Efo Riro — Nigerian Spinach Stew with Beef Chuck

Ingredients

• 12 oz Beef Chuck, cut in chunks
• 8 cups Spinach, chopped and wilted
• 3 red bell peppers and 2 habaneros, blended coarse
• 1 onion, half blended and half sliced
• ⅓ cup red palm oil
• 2 tbsp ground crayfish
• 2 tbsp locust bean (iru) or 1 tbsp miso
• 1 bouillon cube
• 1 cup stock
• Salt to taste

Method

1. Simmer the Beef Chuck with the bouillon, blended onion half, and stock until tender — 15 minutes for fish or mushrooms, 45 for beef. Keep the liquid.
2. Warm the palm oil over medium and fry the sliced onion until edges go golden. Pour in the blended peppers and cook, stirring now and then, 15 minutes: you are waiting for the water to leave and the oil to break out on top.
3. Stir in the crayfish, locust bean, and the reserved cooking liquid. Simmer 8 minutes until the sauce is thick and shiny rather than soupy.
4. Squeeze the wilted Spinach dry — genuinely dry, or the stew turns watery — and fold it in with the cooked Beef Chuck. Cook just 5 minutes so the greens stay dark and separate.
5. Taste, salt, and serve with rice, yam, or pounded fufu.