benazir's blog

Abacha This Is The Way I Made It

I have collected I don’t know how many recipes on abacha which is African salad. I decided one day that I am going to try this out for myself. I have gotten hooked on it right away. I already love cassava and fish so I was instantly smitten.

For me it was trial and error on making abacha. The first time I made it I soaked it in hot water and it turned out mushy. It didn’t look like the picture anyway. I even taken the first abacha photo and posted it in so you can cook group in facebook. I know I can be my own worst critic and the people in there was very helpful to me. I want to say thanks.

I comb the net looking for new ideas to pin in Pinterest so I can refer on it later. Every cook has their own way of doing things and now I know for a fact not everyone does it the same way.

I am amazed there are a lot of people that loves Asian food in that group too. They very much love curries and such. The next time I made it turned out a little better and 3rd time I made it mushy again. Then I said note to self avoid soaking your abacha in hot water, if you do it will get soggy and that is the problem. I haven’t done it again and lesson learned also if it is soaked for too long even in cold water it can become mushy too.

This is how I learned how to make it and being a bookworm and loving to read has its perks. Even if you are sitting in front of the pc all day long you are doing nothing but reading. Just think about it before you hit your power button for those that say they hate to read. Lol , it is true and get used to it because you have to read. Living through life you have to read and even reading a recipe from other people you have to gage on how much you really need.

I took out my pot and used some stockfish pieces and boiled them. Dried fish can also be used and also a can of titus sardines is so yummy in abacha. I boil the stockfish pieces and dried fish when I forget to soak it the night before. If boiling then I boil them to make it soft and getting the exta salt out of the dried fish. I use up to 4 pieces of stockfish and 1 piece of dried fish. I drain the fish and leave a little of the reserve of the water for the sauce for this dish.

I added 4 tbs of red palm oil in a small pot and melt it a little bit and switch off the stove. In 1 tsp of water I disolve 1 pinch of baking soda. Traditionaly they use edible potash but it is hard to find and they are suggesting baking soda which is a huge help and it works great. It turns the palm oil orange and it thickens it up.

I add the baking soda solution and stir until I have a nice orange color sauce. This is the same procedure also used for making isiewu and nkwobi. Isiewu and nkwobi are differntly made also at the end though and we well talk about that later.

I add 1 bullion cube to this, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, I grate some nutmeg or ehru wich I just found at an African market and stir. I wish I had some calabash nutmeg but I can’t find any still and what am I going to do? I look high and low and still I can’t find. I heard and read I can use baby spinach instead of utazi because that too is so hard to find. I soak 3 handfuls of abacha and 3 pinches of ugba in cold water for 2 minute and strain and add to the palm oil sauce and mix.

Here in Chicago there are African markets and other bigger stores that sells African products. I look everywhere. I would add 1 handful of baby spinach if I had it on hand and I cut one garden egg or 1 baby eggplant in small pieces and add it. I add 1 pinch of each of paprika, red chili powder, crayfish and dawadawa powder. Also you can add dried smoked shrimp or if you want to add both a can of Titus sardines and the dried smoked fish this is ok too. Even 1 pinch of boni bongo fish powder is good too and I finally found utazi and it was dry.

I stir and add my stockfish and dried fish pieces or sometimes I switch up and add 1 can of titus sardines and its oil and stir. I swap this out for the dried fish though. The stockfish is non negotiable lol, sorry. I mix it again and I add 1 onion sliced in half moon pieces. I use white, yellow, red, brown and the sweet vadialia onion and would even add a shallot.

The stockfish pieces, dawadawa powder, palm oil, abacha, and ugba you can find in any African store. The Indian and Pakistani stores sells the best red chili powder and paprika and sometimes the stores selling products from the Caribbean too also sells dried fish. It is herring and in Spanish it is called aranka .

Besides I find myself eating this with jollof rice or jollof spaghetti and moin moin.

Go back