4
Ingredients
- 500 g smoked fish (whole or pieces)
- 4 ripe tomatoes, crushed
- 2 onions, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 small chili, optional
- 1 stock cube, optional
- Salt and pepper (go easy: smoked fish is already salty)
- 200 ml water
Method
- 01 Soak the smoked fish 20–30 minutes in warm water. Drain, remove large bones and flake or cut into portions.
- 02 Sweat the onions in oil, add garlic, tomatoes and chili. Reduce 10 minutes.
- 03 Add the fish, water and crumbled cube if using.
- 04 Cover and simmer gently 20–25 minutes without stirring much.
- 05 Taste before salting. Pepper and serve with chikwangue, fufu or rice.
Video tutorial
Bouillon / sauce au poisson fumé congolais
Video · Rytha BM Cuisine · Watch on YouTube
Smoked fish with tomatoes is the market’s quick plate: no long desalting like makayabu, just a short soak to soften. Smoke carries the flavour; the tomato-onion sauce does the rest.
In the same spirit
Other recipes close by territory or by gesture.
-
Makayabu
Makayabu recipe: salted dried fish soaked then simmered in a short tomato, onion and chili sauce—Congo Basin classic.
25 min + 12 h soaking prep · 35 min cook
-
Mbisi ya kokalinga
Fish fried or grilled until the skin is crisp and the flesh stays moist.
25 min prep · 20 min cook
-
Chikwangue
Chikwangue (kwanga) recipe: fermented cassava dough wrapped in leaves and steamed—firm, lightly tangy Congolese staple.
40 min prep · 1 h 30 cook