Yétissé de Tilapia (Tilapia in Aubergine Sauce)

Ingredients:

3kg fresh tilapia
seasoned salt for dusting
10 onions, peeled and sliced into strips
2 large aubergines (eggplants), washed, stem ends removed and sliced lengthways (round green aubergines are typically used for this dish, if you only have the purple ones choose four small ones and halve before slicing)
8 carrots, scraped and sliced into rings
3 cassava tubers, peeled and sliced into rings
5 garlic cloves, crushed
5cm length of ginger, peeled and chopped
2 small tins of tomato purée
400g fresh tomatoes, chopped
4 Maggi or Jumbo cubes
2 Mamou peppers (habanero-type hot chillies), whole (remove the stems)
4 African birds' eye (piri-piri) chillies, chopped
500g okra
1kg rice, well washed
300ml red palm oil (for cooking the fish)
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

Scale, clean and wash the fish thoroughly under plenty of cold running water. Cut the fish into large fillets (or steaks if they are large). Dust the fish with seasoned salt then heat the red palm oil in a pan, add the fish pieces and fry until golden brown all over. Remove the fish from the pan and set aside to keep warm.

Remove all but a few tablespoons of the oil from the pan (reserve a further 2 tbsp for later) then add the onion and strips of aubergine. Fry until the aubergine slices are lightly browned and tender (about 5 minute) then remove all the pieces of aubergine and set aside. Continue frying the onions for about 2 minutes more, or until nicely browned.

Combine the aubergines, fried onions, garlic and ginger in a mortar or food processor and render to a paste. In a bowl, mix together the tomato purée, tomatoes, piri-piri chillies and Maggi cubes.

Heat the reserved 2 tbsp red palm oil in a pot, add the tomato mixture, bring to a simmer and cook for about 8 minutes, or until the tomatoes have broken down and thickened. Pour this mixture into a flame-proof casserole then stir in the cassava, carrots and the aubergine dough. Pour in enough water to cover the ingredients, stir to combine and season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover the pan and cook for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Add the fish pieces to the pot and cook for 10 minutes. At this point add the whole chillies and continue cooking for 5 minutes more.

In the meantime cook the rice and the okra (follow the perfect steamed rice recipe for cooking the rice). The okra is trimmed at its stem end and is traditionally cooked either on top of the rice or in a steamer basket over the rice.

Once the rice is tender, mix the okra into the rice then arrange the rice on a serving tray. Spoon over the fish and the sauce and serve immediately.