Margi Special

The dishes that come out of Nigeria never cease to amaze me. Especially the dishes from Northern Nigeria. A long time ago, my friend told me about this dish from Adamawa called Meltuble. She said it was one of her favourite dishes but was unique to her mom’s village. Fast forward to a few years, I also learned that a similar dish was made in Borno state and it was called Margi Special. I went back to her with the name to ask if it was the same dish and she confirmed it was. She said some other cultures in Adamawa called it Margi Special.

After a lot of experiments, and trying different people’s versions of Margi special, I came up with my own version and I can say the basics of the dish are present. I have still not told you what the basics of the dish are. Catfish must be present, White zobo leaves must be present, tomatoes, pepper and onions must be present and Green vegetables preferably Yakuwa leaves must be present which you can also substitute with green vegetables available to you. The rest I leave up to your cooking experimental judgements. Without further ado, enjoy the recipe.

Recipe for Margi Special

Ingredients

1 Medium Catfish (Cut into chunks)

1 cup of white zobo leaves

2 large Tomatoes

3 Scotch bonnet peppers

1 medium Onion (Chopped)

1 small bunch of Green vegetables 

1 cooking spoon of Palm Oil

Seasoning Cubes

Salt to taste

Method

Wash your catfish, season and set aside.

Chop your tomatoes, peppers, green vegetables and onions and set aside.

Boil 2 cups of water and pour into a bowl with the white zobo leaves and soak for a while. (ideally soak it overnight so some of the sour flavour can be diluted) You can also put some potash in the zobo leaves as it’s soaking to reduce the sour flavour.

In a pot pour in the liquid from the soaked zobo into the pot and bring to boil. Pour in the tomatoes, peppers and onions and bring to boil in the zobo juice.

Season and pour in the catfish and bring to boil in the same pot.

Add the soaked zobo leaves to the pot and stir.

Add the oil and add the chopped vegetables. and serve with tuwon or any swallow of your choice.