Abak Mbakara Soup or Efik Banga Soup

Growing up in an Efik Household, I got to experience many dishes outside of the regular egusi, ogbono etc. I have to admit that some of the dishes are variations of the popular dishes while some are entirely new dishes. Abak Mbakara is a variation of the traditional Urhobo Banga soup. I have also noticed that with Nigerian soups, once you replace one ingredient, the soup has a totally different name. Anybody else noticed that? Without further ado, I present to you Abak Mbakara.

Recipe for Efik Banga Soup

Ingredients

1 large Fresh Fish/1 pound of beef

1 cup of chopped Shaki (Tripe)

1 cup of stockfish bits

1 cup of periwinkle (optional)

1 medium bowl of Palm fruit (palm nut cream substitute)

1 small bunch of water leaves(spinach substitute)

5 medium sized Scotch bonnet peppers (fresh pepper)

2 tablespoons of crayfish

Seasoning cubes

4 cups of water

1/2 teaspoon of salt (or add more as desired)

Method

Wash and boil the palm fruit with water till soft

Pound till the fibres of the palm fruit have separated from the nut.

Add 3 cups of water to the palm fruit and strain in a pot and bring to boil.

(You can skip above steps if you have the canned palm nut cream)

Mix the palm nut cream with water and bring to boil.

If using fresh fish, clean, season and steam the fish and set aside.

If using beef, shaki(beef tripe) and pomo(cow skin), season and bring to boil and set aside.

Add the periwinkle if using that to the palm fruit mixture and ground crayfish and allow to boil till sauce starts to thicken.

Add your protein of choice at this point and stir gently.

Add the rest of your seasoning and fresh pepper and allow to simmer.

Wash and shred your waterleaves or spinach and add to the soup. Allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes as you still want to retain the nutrients in your vegetables.

Serve with Eba, Pounded yam or any carbohydrate of your choice.

Worked with Willyverse on the final product. Be sure to check out his Photography exhibition coming up on June 26th 2013 if you are in the Toronto area.