Ikoyi

Mother Africa Sauce

In cooking school, we were taught the five French “mother sauces” as defined by French cuisine. The foundational sauce to the Afro-Asian flavor profile is what we call 'the Mother Africa Sauce,' a riff on West African peanut sauce.

You can pour it over a bowl of rice. You can dice up a sweet potato and mix it in as a stew. It tastes delicious with the meat of the chicken thigh crumbled into the mix. This sauce will keep for five days in the fridge and you can eat it every day, in a different way. It’s an easy back-pocket sauce that you can’t mess up. It’s both comfort food and comforting to cook. So give it a try.

After reading a post on these pages, my brother John got me a signed copy of the Between Harlem and Heaven cookbook for my birthday last week. I have read all the fascinating narrative that accompanies the recipes in it so now is the time to get cooking. Mother Africa sauce looks like the launchpad.

Ikoyi in St. James's Market, London has a Michelin star.

Ikoyi creates its own innovative cuisine based on the interpretation of West African ingredients. We combine bold heat and umami with the highest quality products in a warm and welcoming environment.

We explore ingredients such as Grains of Selim, a smoky peppercorn with the scent of eucalyptus, wild black tiger prawns and scotch bonnet chillies, which we ferment, burn and pickle.

Maybe I can take John  there for the tasting menu as his birthday present?.