Cultural cuisine is a dish that is particular to a tribe. For instance we have ewedu and stew for yoruba, tuwo shinkafa(pardon my spelling) for hausa or Muslims, ofe nsala or ukwa for the igbo's,ofe is soup in English language.
Just as each tribe have their own dish we also have our own preference in dishes. My favorite dish is ofe nsala and eba or any swallow. Ofe nsala is mostly taken by the Easterners. I really love this dish and it's so easy to prepare, it's not stressful to cook at all.
I will be listing out the ingredients then procedures for making this dish.
Ingredients
Yam (this is to be used as thickener)
Peppers (red and yellow pepper)
Crayfish
Okpei
Uziza
Utazi
Maggi
Salt to taste
Palm oil
Protein of your choice, but I prefer to cook mine with catfish
Images are screenshots from my phone
**Procedure for cooking **
- Peel your yam, wash, put a pot and put on fire. Cook till done.
- When it's done, put in a mortar and pound until it's smooth the put in a bowl and set aside.
- Wash your uziza and pepper. Pound them with crayfish and okpei in a mortar.
- After pounding, pour hot water into the mortar, stir with the pestle the pour the mixture into a pot and put on fire.
- Wash your uziza, slice and set aside. When the mixture has started boiling, add Maggi, salt and fish and over for few minutes.
- After 10 to 15 minutes, you add your yam and palm oil and allow to cook. While adding palm oil, you don't add much, just a little.
- Cook until the yam has dissolved or cook till it's thick enough for you.
- Adjust your salt and When it's done, you serve with eba, pounded yam or any swallow of your choice.
I have always enjoyed this dish, right from my childhood till now. I also enjoy eating other dishes but this is my favorite. Then I can now include ofe onugbu, okpa, akidi, ofe akwu and others but you can't compare ofe nsala to all these
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