Nothing unites people quite like food. To celebrate the black men and women who are using food to connect cultures and communities, we’re sharing some of our favorite recipes from chefs, at-home cooks, and food lovers who know that great flavors can bring us all together. Akudo Agokei (@rad_economist) is a self-taught chef from Nigeria who now resides in the UK, and here he shares a savory recipe that was inspired by his African heritage and the flavors of Jamaica.
The story behind this recipe
Akudo: My partner is Jamaican, so she introduced me to her recipe for dumplings. We have dumplings in Nigeria but I never came across boiled-fried dumplings. When she made them, I knew straight away they would pair so well with this corned beef stew my mom used to make us when we were kids. So I made some, we had it, and then we had more and more!
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
- corned beef
- 1 tbsp. tomato paste
- ½ onion chopped & diced
- 1 tbsp salted butter
- sea salt
- plain flour
- ½ tsp. ground ginger
- ½ tsp. garlic powder
- Chopped cavolo nero OR any leafy green of choice
- sesame seeds
- 1 ½ tbsp. chopped parsley
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INSTRUCTIONS
1). To make your corned beef stew. Melt butter in a pan, chop your onions and fry until the onions start to caramelize (sweat and turn brown), then add your ginger and tomato paste. Fry for about 2 minutes.
2). Add in your corned beef and mash and fry until it is all broken down and easy to stir with no lumped bits.
3). Finish it off, by seasoning with your salt, and chopped cavolo nero. I like to add parsley.
4). Your dumplings are super easy! Just mix flour with 1 tsp. salt and water. Ratio 2-3 tbsp of water to 1/2 cup of flour. Mix and roll up and knead dough. Cut a piece out and roll it with a rolling pin, then spoon the corned beef stew on to rolled out dough. With your finger, dab water around the corned beef. This will help seal the dough. Flip the dough and press hard around the edges to complete merge and flatten the dough, use a cookie cutter to cut out the patty shape, or you could do a ravioli-like shape if you like. Once sealed and cut out, boil for 5 minutes.
5). Finish the dumpling off by frying them in oil. Don’t deep fry-you only want to slightly crisp the outer layer for 3-5 minutes on each side.
6). As a bonus, you can go on further and dip them into a sochim cream, which is a mixture of sweetcorn and coconut milk, pureed and sieved, then cooked for 5-10 minutes with 1 and a half tbsp. sugar.
