Sauce Graine

Sauce graine is a rich Ivorian stew of palm nut pulp, simmered slowly with beef or fish until thick. It comes from Côte d'Ivoire, and palm nut stews are cooked across much of West Africa, each with local variations. Graine is the French word for seed, and the palm nut is the seed the dish is built on.

What it really is

Palm nut pulp is cooked with onion, garlic, tomato and chilli, then beef or fish is added and the stew simmers until the meat is tender and the sauce has thickened. The pulp gives the stew its colour and a rich, oily body, so it is served as a thick stew rather than a thin soup. Cooks vary the heat and the ratio of pulp to meat, so one kitchen's version can be thicker or milder than another's.

How it's served

• Hot, as a main course, spooned over rice or attiéké, a granular couscous made from fermented cassava.
• Beside the starch rather than hidden under it, so the guest can mix sauce and rice or attiéké.
• With beef or with fish, depending on the version being cooked.

How to write it on the menu

• Name the protein. Write "beef" or "fish" in the dish name, since the two versions differ in what they contain.
• Flag fish if you serve the fish version. The beef version has no major allergen, but the fish version contains fish.
• Name the starch: rice, or attiéké, which is made from cassava.
• State the heat. Chilli is a standard ingredient, so say whether the dish is mild, medium or hot.
• Give the portion as a bowl or a weight, since the sauce and the starch are served together.