my god comes in a wrapper of celophane
this is egusi. you chop egusi. eba is cassava porridge
now i figured out why african restaurants are so expensive here. egusi seeds come at like ten dollars a pound, palm oil is six dollars for a half liter, goat meat is five dollars a pound, yam flour $1.25/lb, pumpkin leaf is difficult to find. but with i got from this mama i can make all the egusi i want without having to buy the seed. if you buy the ground seed you're paying two dollars per bowl, not counting the goat meat. palm oil lasts a while after you get it. the oil is the face of the soup, say the yorubas. ah but you can't get goat unless you speak spanish or at least remember the word cabrito or travel all the way up north to the halal market. a mexican gentleman kindly told me that i had asked the woman behind the counter for a half book of goat, when i wanted a half pound. me preguntou porque habia pedido yo solamente una media libra y le dije que pues solo lo queria para dar sabor a mi guisada y podes ver que es bien caro. me preguntou si la guisada era para una o dos personas, le dije que dos, mostrandole una pequenha vietnamita que entonces se asomou
posted by Jesse @ 17:34
4 Comments:
Recipe please.
take half a pound of goat meat, or chicken, or okra, salt it and braise it until the outside is browned cut it into small pieces with a cleaver so the bone marrow is exposed, this improves the flavor and makes it easier to eat later(cook covered over medium heat with very little oil)
add palm oil ~2tbsp
add "Egusi spice powder" -based on my analysis, i think this is a mixture of chicken and crayfish stock powder and ground chili powder, dominant in the stock powders-to taste, about 2tsp
add cayenne pepper to taste
add water to barely cover the meat
optional-add a pinch of bitterleaf
cover and stew until the meat is cooked
grind 100g egusi seeds, or just buy them pre-ground. this is the key ingredient, so don't give up and use pumpkin seed instead unless you are very desperate.
chop up a lot of pumpkin leaf, or spinach where pumpkin leaf is scarce, into long thin strands.
add the egusi and leaves. egusi is a thickener so the stew is done when it becomes thick and the spinach becomes blanched
eat with yam, cassava, or semolina porridge. form the porridge into balls like you see. make the stew thick enough so you can eat it with your hands, breaking off a piece of porridge and sopping up bits of meat and leaf.
palm oil gives the soup its red color. it should float at the top
that is to stay cut the meat while it is raw, not after it is braised
some like to add maggi cube. Egusi is popularly reffered to as "24"(after 24 hours), for after a good meal of eba and egusi one should be able to go without food for a LONG time.Carbs. Also, adding peppers (ground or crushed) is a great idea if u want it spicy. Onion too.
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