Fonio Pottage (Pate Acha)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like Fonio Pudding, this is another comfort food I love eating. It goes by a lot of names: pate acha, pete acha, tere, gote, gwete, etc. It is rich, healthy and packed with a lot of nutritious vegetables and grains. It has its own unique taste: savory, sour, bitter and a taste that comes from the blending of a lot of  ingredients. Like most meals, everyone has his or her way of making pate acha. The recipe I would be sharing here is the recipe used by the Beroms in Plateau state as that is the recipe I grew up eating thanks to my mum who is Berom. This recipe is quite basic and could be upgraded by the addition of various ingredients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

(1) Cow Bones. (Kashi)

(2) Water as Needed (Ruwa)

(3) Salt (Optional) (Gishiri)

(4) Garden Eggs (Yalo or Gota)

(5) Pepper (Atarugu)

(6) Onions (Albasa)

(7) 3/4 Cup Fonio (Acha)

(8) Small Bunch of Sorrel/Zobo Leaves (Not Flower Petals) (Yakuwa)

(9) Lots of Spinach (Aleifo)

(10) Cabbage (Kabbeji) (Optional)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTES:

(1) This recipe calls for bones and not meat. Soft bones are preferred as parts of the joys of this meal is chewing the bones at the end of it with all their hidden juices and the occasional attached piece if meat. Feel free to use beef if you want to or do without it in total.

(2) It would surprise you that salt is an optional ingredient. Traditionally, the Beroms do not use salt in a lot of their meals. You can use salt if you want to. You can also use stock cubes to enrich the taste of your Pate Acha.

(3) Fonio/Acha is what is traditionally used for this recipe. You can however use coarse cornmeal in place of it. For those of you outside Nigeria who cannot get access to either of these, bulgar wheat would work here.

(4) Pate Acha has some bitterness to it. This is due to the addition of garden eggs. You have a choice between the green bitter garden eggs (gota) and the white ones (yalo). I would suggest that you use the bitter ones to get the actual traditional pate taste.

(5) Lastly, this recipe does not make use of any oil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROCEDURE:

(1) Place bones in pot along with some chopped onions and cook for 30 minutes. If using salt and stock cubes, you can add these now. These bones are going to cook for a further 1 hour along with the other ingredients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2) While bones are cooking, pound garden eggs, pepper and onions together. This can also be done using a good processor. The amount of garden eggs and pepper you use would depend on how bitter and spicy you want your pottage to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3) After 30 minutes, add some more water to the bones and add your garden egg mix to the pot. The quantity of water you add will depend on how much pottage you want to make. More water could be added as you cook the meal. The spinach added at the tail end of this dish would add some moisture to it, so be mindful about this when adding water. Allow this to cook for another 30 minutes. Traditionally, this is done with the pot uncovered. I however do not know the science behind that as it does not boil over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) While the above is cooking, wash your Fonio. I have  HOW TO tutorial on how to do this here. Fonio/Acha swells a lot so a little goes a long way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(5) Add Fonio to the pot after 30 minutes and stir for the first  few minutes to prevent the formation of lumps. The pot should be left uncovered from here on. Stir pottage occasionally.

(6) After 10 minutes, add your sorrel/yakuwa leaves which add some sourness to the pottage. You can use either fresh or dried sorrel leaves here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7) Cook pottage for another 10 minutes before adding the spinach and cabbage (if using).

(8) Cook for another 10 minutes and the pottage would be ready. (Total cooking time: 1 Hr 30 mins).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

END NOTES: To make this meal richer, you can add some more vegetables like carrots to it. You can also add some palm oil to it along with the garden egg mixture.

Want more Fonio/Acha? Try some Acha Pudding. Recipe here.