Playing with recipes (Ogbono Soup)

Gives me so much fun to talk about my best soup, i can live with eating just Ogbono soup and fufu or amala all my life...lol...but seriously that is how much i love it, its the only soup you can catch me cooking and finish it no matter how much i prepared in less than 4 days. Due to popular demand and people asking for a local Nigerian dish, we would learn how to make this great soup my own way. I have heard someone say if you want to know if a girl is truly from Edo State, ask her to cook Ogbono and if she doesn't do it well chances are, that she wouldn't do anything well in the kitchen...not sure how true that is though but this is sure one of, if not the most common and favorite delicacy of people from that region.
There are a lot of ways to prepare this wonderful draw soup as many call it, some people like adding vegetables in theirs like pumpkin leaves (ugwu), bitterleaf, mint leave (efinrin) or oziza leave while others like it bare without any vegetables, some even add Egusi to it. You can fry your palm oil and then melt the Ogbono before adding water or your meat stock, if you dont like frying you can melt the Ogbono in the boiling meat stock with the palm oil in it and you can add okra to make it draw/slime more. Whichever way you choose to make it, it always turns out excellent.

Ingredients

• beef or assorted meat (shaki, abordi, roundabout e.t.c) (various parts of a cow)
• chicken/turkey
• stock fish (socked inside hot water with salt)
• ogbono (grounded with crayfish and pepper)
• palm oil
• smoked fish (clean well and remove bones)
• pumpkin leave (ugwu) (chopped)
• crayfish (ground)
• pepper and salt - To taste
• onion
• maggi or knorr cubes
• kpomo (cleaned and cut into cubed)
• perewinkle (without shells, leave in warm water and salt)
• prawns (cleaned)
• okro
• ginger and garlic

 Method

1.Wash all your meats thoroughly. Put in a pot large enough to hold the soup, add all your ingredients onion, pepper, salt, ginger, garlic and your cubes to taste. Boil the meat according to thickness, assorted meats especially shaki takes long to cook, so it should go in first then stir in your beef when its almost cooked, stir in the chicken and the turkey should be last. Add you stock fish that must have been soft by now, the kpomo, perewinkle and crayfish.
2. Pour in palm oil like 10 minutes after you add the chicken and tie the Ogbono in a tight proofs nylon and put unto of the boiling meat. Add the smoked fish. Cover your pot.
3. When the meat is perfectly cooked to your taste and the palm oil has boiled enough cut open the Ogbono nylon (trash it) and stir Ogbono until it has completely absorbed the meat stock, it would start to draw and bring out bubbles. Add the prawns. Keep stirring and add water if it becomes too thick.
4. Stir in the okro and mix well. Stir in the vegetable like 1 minute before you turn off the heat.
5. your soup is ready to be served with any of the following: Fufu, Eba, Pounded yam, Amala, Semovita/Semolina, or Wheat.  

Method 2

1. Do same as step 1 in the first method.
2. Put a small pan on fire and melt the palm oil (do not burn the oil or you would end up with black soup), when its hot you may add onions if you want it is optional (some people have an idea it makes the ogbono not to draw or dissolve properly, i do not agree with that but if it is your first time, you may leave the onions out).
3. Stir in the Ogbono. Turn off the heat. Keep stirring until smooth with no lumps.
4. Add it to the meat stock and keep stirring until it has finally dissolved and add water if it is too thick until it has gotten to the consistency you like.
5. Add the vegetables when you are ready to take it off and it is ready to be served.
Enjoyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...

Ogbono Soup

Ogbono and Fufu