Nov 3, 20223 min read

Did You Know

Cooking can be fun and tiring too!! One menu that has become a staple dish in my home is ‘Stew’. Although, Africans lay claim to this dish, l believe it’s existent in other cultures. So what is Stew? As a Nigerian, l will explain it in our context. Stew is a dish made mainly from tomatoes, red bell peppers or Tatashe (local name), jalapeño and onions. Yes, it has very simple ingredients served with any protein of choice. This dish is a household name in Nigeria and it is served with almost every dish. From rice, boiled yam, Beans porridge, Potatoes, fried plantain, with bread, side dish or any dish. It accompanies any dish and really does compliment it. Although, it has simple ingredients, the cooking process can be tedious depending also on the quantity and family tradition. Once the tomatoes and pepper are prepared and blended, it’s time to boil on the gas to allow the water evaporate and the condiments dry up and ready to use. Now this process can take a long time depending on the quantity of stew. Usually when it’s made for a large family, it’s usually in large quantities and stored in the fridge or freezer for later.

The essence of this article, is to share my new hack and discovery to reduce the processing, cooking time and save money while making stew. l was speaking with some ladies some time back, we shared how tedious it is to just cook stew. The preparation is always a hassle.

I shared how l boil the condiments to remove excess water before blending
One lady said she grills her tomatoes and peppers and blend
Another, said she blends and strain to get out the water from the tomatoes.
While another said, she boils all ingredients and blender to reduce the cooking time.

I must admit l tried all options and, it kind of lessen the cooking time but was still stressful. Here is what l found and a personal hack l would love to share with you. I recently bought a cheese cloth to be used for a DIY mixture for hair treatment. It strained all the particles for the hair mixture, so nicely done. An idea immediately occurred to me to use the cheese cloth to sieve my blended tomatoes.

I poured in blended tomatoes mixture into cheese cloth and left in a bowl, while l attended to other ingredients. After about 10-15 minutes, l saw a huge amount of red-like water separated from the cheese cloth! Below is a result of the extracted paste. It was super amazing and quick.

Scooping the now almos dried condiments to the cooking pan looked like adding purée. I must tell you l was thrilled!!!

Here are reasons why you should try this process:

Easy Cooking Process: Get a cheese cloth and pour in the blended tomatoes and pepper and leave to strain.
Cooking time: Cooking time is drastically reduced! No need to boil the tomatoes/pepper mixture, immediately start frying the Stew.
Save money: Less cooking time = less gas or electricity consumed 😃. This is a winner.

I hope with this few points of mine, l was a able to convince you that using cheese cloth to strain you condiments saves you a lot. Also, l have tried this with my juicing. I get a lot from my juicing before disposing the pulp. A trial will convince you.