Obe Oniru (Designer Stew) With Eggs
Published Dec. 1, 2025

- Total Time
- 45 to 50 minutes
- Prep Time
- 20 minutes
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Advertisement
Ingredients
- 3medium bell peppers (about 1 pound), any color, trimmed, seeded and quartered
- 1small red onion or 4 medium shallots, peeled and quartered
- 6whole, peeled garlic cloves
- ¼cup vegetable oil
- ½cup dried tiny shrimp, soaked to rehydrate and drained, or 8 oil-packed anchovy fillets
- 2tablespoons dried irú or dawadawa (fermented locust bean), soaked to rehydrate and drained, or use red miso paste
- 1Scotch bonnet or any spicy chile, stemmed and halved, seeds in or out
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 6 to 8hard-boiled (9- to 10-minute) eggs, peeled
- ¼cup fresh parsley leaves and tender stems
- Steamed rice, plantains, potatoes or crispy fried yam, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Use a food processor to coarsely chop the peppers, onion and garlic. Pulse 10 times (about 3 seconds per pulse). Look for visible pieces of each vegetable. If it’s too smooth, you've gone too far, and your cook times will be much longer.
- Step 2
Place a shallow, large (10- to 12-inch) skillet, nonstick pan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Pour the oil into the skillet, and add shrimp, irú and chile. Cook, stirring frequently until fragrant and slightly darkened, 1 to 2 minutes. (If using anchovies and miso, cook, stirring frequently, until the anchovies dissolve and the miso breaks up, about 1 minute.) Stir in ½ cup water and season with ½ teaspoon salt and black pepper.
- Step 3
Increase heat to medium-high and pour in the pepper mixture. Simmer sauce until slightly reduced and bright orange in color, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Step 4
Cook, stirring frequently to combine ingredients, and keep reducing until the sauce looks slightly thickened (it should stay in place when a spatula is dragged through), about 10 minutes. Keep stirring until the sauce is jammy, caramelized and slightly darkened at the edges and bottom, 8 to 10 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
- Step 5
Reduce heat to low, stir in ¼ cup water to loosen up any darkened bits from the bottom of the skillet. Place the peeled eggs in the sauce and gently spoon the sauce over to coat. Heat until the eggs are warmed through, about 2 minutes. Discard the chile, if you prefer, and garnish everything with parsley.
- Step 6
Transfer each egg to a plate topped with the spicy pepper stew. Serve immediately over cooked rice, plantains, potatoes or yam. Designer stew can be stored once cooled, packed in an airtight container and refrigerated for 5 days.
Private Notes
Comments
Fermented locust bean? Agege style bread? This might be a delicious recipe but where I live in central Brooklyn I have hard time finding more mundane food items like fennel bulbs, anchovies or fresh semolina Italian bread. Please no more recipes with esoteric, hard to find ingredients.
