Oh my God I have done it this time really and I am so excited that this is my best pot of egusi soup ever. It can be made in to pepper soup too after you add pepper soup spice instead of dawadawa. Hold tight. Just let me explain on how I made this.
Here we have are a lot of choices of protein such as 1 lb or 1 kilo of beef, goat, lamb, smoked turkey, oxtails, offals like tongue or tripe, fish, shell fish of any kind, chiken, canned fish like titus sardines and sury. If using smoked fish avoid using smoked turkey.
In 1 small pot I added 4 cups of water and this time my protein of choice was 1 lb or 1 kilo of chicken on bone and with the skin on, 7 pieces of stockfish, 1 bullion cube, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, 1 pinch each of thyme, basil, crayfish, dawadawa or pepper soup spice, 3 small pieces of lemon grass,1 small piece of ginger and 1 small pinch of tamarind instead of dawadawa only if you want egusi pepper soup, 4 dried smoked shrimp. I cooked the meat for 50 minutes on low or until it is done. But if you are cooking oxtails, tripe or tongue cook in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes after safety button pops up, let pressure escape check if water level is ok. If it is a little low add 1 more cup and cook again for another 30 minutes on medium high heat and turn off the heat once more and if using tongue peel and cut in to tiny pieces and add back to the pot with the stock.
The choice of vegetables are fresh, dried, and frozen. If using fresh add 1 bunch that has been picked and cleaned. It is spinach or turnip greens or 1 bag of frozen spinach or turnip greens or sweet potato leaves. The dried ones are 2 handfuls of either taro leaves, ugu leaves, bitterleaf and uziza leaves.
I have added the 2 handfuls each dried taro leaves, bitterleaf and uziza leaves. I added 3 tbs of red palm oil, 1 piece of dried smoked fish and stirred.
In a blender I added 1 habenero or scotch bonnet deseeded, 1 tomato, 1 bell pepper of any color, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 green onions that I chopped or I would add 1 onion or 1 shallot, 1/4 water for ease of blending, and blended it in to a puree. I added this to the pot and let it cook on low for 5 minutes.
While that was going, I added 1/2 cup of whole egusi in to my mortar and pestle and started grounding until it became a powder. I mixed this with 4 tbs of water until it became a paste and added this to the pot and cooked it for 5 minutes more. I added 2 pinches of soup thickener.
I ate this with fufu of choice.
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