Bites and Pieces: West African Edition

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Fairlington Blade

I hosted a wine dinner on Saturday. It was a bit too ambitious in that I picked 7 fishes as the theme, from the Italian tradition, and also did dishes from 7 . I cheated a bit on Antarctica—frozen yogurt. The trickiest one for planning was Africa. I know relatively little about African cooking (except Ethiopia). Fortunately, my wife went to West Africa (Mali) for her stint in the Peace Corps and knew exactly what to do. Yassa.

Yassa is a Senegalese dish, traditionally served with chicken (Poulet en Yassa). It also works very well with grilled fish. I tried it with swordfish, which was a good finish to the meal. The key ingredients are onions, lemon juice and peanut oil. One traditionally marinades the meat in the ingredients, but I think separating it works.

Ingredients

1 – 2 pounds of swordfish, cubed*

½ cup of peanut oil

 

Yassa Sauce

4 – 6 yellow onions, sliced

½ cup of lemon juice

½ cup of cider vinegar

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons mustard

1 tablespoon soy sauce (Maggi is traditional; soy works fine)

1 minced chili pepper (optional)

Pepper and salt to taste

  1. Combine all ingredients and let rest for at least 2 hours
  2. Cube the swordfish and set aside. If you have a favored preparation, go for it. A bit of salt, pepper, cumin and turmeric works with the flavors of this dish. Have fun!
  3. Heat the peanut oil in a large, heavy bottomed pan or dutch oven. Drain the onions, setting aside the marinade, and add to the pan. Cook over medium heat until softened (and possibly browned a bit). Add the reserved marinade and bring to a boil. Cook until the onions form a sauce
  4. Cook the fish however you like. I planned to grill it, but the coals had gone mostly dark by the time I was ready to cook the fish. I heated up a couple of tablespoons of peanut oil in a pan and seared it, then added the sauce.
  5. Combine the fish and sauce. Warm to combine. Serve over rice. 

*For those who have concerns about the mercury content of swordfish, the dish is made traditionally with sea bass (Poisson Yassa). Chicken breast or pork loin would also work.

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