I have been having a hard time trying to get egusi to lump for the longest and boom I went on my youtube account and seen Nigerian Cusine’s eguisi soup video and bam he got the egusi to lump using an egg. However I do not get ground egusi because it does not last too long even though they sell it in an African store. I get the whole seeds and use my mortar and pestle to turn it in to a powder when I want some egusi soup. Now I know the egg makes the egusi to lump I am going to keep using it.
My earliest attempts to make egusi soup is that the ground egusi scattered and did not form right on me. Using my steel mortar and pestle I added 4 handfuls of egusi and I ground it in to a fine powder. I added 1 egg to my freshly ground egusi powder in my mortar and used a spoon to mix it up. I also added 6 stockfish pieces to a small pot and boiled for 15 to 20 minutes or until they were soft.
I added to the egusi mixture 1 pinch each of crayfish and dawadawa and mixed again. I took the stockfish pieces out of the pot and the water that remained in them in a bowl. It was not much water in there just a tiny bit which I added to the noodles later.
I added 3 tbs of red palm oil and added the egusi mixture and turned the flame on low. The egusi mixture on cue lumped up nicely. I am pleased with the result and yay me for picking things up quickly.
I bought some aji limo peppers and I wanted to try it out for this dish and I removed one from the freezer and cut it and took the seeds out. I used 1 aji limo which is a Peruvian pepper. I told Nigerianlazychef aka Nma Okpara about it and she is right that chilies tastes great with noodles. Those aji limos can be found at a lot of grocery stores that sells Spanish food because they sourse lots of products from the Caribbean, Mexico, South America and other Latin American countries.
I add 1 cup of water to my pot to keep the egusi from burning and I turn it on low at this point. My mortar holds 1 cup of water also it means it is pretty small but it does the job I want it to do.
I add the seasoned packet of the noodles I have used for this one and it was an Indomie beef flavor one. Ok Indomie was made in Indonisia which is a muslim country by the way. All of the halal stores carry them too. There is a store that is close to me that sells everything. It is because my neighborhood is mixed and it is a UN here.
Trust me this is the best place to be where it has what you want under one roof and you do not have to goo looking. This is fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!
I added the noodles and let it cook until it got soft. I added 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, 3 chopped green onions, 1 clove of garlic chopped, and 2 pinches of dried taro leaves and 1 pinch of uziza leaves I had rinced and added it to the pot and stirred.
By this time the egusi started to show some oil. The top of the soup looked oily and I added 1 can of titus sardines at the end, gave it a light stir and shut off the burner. I covered the pot for 5 minutes so the flavors can marry. Oh do not drain the oil from the titus sardines because this help adds flavor.
I am very pleased with myself on how this dish turned out and it was delicious.
For those that can not sourse aji limo pepper it is ok to add whatever chili you like that is available to you.
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