Sauce gombo

Ingredients

The okra

• 600 gfresh okra
• young and small
• trimmed and sliced thinly
• or 500 g frozen sliced okra

The protein

• 2crabs
• cleaned and halved
• or 250 g smoked fish
• soaked and boned
• or both together

The base

• 4 tablespoonsred palm oil
• or vegetable oil
• 2onions, chopped
• 4 clovesgarlic, crushed
• 2tomatoes, chopped
• optional
• 1 tablespoontomato purée
• 1or 2 hot chillies
• 1stock cube
• about 800 ml water
• salt and black pepper

Sometimes added

• 1 tablespoondried crayfish powder
• or ground dried prawns
• a handful of greens
• 1 teaspoonground pepper soup spice

To serve

• akassa, or amiwo
• or fufu
• or rice
• piment, the chilli sauce

Directions

1. Wash it and dry it. Trim off the stem end. Cut just below the cap. Do not cut into the pod when trimming. Slice it thinly across. Thin slices release far more mucilage. Halve or quarter the crabs. Crack the claws so the flavour comes out. If you buy live crab, kill it quickly.
2. Cook it the day you buy it. Soak it in hot water twenty minutes. Pick the bones out carefully. Flake the flesh.
3. Heat the palm oil in a large pot. Add the onions. Cook them for about eight minutes. Add the garlic and chillies. Cook them two minutes. Add the purée and cook it briefly.
4. Add the tomatoes if using. Cook them down for five minutes. Add the water and stock cube. Add the crayfish powder if using.
5. Bring it to a simmer. Add the crab or smoked fish. Simmer it fifteen minutes. Add the sliced okra. Simmer it fifteen to twenty minutes. The okra should be tender.
6. Lift the spoon and the sauce should string. Stir gently and not constantly. The okra should stay green. Add them in the last five minutes. It should be thick and glossy. Add water only if it is far too thick. Season with salt and black pepper.
7. Taste it carefully. Serve it hot in a wide bowl. Serve a starch alongside. Akassa is fermented maize dough, cooked soft. Take a piece of the starch with the right hand. Press a dent into it. Scoop up the sauce. It keeps two days refrigerated.

Technique

• The slipperiness is the point. The sauce is eaten with a starch dough that is swallowed rather than chewed, and the mucilage both coats the dough and helps it go down — a genuine functional reason, not just a taste. There is no way to make sauce gombo without it.
• Slice the okra thinly. Thin slices release far more mucilage than thick ones, and grating or briefly blending a portion gives a much thicker, more drawn sauce.
• Add no acid at all. Lemon and vinegar reduce mucilage, which is why they are added to okra elsewhere — here you want it.
• Do not overcook it. Long cooking breaks the mucilage down, so the sauce can get thinner with more time, and the okra turns grey-brown. That colour change is the signal you went too far.
• Lift the spoon and look for the sauce stringing. That is the sign it is right.
• Stir gently and not often. Vigorous stirring breaks the pods up.
• Choose small young pods, finger length. Snap the tip: it should break crisply, and a pod that bends is old and woody. Frozen sliced okra is genuinely good here and goes in from frozen.
• Do not heat palm oil until it smokes. Overheating any oil produces harmful compounds and fills the kitchen with acrid smoke.
• Crab must be genuinely fresh, smelling of clean sea only, and cooked the day you buy it. Crack the claws so the flavour comes out into the sauce.
• Crab is a crustacean, and crustaceans and molluscs are separate allergens. Shellfish allergy can cause anaphylaxis — say plainly what is in the dish.
• Soak smoked fish in hot water for twenty minutes and bone it carefully. It is often full of small bones.
• Some versions use no tomato at all, giving a greener, purer okra sauce. Both are made.
• Taste before salting. The stock cube and the smoked fish both bring plenty.

Substitutions

• Frozen sliced okra replaces fresh entirely and needs no thawing.
• Smoked fish replaces crab, or the two are used together.
• Prawns or crayfish replace crab.
• Vegetable oil replaces red palm oil, at the cost of colour and character.
• Crayfish powder or ground dried prawns deepen the sauce and are optional.
• Rice replaces akassa or fufu where those are impractical.

Variations

• Dongo-dongo in the Congo is the same principle with fish.
• Soupou kandia in Senegal cooks okra with palm oil and smoked fish.
• Okra soup in Nigeria and Ghana belongs to the same family.
• Sauce kplala uses a slippery leaf rather than okra for the same effect.
• Amiwo and akassa are the Beninese starches served alongside.
• A version with beef or goat added is made where meat is affordable.

History

One of the standard sauces served with the millet porridge to, made ropey with fresh or powdered okra.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sauce gombo?

Sauce gombo is a soup & stew from Benin: slippery okra sauce with crab or smoked fish. One of the standard sauces served with the millet porridge to, made ropey with fresh or powdered okra.

How long does Sauce gombo take to make?

Sauce gombo takes 25 minutes of preparation and 45 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Sauce gombo?

Yes, within limits. Frozen sliced okra replaces fresh entirely and needs no thawing. Smoked fish replaces crab, or the two are used together. Prawns or crayfish replace crab. Vegetable oil replaces red palm oil, at the cost of colour and character. Crayfish powder or ground dried prawns deepen the sauce and are optional. Rice replaces akassa or fufu where those are impractical.

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

Wash it and dry it. Trim off the stem end. Cut just below the cap. Do not cut into the pod when trimming. Slice it thinly across. Thin slices release far more mucilage. Halve or quarter the crabs. Crack the claws so the flavour comes out. If you buy live crab, kill it quickly.