How to cook Fisherman Soup (5 Easy Steps)

Have you eaten the fisherman soup before? this soup is actually very delicious and you should try this soup especially fr seafood lovers. Fisherman Soup is a delicious soup prepared by the Rivers people. The people of Rivers State in the Niger Delta Area of Nigeria enjoy seafood and so most of their meals are prepared with seafood and they are blessed with seafood. The majority of the Rivers people are Fishermen.

The riverine people use the freshest seafood to prepare expensive soups and meals, but you do not have to steal to be able to prepare this soup if you are not a fisherman. You can cut down on some of the ingredients and use the ingredients you can afford. These are the ingredient for preparing Rivers soup, you can add or remove according to your pocket and taste.

Ingredients for cooking fisherman soup

The following quantities of ingredients are what I used to prepare a decent pot of Fisherman Soup, you can add or remove the ingredients you do not want or cannot afford:

• 2 pcs Fresh Fish (You can use tilapia)
• 1 Cup Chopped Jumbo Shrimps
• 1 Cup Isam (Periwinkle)
• 4 Pcs Crab
• 1.5 Cup Fresh Crayfish (Chopped)
• 1.5 Cup Chopped Uziza Leaf
• 1 Small Bulb of Onion
• 1 Cup Ngolo
• 2 tbsp Cocoyam Paste for thickening
• 2 cubes Seasoning (Knorr/Maggi) …to taste
• 1 tbsp Powdered Crayfish
• 1 tbsp Palm Oil
• 1 tbsp Dry Pepper
• 1 pc Scotch Bonnet Pepper
• 2 tbsp Salt …to taste

Notes on the recipe and ingredients

Before cooking the fisherman soup you must note these about the ingredients for preparing this soup.

1. According to the lady who gave me the list of ingredients for this native soup, you should use only fresh seafood when preparing fisherman Soup. That means such ingredients like crayfish and dry fish which are dry seafood are not allowed.
2. You can use achi or ofor as alternative to cocoyam. But achi has a distinctive taste that can ruin this recipe for some people. It ruins it for me.
3. Habanero pepper atarodo, ose oyibo or atarugu. You can also use scotch bonnet peppers. For this recipe, I used the yellow habanero peppers.
4. You can also add oysters to native soup.
5. I used gilt-head sea bream fish. Fresh catfish should be your first choice of fresh fish is you can buy it where you live.

Before you cook Fisherman Soup

1. Shell the clams, snails, sea snails, and periwinkles and remove the intestines. In Nigerian markets, the sellers can do these for you. Watch the video below to see how I remove the shells from this seafood. For the snails, you need to remove the slime after removing the shell. 
2. Cook the cocoyam till soft. Peel and pound till smooth with a mortar and pestle. You can also blend with a power blender or food processor.
3. Grind/pound the yellow pepper.
4. Cut up the fish and clean.

How to cook Fisherman soup

Follow these steps to prepare a delicious pot of Fisherman soup;

1. In a clean pot of boiling water, place your Cocoyam. Cook until it is soft. Once soft, peel it and pound till it is completely smooth, forming a paste.
2. In a separate pot, add all the seafood apart from the fresh pieces of crayfish. Season with the scotch bonnet pepper, onion, dry pepper, seasoning cubes, and salt. Allow the seafood to boil and cook properly in 1-2 cups of water.
3. Once the seafood is cooked, add the fresh pieces of crayfish and the crayfish powder. Allow simmering for 1 minute.
4. Add the cocoyam paste, stir properly until the cocoyam has dissolved completely and is evenly distributed. Add your palm oil and Uziza and allow to simmer for a minute.
5. Your Rivers State fisherman’s soup is ready. You can serve with Garri, Pounded yam, or any swallow of your choice.