Sauce gouagouassou

Ingredients

The vegetables

• 800 ggarden eggs
• African eggplant, halved
• or small aubergines
• 600 gtomatoes, chopped
• 2onions, chopped
• 2green peppers, chopped

The protein

• 300 gsmoked fish
• flaked, bones removed
• or 600 g beef, cubed
• or both together

The rest

• 6garlic cloves, crushed
• 3cm ginger, grated
• 2hot chillies
• or to taste
• 100 mlred palm oil
• or vegetable oil
• 1stock cube
• salt
• about 800 ml water

To serve

• foutou
• or rice
• eaten with the right hand

Directions

1. Check the fish very thoroughly. Soak the smoked fish for a while. Cover it over with warm water. Give it about ten full minutes. Flake the fish carefully by hand. Check thoroughly for any bones. Pull out anything hard at all. Cut the stalks off the garden eggs. Cut them in half or in quarters. Large ones need proper quartering.
2. Cut aubergine browns quickly in air. Do not worry about it here at all. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot. Warm palm oil rather than smoking it. Add the chopped onion to the pot.
3. Cook it for about twelve minutes. It should soften and turn golden. Add the garlic and the grated ginger. Give them about one full minute. Add the chopped green peppers. Cook them for about five minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes to the pot.
4. Cook them down for ten minutes. It should thicken up noticeably. Add the halved garden eggs to the pot. Turn them in the tomato base first. Let them take up all the flavour. Add the cubed beef in early on. Beef needs long cooking to soften. Add it before the garden eggs. It needs by far the longest cooking.
5. Add the water and the chillies. Bring it up to a gentle simmer. Simmer it for about forty minutes. Crush some of the garden eggs. Press them against the pot side. Leave some pieces whole though. Stir the flaked smoked fish in.
6. 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. Cook it down further if it is thin.
7. Add more water if it is too thick. The sauce should carry a faint bitterness. Ladle it out into deep warm bowls. Serve foutou or rice alongside. It becomes a smooth heavy mass.

Technique

• Smoked fish keeps its bones and they hide entirely in a thick sauce eaten with the fingers — run your fingers through every flake in good light on a pale plate. Fish allergy can also be severe and the fish disappears into the sauce, so say clearly what has gone in.
• Garden eggs carry a real bitterness that is genuinely wanted here, balancing the rich oil and fish — the finished sauce should carry a faint bitterness and it is not a fault to be hidden.
• Warm the red palm oil rather than smoking it, since overheated palm oil turns bitter and loses its colour entirely.

Substitutions

• Small aubergines stand in for garden eggs, which are denser, firmer and more bitter and hold their shape better; aubergines are milder and collapse more readily. Vegetable oil stands in for red palm oil and both are genuinely common here.
• Whole chillies give aroma and mild heat and are fished out before serving, where chopped ones give real fierce heat; both are genuinely used, so choose by taste.

Variations

• Crush some of the cooked garden eggs against the side of the pot to thicken the sauce while leaving other pieces whole — that mixed texture is characteristic. Some cooks blend part of the sauce and others leave it entirely chunky, and all are genuinely done.
• Beef goes in early and needs about forty minutes to soften, before the garden eggs, where smoked fish goes in for the last fifteen minutes only since longer breaks it apart entirely.
• This is a Baoulé sauce from central Côte d’Ivoire, sharing its pantry with kedjenou, the sealed-pot chicken stew the atlas carries separately. The atlas also carries sauce djoumgblé and sauce graine from the same country.

History

A Baoulé sauce built on African eggplant, the same central-Ivorian pantry that produced kedjenou; eaten with foutou or rice.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sauce gouagouassou?

Sauce gouagouassou is a soup & stew from Côte d’Ivoire: garden-egg and tomato sauce simmered with smoked fish or beef. A Baoulé sauce built on African eggplant, the same central-Ivorian pantry that produced kedjenou; eaten with foutou or rice.

How long does Sauce gouagouassou take to make?

Sauce gouagouassou 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 gouagouassou?

Yes, within limits. Small aubergines stand in for garden eggs, which are denser, firmer and more bitter and hold their shape better; aubergines are milder and collapse more readily. Vegetable oil stands in for red palm oil and both are genuinely common here. Whole chillies give aroma and mild heat and are fished out before serving, where chopped ones give real fierce heat; both are genuinely used, so choose by taste.

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

Cut aubergine browns quickly in air. Do not worry about it here at all. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot. Warm palm oil rather than smoking it. Add the chopped onion to the pot.