Wednesday, 23 December 2015

HOW TO PREPARE BANGA [OFE AKWU] SOUP



Nigerian Banga Soup or Ofe Akwu is native to the Niger Delta and the South Eastern parts of Nigeria. It’s contains nutrients that are essential for the body, from my last post you will get the full details of how nutritious this soup is, because the major ingredient for the soup is PALM FRUIT.

Banga soup is commonly eaten, with various fufu recipes: Starch, Pounded Yam, Semolina, Garri and Cassava Fufu. In the South Eastern parts of Nigeria, Banga Soup is referred to as Ofe Akwu where Ofe means Soup / Stew and Akwu means palm fruit and is used mainly as stew for Boiled White Rice.

The palm fruit oil extract used in cooking Banga Soup / Stew is quite different from the red palm oil used in cooking Nigerian food recipes. Palm Oil is pure oil extracted from the palm fruit extracted at high temperatures while the palm fruit oil used for the Banga Soup is extracted at a very low temperature and is a mixture of oil and water with the major nutrient intact. Palm fruit oil extracted for Banga Soup contains less saturated fat than palm oil.

Ingredients:

  •  1 kg Palm Fruits or 800g tinned Palm    Fruit Concentrate
  •   Beef
  •   Dry Fish
  •   Scent Leaves for Ofe Akwu or dried and    crushed bitter leaves
  • 1tbsp ataiko, 1tbsp irugege, & 1oburunbebe stick
  •  2 medium onions
  • 2 tablespoons ground crayfish
  • Salt and Chilli Pepper (to taste)
  • Ogiri Okpei (Iru)
  •  stock cubes


Before preparation:

Preparation and cooking time might take up to 1 hour

- Wash, boil and pound the palm fruit, put in a bowl and add enough water to extract the palm fruits concentrates.
-Cook the beef and the dry fish with 1 bulb of diced onion and the stock cubes till done.
- Wash and cut the scent leaves into tiny pieces. The scent leaves give the Banga Stew (Ofe Akwu) its unique aroma and taste. If you are outside Nigeria, this may be hard to find, so you can use pumpkin leaves or any other vegetable in place of scent leaves. If cooking Delta-style Banga Soup for starch, you should either cook this soup without vegetables or use dried and crushed bitter leaves.
-Cut the remaining bulb of onion. Pound the crayfish, ogiri okpei and pepper in a mortar and set aside. You can get your banga spice in grounded form form the market {i.e ataiko and irugege}.

Preparation:

1. Set the pot of palm fruit extract on the stove and start cooking at high heat. Leave to boil, till you notice come red oil at the surface of the Banga Stew. If you think that the Banga Soup is watery, cook till the soup has thickened to the consistency you like for your stews.
2. Add the beef, dry fish and stock, the onions, crayfish and pepper and leave to boil very well.
3. Add banga spice: ataiko, irugege and obunrunbebe stick.
3. Add the scent leaves or other vegetable and salt to taste. Leave to simmer for about 2 mins. The Banga Soup is done.


Now the soup is ready enjoy with any solid food of your choice (fufu, semo, eba, pounded yam etc.) white rice is also good with banga soup.
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