By Nenye Anosike
Hi I’m Nenye and I’m a food addict.
You must be wondering what sort of introduction is that?(haha). What I mean is I love food and I’m constantly looking for faster, cheaper ways to make excellent meals. I love to enjoy my meals and I want to believe I’m not the only one.
Today I want to share a soup recipe I learnt from my mother, Ofe Nsala – white soup. This soup takes under an hour to cook (depending on your speed and proficiency though). Some say ofe nsala is from Anambra and I have to agree as a proud Anambra girl. I would like to add also that my mother makes the best ofe nsala if I do say so myself.
This soup is known as white soup because palm oil is not used in its preparation. It is typically prepared with fresh fish and dried fish; however if you’re a meat lover like me you can add whatever meat you want.
Awesome right!
Ofe nsala is one Igbo soup I grew up eating and loved (see eh just come first in your class or pass your exams with an A and be sure of a big bowl of ofe nsala with plenty chicken, goat meat, beef and dried fish).
It’s a soup that whenever I need to make soup either for the house or entertaining and I don’t have the time to go shopping, have limited funds and still want to make an impressive meal I make. The amazing thing about this soup is, it can be made to whatever you like. It can be simple or very rich.
The thickener for ofe nsala is pounded yam and the good thing is you get to determine its consistency.
It is recommended for postpartum care because of the herbs used to make the soup. It’s best served with pounded yam but you can use any swallow of choice.
I can talk sha the summary of this whole talk is, ofe nsala is your peppersoup with a slight variation.
Enough talking let’s get to work
Ingredients. You’ll need;
1. Assorted Meat or Chicken.
2. 1 Medium Size Fresh Fish (Preferably Catfish cut in large chunks).
3. 2-3 Pieces of Stockfish head depending on the size
4. 1-2 dry fish depending on the size too.
5. Crayfish
6. Dry Ground Pepper or Fresh Yellow pepper (to taste)
7. 1 Small Chunk of Ogiri Okpei ( this is the igbo version of dadawa)
8. A handful of thinly sliced Uziza Leaves
9. 2 leaves of thinly sliced Utazi
10. 1 Teaspoon Uziza seeds (Uziza seeds, just use 2 tablespoons pepper soup spice)
11. 4 Medium Slices of Yam
12. Seasoning cubes
13. Salt to taste
Let’s cook:
Pour water in your pot. The amount of water you use depends on the number of people you’re cooking and your ingredients.
Properly wash your meat, stockfish and dry fish and set aside then season and cook the meat, adding onions, seasoning cube and salt to taste.
Add the pieces of yam and simply bring the meats to a boil.
When the yam is soft and moist, bring them out and place in a mortar. Pound the cooked yam in a mortar till smooth and stretchy.
When your meat is half done, add the catfish and stockfish (this is so the fish doesn’t break and disappear)
Tip: to clean your fish, pour the boiling water over the clean and gutted catfish. Let it sit for about 5 minutes. You will see the slime come off. Drain after the 5 minutes and using a butter knife or a blunt knife, gently scrape the slime off and rinse.
NOTE : if you’re not using meat please skip the part of the meat and if you’re not using the catfish skip that part too.
Add the yam into the pot of Ofe Nsala in small lumps, cover and continue cooking. Once the yam dissolves and thickens the soup, it is done. If you achieve medium consistency before all the yam is dissolved, take out the undissolved yam because you do not want the Ofe Nsala to be too thick.
Blend/pound/mash the uziza seeds, the pepper, the ogiri okpei and the crayfish (please be careful with the pepper, the uziza seeds can also be peppery).
Add your dry fish.
Taste your soup at this time and add stock cubes/salt or more crayfish to improve the taste if it doesn’t taste nice yet. Also if the soup isn’t as thick as you want, add more pounded yam. If too thick add more water.
You can now go ahead and add the sliced uziza and utazi leaves (the utazi should be used sparingly for white soup; the reason is just to add a faint bitter taste and not turn it to bitterleaf soup).
Allow to boil for the next few minutes and you can go ahead to serve your delicious ofe nsala with pounded yam or any swallow of your choice.
Please let me know how it goes and if you enjoyed your meal as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you!
Compozine 