Egusi Ijebu

Egusi Ijebu is made with melon seed. Unlike Oshiki (lumpy egusi), egusi Ijebu is not meant to be lumpy. This is number two of four egusi recipes I will be posting on the blog. If you missed the first one lumpy egusi (oshiki) click HERE .

My mum back in the days would cook egusi Ijebu at least once in 2weeks so i grew up eating this soup a lot. Eating it that much could either have made me resent it or love it. It is the later. I looove egusi Ijebu! Maybe my mum knew something and was preparing me because I got married to Ijebu man and he so loves egusi Ijebu???? .This is my recipe for Egusi Ijebu.

INGREDIENTS

3 scotch bonnet/habanero

2 bell peppers

1 brown onion

1 cooking spoon palmoil

2 maggi cube

3 tablespoons locust beans -Iru (If you're not using ogiri make it 5 tablespoons)

1 teaspoon (wrap) Ogiri  Ijebu (optional)

3 cups melon seed

Dry fish

Stock fish- Panla (Optional)

Beef and assorted meat

Salt

COOKING DIRECTIONS

Roast the melon in a frying pan and grind with the dry mill or add a little water and use blender for blending.

Wash and boil the beef and assorted meats.

K's Cuisine tip: when making traditional soups avoid using condiments like curry and thyme.

Soak the smoked fish in hot salty water for 3minutes. This process removes the dirt from the fish. Shred and debone the fish if you don't want it whole in the soup.

Blend the peppers and onion and set aside. You can use combination of how you would normally blend your peppers. What you need is about 1000ml of blended pepper.

Put palmoil in a pot on the cooker and set on medium heat.

When the palmoil is heated, pour in the blended pepper and leave to cook for 10minutes.

After the 10 minutes when the pepper is thickened  add maggi cubes, locust beans ( iru), melon, stock fish, beef stock and the assorted meat.

If the beef stock is not much and the stew is still thickened add a cup of water. At this stage the egusi has to be watery a little bit because egusi thickens as it cooks. Cover the pot and leave to cook for another 10minutes. Remember to stir intermittently.

After the 10minute is up, If you're using ogiri add it and add the smoked dry fish. Cover the pot and let the egusi absorb the flavour of ogiri and smoked fish. Leave to cook for another 10minutes.

K's Cuisine tip: If you want the smoked fish whole in the soup, after adding it to the soup don't stir with spoon. Simply lift the pot by the handles and gently rotate the pot in circular motion.

When you open the pot you will see that the egusi has released it's oil in the soup and this will come up on top. Egusi Ijebu is cooked and ready for consumption.

Enjoy with Eba, pounded yam, semo, etc.. I like it best with Eba but you can be sure when I eat it with solid my next meal after will be rice with egusi Ijebu!

Bon appetit????