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Stirring my Calabar Afang soup with a wooden spoon . |
| Afang Okazi Vegetable Soup With Ease.. This is a meal I can comfortably eat every day, provided it is served just once a day. This vegetable soup takes time to cook if you do not know the trick of getting everything ready and set, before turning on the cooker. |
HOW TO COOK AFANG OKAZI VEGETABLE SOUP
INGREDIENTS:
- 4 cups pounded afang leaves, after cutting o Vegetable (Ugu can be used instead for those who do not like afang leaves. Cooking method is same)
- 1 stock fish wrap
- 2 bunches Water leaf OR Spinach
- 3 large Kpomo (cow skin)
- 1 kg Beef
- 2 medium sized Smoked catfish
- 4 large Snails (optional )
- 2 cups shrimps (optional)
- Two cups of mushrooms
- 2 cups Periwinkles mfi). Without the shell
- 1 cup ground Crayfish
- 2 Seasoning Cubes plus 1 cube to boil meat
- Salt to taste
- 1 small red Onion to boil meat
- A teaspoon of ground fresh Pepper
- 1 cup Palm Oil
- Water enough to cover the meat, you can adjust later with more water if soup gets too thick.
COOKING STEPS: Afang Okazi Vegetable Soup With Ease.
- Put the washed beef and stockfish in a cooking pot
without adding water.
- Add chopped onion, salt, some pepper and the one seasoning cube. Cover and allow the juice from the washed beef to cook until the pot dries up a bit.
- Now, some water to cover the meat so it makes stock for your soup, check for salt and let it boil before adding the washed snails, and kpomo, then allow to boil on the stove
for about 10 minutes.If the stockfish and kpomo start getting tender before soup is ready, to avoid them falling off, remove from the pot and keep in a separate container. Once snails boil and get hard and crunchy, remove too and set aside till later.
- Now, the palm oil goes in, Let the beef continue to cook until it is tender. If there is need for more water, salt or seasoning, you can add to taste.Your ground crayfish and smoked fish should be added at this time and allowed to cook for about 3 minutes. Remember that overcooked smoked fish falls off. It doesn’t need much cooking. (Shop blender
).
- When the meat and smoked fish have boiled a little, You then pour in the cooked stock fish, periwinkles, snails and kpomo that were set aside. If there is some mushrooms, you can add them now.
- As soon as the mushrooms are added, the washed and pounded or ground Afang ( If you are cooking with Ugu, there is no need for pounding or grinding with mortar and pestle
).Just add to boiling pot. Stir gently with a wooden spoon to avoid crushing the delicate mushrooms and smoked fish. Then Stir until the content is properly mixed together, check for salt and let it simmer for about 1 to 2 minutes before removing pot from heat.
TIPS: Leave the cooking pot open so that the green vegetables do not continue cooking cos of heat.
Now, If you allow the vegetables to boil, then the freshness is lost. I love my veggies GREEN!! Sometimes, I add the crayfish at the same time with the vegetables. *Do not parboil the water leaf because doing so will destroy the nutrients.
If you must parboil, don’t let it overcook. You can squeeze out some juice from the water leaf like the Efik people do but do not over squeeze please. You can parboil the water leaf and drain excess water before adding to the soup if you want.
- Mix your garri with enough boiled water to prevent it from turning hard.
- Serve hot and enjoy. It can be served with pounded yam, semovita, amala, etc.
NOTE:
Even if you decide to leave all ingredients out, do not leave out crayfish, stockfish and smoked fish. They give afang soup that yummy taste we all love.
OMG! See soup,choi! U jst got my interest. Thanks for givn me diff varieties of food to bé cooking for my family. Besides,i nid tips on easy fd to snack for my hubby. He loves snacking
Please you dint mention when to add the waterleaf. Is it before or after the addition of Afang.
Both are added at the same time. no one should over cook.
Plz,when adding the water leaf,is it allowed some time to bring out its water before adding the Afang? Also I noticed you always put off the heat as soon as you pour in your veggies,after stirring. Won't it taste uncook even though it is stil green? I tot it should be allowed a minute or two with low heat.
Aunty eya. I dare nt try dis ur method@ home cos mumsi wuld tonguelash me. Its a gd way of cookn. But d waterleaf shuld boil atleast 5 mins b4 addn afang.
You also mentioned cooking meat with pepper,please is it fresh or dry Ground pepper. I Anticipate your reply. Thanks.
Hi Joy, I cook with fresh pepper.
If you allow water leaf to bring out it's water, it will make your soup watery.
No, it doesn't taste uncooked. Check with your tongue and even chew, if you are Ok, then turn off the heat.
Any green leaf hope you didn't use efo or green,bet me if you use that ain't no way it is going out well… lol
Thanks joy for asking almost all my questions.lol. Aunty Eya, is it possible to use iru or okpei for vegetable soup? Pls reply.
Hmmmm yummy yummy.
thank u anty eya and d quick response via my email
Hello eya, u didn't post my mail. Quick ejaculation
I think it's possible though I haven't tried it.
Chai,anty eya #smh# to open this kind of thing for staff room this morning be as eget Oo°˚˚˚°! I don dey hungry already. Infact,e no go easy this weekend.i go follow A̶̲̥̅♏ step by step ♍α̲̅kƸ ¶ no ♍α̲̅kƸ mistake =))º°˚˚˚°ºнaĦaнaº°˚˚˚°º=)).Thanks anty eya.regards to baby.EPHY
Ooooooh, U don make hungry dey catch me now! Choi…. Yommy! Nice one
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My husband loves afang and since I am not a fan, I never bother to make it. This looks so good, I am tempted to try it.
Eya, I have 2 questions for you. I tried this soup the week before and here are my observations. PS: I would like a reply from you.
The first time I ate this soup, the afang leaves could be seen (okazi)
I blended mine but I didn't really like the result. I think next time, I will just cut it up and dump into the soup. I CAN'T pound and don't intend to. So the question is, is it okay to just cut the okazi leaves and not pound or blend it? Would this make any difference?
Number two, I used the periwinkle with shells. I washed and washed and washed with enough salt and water. I even cut the tail but i noticed when sucking it, I was still tasting sand and dirty stuff. ayama! I don't want to give up on using periwinkle with shells. What can i do next time to avoid this? Steph
Anon 13:56, yes you can cook without pounding but need to cut and recut into tiny bits. Blending is great when you don't cook with much stock. Water added to blend plus much stock equals watery
For the periwinkle ,wash with salted very warm water. Continue to change water until clean before adding to soup.
hello ma, I must commend your cookings I hv learnt a lot from it too thnx. but can I say that afang is our Calabar meal and I must add that onions is a very big NO in Afang soup…because its interaction with afang gives something else …even periwinkle is optional n personal choice n not part of the recipe…I enjoyed your meal though
How do you boil meat without onions. From the recipe here, Aunty Eya didn't pour onion in the soup, she used it to boil her meat and that's how I cook mine too. btw, I'm Akwa Ibom.
Ugu cannot be used when cooking Afang… only Okazi (Afang) and waterleaf is used
Ugu is used for Edikanikong Soup
Sorry about your afang soup result. I think that blending requires so many ingredients else your soup won't be tasty as the blended leaves taste very strong in the soup. You can cut and recut and recut again until they look so like pounded, then use, the result will be great. My favourite is pounding before use though.
For the periwinkle, use the ones removed from shell. If you prefer them with their shell, then you need to cut the tips off, parboil them with water and watch the dirty stuff come out, then you rinse with plenty water, rinse until the water becomes clean and clear, then add to the soup.