Abacha

Abacha is a very common dish in the Eastern part of Nigeria. It can be served as a meal or a snack and it is usually served with fried fish. There are different ways to make this dish. The traditional way I learned to make it is inside a mortar. Also, due to health reasons, I usually cut out potash from the recipe. You can make this dish without the potash and still get the same nice tasting abacha. However, I will add the potash to the recipe this time for blogging purposes.

Ingredients:
Abacha
2 spoons potash (akaun)
Palm Oil
2 handfuls Crayfish
Pomo/Canda (chopped into small pieces - optional)
Dry Pepper
Ugba/Ukpaka (oil bean seeds)
Knorr
Salt
Onions
Garden eggs
Garden egg leaves
Fried Fish

Directions: Fry the dry pepper (without oil) in a pan till it blackens a little then grind with a dry mill. Do the same for the crayfish and set them aside. This frying releases their flavors but is optional if you don't have a dry mill. Just buy the crayfish and dry pepper already ground.

Soak the abacha in water for like 3minutes. Drain into a strainer and set aside.

Grind the potash and add a cup of water to it. Stir well and strain into the pot you'll be making the abacha in. Put the pot on the stove and heat. Add the palm oil to the pot and stir well for like 5minutes then turn off the heat.

Add the abacha, ugba, pomo, crayfish and knorr. Add the pepper one spoon at a time and taste so that you don't put too much. Mix everything together and taste. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

Dish into a plate and garnish with onion slices, chopped garden eggs and cut garden egg leaves. Finish off with fried fish and ENJOY!!!

Ofada Stew

Ingredients:

Assorted Meat (goat meat, pomo, tripe etc cut into small pieces)

4 Green Bell Peppers

2 Red Peppers (or tatase)

8 Habanero Peppers (Or more if you like it hot)

1 Onion Bulb

1 Locust Bean (Dawadawa/Iru/Okpei/Ogili)

1 Handful of crayfish

1 Knorr

2 Cups of palm oil

Directions:

Season the assorted meat and cook as if you’re cooking soup (don’t put curry or any fancy seasoning. Just knorr, salt and onions would do). Strain the meat from the stock and set aside.

Remove the green and red pepper seeds and wash. Break into small pieces and put in a blender. Add the habaneros and onion to the blender too. Blend well.

Add the blended peppers to a pot and cook till all its water has dried.

You will notice the quantity of pepper in the pot has shrunk (look at the sides of the pot).

Add the palm oil to a pot and blanch. It will definitely get very smoky in the kitchen so open all the windows and get a fan running…or better still, do it outside in open air.  Mine took me about 10 minutes to bleach.

If you've blanched the oil well, you should be able to see the bottom of the pot through the oil.

Use a dry mill to grind the locust bean and crayfish.

Add the bleached oil to the dried pepper and fry till it’s very dry (you’ll know it’s dry when oil starts to settle on top). Add the ground crayfish and locust beans and fry some more. Season with knorr.

Add the cooked meat and allow simmer for like 5-10 minutes.

Serve over ofada rice or any other rice. I had a hard time finding the ofada rice so I just used the rice I had at home. Also, this dish is served on a leaf….that, I didn’t have either but I served it on my leaf plate so I guess that counts. *wink* ;)

Isi-Ewu

Ingredients: 

1 whole goat head 

1 Ehuru/Ehu/Erulu/African nutmeg (whatever it's called in your dialect) 

1 Teaspoon Uziza seeds 

6 utazi leaves 

2 hot peppers/habanero 

1 Knorr Cube 

4 Tablespoons palm oil 

Onion rings (JUST for garnishing)

Uziza seeds, Knorr, Pepper, Ehuru

The MAIN work in cooking isiewu is cleaning the head. So once you have that accomplished, you've pretty much done the bulk of the work. So first and foremost, I'll go over how to properly clean your goat head:

DON'T cut the goat head up in the market so that you can clean it THOROUGHLY. Just ask the butcher to remove the teeth and horns and then make a deep cut bilaterally that will crack the skull open but not separate it. Goat head needs to be cleaned whole for best results. Put the goat head in a big basin, boil hot water and pour on the head making sure the whole head (or at least most of it) is submerged in the HOT water. Allow the head soak there for a minute or two then remove from water and start work. Using a knife, scrape the ears WELL. There's usually black stuff in the ears, you want all of that out. Then scrape the tongue with the knife. You'll see whitish stuff peeling off easily. Scrape the whole mouth well. Then use an iron sponge to scrub the outer part very well. There's always soot on the skin from burning the fur off. You don't want to cook the goat head with all that black soot. Inspect the goat meat and make sure it's VERY clean...now you can start cooking.

Directions: 

Put the clean goat head in a pot big enough to contain it whole and cook the goat with a pinch of salt. Goat takes a while to cook so if you have a pressure pot, you'd wanna whip it out now and use to save yourself time and gas/electricity.

When the goat head is done, take it out from the water and allow it to cool down. When it's cool enough for you to handle, cut the flesh out from the bones. If your meat is well done, it should separate easily from the bones. I personally don't like fighting with bones when I eat isiewu and some commercial ones have toooo much bones. That is because they cut the head up in the market (which means it's probably not properly cleaned).

Left: Meat (for my tommy)...Right: Bones (for my dog)

After you've skinned the head, the skull should be able to be pulled apart easily too. If it's not opening, break it open with something strong like a pestle or rolling pin. Remove the brain and put in a separate bowl. Set aside.

Goat Brain

Put the pepper, ehuru, uziza seeds, 2 utazi leaves and knorr in a mortar and pound well. 

Ehuru and uziza seeds have been pounded...then pepper and utazi leaves

This is what it would look like after like 2minutes of pounding.

Ehuru, Uziza, Utazi, Pepper and Knorr pounded

Add the the brain, pound and mix very well. 

Goat brain added

Now add the palm oil and mix everything well.

Palm oil added

By now, the meat you cut out of the bones would be cold. Return it to the pot and add about 3 cooking spoons of the goat stock and heat up very well.

Strain the meat from the water and add to the sauce in the mortar. Mix everything well and dish into a smaller mortar. 

Meat added

Garnish with onion rings and the remaining utazi leaves (sliced finely)...Traditionally, isiewu is served in a small mortar which I don't have so I served mine in a plate.

Yummy, who wants to join???

ENJOY with a bottle of beer (my dad says isiewu isn't complete without beer.lol) or cold "mineral" haha!

Juicy Beef Burgers

Ingredients:
1 lb minced beef
1 small onion bulb (minced)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
¼ cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon dry pepper
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 teaspoon curry
1 knorr cube
1 egg (lightly beaten)
Mayo and ketchup
Tomato and Onion round slices
Lettuce
Cheddar cheese slices
6 hamburger buns

Directions:
Combine the first 9 ingredients in a bowl and divide into 6 equal parts. Roll each portion into a ball and flatten to form the patties.

Knorr, parsley flakes, egg, dry pepper, bread crumbs, curry.

Refrigerate the patties for 30mins to allow the meat absorb the seasonings. This will also hold d meat together while grilling.

Heat a grill or non-stick pan and brush with some vegetable oil. Add the beef patties and grill for 3minutes on each side or until patties are well browned.

Add the cheese slices on top of each patty and turn off the heat. Transfer to a plate and allow the patties cool down a little before serving. This locks in the juices of the meat.

To serve, cut the buns in half and spread each half with ketchup and mayo. To the bottom half, add the lettuce, onions, tomatoes and then top off with the beef patty. Finish off with the other bun half.

ENJOY with fries (or without)!!!

Beef Shawarma

Ingredients:
Beef
Carrot (Grated)
Cabbage (Chopped)
Green Pepper (Chopped)
Sausages (Cooked)
Mayonnaise
Ketchup
Ground pepper
Pita bread (aka shawarma bread, Lebanese bread).

Directions:
Season the beef and cook till it’s tender. Strain the beef from the stock and allow to cool and then cut up into bite-sized chunks.

Fry the cut up beef to brown a little.

In a bowl, combine the vegetables, beef chunks, pepper and mayo/ketchup mix (how much mayo/ketchup mix you put depends on you but just make sure the filling isn't dry). Mix well.

Carefully separate the bread and spread the mayo/ketchup mixture on the inside part of each bread half.

Spoon a generous amount of the mix into your pita bread and top off with a sausage or two.

Roll the bread and place on a hot grill for like 5mins. If you don’t have a grill, you can do it on a hot skillet with the seam side down.

Wrap in a foil after grilling.

ENJOY!!!

Kidney Sauce

Ingredients:

2 kidneys (cut into bite sized pieces)

3 tablespoons of flour

1 Teaspoon Curry

1 Knorr Cube

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 cooking spoon vegetable oil

1 Onion Bulb (chopped)

4 carrots (chopped into big chunks)

1 big bell pepper (chopped)

2 cups water

Directions:

Combine the first five ingredients in a bowl. Cover with cling film and set in the fridge for at least 30minutes.

Add the oil and onions and fry for 1minute. Add the kidney marinade and turn till all the stock is absorbed and oil is visible (At this point it will be very think). Add water and cover the pot to simmer. If it's too thick, add more water. Add more flour if you want it thicker. Adjust seasoning with knorr if necessary. Add the vegetables and remove from heat.

Serve over spaghetti and ENJOY!!!