Liberian Kittley Torborgee

Kittley Torborgee is a classic Liberian dish made of pea eggplant with a bitter and spicy taste. Kittley (medicinal eggplant) is only the size of a very small cherry tomato, the Kittley eggplant is an important medicinal food for many West African cultures. The dish is often enriched by the addition of dried meat, chicken, pork, or fish, and it is usually associated with the Lorma people inhabiting the area of Lofa County in Liberia.

The Loma people, sometimes called Loghoma, Looma, Lorma or Toma, are a West African ethnic group living primarily in the northern mountainous, sparsely populated regions of Guinea and Liberia. The Loma speaks a language in the Southwestern branch of the Mande languages, belonging to the Niger-Congo family of languages.

This classic dish is prepared with African spices and cooked with a variety of chicken, beef, smoke fish or seafood in red palm oil or a fermented palm oil (torborgee oil). Torborgee is eaten with rice and can be prepared with pea eggplant, beans, peppers, cassava leaves, water greens, etc. When prepared with pea eggplant, they call it kittley torborgee. When prepared with beans, they call it bean torborgee. When prepared with cassava leaves, they call it cassava leaves torborgee. They also prepare torborgee with pepper; in this case, a lot of pepper is used. This type of torborgee can be very hot and difficult to eat especially for people who are not used to eating hot pepper. Other Liberian tribes also cook and eat torborgee periodically. All ingredients for your torborgee can be purchased from a West African food market or any ethnic grocery store and farm.

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Liberian Kittley Torborgee

Kittley Torborgee is a classic Liberian dish made of pea eggplant with a bitter and spicy taste.

Course Dinner, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine African, Liberian

Keyword #liberiankittleytorborgee, #okraPantry, #torborgee

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 25 minutes minutes

Author Angie | Okra Pantry

Ingredients

• 2 packs fresh/frozen pea eggplant (kittley/bitterballs)
• 2 habanero peppers (substitute for cayenne pepper)
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda/ country soda
• 1 medium onions (sliced)
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• meat varieties (chicken, seafood, dried fish & etc…)
• red palm oil/torborgee oil
• 2 tbsp chicken flavour bouillon or maggi cubes (2)
• salt
• water

Instructions

• On high heat, add frozen kittley, habanero peppers and water to pot and boil until tender for 20 mins.
• Using a separate pot, add all meat ingredients, onions, salt, black pepper and water to parboil for 30 mins. Set meat aside and keep broth for torborgee.
• Using a large pan and steamer, remove boiled kittley from pot, remove water, add kittley to pan and unplug the stems. In a large pan, add kittley and mash to create a paste and set aside.
• On medium heat, add broth, mashed kittley, onions, chicken flavour bouillon or maggi cubes and any special seasonings of your choice to a pot. Add additional 2 cups of water if broth is limited.
• Bring to a boil for 40 mins or less until the broth simmers with less liquid in the pot. Stir frequently to prevent burning at the bottom of the pot. Add any additional seasonings needed for taste.
• Add meat ingredients, torborgee oil and stir for 2 mins evenly. Using a spoon, mix bicarbonate of soda and water, add to make kittley torborgee.
• When the soda is added, it makes the soup to foam a lot. In this way, the real torborgee is cooked.
• Turn heat off, serve kittley torborgee warm with white rice!

Video

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