Sierra Leone recipe / West African recipe : do try this spicy grilled beef suya. I first had Nigerian beef suya, a few years ago, when I took Freddy on his first ever visit to Sierra Leone. We hung out with a rather cool bloke B, who was larger than life, and full of stories, laughter and really good fun. He would come visit us at sundown and entertain us with his rather hilarious escapades and stay till very late. We wished he could have stayed for ever. It was during one such visit that he brought us little offering or beef suya, all wrapped up in newspaper and covered with sliced onions, tomatoes and chillies. One bite and we fell in foodie love.
We do have our very own version of beef suya in Sierra Leone which we simply call roast beef. We tend to use peanut butter instead of dry powdered nuts, but also add lime and tomato puree to the mix. It is one of the things I crave and ‘demand’ as soon as I get back home – it is street food at its best. I will share my Sierra Leonean recipe for roast beef with you on the blog soon.
In the mean time here is the recipe for Nigerian beef suya slightly adapted from the Groundnut Cookbook, which is full of both traditional and fusion recipes from Africa. PS – I actually made this one with venison as I had run out of beef and it worked pretty well. I hope you make it and enjoy every mouthful. Sierra Leone flavours – is the spot on my blog where I share both traditional Sierra Leonean recipes and West African fusion recipes.
