Hai everyone,
God was very intentional when he created and placed every one of us wherever we found ourselves on this earth. I mean, in our immediate families, in our kindreds, kings men, tribes, compounds, villages, towns, cities, countries, contents and in any part and from all parts of the globe. He was never making any mistakes at all.
He also provided the basic kinds of food we should be eating to live. Though we can also learn how to cook and how to eat other people's kind of foodd.
We also might have learnt cooking these types of food from our parents, grand parents from our village people or those closer to us, or even from the social media. It can even be a family recipe created from within the four walls of our homes. The most important here is that every people has their own kinds of food they are known for, they crave for or love eating from time to time.
I'm from the Eastern party of my country, the Igbo tribe in my beloved country, Nigeria. Therefore, we have so many kinds of foods we eat and are known for. We crave these foods from time to time....😋
Remember, we eat a lot of swallows with different types of soups, that I may not be able to mention all here now.
I only want to present to us one out of our numerous soups. Culture is everything, it is the particular way of a people's behaviors;
The type of foods they eat
The particular way they dress.
What they believe in
Their dances and dancing steps.
The way their dancing drums are beaten
The very particular work they do and are known for.
The languages and dialect they speak
All these and more are the overly representation of a people and their culture or cultural background
UKAZI AND WATER LEAVE SOUP.
Today, I'm making ukazi and water leave soup, in other words, (Afang soup.). This is a special kind of soup and a bit expensive to make. Most times, we make them for special occasions as well as in our homes whenever we desire or crave to enjoy this soup.
MY INGREDIENTS FOR THIS SPECIAL SOUP
This is known as ukazi, a particular leave we use to make this very special soup. When you get ukazi or bought from the market, you slice the leaves with your kitchen knife in a very tiny form and keep aside.
*1/2 kiloh of beef meat.
*A sliced bunch of ukazi leave.
*2 big pieces of smoked fish.
*1 sizeable cow skin (kpomo or kanda)
*A handful of fresh pepper.
*A 1/2 bottle of red oil.
*A full cup of blended crayfish.
*3 cubs of Maggi.
*Meat broth
*1 cube of a black local seasoning (okpeye)
*4 cups of processed periwinkle (Isam).
This is my water leave garden at the backyard in my premises. As you can see, I cut as many water leaves as I can use for this particular special soup.
These are my two big smoked dried fish for the soup. It gives both a quality taste and stands out in soups.
This is my 4 cups of processed periwinkle, (Isam)
Here, I have washed and deboned my smoked fish ready to be added into my special soup.
Here, I was pounding my ukazi in my morter with my pistle. You can also blend with your blender.
Here, I was slicing my water leave, after washing them in water to be added into the soup.
MY COOKING PROCESS
I have put on my cooking gas, placed my cooking pot on fire.
I washed my beef meat added into the pot, added salt, Maggi and my sliced onions. All to cook for 10 minutes. No water was added, rather it boiled out some tasty broth for me.
Now, I have added some water because the meat is ready, I added my smoked fish, my red oil, blended pepper and I allowed all of them to boil together for another 10 minutes.
I was blending my fresh pepper in my little manual blender together with my okpeye, the local seasoning
The okpeye blended and added into the soup together with my blended crayfish.
The soup is cooking very fast.
Ukazi and water leave has been added into my special soup.
The soup and the aroma is something else. I have here added salt and some Maggi seasoning to taste.
THE RESULT
This is my ukazi and water leave soup (Afang). Thank you for coming around my blog post. I really appreciate y'all.
The pictures are mine.
