Ingredients for the Egusi Soup
Goat Meat or Cow leg, Cow tripe, Beef or any other meat of your choice
Dried fish (Eja Gbigbe), Crayfish
1 handful Locust beans (Iru); Optional
2 Medium Onions, Chopped
4 Scotch Bonnet Peppers or 2 Cameroun Peppers :p
1/2 Red Bell Pepper
2 Knorr cubes, or Maggi Cubes
Salt
2½ cups of water
Melon seed (Egusi), 2 cups
350g basil leaves
2 full cooking spoon palm oil
Cooking Instructions:
· Put the goat meat and rinsed dry fish to a pot and add an onion, 2 Knorr cubes and salt to taste. Add water and bring to a boil on high heat. Must not over-cook as goat meat has no shame (it easily gets tender). Leave to simmer.
· In a blender, blend the scotch bonnet peppers, red bell pepper, onions and 150g of basil leaves, and then set aside in a small bowl.
· Next, blend the dried crayfish, locust beans and melon seed in a clean blender until a thick powdery mix is formed. Place in a bowl and set aside.
· If your choice of meat was cow leg or cow tripe (shaki), check the pot to see if the meat is tender. If tough, add more water to the pot until meat becomes tender.
· If your choice of meat is the goat meat, no need to wait. The next step is to add the blended pepper mix. Leave to cook 15 minutes.
· On medium heat, add the melon seed (Egusi) mix and cook for 30 minutes.
· Next, add remaining basil leaves, palm oil and Knorr cubes. Cover the pot and leave to cook for an extra 10-15 minutes.
· Now your sumptuous Egusi soup is ready to be served with Pounded yam or Fufu or Eba or Semolina etc. Enjoy!!!