COPPERFakoye recipe
A dark, silky sauce of dried corète leaves, served with mutton and rice.
Ingredients
- 60 g dried corète leaf powder
- 500 g mutton
- 1 tbsp soumbala
- 100 g dried fish
- 1 onion
- 3 tbsp palm oil
- 1 chilli
- 1 tsp salt
How to make Fakoye
- Heat 3 tablespoons of palm oil, or shea butter if you have it, in a heavy pot.
- Sauté 1 chopped onion until soft, then add 500 g of mutton in pieces and brown it on all sides.
- Stir in 1 tablespoon of soumbala, the fermented locust bean paste that carries the flavour of the dish.
- Pour in 1.5 litres of water or stock, add a piece of dried fish and a chilli, and simmer for about an hour until the meat gives way.
- Whisk in 60 g of dried corète leaf powder — the mloukhiya — a little at a time so it does not clump.
- Keep it at a bare simmer for 20 minutes more, until the sauce darkens and turns silky.
- Season with salt and serve over rice.
What is Fakoye?
Fakoye is a traditional dish from Mali, simmered in one pot, and takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes from start to finish. It is built around mutton, dried fish and dried corète leaf powder. The recipe below uses 8 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Fakoye take?
At 100 minutes it is quicker than 61% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 4 dishes built on mutton. The method runs to 7 steps, the longest being 20 minutes.
Any tips for making Fakoye?
Whisk the dried corète leaf powder in a little at a time so it does not clump, then keep the sauce at a bare simmer until it turns silky.
How Fakoye compares
Chilli appears in no other dish in the atlas.
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on chili, from other countries.
- Calulu 🇦🇴 Angola
- Garudhiya 🇲🇻 Maldives
- Laksa 🇲🇾 Malaysia
- Akabenz 🇷🇼 Rwanda
- Beef noodle soup 🇹🇼 Taiwan
- Chikanda 🇿🇲 Zambia
Copper documents Mali alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.