Playing with recipes (Ofe Nsala)

My friend Sarah, sent me a message that she was preparing Ofe Nsala, a delicacy from the East in Nigeria and also one of my favorite soup from that part. I begged her to share her recipe so we can all learn how to make it.

Ingredients

• cocoyam paste
• onions
• dried fish
• stock fish
• assorted meat/ any meat of your choice
• crayfish
• pepper
• ogiri
• utazi leave or uziza leave
• uziza seeds
• palm oil
• seasoning
• salt

Method

1. Cook the cocoyam until soft. Pound or blend it to form paste and set aside.
2. Blend the oziza seeds and also set aside.
3. Boil the meat with enough seasoning. When the meat is tender, add stock fish, crayfish, blended oziza seed, and pepper. Stir together.
4. Add cocoyam paste and dried fish. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes.
5. Add palm oil, ogiri and shredded utazi leave. Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir at intervals to avoid burning.
6. Ofe Nsala is ready. You can enjoy this delicious delicacy with Pounded yam, Fufu, Eba, Semovita, or Wheat.
Feel free to please share with us how you prepare your own Ofe Nsala. Thank you.

Ofe Nsala

Thank you for this Sarah. Big hug.

NOTE: Adaora and few others brought to my notice that Nsala soup is not done with cocoyam as thickner and ogiri. She said the recipe is for ofe ede,not ofe nsala but Sarah claims it is Ofe nsala her own way...lol. The typical nsala according to Adaora is thickened with pounded yam paste and seasoned with native spices namely: uziza seeds,udah seeds,ehu and ehuru seeds all grinded then with sliced utazi and uziza leaves for extra flavour,and there is no addition of palmoil, which is why it is also referred to as white soup by the ikwerre people. Choice of meat for nsala differs but you get the best of it with either goatmeat, local chicken or catfish,jazz it up with smoked fish (asa or mangala) and some stockfish,in place of normal chili try the fresh yellow nsukka pepper and no onions please,serve with pounded yam and have a well deserve sleep afterwards. Lol. Thank you so much for sharing this with us Adaora. So you have heard from the orginal owners of the soup how it is been made. 
Hope to hear more from you. Thank you very much.