I bought a bag of Suya spices from Ridley Road market in Dalston at the weekend. It is a really good place to buy fish and Afro-Caribbean foods.

So what is Suya? Well thanks to Wikipedia – it is a shish kebab like food popular in West Africa, originally from the Hausa people of northern Nigeria and Niger. Suya is generally made with skewered beef, fish, or chicken. The meat is rubbed-in with tankora, a dry spice mix containing powdered groundnuts, cayenne pepper, ginger, paprika and onion powder, then barbecued.

So I’m guessing that I bought tankora. I’ve never used this spice before so I’m looking forward to tasting the end product, as the saying goes – the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Serves 2

You need:

300 g of cubed chicken
Rape seed oil
Tankora – or use a mix of cayenne pepper, ginger, onion powder and paprika

1      Cube your chicken or buy cubed from a good butchers
2      Sprinkle with enough tankora to coat and add one tablespoon of oil
3      Rub the spice into the meat with your hands
4      Leave to marinate for 2 hours
5      Put three to four pieces of the chicken onto skewers
6      BBQ the meat until cooked or cook for 20/30 minutes in the oven on gas mark 6.

The chicken turned out really well which is good as I have a full bag of the spices. I love spices – my cupboards and freezer is full of them – all in odd shaped jars with labels. I must admit that I once went to an Ethiopian restaurant and so loved the dish that I asked to speak to the chef and £14 later walked out with the most amazing bag of spice. The Suya spices cost only 50p and the chicken cost £2.30 so a fairly cheap meal which means I don’t feel so bad for paying £1 per mango.