Nigerian Inventory Recipe

Nigerian inventory is the spine of my Nigerian kitchen, a vital part of classics like jollof rice, fried rice, stew, Nigerian hen curry, and hen and meat pies, in addition to extra up to date recipes and a bunch of different issues. It’s usually seasoned with Nigerian/Caribbean-style curry powder, dried thyme, ginger, pink onion, and garlic and might embrace multiple sort of meat, usually a mixture of two from choices like beef, hen, turkey, and goat. The flavors are completely different sufficient from Western-style shares, which regularly use just one sort of meat and normally function aromatics like celery, carrots, and white or yellow onions.

I nearly at all times make inventory as step one within the journey to a pot of Nigerian stew or jollof rice. This does add to the general cooking time, however it’s price mentioning that Nigerian inventory isn’t normally simmered for so long as a Western-style inventory: the purpose is to extract taste from the meat and bones, however to not construct a really gelatinous inventory by the lengthier means of melting powerful, collagen-rich connective tissue into gelatin.

When making the inventory as half of a bigger recipe, I take advantage of stewing cuts, and favor ones which have bones hooked up like ribs, brisket, shank, and neck. This enables me to make use of the cooked chunks of meat after simmering them within the inventory, both within the dish itself (reminiscent of for stew) or served alongside dishes like jollof rice after frying the meat in oil or roasting it within the oven or in an air-fryer till browned and crisp—an environment friendly, no-waste technique.

It was just a few years in the past that I began making inventory as a stand-alone recipe, in order that I may hold it frozen and have it available for comfort sake, particularly for recipes the place I don’t in any other case want or plan to serve the meat from the broth alongside or within the completed dish. In these instances, I normally use bones—most frequently half beef and half hen—which are sometimes inexpensive than stewing cuts, and permit me to take advantage of scraps saved from leftovers (although they’re straightforward sufficient to additionally purchase for reasonable on the butcher). This fashion, I can have a batch of inventory prepared for recipes the place I don’t want the total complement of meat as an accompaniment to the meal or the meat within the recipe itself will come from one other supply, reminiscent of once I’m making meat pies, moinmoin, or Nigerian hen curry. 

For a few years, I’d discard the onions and bell pepper as soon as the inventory was cooked, however I’ve stopped doing that in favor of mixing them again into the inventory for a full-bodied, considerably thicker outcome. The completed inventory needs to be wealthy with spicy notes of ginger and garlic, vegetal ones from the inexperienced bell pepper, the heat of curry powder, and a few herbiness from the bay leaf and dried thyme.