Sauce graine

Ingredients

The palm nuts

• 1 kgfresh palm nuts
• boiled and pounded
• or 800 g tinned palm pulp
• sold as palm cream or noix de palme

The protein

• 600 gbeef, cubed
• or 300 g smoked fish
• flaked, bones removed
• or crab and prawns
• or all together

The sauce

• 2onions, chopped
• 6garlic cloves, crushed
• 3cm ginger, grated
• 2aubergines, diced
• 2hot chillies
• 1stock cube
• salt
• about 1.5 litres water

To serve

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

Directions

1. Oil rises to the surface as it cooks. Some cooks skim it and some do not. Boil the palm nuts until soft. Give them about forty full minutes. Pound the boiled nuts in a mortar. Pound them enough to loosen the pulp. Do not pound them hard enough to crack nuts. Work steadily rather than violently. Add hot water to the pounded pulp.
2. Work it through with your hands. The water takes up all the pulp. Strain the liquid through a sieve. Press the fibre against the sieve. Discard the fibre and the nuts. Strain it twice if it is fibrous. Add more water to the pressed fibre.
3. Work it through and strain it again. Thin it with hot water first of all. Whisk it smooth before it goes in. It is thick and quite solid in the tin. Put the palm liquid in a large pot. Bring it up to a steady simmer. Give it about twenty full minutes.
4. Stir it regularly as it simmers. Add the chopped onion to the pot. Add the garlic and grated ginger. Add the whole chillies as well. Add the cubed beef to the pot. Beef needs long cooking to soften. Add it early rather than late.
5. Let it simmer for about an hour. Do not rush it at any point at all. Add hot water if it gets too thick. Add it gradually rather than all at once. It should stay a pourable sauce. Add the diced aubergine to the pot. Add it in about halfway through. Stir the smoked fish in near the end. Add it for the last fifteen minutes. It only needs warming and flavouring.
6. Add crab or prawns near the end. Prawns take about five minutes only. Add both of them right at the end. Add the stock cube and taste it. Taste before adding any more salt. It often needs very little indeed. Oil should show at the surface. It should coat a spoon heavily. Cook it down further if it is thin.
7. Add hot water if it is too thick. Serving it is always done hot. Ladle it out into deep warm bowls. Serve pounded foutou alongside it. It becomes a smooth heavy mass.

Technique

• This is built on strained palm fruit pulp, not palm oil — palm oil is the extracted fat alone, where the pulp carries fibre and flavour too. They are genuinely different things and palm oil is not a substitute for pulp here.
• When pounding fresh palm nuts, work steadily rather than violently: pound only enough to loosen the pulp, since the hard nuts will not break anyway and cracking one releases a bitter kernel that spoils the sauce.
• Smoked fish, crab and prawns all appear and often several go in together — say clearly what has gone in, since fish and shellfish allergies can both be severe and none is visible in a thick orange sauce.

Substitutions

• Tinned palm pulp, sold as palm cream or noix de palme, is already extracted and is the practical route for most — fresh palm fruit is hard to find abroad. Thin it with hot water and whisk it smooth before it goes in, since it is thick and quite solid in the tin.
• Some cooks fry the onion first for a deeper flavour where the traditional route adds it raw to soften in the simmering sauce; both are genuinely done.

Variations

• Add the ingredients by cooking time: beef goes in early for about an hour, aubergine halfway through, smoked fish for the last fifteen minutes since it is already cooked, and prawns or crab right at the end — five and ten minutes respectively, since both overcook very quickly.
• A slick of orange oil at the surface is the mark of a finished sauce rather than a fault; some cooks skim part of it off and others leave all of it in.
• Palm sauce stains cloth badly and the orange is hard to remove, so wear something you do not mind; it also stains hands temporarily. Stir regularly and scrape the base, since palm sauce catches and a burnt patch ruins the whole pot.

History

Built on the oil palm native to the Gulf of Guinea forest; the fruit is boiled and pounded, and its pulp strained into the sauce.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sauce graine?

Sauce graine is a soup & stew from Côte d’Ivoire: palm-nut sauce simmered with meat or fish, classic partner to foutou. Built on the oil palm native to the Gulf of Guinea forest; the fruit is boiled and pounded, and its pulp strained into the sauce.

How long does Sauce graine take to make?

Sauce graine takes 40 minutes of preparation and 1 hour 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Sauce graine?

Yes, within limits. Tinned palm pulp, sold as palm cream or noix de palme, is already extracted and is the practical route for most — fresh palm fruit is hard to find abroad. Thin it with hot water and whisk it smooth before it goes in, since it is thick and quite solid in the tin. Some cooks fry the onion first for a deeper flavour where the traditional route adds it raw to soften in the simmering sauce; both are genuinely done.

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

Oil rises to the surface as it cooks. Some cooks skim it and some do not. Boil the palm nuts until soft. Give them about forty full minutes. Pound the boiled nuts in a mortar. Pound them enough to loosen the pulp. Do not pound them hard enough to crack nuts. Work steadily rather than violently. Add hot water to the pounded pulp.