HOW TO PREPARE EGUSI SOUP AND STEW
Hello fellow steemians,
How are you all doing? I hope you all are fine, I am here once more with you all to share a very interesting and educating article which I titled how to prepare egusi soup and I promise to give a detailed and complete explanation by breaking it down bit by bit for more better understanding.
Egusi which is called melon is an Igbo name given to a plant of high value and great nutrient, it is mostly planted in West Africa in countries like Nigeria, Ghana and many others. Egusi or melon is part of a staple ingredients used in preparing native delicacies especially soup and melon seed cake which serves as a native dessert or appetizer. Egusi seed has an oval shape with a pointed apex and a fleshy membrane and a brown flake-like coat, it is a leguminous plant. Before it can be pounded for use, the flakes of the seed has to be removed by twisting the seed and when you twist the seed the brittle coat falls off revealing a white membranous seed rich in oil, protein and vitamins.
Egusi seed contains oil and this oil is good for the heart because it is not fatty and it contains an appreciable amount of protein and vitamins like vitamin k which is good for blood clothing, vitamin E which helps in fertility. It also contains antioxidants and minerals which helps in the boosting of immunity. Most African foods are very healthy and egusi is one of these staple food items which helps to maintain health, the egusi seed itself is extracted from a bigger seed which contains the Egusi seed packed in aggregates.
To extract egusi one needs to crack the bigger seed and allow it to decay and when it decays it makes it very easy to extract in a jelly like mass which is washed and seperated in a basket and sun-dried ready to be shelled and when it is shelled it is grinded into powder or pounded, when it is ginded or pounded , a milky white powdry substance is formed and now ready for the preparation of egusi soup or melon seed cake which is called mkpurusu or akpurakpu in our native language.
To prepare egusi soup, there are some ingredients which must be provided so as to have a successful preparation of the soup and these ingredients are ; meat or fish, crayfish, palmoil, onion, dry pepper, stockfish, cube spices or maggi and egusi. All these ingredients are very necessary when it come to the preparation of this very soup.
First of all, the stock fish, meat and fish should be washed thoroughly and put inside the pot used for preparing the food with a very little water added to it to steam it up. After some minutes, you will find out that it has been heated, you can now pour the amount of water which will be used to prepare the soup.
The next thing to do after pouring the water is to add your pounded onions and pepper into the pot and also the maggi with the palm oil, after that you can now pour in the grinded egusi and your sliced ukazi or any other lead. After these, wait for some minutes and when you check on it you will not tht your soup is ready!
To prepare egusi stew these are some of the ingredients to be provided are: Tomatoes,pepper,onions,crayfish,fish or meat and small amount of groundnut oil. It is a very delicious meal and also a native food known for its great taste and also high in nutrition.
To cook this stew, pour your egusi in a bowl of of water and use a spoon to dissolve it in the water. After this get a pot and after heating the pot, pour the groundnut oil and after about five seconds pour your tomatoes,meat or fish and the dissolved egusi inside the pot and fry them. After this pour a very small amount of water in the pot and pour in your pounded onions,pepper and crayfish.After this, wait for five minutes and you will notice that the stew is now ready for use
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@steem4nigeria