Pemahun: A Sierra Leonean One Pot Steamed Rice and Sweet Potato Leaves mixed with Okra and Garden Eggs

Hello and welcome to The Cooking Wardrobe.  

Today in cooking I will show you how to cook a very simple, healthy and flavorsome dish.  If you have been following my blog or have visited and read my food posts, you would have noticed by now that Sierra Leoneans eat a lot of leafy vegetables.  This is one of those I couldn't be bothered cooking but I have to find something for the kids kind of dishes. In Sierra Leone we normally use smoked dried fish so everything goes in the pot steam for 15 to 20 minutes and voila, dinner is served.  This is my Australianized version.

You ready, lets do this! And the ingredients you will need are:

2 cups jasmine rice, a handful of sweet potato leaves (from our vegi patch but you can buy this from any Asian green grocer) about 4 to 6 garden eggs, 3 okras, 2 habanero chilis, 3 tbs palm fruit oil, 1/4 brown onion, 1 knorr stock cube, 2 medium sized snapper.

Wash and shred potato leaves

Wash rice three times, add 21/2 cups water and rice to a medium sized pot, together with washed garden eggs, okra, chili and onions and bring to the boil over high heat, then lower heat and cover and let it simmer till most of the water has been absorbed into the rice.  Notice that I chopped the garden eggs and also the top and bottom of the okra.

Now add the chopped leaves, cover and let it steam for 5-8 minutes.

Now chop and season fish, dust with plain flour and deep fry till golden

Now crush the cooked vegetables in a mortar and pestle together with the stock cube, season with a pinch of salt.

Spoon steamed potato leaves into a mixing bowl

Add crushed vegetables and mix to combine

Then stir through palm fruit oil

Serve with the rice and fish. Ticks all the boxes for me, simple, healthy, easy to prepare and delicious.  Bon appetit!!!