You are not going to believe this. Mr. Riaz came down with a nasty cold and then I got it. Today he said he wanted yakhni and I said I will make pepper soup instead. It is just because I love to eat it when I am feeling under the weather so it can give me a good sweat and open me up and help me breathe better.
Last night and today I felt miserable with the sore throat and runny nose that was driving me bananas. It is a slang term here for saying it was driving me crazy.
I added to the blender 1 green or red tomato, 1 small piece of ginger washed peeled and chopped, 2 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped, 1 onion or shallot peeled and chopped, 1 habenero or scotch bonnet cut and deseeded, 1/4 cup of water for ease of blending. This gets set aside after it gets blended.
I perfer homemade pepper soup spice. If you prefer then you can use 2 pinches of store bought version. This gets set aside until it is needed.
The proteins of choice are 1 lb or 1 kilo of tripe, lamb, fish, shrimp, goat, beef, veal, chicken, chicken gizzards, scallops, turkey, smoked turkey, oxtails, 4 goat’s feet. 6 goat’s or lamb’s tongues, 1 cow’s tongue. 4 crabs, 1 can of fish such as oysters, clams, mussels either in brine or oil.
Time to precook your protein of choice, for tripe this is the one you have to worry about the most because it is in dire need of cleaning. In a large mixing bowl add 1 drop of dish soap and fill it up with water. The tripe should be completely submereged and this is after you remove all of the fatty bits from the smooth side of the tripe itself.
Swish it around and then squeeze it gently as you go. Drain and rinse the tripe 5 to 6 times and cut the tripe in to pieces then add 1 oz of white vinegar and add tripe back to bowl full of cold running water and wash and rinse another 5 to 6 times more.
For precooking fish spray skillet with cooking spray and on high heat cook until it is opaque. The best ideal fish to use is very firm fish like perch, catfish, tilapia, swaii, flounder and cod or other types of fish filets.They can be fresh or frozen if frozen thaw out before using like any other type of meats.
I boiled my chicken on the stovetop and the water in the coldero was covering the chicken. I cooked it for 20 minutes on low heat.
For meat that takes longer to cook like oxtails, chicken gizzards, tripe, tongue from either lamb, goat or cow, goat, lamb, veal, beef, goat’s feet, turkey or smoked turkey gets cooked in the pressure cooker unseasoned. Just make sure the water is covering the meat. The amount of water is used is 2 liters or 1/2 gallon of water. On high heat is where you start building the pressure. The safety button pops up and cook it for 30 minutes.
Shut heat off and let pressure escape. Open and see how soft the meat is. If it is very soft at this point it is no need to cook for another 30 minutes. Sometimes gizzards, tripe. tongues, and goat’s feet takes longer. Add 1 more cup of water if still a little tough turn heat back on to high, cover and again cook for another 30 minutes.
After this the hard to cook meat should be ready. Please do not throw away the stock. Remove the tongue and let cool then peel and cut in to pieces then set aside.
Don’t worry about the canned fish because this goes in at the very last and also so does the precooked fish. We are now ready to assemble the pepper soup with all of this prep work out of the way. If using shrimp, peel and devein before you saute them using cooking spray. Crab you can boil and keep the reserve stock. I like blue crabs for this because they are cheep.
There is also a little optional ingredients too for those that do not want to eat any fufu. As you can see I had fufu with mine and my choice was pounded yam. You can add near the end if you want 1 lb or kilo of chopped okra this can be fresh or frozen. Just chop it in the food processor and add to the soup. You can also add either 2 green plantains, 1 small yam or 2 potatoes, which are peeled and cut in to large chunks, 4 cocoyams, boil these for 10 minutes so you would not itch while you are peeling them, or 1 fresh cassava peeled or 1 small bag of frozen cassava if you do not want the fuss and bother. All you have to do is cut it in half and take the string out of it. These get set aside for later.
To assemble the soup you will need a coldero. Add 2 tbs of palm oil, the stew base and cook it until the rawness goes away. Add 1 pinch each of crayfish, sent leaf or basil, thyme, bitter leaf 1 small piece of tamarind, 1 small piece of prekese, the pepper soup spice either homemade and or 1 pinch of the store bought, the homemade one was in my mortar and pestle. Add 3 stalks of lemon grass. 1 bullion cube, 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, stir then add your protein or proteins of choice if you are going to make an assorted meat version.
There are so many types of pepper soup this is the reason why I am doing it like this. Since mine was chicken I added the chicken plus the stock from the chicken itself. If you used shrimp, fish or other types of seafood like canned oysters, clams or mussles then you can go ahead and add the required water that is in place of the stock.
If you cooked meat in the pressure cooker then you can add the meat and the stock from this meat in to the pot and stir. For all others except for fish and other types of shellfish, this gets cooked for another 20 minutes. If you do not want chopped okra, potatoes yam, casava cocoyam or plantain then go ahead and eat as is like I did with pounded yam, agidi, eba or other types of fufu that you prefer.
If you want these optional things like okra, potatoes, plantain, cocoyam, yam and casava then go ahead and add these and cook for the final 20 minutes. Stir occationaly and add the fish and other seafoods in nearly the last minute and cook for 5 minutes and turn off the heat.
Remember the fish and shellfish does not take very long to cook and do not over cook them. This is why I precooked them so they can hold their shape and not scatter then add to the pot near the end of cooking time. Also you can add 1 can of either sardines or mackeral in tomato sauce at the end and be careful not to break the fish in to pieces and let it warm through then turn off heat. This too is an optional ingredient.
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