Fakoye

Ingredients

Meat

• 800 gbeef or lamb, in cubes
• 1onion
• 2stock cubes
• salt

Leaf

• 80 gdried jute leaf powder, fakoye
• or 500 g fresh jute leaves, finely chopped

Base

• 2onions, chopped
• 4 clovesgarlic
• 3tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tbsptomato paste
• 4 tbspoil

Seasoning

• 1 tspground ginger
• 2 tspground dried chilli
• 1 tbspground dried fish or crayfish
• 1 tspground calabash nutmeg, optional
• black pepper

To serve

• with rice, or with millet couscous

Directions

1. Add it gradually and stir constantly, since it lumps readily. If using fresh jute leaves, strip them from the stems and chop them very finely. Cut it into cubes and simmer it with onion and stock cubes until tender. Keep the cooking broth, which is the liquid for the stew.
2. Fry the chopped onion in oil until soft and golden, which takes ten minutes. Add the garlic, then the tomato paste, and fry it until it darkens.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook them down until the oil separates and rises. Calabash nutmeg, a West African spice, is used in some versions and gives a distinctive warm aroma.
4. Return the meat with its broth to the tomato base and simmer for twenty minutes. Sprinkle the powder in gradually while stirring hard. Sprinkle rather than tipping, since dumped powder forms lumps that will not disperse. The stew will thicken noticeably within a minute or two.
5. Simmer for a further ten to fifteen minutes only. Do not cook it long after the leaf goes in, since the flavour dulls and the colour goes drab.
6. Add hot broth if it has gone too thick, since the powder swells as it stands. Season firmly with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the chilli, and the dish is usually moderately hot rather than fierce.
7. Serve it over rice, which is the usual accompaniment along the Niger. It keeps two days refrigerated and thickens further, so loosen it when reheating.

Technique

• Jute leaf is the same plant eaten as molokhia, ewedu and saluyot.
• The dried powder is how the leaf is preserved through the Sahelian year.
• Add the powder late, since long cooking dulls it and it thickens fast.

Substitutions

• Fresh jute leaves, finely chopped, which are milder.
• Molokhia powder, which is the same leaf under another name.

Variations

• Made with lamb or goat.
• Made with fresh leaves rather than powder.
• Made with smoked fish rather than meat.

History

A Songhai dish of the Niger bend around Gao and Timbuktu, thickened with powdered jute leaf, which gives the stew its name.

Frequently asked questions

What is Fakoye?

Fakoye is a soup & stew from Mali: aromatic jute-leaf and meat stew of the Songhai north, over rice. A Songhai dish of the Niger bend around Gao and Timbuktu, thickened with powdered jute leaf, which gives the stew its name.

How long does Fakoye take to make?

Fakoye takes 20 min of preparation and 1 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Fakoye?

Yes, within limits. Fresh jute leaves, finely chopped, which are milder. Molokhia powder, which is the same leaf under another name.

What is the most important thing to get right in Fakoye?

Return the meat with its broth to the tomato base and simmer for twenty minutes. Sprinkle the powder in gradually while stirring hard. Sprinkle rather than tipping, since dumped powder forms lumps that will not disperse. The stew will thicken noticeably within a minute or two.