually everything, eggs, sardines, fried fish, beans, chicken (all manner of chicken; boiled, fried, grilled, roasted, etc.), suya, akara, moin-moin, even with locust beans; and of course I also had lots of bread and stew. Again I tried bread with all sorts of stews and soups especially fish stew, beef stew, efo riro, and egusi soup.

Bread is such a universal food, it's eaten in one form or the other across the whole world. The sheer varieties of bread available is breath taking.

Across West Africa, hard dough and sweetened bread is the most common and it is most often eaten for breakfast and seldom for lunch or dinner.

Now a days, I have bread and stew as a complete meal as it could be really satisfying and filling. Serving the stew into a hollow piece of bread as shown is a tidy way to serve this epic dish which shows similarities to some bread dishes eaten in the West Indies and South Africa.

You've got to try it, especially if you have some left over fish or meat stew in your fridge.

What you need:
For the stew: 

• 700g Beef (cut into small bite size chunks) 
• 1 large red bell pepper (the more peppers used the thicker the stew)
• 1 small onion 
• 2 tin of plum tomatoes 
• 1 small scotch bonnet chilli (optional) 
• Some cooking oil 
• Salt 

What to do:

1. Season beef pieces with some thyme and salt. Place meat pieces in a pot, add some water and boil until meat becomes soft. Set aside. 
2. Blend tomatoes, peppers (the scotch bonnet chilli, if using) and onion into a smooth paste. Add water to enable easy blending. 
3. In a separate sauce pan, heat some oil, then transfer blend. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes, then add the meat including the stock from step 1. Continue to cook under medium to low heat to reduce the stew down. This will also allow the meat to cook to tender perfection. The resultant stew should be of a reasonably thick consistency.
4. Cut a piece of bread and create a hollow in it. Toast all sides of the bread to make it more rigid. Spoon the stew into the bread and serve hot.

Nigerian Bread & Stew

Variations: Try serving your bread with other stews or bean dishes. Also try serving the beef stew with other types of bread like naan, pitta etc.