Recipe #3 Palava Sauce

Hey! My friend Florence came over to my home and taught a bunch of ladies to cook 2 meals! They were delicious and my two favorite Ghanaian dishes. The first I'll share is the Palava Sauce. I'll post the Red Red when I get some pictures of it!

One of the ingredients is small garden eggs. This is what they are. Florence couldn't remember what they were and told me they were like mini eggplants, but later someone told me they were mini garden eggs. I don't know what they are, but this is what they look like.
I know it really doesn't look appetizing! It looks like something else, but I promise that it is soooo good! This is Palava sauce with rice and avacados.

Kontommre Stew (Palava Sauce)

This was prepared to feed 5 people, but ended up making enough for 20.

2 c. mini garden eggs (like little green balls in clumps that you pluck from the stem, like grapes. I don’t know if you can find this in the US, so try it without them)
15 small tomatoes, chopped
4-5 big purple onions, sliced
210 g. tomato paste
½ c. water in tomato paste can to clean off all paste
650 ml palm oil
1 ½ c. pumpkin seeds
¼ c. or 2 small stems of ginger, peeled and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
7 pepe peppers
20+ c. Cocoa yam leaves, washed and stems chopped off. Chop the leaves small. (can’t get these in the US, but spinach works just as well, or any dark green leafy plant
2 tunafish steaks (use any meat you want, as much as you want), skin removed and de-boned
1 shrimp bouillon cube, crumbled (if can’t find these, you could use a veggie one or chicken)
2 green peppers, chopped small, optional
5 green plantain, 1 small yam (like the ones in my egg stew recipe), 3 cocoa yams, all peeled and chopped big

Boil the small garden eggs for 15 min.
Put tomatoes, 2 chopped purple onions, tomato paste, ½ c. water, and 650 ml oil in a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn down to a low and simmer for 30 min.
Take the small garden eggs and drain off the water from pot. Put garden eggs in blender with a little bit of water and blend until smooth green paste. Set aside.
Clean out blender and then add pumpkin seeds, ½ c. sliced onion, and a small amount of water in blender and puree til smooth white paste. Set aside in sep. bowl.
Clean out blender and then add ½ c. onion, ginger, garlic, and small amount of water. Blend til paste. Set aside.
***the water is just to help grind the ingredients***
Now comes the pepe. If you like the heat, then grind the pepe in blender with a little onion and water and add to tomato/oil mixture in pot. If you don’t like heat, like me, then add the pepe whole into the pot. It won’t make the food hot and for those who want it hot, when the sauce is finished then they can take the cooked pepe and squeeze the juice into their food or mash the cooked pepe into food.
While you’re blending and doing the previous steps, boil tuna for 20 min. in pot and then add to tomato mixture.
Cook tuna for 10 min. While cooking tuna, chop the cocoayam leaves.
Add green garden egg paste and cook 5 min. Then add the pumpkin seed paste and 1 Tb.salt and cook 10 min. Then add the crumbled bouillon cube.
If you need it, add a little more palm oil. Add the garlic/ginger paste and cook 10 min. Add the leaves and stir. Add 1 tsp. salt or more to taste. You can taste the sauce and see if needs it.
***You need to occasionally stir the mixture throughout cooking so that it won’t burn.***
11.Cook the leaves in the mixture for 20 min. and then turn off the stove. Add the green pepper and cover. Let sit for 10 min. (You’ll want to keep it covered while cooking so that red oil doesn’t splatter all over everything!)

**You can use vegetable oil. The palm oil will taste better, but you can only find it in the International markets and it’s probably expensive**

12.Boil your starches together with about 1 Tb. salt until soft.
**It’s yummy to eat the palava sauce with some fresh sliced avocado. You can also eat it with rice or fried plantain.