Remember Mama Put?
Probably a bad post to have right after my post on having a healthy heart, but I am craving mama put today.
I am not referring to the sophisticated mama put sold in Ghana High or Mama Calabar. Nope! I am longing for the really native mama put I used to buy in my very early teens (we could only buy it when my parents were out, if not they would strangled us kids – literary of course). You know the one I am talking about – it’s carried around in a large metal basin on the hawkers head and the stew in a little basin placed on top of the big one? The rice was wrapped in banana leaves and the stew was always more oil than tomatoes but tasted WKD anyway? You always knew the mama put hawkers where around because you could hear the little tune they used to beat on their basins with a wooden stick they carried around with them.
Chei, just the thought of it is making me so hungry. I am positively salivating. To this day, I don’t know how those people got the stew to taste that way. There were lots of rumours swirling around in those days as to how but not something I want to go into here – might put you off mama put for life.
Hmmm, I wonder if they still sell rice wrapped in banana leaves and stew that way…
I am not referring to the sophisticated mama put sold in Ghana High or Mama Calabar. Nope! I am longing for the really native mama put I used to buy in my very early teens (we could only buy it when my parents were out, if not they would strangled us kids – literary of course). You know the one I am talking about – it’s carried around in a large metal basin on the hawkers head and the stew in a little basin placed on top of the big one? The rice was wrapped in banana leaves and the stew was always more oil than tomatoes but tasted WKD anyway? You always knew the mama put hawkers where around because you could hear the little tune they used to beat on their basins with a wooden stick they carried around with them.
Chei, just the thought of it is making me so hungry. I am positively salivating. To this day, I don’t know how those people got the stew to taste that way. There were lots of rumours swirling around in those days as to how but not something I want to go into here – might put you off mama put for life.
Hmmm, I wonder if they still sell rice wrapped in banana leaves and stew that way…
posted by Pilgrimage to Self at 1:06 pm
12 Comments:
Hmm. They still do oh but I dare not eat them! I've been admitted for typhoid fever TWICE. And everyday on my way to work, I see this very unhealthy environment where I hear people gather to cook and then go elsewhere to sell or hawk them around. If your immunity level is high, mama put it's alright. But if you're like me who's already as fat as a broom stick, then it's better not to invite another visit to the hospital.
Yep PTS they still do. And they make the soup with locust beans now. It's absolutely delicious. There's this woman at tejuosho who sells rice wrapped in moin moin leaves and the locust bean soup ahh im salivating just thinking about it but i can't get any 'cos they don't sell it in kaduna.
These days you don't have to buy it from hawkers there are a lot of good resturants that specialize in it now. But they're all in Lagos. Trust lagosians they've even funkified it. It's now called designer rice or coprate rice. It's even served at parties now.
OK, OK... After Adunni's comment, I feel like a kill-joy!
If it's about the ofada rice and the stew, yes, it's become popular in Lagos. TFC sells the stew with the long grain rice but Tantalizers and Sweet Sensation sell with ofada rice. You can get people to even make the stew for you. I know four different caterers who can do it for a fee - Ikoyi Club, Tyds etc (depends on the size of the bowl but N2000 worth is reasonable).
Adunni, the woman at Tejuosho... When my sister was pregnant, that was one of her cravings.
Hey, you guys have left me behind. Ofada rice and stew ... whats that? Never heard of it. As we Naija's will say Is it sweet?
@ Adunni: Do you have the receipe for that particular type of stew? Would love to have it. Although I am not sure I can get locust beans here. Will have to ask someone coming over to bring it for me.
Nope i don't have the recipe. ofada rice is the local rice (the one with plenty plenty stones but they remove the stones sha)and the stew is made with green atarodo instead of the red ones and bleached palm oil with locust beans. It is very sweet o every time i go to tejuosho i make sure i get some. In fact odikwa very sweet.
@Ayoke your sister is not the only one o. I know a few women like that too.
I hope I have everything covered here:
A colleague that caters on the side gave me this recipe. I haven't tried it yet. sorry, I cannot give you quantities because I don't cook that way. I just let my church mind guide me.. Let me know how it goes, k?
Simple recpie:
You need:
Locust Beans
Tomatoes and peppers
Knorr (this is the one I like)
Meat Stock
Offals
Beef
Onions
Palm oil
Cut the beef and offals into little pieces, season properly and boil till tender. we don't use a lot of stock for this recipe so let the stock "dry" a bit. That is, it should be as concentrated as possible.
Bleach Palm Oil. Fry half of the locust beans and remove after a minute or so...this gives flavor to the oil.
Put in chopped onions and fry. Follow this by ground tomato and pepper. The past should not be smooth at all. Imagine if you had used a stone for grinding...that's the effect we are looking for. You can use your food processor to get this effect. Fry properly, add the remaining locust beans and then add the meat and stock.
Add salt to taste.
Ofada rice can be bought in ready to cook packs. These are sold in the shops. The combination is WKD!
@ in my head: Thank you thank you thank you. I shall be trying it out!
Oh shucks! You are welcome. Please post a sample or something so that we can all have a taste :)
ofada rice stinks
but the soup is hot.
You can buy just the rice in ready to cook packs. Just like Uncle Ben's rice. Straight from the market, it is really dirty and has a lot of stones.
You will still need to make the sauce yourself though. Sorry!!
Pilgrimage to Self did you end up making the stew?
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