West African palm fruit soup in the North German version

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 500 g beef goulash or rib eye
• 20 g palm fat (organic palm oil) or organic coconut or rapeseed oil
• 2 medium-sized onions, cut into medium-sized cubes
• 3 garlic cloves, fresh, finely chopped
• 3 m.-tall vine tomatoes
• 400 g cream (palm cream – palm fruit cream or palm nut cream) from the can
• 750 ml beef broth, clear, mild
• 2 tbsp, heaped tomato paste
• 1 tsp paprika powder, hot
• 1 tsp sweet paprika powder
• 1 small chili pepper(s), red, pitted, finely chopped
• 100 g sushi rice
• 1 spring onion(s), finely sliced
• 1 sprig of parsley, flat, medium-coarsely chopped
• 3 m.-sized carrot(s), peeled, sliced

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes

Since not all ingredients are available here, you have to improvise a bit

First, brown the beef, cut into 1 cm slices, in a wide pan in hot oil, stirring frequently until it develops a nice roasted aroma. Then add the diced onions, chopped garlic, and tomato paste. It’s always important to brown the tomato paste so that its flavor can develop. Continue stirring and simmer until the onions are nice and translucent and slowly begin to brown. Now add the chopped chili pepper and deglaze with the beef stock. Bring to a boil briefly, then reduce the heat to 1/3 and put the lid on the pan. Peel and roughly dice the tomatoes, stir them into the soup along with the paprika and palm cream, and simmer with the lid on for at least 45 minutes, until the meat is nice and tender. Taste occasionally if necessary. Add the carrot slices for the last 30 minutes and simmer until the end. While the soup is simmering, cook the sticky rice according to the package instructions and let it cool. I then form it into balls the size of golf or ping-pong balls, which I place in the center of the plate for serving. Finally, you can garnish with chopped parsley and spring onion rings, depending on your personal taste. It doesn’t hurt the recipe if you omit the garnish. The original version of this dish, which originates from West Africa, uses fresh palm nuts. However, these are unavailable in Germany, so you have to use canned palm nut cream. You can get it at third-world stores, African shops, or easily online. The palm oil I use for frying here has a bad reputation these days. Please be careful to buy organic, sustainably grown, and fairly traded oil. This oil is simply brilliant for frying because it’s very heat-resistant and retains its beneficial nutrients. If you don’t want to buy this separately, you can use good organic coconut or rapeseed oil.