hello world welcome to my blog post, today i want to express one of my hobbies which is cooking, three things are dear to me, writing cooking and baking and find myself at ease with them, altho in our African context it's somehow rare to find a man in the kitchen doing the cooking stuffs but here i am....
alright so on this post i want to show you all how it's done, cooking the Afang soup.
this special delicoius soup is home to the peope of efik/ibibio tribe in Cross-River and Akwa Ibom state Nigeria, widely eaten in all part of the country and in diaspora were Nigerians reside, it's just a matter of getting the right ingredients ready...
Afang soup native to the efik/Ibibio is a leafy green vegetable soup that is prepared with the afang leaf and the Malabar spinach or known as waterleaf along side other ingredients like goatmeat or cow meat, periwinkle crayfish, cowskin(kpomo) stock fish etc....
LIST OF INGREDIENTS USED
AFANG LEAVE
WATERLEAF
GOATMEAT
STOCKFISH
CREYFISH
PERIWINKLE
COWSKIN(KPOMO)
PALM OIL
ONION
SEASONING CUBE
PEPPER
Preping my leaves
first of all i had to make sure i work on the waterleafs by cutting out the stem and leaving the soft leafs after which i proceed to wash them thoroughly then slice
done with that i proceed to wash the afang leaf and spray it to dry
some people don't like to watch it but i do to avoid sands and some dirt, after it's dried we proceed to slicing, now the afang leaf u like anyother leafy vegetables is hard in nature so requires special techniques of arrangement for ease of slicing, so here's hiw it's arrange in in circular format enough that you can grab then cut in two and fold backwards ......
then proceed to grinding now due to the hard nature of the leaf i don't think blenders can do the job of grinding it well till it smooth so what we usually do is to use the mortar and pistle to pound it or better still grind it in the market, since I'm doing everything at home I'm pounding till it's very smooth
when that is done it's now time to prep our ingredients like to cut and wash our periwinkle, stockfiah, grinded crayfish, chopped onions
proceed now to wash and steam our protein in todays cooking i use goat meat, after thorough washing i seasoned it well and steam
now all our stuffs are ready its time to start proper cooking....
now a lot of people have their different method of cooking for me and our people this how we start cooking the afang soup.
added the waterleaf to my hotpot
added little water with all my prep ingredients
added all ingredients and stocks
added the afang leaf now
added my palm oil last
cover to cook then stire well
place your empty pot on fire put in your water leaf allow for it to dry out excess water, then adding your meat stock with every other preped ingredients stire add the amount of water you desire depending on the quantity of the soup adding in seasoned cube and pepper cover to cook for like five minutes then stirr very well taste to ensure that everything is perfect, now add your afang leaf pour in your palm oil cover to cook for a while then open to stire properly, if it's too thick you can add little water and ensure the taste is good as you desire before bringing it down your delicious afang soup is ready to be served
by the time i was finshed couldn't take the last shot when i finished, this was very delicious 馃構
usually eaten with garri (cassava granular) or fufu.
there you have it , very nice very sumptuous and delicious afang soup maybe you're a Nigerian or a foreigner when ever you're around Nigeria try out this meal and thank me later 馃槅.....
all images are mine otherwise stated
