Ekpang With Biscuit Bones And Fish

How to cook ekpang with biscuit bones and fish Ekpang or ikokore as called by the Ijebus is a very healthy meal, especially when cooked with green vegetables. It is easily digested. Babies and children who get introduced to ekpang cannot do without it.  This exact dish can be cooked with grated unripe bananas, and cocoyam ( Not the type of cocoyam used for onugbu soup). TYPES OF YAMS AND COCOYAMS TO USE FOR COOKING EKPANG The pink or white cocoyam found in Southern Nigeria. Market women know the type used for ekpang. I hear the onugbu cocoyam is also very good but I haven’t tried it. It is best for wrapped ekpang because it doesn’t unwrap itself even with constant stirring of the pot. One thing about the onugbu soup type cocoyam is that it itches, so, to cook ekpang with it, one has to wash it with warm water and then rub palm oil on the palms while grating. With this done, you can be sure of very good ekpang from onugbu cocoyam. I Will try cooking this with unripe bananas and share the pics with us.

chopping hot leaf for my ekpang

 

WHY USE HOT LEAF (UZIZA)?

he reason I used chopped hot leaf instead of the normal green or fluted pumpkin is to give a hot flavor and to try something different. After eating this, other vegetables will have to wait for a while when it comes to cooking ekpang.

Ekpang is mostly eaten in the Southern parts of Nigeria. It is called ekpang nkwukwor when they wrap the water yam with cocoyam leaves. However, I can’t spend long hours in the kitchen wrapping, so, I cook it my way and it is DELICIOUS and healthy. So, what else am I looking for in a meal?
This is a delicacy!

Real eaters of ekpang do not use cutleries. I licked my fingers well. Every one ate with cutleries except moi. I wanted to enjoy it the traditional way.

Manually Grating water yam for ekpang using a hand held grater.

Water yam is very easy to grate. Peel, wash and cut into pieces my hand can handle before grating. The best result comes when you cook small quantities.

Frying chopped onions, ground red pepper with Knorr cubes in palm oil

INGREDIENTS FOR COOKING MY SIMPLE  NUTRITIOUS EKPANG WITH BONES AND FISH

INGREDIENTS

1. Grated water yam from 1 small sized tuber
2. Green vegetables ( pumpkin, green amaranth or hot leaf) this was cooked with hot leaf (uziza)
3. 2 cups Periwinkles (optional)
4. Two kg Beef Biscuit bones
5.  2 large sized dried catfish 
6. 3 cups Palm oil
7. 1 tablespoon ground Pepper (ata rodo)
8. 2 seasoning cubes
9. 1 small sized red Onion 
10. Salt to taste
11. Boiling Water, enough to cover the meats for a start, you can adjust by adding more water while cooking.

Dropping grated water yam in a pot of boiling beef stock

COOKING STEPS FOR MY SIMPLE EKPANG WITH BISCUIT BONES AND FISH

1. After frying chopped onion, ground pepper and Knorr cubes in palm oil
2. The beef stock got from boiling the beef biscuit bones  is added, salt checked, and brought to a boil
3. Grated water yam is dropped into the boiling water in tiny pieces
4. The pot is covered again without stirring yet. It boils and hardens before stirring
5. The salted, boiled biscuit bones are added

Added boiled biscuit bones to the boiling pot of ekpang

6. After adding the boiled  biscuit bones, your fried or dried fish without the bones, and covering for a little while, the hot leaf (uziza) is added

Learn how to cook wrapped ekpang.