Egusi soup is one of my favorite Nigerian soups and today I will be showing you how i made this
beautiful pot of goodness this recipe is all that and so much more i know i keep saying
this for all of my recipes but this one you don't want to miss out on at all and before
then please subscribe to my channel please press that red button down there plix thanks so to begin
we're going to boil some meat and here i've got some goat meat and beef i've also got some shaki
and ese eran bokoto and that's tripe and cow foot for those wondering and to season i will
be using some blended onions as well as stock cubes and salt i won't be using curry or thyme
or any other spices for this and that's because i will be cooking with the meat broth for most
Nigerian recipes of for most traditional recipes you really can't use those spices so i'm going to
be skipping those and i will also be using some scotch bonnet peppers and that's just for heat
so i won't be adding water at this time i'm just going to cover and simmer for about 20 minutes and
this helps to intensify the flavor of the meat and after 20 minutes i will check back and as you can
see there is more moisture in the pan than before and to this i will be adding just enough water to
cook the meats please be careful when you add them to it when you're adding water so you don't end up
adding too much you need your stock to be very flavorful and very concentrated and then i will
cover and leave this to cook until the meats soften since the meats have got um different
textures what i'm going to do is i'm just going to cook them together and then i will take out
the goat meat and beef when they're soft and then continue to cook the cow foot and tripe until soft
after boiling the meat you've got three options you can either use the meats as they are that's
boiled or you can fry and the third alternative is to grill i will be grilling mine i really don't
like fried meats when it comes to soups because we will be using quite a lot of oil so i'm just
trying to avoid that anyway and i will be throwing this in my grill and i will grill for about
20 minutes to about at 160 degrees Celsius that's because i don't want it too dry i still want it a
bit juicy and after grilling this is what it looks like as you can see we have lost some
meat along the way i don't know what's happened to them anyway i'm just going to set this aside
so for my Egusi soup i will be using some smoked fish as well as some locust beans
for the smoked fish i have already cooked them and i did cook them a while ago but
then i put them back in my freezer so i'm just going to pour some hot water over it and then
also pour some as well on the locust beans and soak for just about a minute and then wash off
now onto my pepper mix and for this i will be using some onions scotch bonnet peppers bell
peppers and chili that's the smaller shombo and also some paprika peppers that's the long
bell peppers so um and there's something that i learned recently that i thought i'd share with you
if i'm making soups now i prefer to use um peppers that aren't exactly fresh i don't know
how to really say you know but the ones with like wrinkles on the side you know sort of dehydrated
they taste so much better for soups because you know they are more ripe and they don't have as
much water content as the fresh ones so it's something that i think you should try because
i try the end honestly i haven't looked back since then so i will be preparing my peppers
now and what i will be doing is to chop them up and i don't like to use the seeds as well so i
will be taking them out and then throwing them in my food processor and this will be blended
roughly i know some people like to do a full blend i really don't like it and that's because i feel
like it makes my soup a bit watery and i'm trying to avoid that and also it takes a while to fry
so after doing that i'm just going to cover and then blend and after blending this is the ideal
texture well for me anyway so i'm just going to set this aside now it's time to prepare my
egusi and i'm just going to throw that in my blender cover and blend until very fine
onto the vegetable leaves you can use pretty much anything you want you can use
bitter leaves pretty much anything spinach as well but i will be using Ugu and can you believe i got
this about four days ago and it's still fresh well let me tell you something i learned so i took a
rack and i placed it over a tray and then put the the leaves on top so every day i would just
sprinkle with water like twice a day and this has helped it to retain its color and it's still fresh
so it's something that i learned at the market and i thought that i would share this with you as well
anyway so i will proceed to begin to pluck this i will just be using the scissors because it's just
much much better that way google can be really tough and i'm just going to plot this off camera
after plucking the leaves i will transfer them into a bowl and then pour some boiling water over
the leaves and this i won't be blanching because i know i did that with my efo riro recipe and that's
because i use spinach and spinach is quite watery so i won't be doing that on this occasion and
i'm just going to wash this as much as i can and then leave to soak for say just about two minutes
and then i will transfer this into my colander just to you know to see in this process i will
repeat um once again and that's just so i'm able to get rid of as much dirt and debris
or germs that's on the leaves and because honestly if you don't do this you might just
end up with an upset stomach because you never know what's you know what's on those leaves and
considering how much they have traveled i really don't trust them at all
and after washing thoroughly i will transfer them onto my chopping board and begin to slice
so usually with with ugu i tend to use really small pieces but because
this is egusi soup and i don't need too much vegetables so i'm okay with doing
bigger chunks but please feel free to do whatever size that you prefer
and afterwards i'm just going to transfer them into a bowl and then set aside for use later
and now we're back to the egusi i'm just going to transfer it into a bowl and add some crayfish
powder i'm also going to add just a little bit of warm water and then mix until i get a very thick
paste now you can also add some blended onions as well because this makes it more flavorful but i
just don't feel like on this on this occasion i know some people also add eggs or something
because it's supposed to make it lumpy i've never tried that before because i've been asked
about it a couple of times i don't use eggs at all and i'm not making lumpy accuracy anyway so
i'm just going to set this aside for years later but this is just me just showing you just how
thick the consistency is and after doing that i'm just going to place a pan on medium heat and when
it heats up i will be adding some palm oil i know some people are thinking ah all this oil let god
be judge please anyway and now i'm going to add some chopped onions and this i'm going to fry for
about two minutes please don't fry for too long otherwise your soup is going to end up too sweet
remember that egusi is sweet on its own already and then after that i will be adding some locos
beans and i will fry this again for just about two minutes as well just to release the fragrance
you also release the aroma of the locust beans i'm not going to record this part at all just
manage it and then i will go in with some crayfish powder please do not fry your crayfish for more
than 30 seconds otherwise it's going to taste better and it will ruin the taste of your soup
i know i sound like a broken record now because i keep saying this in all of my
soup videos and that's because they all have the same base in the same prep anyway i'm going to
add my pepper mix now and also add some stock cubes and salt and this i will mix thoroughly
oh i almost forgot um i will be adding my stock fish at this time and that's because
it's pre-cooked but it's not as soft as i want it to be so i'm just going to add it
um quite early and then just mix thoroughly cover and leave to fry for about 25 to
30 minutes but please check on it every now and then so it does not burn
and after 30 minutes this is what my stew looks like as you can see the oil has settled onto the
top and that's to let you know that it is quite dry at the moment and then i'm just going to stare
and that's just to raise up whatever burns made but i don't think mine has burnt at all
and to this i will be adding my meat i will also be adding some for more i
forgot to mention earlier that i had some in my freezer so i'm just going to add that to it and
mix thoroughly and this i will leave to fry for about five to ten minutes
and after about six to seven minutes i will begin to add my smoked fish
and this i will mix thoroughly and then leave to simmer for
say about two to three minutes or just until the smoked fish absorbs the flavor of the stew
and at this time i'm going to begin to add my meat broth the amount you add is going to depend
on whether you like your stew fluid or you like it thick i prefer mine thick so i'm just going to add
just a little bit and you can also use water but bear in mind that if you add water at this time
you're going to dilute the flavors that you have built up along the way so you're going to need to
re-season and i'm just going to mix thoroughly and then cover and leave to cook for about two minutes
and after two minutes just see how gorgeous this two looks it already looks like proper fried stew
i mean at this point i just wanted to just boil rice and just eat with it there is nothing as
beautiful as just patiently frying these two for a four-year-old or a goosey soup honestly
the reward that comes out of out of that patience it can't be matched with anything at all anyways
i'm going to start adding my usables i know i did say that i'm not making lumpy egg whiskey
but this is the way to retain you know that beautiful egusi texture even without the lumps
because if it's too fluid you know it would you wouldn't like i i don't know it just it
just looks a bit a bit off if it hasn't got the texture to it so this i'm just going to
cover and then i will leave this to cook for about 10 to 15 minutes on low to medium heat
and you really want to make sure that your egressing is well cooked otherwise you might
end up with an upset stomach it does take a while for a greasy to fully cook so be wary of that
now after about 15 minutes i will check back on the stew and then i will begin to break the egusi
bones now it's up to you if you want your egusi lumpy what you can do is you can sort of break
into half so one half is fully mixed and the other half is left lumpy but i don't want mine
on pure tone i just want that texture to it so at this point i will begin to add my ogre leaves
now if you're going to be using some bitter leaves or uzizah now is the time to add that as well i'm
only using ogu and that's fine with me and i will add it gradually as well so i don't end up with
too much leaves in it and now i will add a bit of meat stock as well if you if you haven't got that
you can use water and that's just to make it a bit more fluid and then go in with some crayfish
now the reason for adding crayfish at the end is just so i don't end up using too many you know
too much salt or seasoning cubes crayfish works so beautifully well for soups and then i will leave
to sema for two minutes and this is what it looks like absolutely beautiful this is my ideal legume
that's because i can use it for rice i can use it for swallow whatever it just goes beautifully well
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share like comment and if you do replicate this recipe please let me know how you get
on i love to read from you and i hope to see you in my next video until then bye