Garden Egg Sauce

Whenever I see garden eggs two things immediately come to mind; garden eggs with either peanut butter or groundnuts and garden egg sauce and yam…yummy. Today I’ll be taking us through the latter, garden egg sauce (or stew) also known as aubergine stew or Nigerian eggplant sauce.

Either the white or green garden eggs would be suitable for this recipe but if you favour a more bitter taste, then you can go for the green garden eggs. By the way you can swap the garden egg for aubergine (if you get) Ingredients for this sauce are quite basic but trust me the result is amazing

Ingredients

• 15 Thai eggplants aka green garden-egg
• 6 plum tomatoes
• 1 large white onion
• ¼ cup palm oil
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper chopped
• 340 g smoked mackerel the equivalent of one large mackerel skinned and de-boned
• 1 tsp chicken/ vegetable bullion
• 1 small handful of Clove basil aka Nigerian scent leaf/Thai basil
• Salt to taste
• Optional: 2 tbsp dried shrimp
• Optional: Extra dried chilli-pepper

Instructions

• To prep the eggplants, take off the stems, wash and quarter each eggplant then boil in salted water for 10- 15 minutes.
• While the eggplants are boiling, slice the onions into half-moons, dice the tomatoes, roughly chop the basil, and flake the fish.
• Once the eggplants are fork tender, drain them, and mash them with a potato masher or a fork. They should be the consistency of crushed tomatoes, only slightly chunky.
• In a deep sauce pan, heat up the palm oil for 2 minutes (be careful not to heat the oil for too long or over high heat, unless the oil will bleach), and gently sauté the onions and scotch bonnet peppers until it is softened and starting to brown ever so lightly on the edges of the onions.
• Add in the tomatoes, and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, or until the sauce thickens, and the oil starts to raise to the top.
• Add in the smashed eggplant, and continue cooking on low-medium heat for five minutes.
• Add in the smoked mackerel, dried shrimp, and bullion, stir and continue to simmer on low heat.
• At this point, taste the stew, and adjust for salt, and if you are like me add some extra dry pepper for a little bit more heat. Stir in the chopped basil, and turn off the heat.
• Serve warm with a side of your favorite carbs.