Otong Soup

Otong soup and ayan ekpang is my dad’s favourite dish. Till tomorrow I will never understand why. If you want to get anything from him, just make this dish or beans and he would be willing to do almost anything. Ok i may be exaggerating a bit but he really does like it. For those that do not know what ayan ekpang is, it is a mixture of cocoyam and water yam that is steamed to use as swallow for soups. People from Akwaibom generally use this as part of their swallow in addition to the others. Ekpang is the actual mix of cocoyam and wateryam and ayan means long. It is then wrapped in banana leaves in a cylindrical shape so it is long and steamed. Enjoy my offering of Otong soup.

Recipe for Otong Soup

Ingredients

20 fingers of Okro (chopped and pounded)

1 pound of beef

1 cup of snails

1 cup of shrimps

1 cup of tripe (shaki)

A bunch of Ugwu – pumpkin leaves ( Substitute spinach) – chopped

A handful of chopped Uziza leaves

1 medium sized stockfish

1/2 cup of crayfish pieces

Stock cubes

Salt to taste

1 scotch bonnet pepper (chopped)

2 cooking spoons of palm oil

Method

Season and boil your beef, tripe, snail and stockfish till soft.

Add the shrimp to the pot of beef and allow to cook as well. Add little water as needed.

Add your chopped scotch bonnet pepper and crayfish pieces and allow to simmer for 2 mins.

Season as necessary and pour in your okro, add the chopped vegetables and your oil. Stir and take off the heat and serve with swallow.

Tip: Once you have added the okro, do not cover the pot so the okro can still draw.