Yaji is the soul of suya. Ours has nine ingredients, is ground every morning and has never had a stock cube in it.
The base
Roasted groundnut, ground fine with its skin removed, is about half the mix. It carries the other flavours and toasts on the meat. We roast it ourselves, the same morning.
The heat
Dried chilli in two kinds: a milder red for colour and a sharp bird pepper for bite. Level 4 doubles the bird pepper. Level 5 adds our own scotch bonnet powder, dried on racks behind the grill.
No stock cubes and no colouring. The red comes from chilli, the depth from the coal.
The warmth
Ginger, garlic and a little dried onion. Then a pinch of grains of selim, which gives that smoky, almost peppery note most people cannot name.
What we leave out
No stock cubes and no colouring. The red comes from chilli, the depth from the coal. Salt is added at the grill, not in the mix, so level 0 still tastes of something.
Buying it to take home
We sell 200 g jars of the level 2 and level 4 mix at the counter. Keep it airtight and use it within a month; the groundnut goes stale after that.
Written at the grill. Example details for this demo.