The Nigerian story can never be complete without reference to this tasty Nigerian delicacy. “Abacha” as it is fondly called locally has been the toast and centre point of a lot of social gatherings here in Nigeria.
In addition to its beautiful presentation, this spicy food is considered nutritious because of the fresh vegetable (mostly roughages) used in preparing it. Abacha is normally served with fried fish or “kpomo” which serves as the protein that accompanies the salad itself.
Today, I bring you the recipe on how to make your own Abacha.
*3 cups Palm oil
*4 pieces Fresh fish (fried)
*2 stock Seasoning (Maggi/Knorr)
*1 teaspoon ground Ehu seeds (Calabash Nutmeg)
*Dry Pepper, ground
*4 Garden eggs
*3 Utazi leaves (Gongronema latifolium)
*Garden egg leaves
*Pomo / Kanda (cow skin)
*2 large Red Onions
*4 Handfuls Abacha
Procedure
1. Soak the Abacha in a bowl of warm water for about 30 mins till soft then drain
2. If you want to use Kanda, Season and cook till soft then cut into small cubes
3. Chop the vegetables, wash the whole garden eggs and Dice one of the onions then set aside
4. Cut the other bulb of onion in ringlike circles
5. Place the potash in a cup or bowl and pour about 1 cup of warm water. Stir well and you are -ready to start making the African Salad.
6. In a pot, pour in your palm oil and the potash mixture making sure you don’t pour in the potash -residue along with it.
7. Stir consistently till the palmoil and potash mixture turns into a yellow paste
8. Add the ground ehu,Seasoning, Ground pepper,diced onions, Crayfish and ugba (ukpaka), then stir very well till the mixture is well incorporated.
9. Add the Iru/ogiri and Diced kpomo and stir well
10. Finally, gently add your soaked abacha into the mixture making sure you incorporate the whole mixture together and you are done!
11. If you like your abacha warm like i do, you can heat it up a little on a burner
12. Garnish with the sliced Utazi(Its quite bitter so i’d advice you use sparingly), Garden egg leaves, Onion rings,Fish and Garden eggs
13. Serve with palm-wine for to aid digestion (digestion ko, digestion ni!)
OR
You can buy already prepared abacha for as cheap as 300 naira from an abacha hawker…the beauty of Naija! 🙂 (I should mention that it will not be as clean as the one you can prepare yourself)
So Bobos and Baby Okus, when was the last time you tucked into a plate of fresh spicy Abacha? You know say e sweet pass sharwarma and pizza na! Go get some today along with some “palmie” 🙂 🙂
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