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Ata Ekuru

A spicy pepper sauce made with red bell peppers, scotch bonnet chiles, cayenne pepper, onion, palm oil, and optional fish or meat.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ata Ekuru

Time30–40 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pepper base

  1. Combine the red bell peppers, scotch bonnet chiles, and cayenne pepper, then blend to a chunky paste.

Cook the sauce

  1. Heat the palm oil in a pan. After about 5 minutes, add the blended pepper mixture to the hot oil, then season with salt and bouillon cubes to taste and add any of the optional ingredients as desired.

  2. Let cook over medium-low heat for about 30–40 minutes, until well-cooked and the oil is floating on top of the sauce.

Serve

  1. Serve with ekuru.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

664Calories
49 gProtein
42 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Salmon100g cooked208
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Red Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Scotchnot in our table0
Crayfishnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Fish + beeftop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Fish + crayfishtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Palm oil
Carries the flavour and gives the sauce its rich, fatty body as it cooks.
Red bell peppers
Add sweetness and bulk to the paste, giving the sauce its body.
Scotch bonnet chiles
Provide the main heat and fruity pepper aroma.
Cayenne pepper
Adds further heat and sharpness to the pepper base.
Onion
Listed in the ingredients but not used in any step, so its role is not stated.

The step that matters

Cooking until the oil separates. Cooking the blended pepper long enough over gentle heat reduces its water and mellows the raw pepper flavour. The oil rising to the top shows the sauce is well cooked and stable.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, fish, crayfish, beef):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, fish, crayfish, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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