Nigerian Catfish Pepper Soup (Point & Kill)

Ewedu soup

Ewedu soup is indigenous to the people of Yoruba, a very popular Nigerian ethnic group.


But then I am guessing you know that already so we are going to delve right into the matter of the day which is totally about making Yoruba ewedu soup.
I have had my own share of Yoruba foods after living in Lagos state for over ten years, I know virtually everything that goes into the stomach of a Yoruba person (I am talking foods), so sit tight, you are at the right place if you are looking to make delicious Yoruba foods.
Are you married or dating a Yoruba person? majority of members of the Nigerian kitchen are ladies that are either dating or married to a Nigerian man, if you are in this group sit tight too!
If you are living outside Nigerian you might wanna start looking up the easy to make Nigerian foods, I doubt you would find all the ingredients for preparing ewedu in your location, except of course you know where to look.
There are simple Nigerian recipes like jollof rice, fried rice, Tomato Stew and White Rice, that is just where to start if you are new to the whole “Nigerian food thingy”. Thank you.
My first encounter with this food – ewedu soup amid stew and assorted meat – was a memorable one, it was a Saturday evening, I was siting right at this same spot when I heard a knock by our neighbor’s daughter. They were having a dedication ceremony and the foods was making rounds, the usual Yoruba way.
She presented a plate of amala and deliciously made ewedu soup in its usual form, the way the yoruba people like it best – Ewedu soup/stew and amala.

OK, this image was taken on a different occasion and not the exact one she presented to me although they look alike.
As you can see above, ewedu soup is not usually served alone in a yoruba setting, but this is of course not etched in stones. You can always experiment wildly on Nigerian foods to find your favorite combination.
Over the months that followed I learned more about Yoruba foods and even added some of them to my menu, I learned to make the ewedu soup and lots of other Yoruba recipes. So if you are looking to make a delicious pot of ewedu soup follow me, let’s get started already.
Ingredients for making ewedu soup is as follows; this would make a simple pot of soup for about six people. You can increase or decrease the ingredients depending on the number of people you are looking to feed and of course their stomach sizes.
Ingredients:
Ewedu leaves (corchorus olitorius) 300g
1/2 teaspoon of powdered potash
1.5 cups of water
Ewedu Broom or a blender
Salt to taste
Maggi (1 or 2 cubes)
Chilly Pepper to taste
4-5 spoons of ground crayfish
There are more simple ways to prepare this soup without the use of the mashing broom. You can slice the leaves to tiny bits and commence cooking
or you can follow the process below with a mashing ewedu broom, the normal way.
One of the qualities of the the ewedu leaf is the ability to draw, perhaps the reason you can not make this soup with any other leaf.

How to Prepare Ewedu Soup

Nicely pick just the leaves (no stem allowed), then go ahead and wash properly with a lot of water to remove any sand left on it.
Pour 1.5 cups of water to a cooking pot and heat to boiling point, add the washed ewedu leaves, soak the half teaspoon of potash in half cup of water and filter into the pot (to soften the leaves), cook for 7-10 minutes.
Then use the cooking broom to mash (more like pound) continuously inside the pot, this will turn the leaves to tiny bits after mashing for about five minutes.
Alternatively, You can also transfer into a blender and pulse a couple of times, I think this way is easier and better. That was how I made the soup above, couldn’t find the ewedu broom.
Transfer back to the pot and add the ground crayfish, maggi, salt and pepper to taste. Allow to simmer for just five minutes and you are done with making ewedu soup.
Serve ewedu soup plus stew and meat with either amala, eba, semo or pounded yam, the exact way a Yoruba man would love it.

How to Cook Nigerian Ewa Agoyin

Nigerian Catfish Pepper Soup (Point & Kill)

Nigerian Catfish Pepper Soup (popularly known as Point & Kill) is that Nigerian pepper soup that is usually eaten at exclusive Nigerian bars and restaurants.
Nigerian Catfish Pepper Soup [Video Ativity
]
Even if you can get Nigerian Pepper Soup in any road side restaurant, you'll need to dig deep to find restaurants where you can have the correct Point & Kill.
So why is it called Point & Kill? LOL Usually when a group of guests arrive at these exclusive bars and order Catfish Pepper Soup, at least one of the group will need to go to a big bowl where some live catfish are swimming around and point out a catfish. The catfish will then be killed in the guest's presence and taken away for preparation. So you see; you point and it is killed for you! lol

Ingredients for Catfish Pepper Soup

• 500g Cat Fish
• 4 Ehu or Ariwo or Calabash Nutmeg seeds
• Habanero Pepper or chilli pepper (to taste)
• A few scent leaves
• 2 medium onions
• Salt (to taste)
• 2 big stock cubes

Alternative Ingredients for Catfish Pepper Soup

1. Conger Eel (Congrio in Spanish) is a good alternative to catfish. When buying the Conger Eel, ensure you buy the part towards the tail so that the fish cuts will not have big holes in them.
2. Parsley is a good alternative to scent leaves.

For grinding the ehu seeds, you will need:

• A spice/coffer grinder: 

Before you cook the Nigerian Catfish Pepper Soup

1. To prepare Cat Fish Pepper Soup, wash and cut the cat fish into 1-inch thick slices. Boil some hot water and pour on the pieces of fish, stir and remove immediately. This toughens the skin of the fish so that it does not fall apart during cooking.
   
2. Now it is time to prepare the 'secret' ingredient. Using an old frying pan, roast the Ehu seeds (stirring constantly) till you can smell it. Don't worry you will know when it is OK to take it off because it has a distinctive aroma. Another way to know that it is OK is to take one of the seeds and try to remove the outer membrane. If the membrane comes off easily, then the Ehu is done.
   
3. Peel off the membrane from all the Ehu seeds and grind with a dry mill.
4. Cut the onions into tiny pieces.
5. Wash and pick the scent leaves and tear them up with your fingers into small pieces.

Cooking Directions

1. Place the pieces of fish in a pot and pour water to just cover the fish, add the stock cubes and bring to the boil.
2. Once it starts to boil add the ground ehu, onions and scent leaves and continue cooking.
3. Once the catfish is done, add salt to taste and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes and it's ready!

Catfish Pepper Soup should always be served hot. It can be eaten alone with a chilled drink. I love to eat it with Agidi, Boiled White Rice or Boiled Yam.

Nigerian Beans Porridge (with Yam)

How to cook Nigerian Ewa Agoyin

Ewa Agoyin simply means plain boiled beans eaten with a pepper sauce.
How to make Ewa Agoyin [Video Activity]
This is the perfect way for those who do not like beans to enjoy it. I can tell you that yours truly does not like beans yet, I can never get enough of Ewa Agoyin. I don't know what it is about it that makes it taste so good. Maybe it is the caramelized onions. All I know is that I enjoy eating it.

Ingredients

• 2 cigar cups (approx. 500g) brown/black eyed beans
• 5 cooking spoons red palm oil
• 5 big plum tomatoes
• 1 handful crayfish
• 1 big onion
• Pepper & Salt (to taste)
• 2 stock cubes

Before you cook Ewa Agoyin

1. Soak the beans in cold water for 5 hours. Boil the beans for 5 minutes and discard the water. Rinse the beans in cold water and set aside. This soaking and pre-cooking process will help reduce the gas inducing elements. For more on that visit: How to Reduce Beans Bloating.
2. Chop the onions, grind the crayfish and pound the pepper.
3. Blend the tomatoes and boil the tomato puree till all the water has dried from it.
4. Pre-cook the diced onions without any added water. The aim is to get it to caramelize a bit so that it will take less time to fully caramelize during frying.

Cooking Directions

1. Cook the beans till done. For Ewa Agoyin, the beans needs to be very soft.

   Note: If you have a pressure cooker, beans is one of the staple foods you will want to use it for. It considerably reduces the cooking time.

2. When the beans is done, add salt, leave to dry up all the water and set aside.
3. To cook the Agoyin, pour the palm oil into a separate dry pot. Allow to heat up till the oil starts smoking and the red colour changes to clear. It is better to do this at medium heat so that the oil does not get too hot too quickly. Remember to turn off your smoke alarm before doing this. :)
   To keep the smoke to a minimum and still have the traditional taste of Ewa Agoyin, I use vegetable oil and when it is very hot, I add a small amount of palm oil. Watch the video below to see how I do that.
4. Now add the precooked onions and stir continuously till the onions is fully caramelized. It should be very dark in colour.
5. Add the parboiled tomato puree and stir continuously till you cannot tell the difference between the tomatoes and onions.
6. Add the pepper, crayfish, stock cubes and salt to taste. You can also add a little water at this point if your want.
7. Stir very well and bring to the boil. The Ewa Agoyin is ready!

Serve by dishing the beans into a plate and scoop some Agoyin stew on it. Ewa Agoyin can be eaten on its own, with soft and stretchy bread (known as Ewa ati Bread) or with Fried Plantains.

Grilled Chicken