Sauce djoumgblé

Ingredients

The okra

• 150 gdried okra powder
• djoumgble
• or 500 g fresh okra
• finely chopped

The protein

• 300 gsmoked fish
• flaked, bones removed
• or 500 g beef, cubed
• or both together

The sauce

• 2onions, chopped
• 4garlic cloves, crushed
• 150 mlred palm oil
• 2hot chillies, chopped
• 2aubergines, diced
• optional
• 1stock cube
• salt
• about 1.5 litres water

To serve

• foutou
• pounded cassava or plantain
• eaten with the right hand

Directions

1. Chop it as finely as you possibly can. It keeps for months when kept dry. Sprinkle it rather than tipping it in. Stir constantly as it all goes in. It becomes a smooth heavy mass. Flake the smoked fish carefully. Check thoroughly for any bones. Smoked fish keeps all its bones. Pull out anything hard at all. Bones hide entirely in a thick sauce.
2. Check the fish very thoroughly. Soak the smoked fish for a while. Cover it over with warm water. Give it about ten full minutes. Heat the palm oil in a large pot. Warm it rather than smoking it. Add the chopped onion to the pot.
3. Cook it for about ten full minutes. It should soften completely through. Add the crushed garlic to the pot. Give it about one full minute. Pour all the water into the pot. Start with plenty of the water. Add more of it later if needed. Add the beef if you are using it. Beef needs long cooking to soften.
4. Add it early on and simmer it. Give it about forty full minutes. Add it in the last fifteen minutes. Add the diced aubergine to the pot. Add it in about halfway through. Sprinkle the okra powder over the pot. Sprinkle it slowly with one hand.
5. Stir constantly with the other. Those lumps never break down at all. Chop fresh okra as finely as you can. Add it to the simmering pot now. Give it about twenty full minutes.
6. Simmer it for about twenty minutes. Stir it regularly right through. Use a moderate heat throughout. Stir the flaked smoked fish in. Add it for the last fifteen minutes. Add the stock cube and taste it. Taste before adding any more salt. It often needs very little indeed.
7. Lift a spoonful and let it fall. It should draw out in a long thread. Cook it longer if it does not draw. It should be thick but still pourable. Add more water if it is too thick. Add more okra if it is too thin. Serving it is always done hot. Ladle it out into deep warm bowls. Serve pounded foutou alongside it. Wash your hands before eating. It keeps two days refrigerated.

Technique

• Okra powder lumps very readily and those lumps never break down, staying as dry pockets in the sauce. Sprinkle it slowly with one hand while stirring constantly with the other rather than tipping it in — that is the whole difficulty of the dish. Slaking it with cold water first works but reduces the drawing.
• Smoked fish keeps its bones and they hide entirely in a thick sauce eaten with the fingers, where nobody expects them — run your fingers through every flake and pull out anything hard. Fish allergy can also be severe and the flaked fish disappears into the sauce, so say clearly what has gone in.
• Warm the red palm oil rather than smoking it, since overheated palm oil turns bitter and loses its colour entirely — a moderate heat is what is wanted.

Substitutions

• Finely chopped fresh okra works in place of dried powder but draws considerably less; chop it as fine as you can, which releases more mucilage, and give it about twenty minutes. Dried okra powder is sold in African shops, sometimes as okra flour, keeps for months and is genuinely worth seeking out.
• Beef goes in early and needs about forty minutes to soften, where smoked fish is already cooked and goes in for the last fifteen minutes only — longer breaks it apart entirely.

Variations

• The sliminess is entirely the point here rather than something to reduce: a good sauce draws out in a long thread that stretches from the spoon without breaking, and that drawing is judged and admired. Lift a spoonful and let it fall to test it, and cook it longer if it does not draw.
• Red palm oil is unrefined, deep orange-red and earthy, and colours the whole sauce — refined palm oil is pale and flavourless and is genuinely not a substitute.
• The atlas carries three Ivorian sauces in this batch: this western Guéré and Wobé okra one, the Baoulé sauce gouagouassou built on garden eggs, and sauce graine built on palm nuts. Ivorian cooking is built on sauces eaten with a starch, varying by region and by people.

History

A Guéré and Wobé speciality of western Côte d’Ivoire, thickened with dried okra powder and eaten with pounded cassava.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sauce djoumgblé?

Sauce djoumgblé is a soup & stew from Côte d’Ivoire: slippery okra sauce from the west, drawn out long with palm oil. A Guéré and Wobé speciality of western Côte d’Ivoire, thickened with dried okra powder and eaten with pounded cassava.

How long does Sauce djoumgblé take to make?

Sauce djoumgblé takes 30 minutes of preparation and 1 hour of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Sauce djoumgblé?

Yes, within limits. Finely chopped fresh okra works in place of dried powder but draws considerably less; chop it as fine as you can, which releases more mucilage, and give it about twenty minutes. Dried okra powder is sold in African shops, sometimes as okra flour, keeps for months and is genuinely worth seeking out. Beef goes in early and needs about forty minutes to soften, where smoked fish is already cooked and goes in for the last fifteen minutes only — longer breaks it apart entirely.

What is the most important thing to get right in Sauce djoumgblé?

Chop it as finely as you possibly can. It keeps for months when kept dry. Sprinkle it rather than tipping it in. Stir constantly as it all goes in. It becomes a smooth heavy mass. Flake the smoked fish carefully. Check thoroughly for any bones. Smoked fish keeps all its bones. Pull out anything hard at all. Bones hide entirely in a thick sauce.