Suya: Nigeria's BBQ Beef Skewers/Kebabs

Pat and myself in clothing Priya brought back for us from Lucknow, India

Alas! For those of you who are vegetarian, gluten-intolerant (unless you can access gluten-free stock cubes), allergic to nuts, or congenitally incapable of processing chillies - I'd stop reading already. However, any beer-guzzling, braai (barbeque)-loving, "vleis, rys en aartappels" boereseun (Afrikaner male who eats only meat, rice and potoatoes), whose idea of a vegetable is to throw a piece of chicken on the braai and whose only comment regarding heat in chillies is to "Bring It On": this recipe is most definitely for you. 

The African Bird's Eye Chilli, a variety of Capsicum frutescens, provides a predominant flavour of this dish. Known as peri peri in South Africa, the term is derived from the Portuguese piri piri, as indeed, the initial cultivation of chillies in Africa is largely due to Portuguese colonisation and trading. Chilli, together with other South American crops such as cassava or manioc (Manihot esculenta), the peanut or ground nut (Arachis hypogaea), tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) and corn (Zea mays L. ssp. mays) - known as maize agriculturally and mealies in South Africa (again from the Portuguese word milho) - were introduced into Africa from South America as a result of the Columbian Exchange. In this dish, you can substitute other chillies for the African bird's eye, which is then combined with crushed peanuts, beef stock-cubes and oil, and rubbed onto thinly sliced, skewered beef. 

Pat hails from Nigeria and has the kind of deep, resonant voice that can carry from mountain-top to mountain-top without her even having to project it. With great joy, bending herself over at the waist and literally shaking her entire upper body with laughter, she proceeded to tell us the story of how, in England, she pointed out a food source that her shy British husband pronounced not only inedible but also inappropriate, and asked that she modulate her tones down as she rejoiced in finding such wares. Standing up, wiping her eyes dry of tears, she pronounced, "In Nigeria, we eat EVERYTHING! Otherwise, we'd starve."

Her story reminds me of an evening when a few of us, young professionals all, went out to supper. There was a Christian (myself), a Jewish woman (Lauren) and we accompanied a Muslim (Ashraf), out to dinner to entertain some Chinese businessmen. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it isn't. Anyhow, the only restaurant we could all go to was a fish restaurant since fish tends to be both Kosher and Halal (with the exceptions of shell-fish and crab and lobster meat, of course). Our Chinese guests were greatly intrigued by all these machinations, and most tickled by a discussion of what was acceptable, variously, for a Jew, a Muslim, and - given certain orthodoxies now mostly lapsed into oblivion (i.e., fish on Fridays for Catholics) - a Gentile to eat. "In China, we have a saying," they said, "It's OK to eat anything, so long as the sun shines on its back"; I think the Nigerians and the Chinese have a lot in common in this regard. 

Suya: Nigeria's BBQ Beef Skewers Recipe 

The only specialist equipment required is a pastry brush, for coating the skewers with the chilli oil. I'd advise buying one specifically for this purpose and not using it for anything else at all - unless it's also full of chillies. 

1 cup crushed, unsalted peanuts

2 cubes beef stock (preferably brought in fresh from Nigeria)

500 grams of a beef such as sirloin or rump steak

2 Tablespoons heaped chilli powder (or Ghanaian chilli chutney)

½ cup oil - preferably peanut oil 

The meat must be cut into very thin strips, a maximum of a centimetre in width and threaded onto kebab sticks; my husband says it is essential the meat is very thinly cut. As a result of how thin and narrow the strips are, you will tend only to grill it on two sides, as opposed to the four of a more square-shaped sosaties, for instance. 

The peanuts of Northern Africa are very much longer, more oily, and crunchy than the anaemic little nuts of the Spanish variety to which we are typically exposed in South Africa. The Nigerian peanuts look as if they must be more flavoursome too, though I'm not so sure that they are. However, if you cannot source them, you can buy crushed peanuts. Unsalted. Anaemic-looking. Without too much oil. And roast them lightly in the oven to dry them out a bit more and make them look robust and granular.

Crumble the beef-stock in amongst the crushed peanuts. The reason the women from Nigeria and Ghana bring in stock-cubes from their countries into the Middle East is simply because their stock-cubes are very much more crumbly and much, much more salty than the South African or Middle Eastern stock-cubes. They are also, actually, more of an actual cube shape too (given that a cube should represent a solid contained by six equal sides, a regular hexahedron and not be so rectangular). Geometry aside, you are to crumble beef stock and peanuts together with your hands, then roll the skewered beef in this mixture, and sprinkle remnants liberally on top to ensure it is well and evenly coated. 

Now, concoct a mixture of chilli powder and oil and liberally brush this over the above, partly to help ensure the peanut and stock-cube mixture sticks to the meat, in part also to ensure that the thin slices of meat are not too burnt on the coals, and mostly to ensure the enhancement of flavour with the chilli.

Cook with great care over very hot coals so that they are nice and crispy outside but very tender inside - be careful not to overcook. Of course, if my husband and Pat between them have anything whatsoever to do with the braaing or barbequing, the meat will be beautifully cooked to tender proportions, but the skewers will come back heavily bedaubed with chilli oil, which has splattered all over the coals, created flames, and we who are privileged enough to sit in the air-conditioning were able to witness the less than edifying spectacle of the two of them choking and coughing amidst clouds of heated-up chilli oil in the middle of a balmy but humid 35 °C (95 °F) night in the middle of a Middle-Eastern summer. 

It comes highly recommended, but then again, we do love our Nando's peri peri chicken. For the truly hard-core chilli enthusiasts, you can even serve with some of Amazing Grace's Ghanaian Chilli Chutney on the side!

Pat, who taught me Nigerian food, and Amazing Grace, who taught me to make chilli chutney, together with spouses, kids and me, largely pregnant on the right