Can you tell I’m enjoying cooking in my new set of earthenware pots. If you read the blog post before this one, you’d know what an adventure it was.
I have two other posts on Ogbono on the blog on Ogbono but both are with vegetable. My son loves Ogbono but both him and his dad love their Ogbono without vegetables. So I find myself compromising a lot and cooking without vegetables for them. Still very flavorsome. And goes with any swallow.
Though the seeds of the Bush Mango ( common names wild mango, African mango, bush mango, dika, odika, modika, Òro, andok or ogbono) are more popularly called “Ogbono”, the yorubas call it “Apon”.
I’ve always described Ogbono soup as “draw soup” which is the local lingo for soups with this kind of viscosity, like Okra soup. I just learnt the more apt word is “mucilaginous”. A mouthful right, but less offensive than slimy.
Ogbono is one of those soups that the flavour greatly improves when it has been left untouched overnight. I typically don't pack mine into the freezer for storage until the next day.
Recipe
Ingredients
- Ogbono Seeds (a 170g milk tin size)
- Assorted Meats (tripe/ponmo/meat)
- Assorted Fish (smoked catfish / stockfish)
- ⅛ cup crayfish
- ½ tsp Uziza seeds
- 2 unshelled Ehuru seeds (African calabash nutmeg) optional but recommended.
- ½ tbsp Cameron Pepper
- Cayenne pepper ( ground dried chilli pepper )
- 1 tbsp palm oil
- 1 tsp ogiri (optional)
- Salt
Procedure
- Season and cook your meats with the head of the smoked catfish, and some stockfish. This gives you a very rich stock. Cook meats till tender and reserve the stock.
- Rinse stock fish with hot water, if a little tough soak in salted warm water. Shred catfish is you desire. Don’t discard the extra heads, save it for you cooking meats for added flavour.
- Toast uziza and ehuru seeds slightly in pan with the Ogbono seeds, till they pop slightly
- Grind Ogbono and uziza, ehuru seeds with crayfish in a dry mill blender
- Put a clean dry pot on medium heat and add palm oil, next add the ground Ogbono and stir till all lumps are dissolved now add your meat stock, if you don’t have meat stock add water. The soup starts to thicken and get viscous.
- Now add ground cayenne and cameroon pepper. These peppers pack heat so use only as much as you can handle.
- Taste the soup, if you used stock you may not need to add any more seasoning if not add some.
- Dissolve ogiri with water and add to cooking soup.
- Add meats and fish and allow to cook for about 15 minutes with lid off.
- If the soup is too viscous, add some water to thin it out.
- Let it simmer for 3 minutes then turn the heat off.
Enjoy with your favourite accompaniment.
Ounje Aladun 