I am glad to be back for the Creative Sunday initiative, I didn't get to post last week because of farm work. The fishes are growing and demanding more time because their water gets dirty easily now.
Today, I made a local dish for today's Creative Sunday initiative post. Semo and egusi plus fluted pumpkin are one of my favorite local dishes, my love for this meal is divine.
I have a funny memory of the soup, and that was before I learned how to cook. We did a cooking practical in JSS 2 where we cooked individually and I unluckily choose this soup, we were taught how to prepare it but I didn't pay attention to cooking because my mom is great at it and I didn't have any reason to learn.
I became lost during the exam, I didn't know what to even do in the school kitchen. A female friend of mine who is dead now had her cooking spot beside me so she risked herself to help me out, I was scared not to get caught and it turned out well. I took some of the soup back home and my mom laughed at me, she was certain I didn't cook the soup because I knew how to do nothing than eat when it has to do with food.
Egusi and fluted Pumpkin leaf are great partners in the pot, they give a rare kind of feeling other vegetables won't give you. Do you know why? It is because the leaf doesn't get soft like other vegetables.
The soup is one of the soups I learned first because I love it so much, there are several ways of preparing it so I will just share my way and probably share another method of preparation in another post.
Ingredients
Heat your oil.
Add your onions and let them fry for a bit.
Pour your pepper into the hot oil.
Put your fish and cowskin in the boiling pepper.
When the fish is cooked, remove them or you can leave them in the soup if you don't mind having them pieced
while stirring the soup later.
The egusi and vegetable soup can be served with any swallow meal so I made Semo to it.
Boil some water depending on the quantity of Semo you want to prepare.
Create a paste with the Semo by dissolving some of the powder into water.
The watery Semo becomes thick as you stir so you will add some Semo powder as you continue stirring until is firm.
Turn the Semo until it becomes firm, add little water to it and allow it to cook for about 5 minutes.
Turn the Semo again and your meal is ready.
The Semo and egusi combo is many Nigerians favorite, it can be served as dinner or lunch. I have tried it in the morning and it made me kind of tired so I don't recommend it for breakfast.
The meal is perfect and balanced, you have every nutrient you want in a meal from it. I enjoyed eating this with my friend, it was very delicious.