NAIJA KITCHEN

My day started on a very good note. woke up,took a shower and headed out with my best friend Rennie to North Legon.there we met up with my girl Angel and decided to visit the Nigerian market in madina...it was my first time there and i was fansinated by all the things i could find there,though at very ridiculous prices.
My girlfriends who were craving so much for a home cooked meal decided they were going to cook!..we bought a few things and headed back home to Westlegon where my friends were going to show me what good cooks they are...they decided to prepare Egusi soup!
It took a while to boil the meat and get the soup ready but they sure did a fantastic job.........Up Rennie,Up Angel..you girls would make good wives some day!*wink
Here is a recipe for Egusi soup for those who are aboard and are longing for 'home food'
Ingredients

• Egusi seed (Grounded, 1-2 cups)
• Palm oil ¾ - 1½ cup
• Bitter Leaf - freshly squeezed, or dried or spinach / ugwu / any other fresh vegetable as may be available
• Cray fish about ¼ cup grounded
• Dried pepper or chilli 1 table spoonful or to taste
• Maggi cubes or Knorr 1 – 2 cubes
• Thyme about ½ teaspoonful
• Curry Powder ½ - 1 teaspoonful
• Real African Red Onions - spicy. 1 – 3 (Chopped)
• Cooking salt
• Fresh or smoked fish or stock fish
• Goat meat (chopped to size)
• Assorted meat – beef, ox tail, cow tongue, chicken, as can be obtained, about ½ kg each
• Chopped tomatoes (blended)
• Fresh pepper with or substituted for grounded dried pepper.

Cooking Method

1. If you are using stock fish, be sure to have soaked the stock fish in water overnight to make it soft and cook faster.
2. Put your goat meat and or assorted meat into a pot. Add cooking salt, 1 bulb of onion, chopped to small sizes, ½ teaspoonful of thyme, curry powder, and a small amount of water (about 2cups), one or two maggi cubes and bring to boil for about 30 minutes until soft and tender to taste.
3. While that is cooking, put your chopped tomatoes (1-2 tins), fresh and or dried pepper, 1 bulb of real African red onions into a blender and blend to a smooth paste
4. Your egusi seeds must have come in blended (grounded). If they are not, this is the time to grind them in a blender dried (in the small bit of the blender for dried materials). Take 1-2 cups of grounded egusi and put in a bowl, add 2 parts of water to a part of grounded egusi in the bowl and stir to form a paste. Some people do not do it this way. They leave the grounded egusi dry and stir fry it instead in palm oil. You can do it either way. Here, the first method will be used
5. The meat should have finished cooking by now. Get a big pot. Place it on the cooker and allow it to be hot, with all residue of water drying out. Do not let it burn though. Pour about ¾ - 1½ cup (150 – 300mls) of red palm oil in the pot. Be careful here, it could smoke and splash around, with risk of you been burnt! Allow the oil to warm for about 1 minute. Pour the blended tomatoes, fresh/dried pepper, onion paste into the oil and stir fry for about another 10 -15 mutes.
6. Now add the cooked meat to this base of stew and cover the pot and allow to simmer for about 3 minutes. Stir intermittently to prevent burning.
7. The egusi paste (or fried) can now be added to the stew with meat in it. Add your vegetables here, salt and one or two cubes of maggi if still required to taste and bring to boil for about 10 minutes. Stir intermittently.

You should be greeted with some mouth watering aroma by now and look, your egusi soup is ready!
Egusi soup is best served with pounded yam . It could also be eaten with eba, made from garri , or even semolina, or ground rice