African: How to Cook Ogbono Soup (without leaves)

Growing in Jos, Plateau I hated everything that was gooey and slimy (like I said in an earlier post, I'm a fussy eater) and it was just my luck that my grandmother was Yoruba and would happily put a steaming bowl of eba and okra soup mixed with stew in front of me ignoring my cries of 'No! No, Mama No' she would sit in front of me and with a sinister gleam in her eyes daring me not to eat my lunch or dinner.  My mum being more of an ogbono soup person and would try to make me eat my plate of semovita and ogbono soup with a cane in her right hand.  Being forced to eat these soups made me hate them the more. As soon as I was old enough to choose my meals I just stopped eating Ogbono and Okra (Granny never succeeded with Ewedu as even my mum wouldn't touch it).  I still thought them vile till on a trip to London (of all places) my older sis gave me her own version of Ogbono and I was converted.  I still won't touch Ewedu and would only eat seafood okra from Yellow Chilli but it's obvious to everyone that I've made major progress.  I'm not an expert on Ogbono soup cooking but here's my own recipe......

IMPORTANT:  Please endeavour to buy real and fresh Ogbono seeds from the market, I heard that one way to find out if it's the real deal is to break a seed into two bits and rub together, if the sides start drawing then you know it's the real deal.  Also try not to fry your ogbono in the palm oil as it might lose it's draw.

Ingredients

(Depending on the quantity you can increase or scale down on the ingredients as you think fit)

Your choice of beef, goat meat, lamb or tripe (shaki, roundabout etc)

1 cup of ground Ogbono

1/2 cup ground crayfish

2 big spoons of palm oil

1 cup periwinkle (optional)

Snails (optional)

Stockfish (optional)

2 cubes of Maggi or Knorr

1 cup of warm water

Salt (as needed)

Ground Cameroun pepper (as needed)

Method

1.  In a good sized pot cook your choice of meat with onions, maggi and any spice of your choice till soft and set aside

2.  In a another good sized pot pour your palm oil and when it gets a bit hot (make sure it's not hot enough to fry the ogbono) add your Ogbono and meat stock and start stirring making sure no bits of Ogbono are sticking to the bottom of the pot

Mixing Ogbono to the melted palm oil (remember not to fry the ogbono in the oil)

                                             

3.  Stir till it starts drawing (add some big spoonfuls of warm water if you think it's too slimy or mix a little more Ogbono with warm water in a bowl and add to the main pot if its not drawing enough) and add dried ground pepper and crayfish

4.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes on low heat 

Stirring mixture of palm oil, Ogbono and meat stock water

5.  Open pot and stir well gently scrapping the bottom of your pot to make sure no debris is sticking at the bottom, add your meat, stockfish, tripe, snails, periwinkle, Knorr/Maggi and salt give it a good stir and cover pot.  Cook for another 10 minutes on low heat and.....Taadah...you're done! Serve hot with any swallow (Eba, Semo, Pounded yam, Wheat) of your choice!!!!

just added meat, periwinkle, snails etc in the pot

Smells like heaven

Good God!!!

I know Ogbono can be a little tricky but this recipe works for me and I'm sure it'll work for you too!

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Bex