Florence Uwaeme
Are you a foodie? Do you like trying out new things in the kitchen? Are you new in Port Harcourt and would like to taste some of their numerous delicacies? Then this article is definitely for you. All you’ve got to do is grab a pen and paper.
The native soup can be served with eba, semovita, wheatmeal, fufu or pounded yam. Below are the ingredients for the soup.
They can be easily found in any market in Rivers state.
1KG of beef or fresh fish
3 pieces of stock fish ear (nti okporoko)
1 cup of sliced uziza leaves
2 medium size dry fish
Cocoa yam as thickener (see image)
5-10cl of palm oil
2-3 cubes of your favourite seasoning
1 cup of periwinkle
1cup of ngolo
Ground crayfish
Salt and pepper to taste.
Fresh prawns
Ofor (alternative thickener)
The size of the coco-yam should depend on the quantity of soup you intend making. The ofor is an alternative thickener (should the coco-yam not thicken the soup).
Steps in Preparing Rivers Native Soup
You might want to start by parboiling the shrimps, wash and parboil with a small pot, add half cup of water, a cube of seasoning and a pinch of salt, allow to boil for up to 5 minutes.
Periwinkle, Ngolo and Prawn
STEP 1
Parboil the meat with just 2 cubes of your favourite seasoning, 1 bulb of onions, salt. My choice of meat is hard to cook, takes about 50-60 minutes before you commence with the rest of the cooking.
Step 2
While the meat/fish is parboiling, get other ingredients ready.
Soak the stockfish and dry fish with boiled water and wash thoroughly to remove sand and center bone. Grind the crayfish and fresh pepper also, you can grind together or grind separately.
Step 3
Add the washed dry fish/stock fish in the boiling meat on fire, after about 30-50 minutes of cooking just the meat. Once they are soft and the water is almost dried (about 1 cup left) add more cups of water, palm oil and the grounded crayfish.
Allow the soup to cook for another ten minutes before adding salt to taste and a cube of your favourite seasoning to taste.
Step 4
Add the washed/cleaned ngolo, stir, add the coco-yam, allow to dissolve in 8-10 minutes, if it is still very watery you can add a spoonful of ofor, cook for three minutes before adding the periwinkles, prawn and sliced uziza leaf which is likely the last ingredient while making River state native soup. Allow it simmer for 10 more minutes and there you have made yourself a pot of native soup.
