Yassa is an onion, mustard, and lemon sauce from Senegalese and Gambian cuisine. Traditionally, yassa is prepared with chicken as Poulet Yassa , and served with rice.
A good yassa needs few ingredients. Besides onions, mustard, and the juice of a lemon or lime, I like to add a few whole fresh Scotch bonnet peppers for a touch of heat and a teaspoon of my delicious Magic Sauce for a special note. Finally, I add a spring onion for a fresh look, and my yassa is ready.
I remember my first Yassa very well; I was visiting a friend at the time. At one point, we were about to cook, and she said to me, "We're having Poulet Yassa today," and I asked what it was. Surprised that I'd never heard of it, she told me it was a specialty from Gambia. Her husband is from Gambia. I thought to myself, "Great, I can learn another new recipe and, even better, watch it being cooked live!".
I watched with great curiosity as she carefully cleaned the chicken pieces. Then she mixed them in a bowl with julienned onions, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Afterward, she left them to marinate. When the time came and she served me a plate of fragrant rice and Poulet Yassa, I was completely won over.
Since then, I've been cooking yassa regularly, and I've even made many variations, like this one with shrimp instead of chicken. So today we're having shrimp yassa instead of chicken yassa. Both versions are definitely delicious.
The whole thing as a video
Yassa aux crevettes | Yassa with shrimps
Ingredients
- 200 g shrimps (frozen)
- 1 large onion
- 2 tbsp mustard
- 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 a head of garlic (or 2-3 cloves of garlic)
- 1 tsp Magic Sauce
- 2-3 whole Scotch Bonnet
- 50 ml cooking oil
- 1 small spring onion
- pepper
- Salt
Instructions
- Briefly wash the thawed shrimp with cold water, drain well and place in a bowl
- Peel the onion, cut it into julienne strips and add it to the shrimp in the bowl
- Finely chop the garlic cloves and add them to the bowl along with mustard, lemon juice, salt, pepper, the Scotch Bonnet peppers and a few drops of oil
- Mix everything well and set aside to marinate for about half an hour
- Then, heat cooking oil in a pan and add the mixture
- Mix well and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly
- Add water and Magic Sauce and simmer for another 5 minutes
- Finally, add the chopped spring onions, mix well and it's done
