A Recipe For Plateau Food Gote (Gwote) or Acha

Gote or Acha is a traditional delicacy of the Plateau people.

A great food, Gote Acha is widely enjoyed not only in Jos, Plateau State alone but the whole of Northern Nigeria.

This grain which is variously called Gote, Gwote, Gwete, Fonio, Acha, Pate Acha is underrated but it is packed full of nutrients.

Very Nutritious, Gote Acha is a simple meal born out of the marriage between Acha and some vegetables.

It is traditionally prepared without seasoning with beef brisket, sorrel leaves, garden egg leaves, tomatoes, pepper, and onions.

However, the beauty of cooking Gote is that recipes can be altered to suit our individual tastes.

This means that you can personalize the recipe by adding or subtracting any ingredient(s) of your choice. 

You can also tweak the cooking method. From this recipe acquired by My Woven Words, we don’t have beef brisket but we have beef and smoked fish so we decided to use both.

We also didn’t use the garden egg leaves or sorrel leaves but we used Spinach, a little cabbage, tomatoes, two sticks of carrot, and green pepper.

We used them and the result was a lovely, delicious meal.

Ingredients

• A Cup of Acha
• Beef
• Smoked Fish
• Crayfish
• Fresh Tomatoes
• Onions
• Pepper
• Carrot
• Cabbage
• Green Pepper
• Spring Onion
• Stock cubes
• Salt

How To Prepare

1. Rinse the meat thoroughly. Spice it with onions, seasoning cube, pepper and salt.
2. Cook on medium heat till it’s tender.
3. While the meat is boiling, prepare the rest of the ingredients.
4. Peel, rinse and dice the onion. Set it aside for later use.
5. Clean the smoked fish.
6. Rinse and dice the pepper, tomatoes, carrot, cabbage, green pepper and spring onion.
7. Pluck, rinse and slice the spinach.
8. Set the prepared ingredients aside for later use.
9. Pour the Acha into a sizeable bowl and rinse. Please note that Acha is usually very sandy; you should therefore rinse it thoroughly to get rid of the sand.
10. Check the meat. If it’s tender enough to suit you, take the pot off the heat and place a fresh pot on medium heat.
11. Add some oil to the pot and fry the meat till it’s brown on both sides.
12. Scoop them into a paper-lined sieve and set it aside for later use.
13. Decant some of the oil then pour in the diced onion; fry till translucent.
14. Add the tomatoes and pepper. Fry for two minutes.
15. Pour the meat, smoked fish and meat stock into the pot.
16. If the meat stock won’t be enough to cook the Acha, add two or three cups of water to the pot and bring it to a boil.
17. Now, pour the Acha into the pot.
18. Stir consistently and when the food starts thickening, add the carrot, green pepper, spring onions.
19. Stir again.
20. Allow the food to cook for another minute then turn off the heat.