SPINACH - the variety of life or was that spice?

#spianchthenigerianway #eforiro #spinach #mackerel #simplifiedeforiro #followme #nics_kit_chen

---

We all have a few things that is always in our fridges, spinach is on top of the list for me. With the amount of times I eat spinach, I’ve had to get creative with it.

Here’s one of the ways I enjoy Spinacia oleracea. I hated Biology at school but for some reason, at 9pm, my brain thinks knowing this type of information is exactly what I need. My Aura app would probably be screaming "Nicky what is you doing", if I have one.

This is a simplified version of the Nigerian Efo Riro. I'll cook and post the full version with all the trimmings soon!

---

Ingredients

• Bag of spinach (fresh or frozen)

• Whole fresh Mackerel (gutted and cleaned) or smoked mackerel

• 1 scotch bonnet

• A clove of garlic

• Some oil or butter

• 1 small onion, chopped

• Seasoning of choice

Method

1. Boil or grill the Mackerel, remove bones and set aside

2. Blend or chop the scotch bonnet. If blending, you can add a little bit of chopped tomatoes to reduce the spice

3. If using frozen spinach, thaw and squeeze out excess fluid

4. Start by warming up the oil or slightly melting the butter – I must say that if you are using more than one scotch bonnet, butter is probably not the best option

5. Fry the onion and garlic with seasoning until the onion it’s translucent. Add the scotch bonnet and the mackerel

6. If you’ve blended your scotch bonnet, leave the sauce to simmer for about 5 mins before adding the mackerel and for longer than 5 mins if you’ve added chopped tomatoes. The reason for this is to reduce the sauce as the spinach will still produce some liquid

7. When the sauce has cooked through the fish, add the spinach. Cook for a further 5-7 mins if using fresh spinach. The goal is for the spinach to have some bite to it

---

NOTE

I’ve found that the stage at which spinach is added to the sauce is a bit debatable. Growing up in Nigeria, where fresh spinach was always boiled first, some people will add it soon after adding the mackerel, to allow the sauce to cook through the spinach.

I’ve also known people to add spinach and fish at the same time or just add all the ingredients after frying the onion. Whichever method you adopt (and I’ve tried it all), it’s all delicious.

I’ve also known people to add spinach and fish or just add all the ingredients after frying the onion. Whichever method you adopt (and I’ve tried it all), it’s all delicious.

---

All you need

The finished look