Plat Tradicional Fula (Traditional Fulani Dish)

Click on the image, above to submit to Pinterest.

Plat Tradicional Fula (Traditional Fulani Dish)

Plat Tradicional Fula (Traditional Fulani Dish) is a traditional Guinean recipe (from Guinea-Bissau) for a classic Fulani-based dish of a beef stew served with a steamed cassava flour dough. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Guinea-Bissau version of: Traditional Fulani Dish (Plat Tradicional Fula).

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

50 minutes

Total Time:

70 minutes

Serves:

6–8

Rating:

Tags : Beef Recipes Vegetable Recipes Guinea-bissau Recipes

This is a traditional dish of the Fula or Fulani peoples of Guinea-Bissau. I was very interested in this dish as it uses tomato leaf or tomato vine as an herb. Much of the flavour of the tomato plant is in the vine and it's an old chef's trick to add the vine when cooking tomatoes to intensify the flavour. Fula is the only cuisine where I have seen this done outside of chef circles though.

Ingredients:

400g dried cassava flour
650g beef cut into bite-sized pieces
2 garlic cloves, crushed
60ml red palm oil
100g grated peanuts (mancarra)
2 tbsp tomato leaves
4 ripe tomatoes
1 tsp nététu (dawadawa or fermented Parkia biglobosa [locust bean] seeds)
fresh chillies, to taste
salt, to taste

Method:

Season the beef to taste with salt and the garlic. Add to a pot with the tomato leaf then cover and bring to a boil over low heat. Allow the beef to cook in its own juices for about 20 minutes, or until just tender. Adjust the seasonings to taste, remove the tomato leaf and add the palm oil. Bring to a simmer, cover and set aside to cook gently as the cassava paste is prepared.

Sift the cassava flour through a fine-meshed sieve. Mix in just enough water to yield a stiff paste. Place the paste in a bain-marie (double boiler) and cook for about 20 minutes, or until done through.

When the cassava paste is ready, serve hot accompanied by the beef stew.