Ingredients
three handfuls abacha
2 cups ugba (ukpaka)
2 onions
Salt and habanero pepper (to flavor)
4 tablespoons ground crayfish
2 stock cubes (Knorr)
2 teaspoons floor Ehu seeds (Calabash Nutmeg)
Garden Eggs.
Garden Egg leaves
Ogiri Igbo (castor seed paste)
30 cl red palm oil
2 tablespoons Powdered Potash (meals Mackerel/Dry Fish/Stockfish
Other meat and veggies for the Abacha
three Fresh Utazi leaves (Gongronema latifolium)
Ponmo / Kanda (cow pores and skin)
Notes
Abacha is the main factor. Abacha is made by using boiling and grating/shredding cassava tubers. Click right here to peer a way to make abacha.
Ukpaka or Ugba is shredded oil bean seeds. It is obligatory for me however if you do no longer have it, you may bypass it.
Red Palm Oil ought to be used when preparing abacha. Other oils are not desirable.
You should upload a green leafy vegetable. Garden Egg leaves are used for abacha. If you do no longer have it, use leafy spinach specially the child ones. Very correct opportunity.
At least one sort of fish should be used. For abacha you may use stockfish (dry cod), dry fish (dry cat fish, mangala), fried mackerel (fried titus) and smoked fish.
Crayfish much be used, click right here to look a way to put together crayfish (for those outside Nigeria).
Pepper ought to be used and you could either add habanero pepper (encouraged) or dry cayenne pepper. Habanero pepper is atarodo, atarugu or ose oyibo. Black pepper isn’t always a great in shape for abacha.
Add ogiri Igbo for the classic conventional flavor however if you do no longer have it, add stock cubes. One of these ought to be used unless you’re truly genuinely allergic to both.
Add garden egg. It is tremendous in abacha however not obligatory.
For me, red onions are a need to. My grandma will tell me that adding onions is “umu township” version. LOL
Edible potash: akanwu, kaun, keun is what makes palm oil curdle and it’s miles a need to. If you do now not have it otherwise you do not want to devour fit to be eaten potash, baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) has similar houses. Click here for greater facts.
Ehu: for me ehu (calabash nutmeg or African nutmeg) is a need to. Again if you do no longer have it, you can pass it. But the day you may devour Abacha organized with ehu, you will recognize the difference among capital B and cow footprint. LOL
Be cautious whilst adding salt to abacha. This meal contains lots of elements that have already got salt: stockfish, stock cubes, crayfish and many others. Most often I do not want extra salt.
Before you Make Abacha
Soak the dry fish in cool water and set aside to soften.
Soak the abacha for 2 minutes in cool water and put in a sieve to empty.
Rinse the stockfish and cook dinner till soft. I use a strain pot for this. Debone while it is tender.
Mix the suitable for eating potash with some water, stir and set aside.
When the dry fish is gentle, easy and debone. Then break into small pieces.
Cut one of the onions into tiny portions and reduce the alternative into earrings.
Rinse the leafy vegetable, cut a few into tiny portions, some into skinny stripes and depart some leaves whole.
Rinse the ukpaka and installed a sieve to empty.
Cut some garden egg into tiny portions and a few into thin discs.
Crack open the ehu seeds and grind with a spice grinder.
Grind/combination/pound the habanero pepper.
Melt the palm oil in a sizeable pot over low heat. Note that that is melting no longer bleaching. The oil ought to no longer even be hot. If your palm oil is in liquid form, no need to apply heat. Just pour it right into a pot.
All the elements are geared up!
Igbo abacha ingredients geared up
Preparation of Abacha
When mixing the Abacha substances, it is vital that each one the components are well integrated. Add similar ingredients, stir and upload another batch. It isn’t always advocated to feature the whole thing all of sudden and stir because it can be very hard as a way to get an excellent mix of all of the components.
Slowly decant the liquid from the edible potash into the palm oil and stir on the same time and you may see the palm oil thicken and flip yellow. Make certain that the safe to eat potash sediments do not pass into the pot.
Add the stock cubes (crushed), floor ehu, floor crayfish, diced onions, mixed habanero pepper, tiny greens and blend nicely.
Add the abacha, ukpaka, portions of dry fish, diced garden eggs and mix properly.
Taste and handiest upload salt if vital.
You can heat it up a touch bit before serving. It can also be served at room .
That’s it!!!!!
