Have you ever eaten cake Egusi soup? it is a very delicious African soup. there are different ways of preparing Egusi soup but cake Egusi soup is the concern of this post. To prepare this cake Egusi soup all you have to do is follow the steps below and use the right ingredients for your cake Egusi soup.
The thing about cooking is that you can explore different methods of cooking. I like to try new methods, I like to be creative with food. Nigerians have different ways to arrive at the same result imagine having over 4 methods of preparing egusi soup. which is your favorite method of preparing Egusi soup? I think I prepare the cake method.
Ingredients for cooking cake egusi
These are the ingredients for cooking cake Egusi;
- 4½ cups (600g) Egusi (Melon) seeds
- 2 cooking spoons red palm oil
- Beef
- Fish: Dry Fish and Stock Fish
- 3 tablespoons ground Crayfish
- Pepper and Salt (to taste)
- Vegetable: Nigerian pumpkin leaves, spinach, or bitter leaves
- 3 small stock cubes
- 1 Ogiri Okpei (traditional locust bean seasoning: optional)
Before you cook Cake Egusi Soup
- Before preparing the soup, soak the dry fish for about half an hour. If you are using the very tough stockfish, boil it for 20 minutes and leave in the pot with the hot water to soak for about an hour. If using the softer stockfish, you can just soak them in cool water till you can break them apart with your hands.
- When the fish and stockfish are soft, debone and break them into sizeable chunks.
- Much closer to your cooking time, grind the egusi with a dry mill. Grind the crayfish and the dry pepper separately and set aside. Wash the vegetable to be used. Cut into tiny pieces.
Cooking Directions: Caking Method
This method produces a healthier egusi soup as there is no frying involved. It requires less oil too.
- Boil the shaki, stockfish, and dry fish in 1 liter of water with the stock cubes till they are well done. The first sign of a done shaki is that the cuts will start curling on themselves.
- Wash the beef to be used for the soup, add it to the pot and cook on medium heat till done.
- As soon as the shaki, fish, and meat are done, add crayfish and pepper, stir and remove all the meat from the stock (water used in cooking the meat and fish), and place in a different pot or plate.
- Add the ground egusi to the stock and stir. If the stock from cooking your meat and fish is not enough to give you a medium consistency, add some water to get the consistency of evaporated milk or a bit thicker. It will not be as smooth as evaporated milk though.
- Cover and cook till the egusi cakes. Stir and add a little bit more water. watch it closely so that it does not burn.
- Repeat step 3, adding only a small quantity of water at a time. After about 25 minutes, you will notice the clear egusi oil coming to the surface of the soup.
- Add the red palm oil and bitter leaves (if it is your choice of vegetable), pepper, and salt to taste and cook for about 7 minutes. You know it is good to continue when the palm oil and egusi forms a good blend of light yellow color.
- Add the cooked meat and fish. If using pumpkin leaves or any other soft vegetable, add it at this time and stir the soup.
- Add salt to your taste, stir and leave to simmer for 2 minutes maximum.
- Turn off the heat. Leave to stand for about 5 minutes before serving.
