How to….Prepare Nigerian melon soup. (Egusi soup)
Ingredients
§ 4½ cups (600g) Egusi (Melon) seeds
§ 2 cooking spoons red palm oil
§ Beef: Best cut and Shaki (cow tripe)
§ Fish: Dry Fish and Stock Fish
§ 3 tablespoons ground crayfish
§ Pepper and Salt (to taste)
§ Vegetable: Nigerian pumpkin leaves, spinach or bitter leaves
§ 3 small stock cubes
§ 1 Ogiri Okpei (traditional locust bean seasoning: optional)
Egusi soup is a very tasty and delicious food that will satisfy your taste buds. It is a staple in most West African home and it is an uncomplicated one pot meal that is often accompanied with swallows like Eba, Amala, Semovita, Pounded yam, Fufu, and the likes, though my best remains pounded yam.
The first thing I like to do when making my Egusi soup is to blend the peppers. While blending the peppers try to use a little water as possible so that the blended pepper will not turn out too watery.
The next thing I do is to blend the Egusi seeds, Crayfish and Onions together. I also use a little bit of water for this because it’s important for the Egusi to have a thick consistency. This will allow the resulting Egusi soup to be curdled and not scattered.
Also, try not to overheat the palm oil, as we are not preparing ofada sauce.
I added locust bean to my recipe hence, I skipped the addition of seasoning cubes. However, if you don’t like locust bean or you don’t have it handy, the stock will be sufficient to enhance the taste or simply use the seasoning cubes to your taste.
Add the blended peppers and fry until it’s well cooked about 10 to 15 to 20 minutes, then add the Egusi melon. It is very important not to stir the Egusi at this point, give it time to curdle. Once it’s curdled about 15 to 20 minutes, stir it briefly then add some chicken or beef stock with the Meat or Fish of your choice and leave to cook again for another 15 minutes.
The Egusi should be cooked at this point but if you feel there is a need to cook a little longer, just add some more stock or water and cook for few more minutes.
You should leave my Egusi to cook for at least 40 minutes, longer cooking time is okay but not lesser.
