Fisherman's soup

So, my maternal grandfather was a fisherman apparently (I never got to meet him) and he used to fish as far off as the islands of Sao Tome and Principe (so I was told), but aside from that my family comes from riverine area of South Eastern Nigeria now known as the Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. Although I didn’t spend that much time there when I was  younger, we did get to eat lots of dishes made with seafood in our house. Anyway, I decided to try my hand at making okra soup. I had woken up early last Saturday morning to hit the fish market at Makoko in Lagos and I came back with a gorgeous stash of fresh seafood.

 So, of course, not all of it was destined for my deep freezer!  I just had to cook something with fish and the prawns at least. So soup it was, with fresh seafood and fresh vegetables. Here it is. A take on Nigerian okra soup which I dedicate to all the fishermen out there.

While cooking, the one thing I make sure I do is get all my prep work done before I even turn on the stove. It makes preparing dishes so much quicker and prevents me from realising that I didn’t clean, cut, or chop something the moment it’s due to be added to the pan.

The best thing about preparing this dish was that it was done in just about 30 minutes and you can literally add any and every kind of seafood you like into it. Now you can’t beat that!

Ingredients
1kg Fresh fish (of your choice)
2kg Fresh Nigerian tiger prawns
500g Dried fish or smoked fish (or both)
500g Stockfish (optional)
1 cup Crayfish
3-4 Habanero peppers
1/2 kg Fresh spinach or pumpkin leaves (ugwu)
100g Fresh basil leaves
2 Medium onions
1 cooking spoon of Palm oil
Salt to taste
Preparation

• Clean and wash the fresh fish, shrimps and dried fish
• Place the smoked, stock and dried fish in a pan with 4 cups of water and boil for 15 minutes. (If you are adding stock fish, this needs to be cooked first for about 45 minutes until it softens then add the rest of the dried fish)
• Chop the onions into large chunks, chop the peppers and fresh basil
• Clean and grind the dried cray fish in a food processor
• Add in the fresh fish, tiger prawns to the boiled dry fish, along with the chopped onions and peppers and dried cray fish and allow to cook for 5 minutes
• Add in the okra and using a folding action mix these in gently with the rest of the ingredients. Cook the soup for another 5-7 minutes until the okra is al dente
• Pour in the palm oil and cook for another 5 minutes
• Wash and chop the fresh spinach or pumpkin leaves and add these to the soup and allow to cook for another 5-7 minutes
• Remove from the heat and serve the soup while hot. An accompanying starch (Garri, our pounded yam is optional)

 Enjoy it!

Nigerian Fish Soup

Haiku to Fish:
It was never my intention to neglect you
I always had you in mind
Alas, I was preoccupied with meat!

For fish steaks, I prefer catfish w/ the skin on, although the ones I cooked already had the skin peeled off. Tilapia, I’m not too fond of, simply because it has too many bones, unless of course, you get the fillets, but most of the time I get fish, it’s usually the steaks. I do have some whole tilapia in the freezer that I will be cooking soon. It’s going to be a fishy week!
And the beauty of making fish, it really doesn’t take long to cook. You really can’t beat that on a hungry day!
To make fish soup, here’s what you’ll need:
8-10 catfish OR tilapia steaks (I used catfish)
2 large red bell peppers
4 scotch bonnet peppers/ habanero
2 tomatoes
1/2 large red onion
5 cloves garlic
Ginger (size of garlic cloves)
3.5 cups water
3 knorr cubes
1 tbsp Goya Adobo seasoning w/pepper
2 tbsps kosher salt
1 cup canola oil
1/2 cup palm oil
*Steaks are simply the fancy schmancy name for cut-up fish.
**Fish soup is of a more watery consistency than meat/chicken stew.
***4 scotch bonnet peppers sounds like a lot, but it’ll get watered down and you want to retain some heat.
1. Rinse and clean fish in cool/room temperature water. Once thoroughly cleaned of any fish gunk, drain & sprinkle salt over fish. Work salt into fish. Cover fish with cool/room temperature water for 20-25 minutes. *This is so the salt seeps into the fish and helps season it somewhat*.
2. Quarter bell peppers, onion and tomatoes. Add to blender w/ scotch bonnet peppers, garlic and ginger along with one cup water. Blend thoroughly till liquefied.
3. Heat oils in pot till smoking hot (literally). Add blended mix carefully. Cover and let cook over medium heat for 45 minutes (check and add 1 cup water every 15-20 minutes, if this is not done, your soup consistency will be too thick).
4. At this point, drain salt water from fish (don’t leave fish in salted water too long, otherwise once the fish is cooked, it’ll be tough!… trust me on this one… trial and error teaches you things!). Around the 30 minute mark, add the knorr cubes and Adobo seasoning to boiling pepper. Stir and let cook another 10 minutes.
5. Add fish, let cook another 10-15 minutes till fish starts to flake. Turn off heat and remove from stove to another cool burner. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.
Fish soup is normally served with white rice or eaten with eba.

Enjoy…

Nigerian Coconut Macaroni With Grilled Fish, Vegetables

Nigerian Coconut Macaroni With Grilled Fish, Vegetables

Nigerian coconut macaroni served with fish and vegetables.

Nigerian coconut macaroni served smoking hot. Why do I feel like I posted this coconut macaroni before? Any way, no time to go checking archives now but if later I find it in any old folder, this will be taken down, but, for now let's cook our coconut macaroni.

I labelled this Nigerian coconut macaroni cos it's cooked same way we cooked coconut rice with beef except that macaroni cooked in just ten minutes and this was cooked with just crayfish and

dry catfish.

Grilled chicken for a later post, it accidentally got here and I don't have the guts to delete this juicy chicken abeg

This grilled fish is not the one werved with the rice o. I'm just showing off my new grill pan jare. The fish served with macaroni was grilled in my old fry pan.

Adding coconut milk to my stock, all ingredients are already in, tasted for salt and seasoning before adding macaroni cos it cooks fast. before. Had beef stock in the freezer which came in handy

Sautee onion, Seasoning cubes, green pepper, tatashe, spring onion, carrots, cabbage etc if you have them. I made do with the little ingredients I could find at home. You can do with more and then less green pepper. Cook your vegetables for as long as you can enjoy but not over cooked.

Add red kidney beans to the vegetables if you like, if not maybe you try baked beans in tomato sauce:)
I added half a cup of  beef stock to make some sauce. Red Kidney beans is just bland so, season your sauce to your taste.

In ate this one, everything. Maybe that's why I have  gained a little. The gym refused to register me that I should return when baby is six months cos according to them, those exercises will affect breast milk flow. I look forward to when I can return to the gym for now, a little coconut something is not bad.

Coconut macaroni. I ate more of the macaroni than veggies, don't know why

My old fry pan. I cannot dump you o. Still very useful.

Don't know what I clicked on this camera to be getting a wrong date. I don't even need any date and can't find the manual. How can I cook this type of yummy macaroni in 2004? when then I was just using maybe only a Nokia 3310 (Those first Nokia rugged phones). In 2004 I didn't even have this camera and didn't think of sharing my recipes Online abeg. Ignore the date and just cook your coconut macaroni.

Enjoy.

Nigerian jollof rice with beans, carrots

Nigerian jollof rice with beans, carrots

A serving of jollof rice and beans.

 Nigerian jollof rice and beans is very filling. It fills you up so much so that you just keep drinking water the whole day without feeling hungry. It is very easy to cook and less expensive too. Every day is not christmas, this was cooked with only beef stock and crayfish, no meat or fish. The chicken and fish in the pics were just brought from the fridge, heated and added to garnish for serving. There is palm oil rice and beans too on the blog. You can also add beans when cooking Ghana's version of Jollof rice posted here by Celise. What I do not know and haven't tried is if beans can be added to Nigerian fried rice and coconut rice

INGREDIENTS FOR JOLLOF RICE WITH BEANS:

• 2 CUPS RICE
• 3 CUPS BEANS
• SOYA OIL
• SEASONING CUBES
• ONE MEDIUM SIZED ONION
• 3 MEDIUM SIZED CARROTS (optional)
• PEPPER SAUCE
• BEEF STOCK 
• SALT 
• WATER

HOW TO COOK NIGERIAN JOLLOF RICE AND BEANS:

cooked pot of rice and beans waiting for carrots.


Fry onion, tomatoe paste, crayfish, seasoning  and pepper in hot oil before adding the beef, chicken or whatever stock. I added frozen stock here. The stock contains pepper so, very minimal pepper was used when frying

Fry onion, tomatoe paste, crayfish, seasoning  and pepper in hot oil before adding the beef, chicken or whatever stock. I added frozen stock here. The stock contains pepper so, very minimal pepper was used when frying

Adding washed rice to boiling beans

Cooked, tender  rice with beans waiting for carrots

Cubed carrots are added to cooked rice and beans, left to simmer for 10 minutes before turning off the heat. You can leave your carrots for as long as you want but don't over cook. I am happy I didn't skip the carrots cos while rice and beans were tender, the carrots added some crunchiness.

 Heating  some  agents of protein. The head tho.

Chicken and fish were not part of the whole arrangement, these came in from the fridge just to get heated and be served to the few who can get.

 My naija carroted jollof rice with a drum stick. Some peppery sauce innit.

 Jollof rice with fish head. I love fish head but not with the gills o.

 Carrots are stirred in and left to simmer and burnnn. Burn in is for you lover of dry jollof bottom pot. For me, I like to lick the sauce with my five fingers. You very free to let your pot do some burnin' after adding the carrots and some peas maybe.

 Some sauce in well cooked soft rice and beans is the best lunch. The sauce for a starter with the steaming, hot cloudy mound of jollof as the main course. Excellently yummy for my tummy.

 Jollof rice and beans with grilled chicken

Nigerian jollof rice and beans with some sauce. Rice can be cooked till pot is dry if that's how you like it. Incase no beef or chicken stock at home, cook with just water and much crayfish. I love them watery with some sauce.
Enjoy!