Acually this is the first time I made afang soup. From what I read that it uses achi as a thickener but I can not find them even at the African stores here in Chicago. So what I did is that I washed off 3 cocoyams or taro as it is also called. I cooked them in a pressure cooker with 1/2 gallon or 2 liters of water for 30 minutes then turned off the burner to let the pressure escape. You set the timer when the safety button goes up then set the timer for 3o minutes.
I would use 1 lb or 1 kilo of beef, lamb, goat or veal or I would add 1 lb or 1 kilo of oxtail, lamb necks and tripe,
Instead of periwinkles which are also hard to get a hold of that I use a can of clams, oysters or mussels. I found some cooked smoked mussles and that is ok too. When I found them that they were in the shell.
I added 4 tbs of palm oil to the pot and cut either 1 onion or shallot in to half moon slices and added them to the oil and fried them till they were golden. I took down some beef last night and I thought it was beef stew meat but instead it was thin pieces of steak. Ok to make lemonaide out of lemons again, with my kitchen shears I cut the slices of steak in to strips and used it anyway.
I had 2 pieces of dried fish and 4 stockfish pieces that I had soaked from the night before in my fridge and added them to the pot after I had rinsed them. I mashed the 3 cocoyams that I had cooked before I started making the soup. I added 1 quart or 1 liter of water.
This would serve as a thickener. I added 1 chopped clove of garlic and 1 chopped scotch bonnet or habenero chili. I added 1 bullion cube and 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma and stirred. I added 4 to 5 pinches of ukazi. Since I can’t get utazi leaves I ended up using baby spinach. I added the mussels I had bought and added 1 pinch of crayfish stirred and let it cook for 20 minutes.
Please bear in mind that this is my first attempt at making this soup and I really like it.
