Ogbono Soup With Okra Recipe

How to cook Ogbono Soup with Okra

You can also call it Okra Soup with Ogbono. The Ogbono Soup recipe detailed on this page is the one where Okra is added to the soup.

Ingredients for Ogbono Soup cooked with Okra

You can vary the quantities of Ogbono and Okra below depending on which one you want to have more of. So if you want your soup to be mainly Okra soup, you can decrease the quantity of Ogbono and increase the quantity of okra and vice versa.

• 2 handfuls Ogbono Seeds
• 200g Okra
• Assorted Meat and Fish: Beef, Shaki (cow tripe), Dry Fish, Stockfish
• 3 cooking spoons red palm oil
• Vegetable: Frozen Spinach (you can also use Pumpkin leaves or even Bitterleaf)
• 1 handful crayfish Pepper and
• Salt (to taste)
• 1 medium onion
• 2 Stock cubes (Maggi/Knorr)

Important Tool Required: Spice grinder for grinding ogbono seeds

Before you cook Ogbono Soup with Okra

• Grind the Ogbono with a dry mill.
• Cut the okra fingers into tiny pieces. To achieve this, you need to make a few vertical cuts followed by horizontal cuts on the okra fingers.
• Cut the frozen spinach when it is not completely defrosted. It is easier that way. Then when completely defrosted, squeeze out the excess water.
• Cook the assorted meat with the stock cubes and onion.
• If you will use Shaki, remember to start cooking that first, then add beef when almost done.
• Grind crayfish and pepper.
• Boil some water and set aside.

Cooking Directions for Ogbono Soup with Okra

Pour the palm oil into a clean dry stainless steel or aluminium pot. Set on the stove and melt the oil at low heat.

• Remember, only melt the oil, do not allow it to heat up. Once melted, turn off the heat and add the ground Ogbono. Use your cooking spoon to dissolve the Ogbono in the oil.

• When all the Ogbono powder has completely mixed with the oil, add the meat/fish stock (water from cooking the assorted meat and fish). Set the heat of your cooker to low and start stirring. You will notice the Ogbono start to thicken and draw. Keep stirring till the Ogbono has completely absorbed the meat stock.

• Add a small quantity of the hot water and stir till the Ogbono has absorbed all the water. Repeat this process till you get a consistency that you are happy with.

• Making sure that your heat is set to low, cover the pot and start cooking. Once it starts to simmer, stir every 2-3 minutes for 20 minutes.

• So what you'll do is: every 3 minutes or so, open the pot, stir every well, scraping the Ogbono that sticks to the base of the pot, cover the pot and cook for another 3 minutes.

• After 20 minutes, the Ogbono should be well cooked and you will begin to perceive its nice flavour and aroma.

• Add the assorted meat and fish, ground crayfish, salt and pepper to taste. The Ogbono may have become thicker from the cooking. If so, add a little bit more water and stir very well. Cover and cook till the contents of the pot is well heated up.

• Stir very well. Add the okra and stir very well. Then add vegetables (e.g. spinach) if required.

• Cover and leave to heat up very well and it is ready.

Serve with Garri (Eba), Semolina Fufu, Amala, Cassava Fufu or Pounded Yam.

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Nsala Soup Recipe

How to cook Nigerian Nsala Soup (White Soup)

Nsala soup or White Soup is a tasty, fast and easy soup recipe that has its origins in the riverine areas of Nigeria.

Nsala Soup is perfect for a cold rainy day due to its spicy taste. Because it is so easy to prepare, you can count on it to save the day when you run out on soup a few days before the big soup day ;)

Ingredients Cat Fish:

• 4 one-inch thick pieces Fresh or dry Utazi Leaves (Gongronema latifolium)

• Thickener: Raw White Yam / Yam Powder /
• Potato Puree (to taste)
• Habanero peppers (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• 1 handful crayfish
• 1 stock cube (Maggi / Knorr)
• 1 Ogiri Okpei (Nigerian traditional seasoning)

Alternative Ingredients for Nsala Soup

* You can use Conger Eel (Congrio in Spanish) instead of Cat fish. Buy the part towards the tail because the pieces you'll get from there are smaller and do not have large holes in them.

* When using yam powder as thickener, mix the powder with hot water first to make a thick smooth paste (as if you are making pounded yam) before adding it to the soup. Adding the powder directly into the soup will make the soup mushy and you may end up with lumps.

* In the absence of habanero pepper, you can use dry chilli pepper.

* Utazi leaves do not have any good alternative. If you don't have it, no worries because it only adds a slightly bitter flavour to the soup.

Before you cook Nsala Soup

Cut the catfish into 1 inch thick cylindrical discs and remove the intestines. Place in bowl and pour very hot water on the fish. This process of pouring hot water on the fish toughens the skin of the fish so that the pieces do not disintegrate while cooking the soup. Leave for about 2 minutes and wash the fish with cold water. You should also wash off any slimy substance on the outer skin of the fish at this time.

Boil a few cubes of raw white yam. When soft, pound with a mortar and pestle till a smooth paste is formed, then set aside. You can substitute white yam with yam powder or potato puree for the thickening.

Wash and pound/blend the utazi leaves, the chilli pepper and the crayfish and set aside. Utazi is bitter in taste and only used for flavouring so one or two leaves should be enough especially when using the fresh leaves.

Cooking Directions

• Place the catfish in a pot and pour enough water to cover the fish.
• Add the seasoning and cook till done.
• Feel free to add beef and dry fish to this soup recipe.
• When the catfish is almost done, add the crayfish, pepper and utazi leaves blend.
• Also add the yam paste in small lumps and salt to taste.

Note: Catfish is what makes Nsala soup what it is, giving it the unique taste that it has so it is essential to this recipe. The only other fish that I have found to be close to Cat fish as regards to this recipe is Conger Eel.

• Cover the pot and allow the contents to cook at high heat till all the yam paste have dissolved.
• While cooking, if you think that the yam paste will make the soup too thick, you can remove some that are yet to dissolve.

The Nigerian Nsala Soup is ready to be served with Eba (Garri), Semolina, Amala, Pounded Yam etc.

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Nigerian Coconut Rice Recipe

This Nigerian food is called the Jollof Rice with a twist! It feels good to see the looks on your guests' or friends' faces when they think you are serving them the good old Jollof Rice but bam, the moment the first spoon enters the mouth, you are sure to get the looks of pleasure! It makes you feel good, doesn't it?

White Coconut Rice

Yes, it looks the same as the Jollof Rice you know but the aroma and taste is different. Why don't you surprise your guests tonight by preparing this easy dinner recipe?

This recipe is for Jollof Coconut Rice, there's another version of coconut rice known as the White Coconut Rice.

Ingredients

• 3 cigar cups - 750g long grain parboiled rice
• 500mls Tomato Stew
• 600 mls Coconut Milk Chicken (whole chicken or drumsticks)
• Chilli pepper (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• 1 medium onions
• 3 stock cubes
• 1 tablespoon thyme

Before you cook Coconut Rice

Prepare the tomato stew if you don't have some in the freezer. Visit the Tomato Stew page for details on how to do that. It is advisable to prepare tomato stew before hand and keep in the freezer. This is so that whenever you want to cook any jollof rice related dish, it is just a matter of adding it to your cooking.

If you will use whole chicken, wash and cut the whole chicken into pieces. Place the pieces in a pot; add water till it just covers the pieces of chicken, add the chopped onions, stock cubes and thyme and start cooking. The cooking time depends on the type of chicken. The rooster or cockerel cooks much faster than the hen but the hen is tastier.

Cooking till done and add salt to taste. Put the pieces of chicken in a sieve to drain, then fry with vegetable oil. You can also grill it in an oven. This is to give it a golden look which is more presentable especially if you have guests for dinner. Read how to season and grill chicken for more one this.

Now is the time to extract the coconut milk. This is quite an easy task if you follow the procedure detailed in How to Extract Coconut Milk. Set the coconut milk aside.Parboil the rice using the method detailed in parboiling rice for cooking coconut rice. Wash the parboiled rice and put in a sieve to drain.

Cooking Directions

• Now we need a pot big enough to accommodate the rice till it is done. Bear in mind that the rice will normally rise by at least one quarter of its quantity from the parboiled state to the done state.

• Pour the chicken stock, coconut milk and the tomato stew into the selected pot. Set on the stove to boil.

• Add the drained parboiled rice, salt and pepper to taste. If necessary, top up with water to bring the water level to the same level as the rice. This is to ensure that all the water dries up by the time the rice is cooked.

• Cover the pot and leave to cook on medium heat. This way the rice does not burn before the water dries up.

If you parboiled the rice as described at parboiling rice for cooking coconut rice, the rice should be done by the time the water is dry. Confirm that the rice is done by tasting it. That's the way coconut rice is cooked.

Serve with Fried Plantain, Nigerian Moi Moi, Nigerian Salad or Coleslaw.

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Nigerian Buns (Puff Puff) Recipe

Nigerian Buns is the harder and less oily sibling to the Nigerian Puff Puff.

Some of them are so hard that they are referred to as Rock Buns.

Ingredients for Nigerian Buns

The following Ingredients will make 7 buns balls.

• 150g (5.3 oz) plain flour (all purpose flour)

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• 2 tablespoons evaporated milk or 1 tablespoon powdered milk

• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (for the authentic taste)

• Warm water (for mixing)

• Vegetable Oil (for frying)

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