A great recipe, a better sister

A'salaamu alaikum ya'll. Have you ever met one of those sisters that you just immediately admire? I had the pleasure a few years back to meet one like that. She is just masha'allah a wonderful example of a muslimah. I was her son's preschool teacher fora 6 months and she always packed him the most awesome handmade lunches. I mean, homemade food a given, but it was the presentation. Man!

She put a cloth napkin in, so he would take it out first, and spread it for a placemat. Then he would take out his little mini containers of food, and real silverware. Well real metal, not silver. lol BTW do you know it's haram to eat from silver? More than 15 authenitcated ahadith state this. I was a bit surprised by it myself but there you go. Anyway...I digress. :-)

So one day he opens his lovingly packed midday meal and I see one of the most beautiful dishes I've ever laid eyes on. It looked like it was made from liquid rubies. It was so bright and pretty and well, I just had to have the recipe!

I asked this lovely sister for it and not only did she provide the recipe, but she made me an entire dish as well. The downside? The other sister who took the dish for me forgot to tell me and she also forgot to put it in the school's fridge. It spoiled. Waaaah! :-(

Anyway Sis K is from Senegal and looks like a queen subhanallah. Here is the beautiful recipe she so nicely shared with me:

Senegalese "Thiou"

Thiou is basically a stew that has tomatoes with lots of vegetables. You may put fish (which is what I prefer) or else any kind of meat or chicken.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of firm fleshed white fish (pollock for example)
2 cups of oil, divided (one for frying fish, one for stew)
16 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, cut in half
4-5 potatoes, quartered then halved
1 lb bag carrots, cut into bite sized chunks
1 head cabbage, coarsely chopped
salt, pepper, laurel or bay leaf
1 maggi cube (chicken flavor)

Put 1 cup oil in large cooking pot. It's best to puree the onion, tomato and garlic in a food processor. It will make the stew thicker and combine the flavors more. Omit this step if you don't have a food processor and just fry the pieces in the oil. After you've started to fry the vegetable mixture, add the tomato paste.Add salt and maggi cube now as well. Stir frequently.

If using meat instead of fish, add it now and let it fry 5 to 10 minutes along with the veggie mixture.

Be sure and let the tomato mixture cook until it starts to stick to your pot and darkens. Stir it constantly while cooking. This is an important step.

When all of the liquid has been reduced completely, you can add about 4 cups of water, just enough to help the meat and veggies cook til tender.

Add potatoes, carrots, and cabbage; cook til tender. Then add your spices and let cook til all flavors blended. Probably 15 minutes or so. :-)

If using the fish, fry it separately while the tomato mixture is cooking, and add it to the cooking pot maybe 5 minutes before the dish is finished.

Note: Be sure to cook the tomato mixture THOROUGHLY until no more liquid is present. Adding the additional water before this step is complete will result in a flat taste. Please use any herbs you normally like. Enjoy and say bismillah!

OK this was taken almost verbatim from the sister's instructions to me. Please let me know if ya'll make it, how it turned out, or if you've had it before.

Ma salaama!