Steak Suya

SUYA!

If you have had West African food before then you you know all about suya. Suya is a native spice blend to West Africa, particularly in Nigeria. TBH, I wasn’t super familiar with West African food other then dating my boyfriend & very good girlfriend Ami, who are both Senegalese (so yassa is my jammmmmm) but suya hits something different…it’s spicy, peanut-y and full of flavor!

Living in Brooklyn, there’s tons of Caribbean food but not that many West African spots but my VP at my job, told me about Brooklyn Suya and said it was a must try…I’ve been hooked ever since! They serve amazing rice bowls with their famous suya spice and yummy peanut sauce.

SO F*CKING GOOD!

Since the pandemic hit, I’ve been taking daily walks to get some fresh air (or I’ll be going crazy in the house all day) so one day I walked on over to Brooklyn Suya in Crown Heights and picked up one of their suya spices to add to my spice collection. I picked up Yaji, which is the medium spicy suya…I love spice but I couldn’t handle the super spicy one lol.

I had some hanger steak in the freezer that I generously seasoned with suya and I wanted to recreate their peanut sauce so I went searching for a West African recipe. I whipped out one of my favorite cookbooks…Chef JJ’s From Harlem to Heaven because it has a lot of African inspired recipes in there. I used his Mother Africa Peanut Sauce which was so good!

If you’re in Brooklyn, highly suggest stopping by or ordering the suya spice online!

Support Black owned businesses!

Recipe…but not really a recipe, below!

• Chef JJ Mother Africa Peanut Sauce Note: this recipe makes a lot so I would recommend making half of it and I made it the day before to let the flavors really settle in.

• 1/2-1lb hanger steak, generously rubbed with the suya spice, salt & pepper. I also rubbed it down with olive oil before.

Directions

• In a cast iron pan on medium heat, I cooked the steak for about 4 minutes on each side for medium rare/medium and let it rest for 5 minutes.

• I spooned the peanut sauce on the plate and served it with cucumbers & sliced red onion just like Brooklyn Suya..it was delish.

ENJOY!