Egusi soup

Ingredients

• 2 cups ground egusi (melon seeds)
• 1 kg beef, goat meat or mixed meats, in pieces
• 100 g stockfish bits, soaked until soft, or a piece of smoked fish
• ½ cup red palm oil
• 2 onions: half of one for the meat, the rest chopped
• 2 tbsp ground crayfish
• 1 or 2 scotch bonnet peppers, blended
• 2 seasoning cubes
• About 4 cups water
• 4 cups chopped spinach, or 1 cup washed bitterleaf
• Salt
• To serve: poundo yam, fufu flour or gari

Steps

1. Cook the meat

   Put the meat in a pot with the half onion, one crumbled cube and a pinch of salt. Add the stockfish and about 4 cups of water, then simmer for about 40 minutes, until the meat is tender. Keep the stock.

2. Make the egusi paste

   Mix the ground egusi with the chopped onion and about ½ cup of water into a thick paste.

3. Fry the egusi

   Heat the palm oil over medium heat without letting it smoke. Drop in the paste by spoonfuls, leave it for a minute, then turn it gently. Fry for 8 to 10 minutes, until it forms small curds and smells nutty.

4. Simmer the soup

   Pour in the stock a little at a time, then add the meat, stockfish, crayfish, pepper and the second cube. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring gently so the curds stay whole.

5. Add the greens and serve

   Stir in the spinach or bitterleaf and cook for 3 to 5 minutes more. Taste for salt and serve hot with pounded yam, fufu or eba.

Tips

• Whole stockfish needs a long soak, often overnight. Stockfish bits soften much faster.
• Rinse bitterleaf well and squeeze it to tame the bitterness.
• Frying the egusi in spoonfuls gives curds. Stirring it straight into the stock gives a smoother soup. Both are traditional.
• Egusi freezes well in portions.