Catfish Pepper Soup.

Hungover and in need of something fiery, spicy and rustic? Salvation is here. It’s called Catfish Pepper Soup. Nothing cures hangover faster than this hot spicy soup and I’ve made it even better with a little variation.

Catfish is a commonly farmed fish in Nigeria, well loved and eaten by many. I personally love catfish to a fault. I remember when I was pregnant and suffered morning sickness, I ate whole catfish at least three times a week, the spice helped. My fishmonger’s lovely wife got so accustomed to me purchasing the same fish and lots of seafood every week that she said “when you have your baby, you won’t be able too look at another catfish. She was so wrong.

Catfish Pepper Soup is sometimes known as “point and kill” in Nigeria. Why? Most bars and restaurants offer this service where live catfish are left swimming in large bowls and customers come around, point to the their choice and it’s killed, gutted, cleaned and tossed in the pepper soup broth. Freshly made, Awesome! Here is my take on the soup.

Ingredients:

I whole Catfish gutted, slime on skin cleaned with one lime/ lemon and washed

3 tbsp of ground pepper soup mix consisting seeds of
Ariwo or Calabash Nutmeg , 1 cluster uda uwentia/negro pepper, alligator pepper/ata’re, ehuru seeds, 3 tbsp ground pepper or chilli flakes , 2 tbsp dry scent leaves/wild basil ( I add my own blend of freshly ground black pepper and cloves) it’s the magic, really.

1 Habanero or scotch bonnet pepper finely chopped (wear gloves if you are not accustomed to the oils in this pepper before chopping, please)

4 garlic cloves finely diced

1 tsp Pure sesame oil

2 tsp Ginger paste

1 tbsp Ground crayfish

1 tsp locust beans

2 chopped spring onions to garnish

Seafood : baby octopus, squids, whelks (optional)

1 white onion finely chopped

3 sprigs of coriander

About 10 cups of water.

1 tbsp Salt

Method:

1.) Wash, gut and clean the fish and seafood with lemon, takes off the slime and the fishy smell reduces and salt then set aside.

2.) In a deep stockpot, I used a 25cm one, pour the water, add the blend, ginger paste, sesame oil, locust beans, ground crayfish, chopped onion, garlic and scent leaves and bring to boil. Carefully place the fish in the broth cover and simmer for about 10mins.

3.) Add the seafood and cook for only 5mins more, add coriander and some of the spring onions. Save the rest for garnish. Ajikespecial’s Catfish Pepper Soup is ready.

Note and Variation: I know this dish is not for everyone and I can feel people cringing from here. I have a solution. To get rid of the bone and what may appear like the ugly stuff to you just fillet the catfish like so:

I turned the leftover to a comforting and rustic Potatoes and Catfish Bubble and Squeak 😀 (Not that I mashed the potatoes)

Ingredients for this recipe can be purchased in most Nigerian and supermarkets stores abroad.

I hope you find the dish delicious, intriguing and full of lovely textures as I did.

Cooked with love,

Ajikespecial xx

 

Egusi Soup (Obe Efo Elegusi)

The Egusi with green leaf vegetable Soup is a popular Nigerian delicacy. The Yorubas call it ‘Obe Efo Elegusi’. As tasty as it is though, it can look like something a cat couldn’t keep down in it’s stomach when it’s not well prepared but don’t fret, help is on the way.

Egusi are Melon seeds. It is rich in fat and protein. The seed is collected from the melon, dried, shelled and sold in market places whole or grounded. The ground one is used for the soup. Typically, different types leaf vegetables is added into the broth. For example: Spinach, Ugu (pumpkin leaves), Mustard leaves, Kale.

There are numerous methods of preparing Egusi soup. Growing up, My mother used to make Egusi on its own without the leaf and I can tell you now that’s it super delicious as well. I love to eat it with Rice.

The secret to rich lush looking Egusi is in shallow frying the Egusi, or cooking it thoroughly (takes more time) till it cakes. When Egusi is not thoroughly cooked, not only will it taste raw, it will also have that mushy very tired look that can be off putting. The Ijesha people from Osun state in Nigeria love their Pounded Yam and Egusi Soup and their method of preparation is far more superior and appetising than any other I have seen or tried.

Recipe summary:

Preparation time: Day before or about 1hr depending on what level prepping starts from and cooking utensil in use.
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 7

The ingredients listed is the indulgent all out version of the soup, something close to restaurant quality. Please feel free to buy the meat and crayfish to suit your pocket. It doesn’t take away from the soup.

Ingredients:

-2 cups ground Egusi

-1 cup large whole crayfish

-2 tbsp ground crayfish

-1 smoked catfish or any other smoked fish of choice. Add stockfish if available.

-Pre-cooked Assorted meat of choice – I used Bokoto ( cow foot), saki (Tripe) and Goat meat.

-1 tbsp Iru (fermented locust beans)

-1 wrap Ogiri (this is the taste transformer! If you can find it, please use it)

-1 cup stock from the boiled and seasoned goat meat.

-2 cooking spoon full palm oil

-1/4 cup of groundnut oil.

-2 large onions ( one to blend, 1 chopped)

-1 green bell pepper chopped in strips

-3 red bell pepper chopped in strips

-4 habanero or scotch bonnet ( if you can’t take the heat reduce or leave it out)

-3 cups chopped Ugu (Pumpkin leaves) other types can also be used.

-Knorr , All purpose seasoning or Maggi to taste. (personally I add minimal seasoning when I have iru and Ogiri, they are natural seasonings that give that genuine earthy and delicious flavour unique to the soup)

Directions:

There is a bit of prepping to be done before the soup can be cooked. I outlined to make it much easier.

Parboiling the green leaf vegetable:

Starting with the leaf vegetable wash thoroughly to remove dirt and sand, chop finely, pop it in a deep bowl, boil a kettle of water and pour over the vegetable. Use a strainer to drain the hot water, pour cold water over the vegetable and drain out. With your hands, squeeze excess moisture out and pop in a cling film, or freezer bag to wrap up if you prepped the night before and keep in the fridge. If not, set aside in a clean bowl to add to the soup later.

Pre cooking your assorted meat:
I use a pressure cooker for my cow foot and Saki (Tripe) please boil separate.

It takes only about 30 mins to cook cow foot until tender in a pressure cooker and forever to a normal stock pot. I don’t season cow foot much, just salt and freshly black pepper. 15mins is enough for the Saki in a pressure cooker.

Cook the rest of the meat in a sauce pan and season all meat to taste when tender remove from the hob, strain the stock from the meat and collect the amount of stock needed for the soup. Make sure all meat is cooked through and tender.

Blending the pepper sauce:

Take two red ball peppers, one large onion and all the habanero chop roughly into a blender add a bit of water and pulse roughly. Don’t blend the pepper to a smooth paste, a rough texture is what you want to achieve.

Pour the pepper in a saucepan and bring to boil till the excess water is dried out. Set aside in a bowl.

Cooking the Obe Efo Elegusi:

Wash and clean the smoked cat fish as well as the crayfish and remove bones carefully,

Blend half of a large onion into paste with very little water, put the two cups of grounded egusi in a bowl and add the onion paste, a teaspoon of ground crayfish, season lightly with your choice of seasoning and mix together into a thick paste.

On a medium heat, combine palm oil and groundnut oil in a large stock and leave on pot till it’s half bleached, be sure to open windows or put the kitchen extractor on.

Finely chop the last half of the onion and add to the oil, stir, don’t burn the onion, it just needs to sweating till its translucent.

Swiftly but carefully add the egusi paste with a spoon in small scoops ( teaspoon full measurement) into the hot oil and let it shallow fry. Keep stirring carefully, to break the moulds of egusi in the pot so it’s not lumpy chunks. It will take about 7-10mins to cook through.

Stir in the boiled pepper sauce and leave to simmer for another 5mins. Add the goat meat stock, all the assorted meat, catfish, crayfish, ground crayfish, iru, Ogiri, season to taste cover the stock pot and simmer on medium heat for 10mins to cook all ingredients together.

Add the chopped green leafs and chopped peppers ( the peppers is just for presentation) and stir in mixing through the egusi sauce. Cook for further 3mins and no more. The leaf vegetable is already par-boiled cooking it for longer will turn it grey.

The Egusi Soup is ready. I love eating my Egusi with Pounded Yam. Yum!

Cooked with love,
Ajikespecial xx

 

Okra and Dry Catfish with Stir fry vegetables Soup

Okra and dry catfish with Stir fry vegetables Soup

I had a right job trying to concentrate at work yesterday, images of freshly made Okra soup called (Ila-alsepo) in Yoruba language constantly flashed through my head all day. I can’t really say I don’t know why I’m craving this soup so much though. For about three days now I have been at my friend’s, she is African but very British in her eating and four long days of mash potato, cottage pie, corn beef hash and the likes finally took its toll. Unfortunately, the only Asian food store near her house, didn’t have most of the ingredients I needed for my soup but I was determined to rustle something up, so long, I had the main ingredients.

What if I made a healthier cholesterol free version of the soup? I thought to myself. After all, we are all big on healthy eating these days. A quick rummage in my friend’s fridge and cupboard showed me I did not have much choice anyway. A new mission was born. The experiment appeared to have worked, there is none of my soup left, my friend had two helpings and her housemate unabashedly went for three, made me a happy girl to be quite honest. It takes only about 25 mins to cook this soup. Try it and let me know how you feel.

Minutes to prepare: 8 mins

Minutes to cook: 25 mins

Ingredients:

100g Okra (grate or chop finely, I chopped mine because I wanted it visible in the soup)

2 Smoked dried Catfish

1 tsp Locust beans

1 ready pack of Sainsbury’s mushroom Stir fry mix (it contained mushroom, beansprouts, pak choi, onion and carrots, all chopped ready for use)

4 tsp of Black bean sauce (any will do, I used AMOY)

3 cloves of garlic crush or finely chopped

2 scotch bonnet or long chilies finely chopped (warning: scotch bonnet is very hot, not for the faint hearted, you can do without it completely if you don’t like your food hot)

4 sprigs of fresh Coriander (optional)

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 Vegetable seasoning/ stock cube (if you like your food organic, you can leave this out)

Variations:

• You can make meat, poultry,seafood or vegetarian version of the soup
• can be made without scotch bonnet or chilies for those who don’t fancy hot food.

Method:

1. Wash both dry fish thoroughly, open up and break into small pieces and remove the bones carefully
2. Place the dry fish in a bowl and pour a pint of boiling water over the fish then set aside for about five minutes to get some smoked fish juice out.
3. Place a sauce pan on the hob and set on low heat, pour the smoked fish juice into the pan, add black bean sauce, crushed garlic, scotch bonnet or red long chilies locust beans, turn up the heat and cover the sauce pan bring to boil and let it cook together for about 10 mins. To your discretion, add another half pint of boiling water to ensure you have enough for the consistency shown in the picture.
4. With a spatula, stir in the mixed stir fry vegetables, okra and coriander, cover the pot and let it cook for about 3-5 mins depending on how well done you like your vegetables. It stays nice and crunchy at 3 mins and all the nutrients are intact.
5. Let it sit for about 5 mins to allow the juices mix well, the longer the soups sits the tastier. This is not absolutely necessary if you are in hurry.
6. The Okra and dry catfish with stir fry vegetables soup is ready to serve. Enjoy!

Cooked with love,

Ajikespecial xx…