What was initially a plan to make stew only, later turned into making a typical lunch at home...Rice and stew. The intention was to make enough stew for the whole week like usual. I was reluctant at first to take images and later write about it whilst cooking because it would be tiring without a tripod stand. In the the end it was worth.
Oil
boiled tomatoes paste
canned tomato paste
garlic, onion, ginger and pepper blended mix
seasoning cubes
carrots
spice (bay leaves, rosemary, anise seeds, dried star anise)
fish (optional)
salt
salt
2 cups of rice (about 500grams)
I started by making my fire, using charcoal used as my source of heat
Lets get started with real deal, Stew.
I washed my carrots and onions, and cut them into smaller pieces.
I poured cooking oil (I used groundnut oil, you may use any cooking oil of your choice) into my cooking pot and let it fry for about 5 mins and added my chopped onions and left it to fry for about 5 minutes too.
I grinded my spices, in a wooden grinding bowl
Afterwards, I added, garlic-ginger-pepper mix along with my grinded spices and let it fry
after frying for about 15 mins, then I added my boiled tomato paste and followed it with the canned one, Now this stage requires a lot of patience and constant stirring, and low heat to avoid spilling. How long would you let it cook ? well till it appears very bright like in the bottom right pic of the collage, normally I let it cook roughly 20mins plus.
Next step is adding my fish and seasoning cube, which I mashed into smaller parts , along with the seasoning cube I added it to my halfway-made stew.
Lastly I went in with my salt and carrots and let it cook for a little while (preferably 10 mins) and there you have your stew.
The last and easiest part, is cooking the rice.
I warmed about 750ml of water and added my rice and half teaspoon of salt
and left it to cook, on medium heat till it was boiled well.
And just like that my meal was ready to be served.
You may or add a few changes or tweak the stew to your liking,
like adding meat stock
using gizzards in place of fish or even sausages
