TRADITIONAL FOOD IN MY COUNTRY

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This is my participation post for the "Traditional food from your country" contest. I wish to invite @kinase, @ebidek and @euginealexis, and any other persons who would like to participate too to CLICK HERE

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Food, an essential part of every human existence, comes in different colours and degrees of cooking, but in the end, it all boils down to filling the stomach and nourishing the body in general.

Different foodstuff is prepared differently in different parts of the world and this, in turn, earns that geographical area the right to call it its native meal. It doesn't necessarily mean it is eaten there always as in some cases only in rare celebrations do we get to these meals.
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I am a Nigerian, I might have echoed this in almost every one of my articles and more so a Niger Deltan. So today, I will take you through the journey on how to prepare one of the most popular cuisines in this region of Nigeria. The ever famous "BANGA SOUP". This is a type of soup cooked using Palm Oil fruit juice (concentrates) and it's used to eat baked cassava flour (Locally called Eba), semovita, or pounded yam. But we, the real Niger Delta indigenes prefer it with Starch. Trust me in the end, you would wanna try to recreate it and enjoy it yourself. Lol.

Banga soup is one of the most delicious and nourishing soups made from palm fruit juice. All it needs is a combination of perfect spice flavourings, a variety of meat and fish. A very easy recipe trusted by our mothers to deliver terrific results!.

INGREDIENTS
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• Palm Fruits
• Meat (Beef or preferably assorted)
• Dried Cat Fish (Most people prefer the fresh though)
• Vegetable (Dried and crushed bitter leaves)
• Onions (2 medium sizes)
• Ground crayfish (3 tablespoons)
• Salt
• Fresh Chilli pepper
• 2 Stock cubes

PROCEDURES FOR BANGA SOUP

GETTING SET

1. Extract the palm fruit juice (or concentration) from the palm fruits by boiling them with water, then squeeze the juice.
2. Steam the meat using 1 bulb of diced onion and 1 stock cube, adding salt and pepper to taste.
3. Cut the remaining bulb of the onion and grind the chilli pepper using a dry mill or mortar and pistol.

COOKING DIRECTIONS

1. Place the pot of palm fruit juice (concentrate) extract on your heat source (Gas, stove or even firewood) and start cooking at high heat. Leave to boil till you observe red oil at the top of the boiling pot. But, if it's too watery to your taste, cook till the soup is thick enough for your taste.
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2. Now, add the sliced onion, the dry fish stock, the ground crayfish, the dried Cat Fish and Meat and the ground fresh chilli pepper and allow to boil very well.

3. Add your Dried and crushed bitter leave

4. Add salt and a stock cube to taste and leave to cook for about 2 minutes. After two minutes, your Banga Soup is ready to be served.

N/B: If your use dried bitter leave, try not to insert any spoon in the boiling pot.

For your maximum enjoyment, serve with starch or a Nigerian fufu meal. It can also be served with boiled white rice, pounded yam, baked cassava flour (Eba as we Nigerians call it).

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And that’s it. why not give this Banga soup a try, trust me you’ll love it! DELICIOUS!!😋😋

Like always, because I can't be here to write without you all on the other side, I can never stop being appreciative of your great works. Thank you all for always making out time to go through my work. I can never say thank you enough. You are my real MVPs.

THANKS TO YOU ALL!!!

NOTE: Always have a smile on your face, as you are never fully dressed without one.