Delta Delicacies You Probably Haven't Heard Of And How To Prepare Them
1.Iribotor Soup Or Ogbuvie Soup
This is one of the quickest meal ever to be prepared in Warri and Delta state at large especially by Isokos, Urhobos, etc.
Iribotor is best enjoyed with boiled yam and black plantain.
Iribotor soup is made with roasted fish, some may decide to add red palm oil others may not. When palm oil is added to Iribotor it is Ogbuvie by the Isokos.
Iribotor is fast and active because the choice of spices used are natural and medicinal. The spices in the soup are used in the treatment of fever, headaches, and best enjoyed by newly delivered women. You definitely need to try out the Iribotor soup because it is one of the quickest soup to make.
Iribotor soup can also be referred to as native pepper soup. As expected, a generous amount of pepper is used in its preparation. The spicy hotness of the soup drives away cold and brings instant relief to the consumer. Native spices like ehuru, uda, uziza are used in the preparation of this soup.
Ingredients
Pepper soup spices (calabash nutmeg aka Ehre and seed pod aka urheri) in their raw form.
Grounded, dry pepper.
Salt
Water
Black fish
'Evwere' - earthen pot
Method
1) Heat up your earthen pot until it is dry and hot.
2) Place the chosen quantity of pepper soup spices inside and allow to roast. (Deseed the seed pod and roast alongside with the seed from the calabash nutmeg).
3) Grind the roasted spices. When smooth, add the quantity of ground pepper and knorr you want to use and grind them all together.
4) After grinding, pour ingredients into a deep bowl and add the desired quantity of water.
5) Roast your black fish to taste. When well roasted and hot, press into liquid content. It would sizzle and heat up the soup.
6) Add salt to taste and enjoy with boiled yam/unripe plantain or with any swallow of your choice
2. Goat Meat Pepper Soup With Boiled Yam And Plaintain
of your choice.
You just can’t beat goat meat pepper soup. Goat meat pepper soup is just the ultimate because of the cultural attachment of goat meat and how tasty it is when used in preparing the pepper soup.
You can prepare pepper soup with fresh fish, dried fish, cow meat or chicken pepper soup but the traditionally recognized pepper soup must be goat meat
The pepper soup is best enjoyed with boiled yam and plantain.
Plantain is one food that is respected by every true Warri born. Elders do not joke with it, women as well and even youths because of its nutritional value and tradition role it plays in Delta State.
Ingredients
4serving
- 500 g Goat meat...cut into small sizes *2 spoonful Ground pepper
- Habanero/Chilli Pepper 2 teaspoonful Dry Uziza/basi leave
- 1 tablespoonful of ground Crayfish 2 Stock cubes /seasoning cub
- 1 medium Onion bulb(chopped). Salt - to taste
- Water (as needed)
Steps
- First, Clean and season the meat pieces with chopped onions, seasoning cubes and salt to taste. Leave the meat to simmer in its own juice for 5 minutes, then add a little water and cook for 30 minutes on medium heat.
- After 30 minutes, add enough water to cover the meat(depending on how much ''soup'' you want). Taste for salt, and if need be, add extra salt and the remaining seasoning cube. Then add the ground pepper soup spices, ground crayfish, pepper and the chopped uziza/basil leaves; mix thoroughly and cook for 5 minutes or until the Goat meat is tender or well cooked.
- Now you have a delicious Nigerian Goat Meat Pepper Soup. Serve hot and enjoy.
3. Onunu Soup
This classic food is prepared with yam pounded with boiled plantains and then finished off with Palm oil and fresh pepper (optional)
Some people call Onunu, Rivers yam and plantain fufu which is literally what it means in English.
Traditionally, you need lots of energy to pound the yam/ripe plantain but nowadays, food processor can perfectly do the job.
Onunu food is more enjoyable when eaten hot or warm but not cold.
Ingredients
- 1 . Yam. 2. Ripe plantain. 3. Red oil. 4. Grounded crayfish
- 5 . Fresh cat fish. 6. Fresh tomatoes and pepper. 7. Salt
- 8 . Scent leaf. 9. Onions. 10. Ginger. 11. Garlic
- 12 . Pepper soup spice
Steps :
- Firstly, peel, wash and cut yam into cubes for easy cooking. Put in a pot and start boiling.
- Then, when the yam has cooked right about halfway, add the ripe plantains.
- Before then, ensure that both the yams and the plantains have cooked through till soft before you pound. Add salt.
- Fourthly, put the yam gradually in a mortar and start pounding, when the yam is tender, add ripe plantain and continue pounding. Pound until the plantain mixes properly with the yam.
- After that, while still hot, add a small amount of palm oil and pound a little more.
- Lastly, finish off the pounding, when the palm oil properly combines, changing the color to yellow
4. Keke Fieye
Keke Fieye is prepared just like porridge and it is eaten in Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta States.
It is quite popular amongst the Ijaw Speaking ethnic group.
The preparation process for keke fieye (Ijaw recipe) is a little similar to the preparation of porridge plantain, you would think it is porridge plantain if the snail is taken away.
Steps :
- Peel off the green back of the unripe plantain and slice to tiny bits
- Wash and slice in cubes or as desired
- Shred scent leave, clean the snail and bring to a boil for 5 minutes then set aside.
- Wash the dry fish with salt and leave to soak in hot water for 5-8minutes to remove the sand.
- Pour the water in a pot and boil.
- Peel plantain, wash and slice in cubes or as desired.
- Pour the sliced plantain into the boiling water and cook for about 10 minutes.
- Add the scent leaves, onions, Maggi, pepper, crayfish, dry fish and snail without stirring and cook for 10minutes or until the plantain is soft.
- Add the palm oil, stir then simmer under low heat for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and serve hot.
- If you are cooking keke fieye with beans you would need to start cooking with the beans, you cook until the beans are 80 percent before adding the plantain and then crayfish, dried fish
5. Nsala Soup
This is a unique soup prepared by the Anioma people of Delta State. The Aniomas are kwale, Asaba and Agbor people because of the language they speak.
Nsala soup can be eaten as breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.
Nasala soup is best enjoyed when prepared with goat meat but you can use beef, bush meat or fish. The Nsala soup is best enjoyed with Fufu, Eba, boiled yam or black unripe matured plantain.
Ofe Nsala is known as white soup because Palm oil is not used for the preparation, unlike other traditional soups.
The proper thickener used for Ofe Nsala is pounded yam but if you can’t source fresh yam, you can use Achi, yam flour or Cocoyam. If you’re thinking of using Cocoyam, do remember Cocoyam has a slimy consistency and this will affect the consistency of your soup. Also, if you have problems sourcing Utazi or Uziza, you can do without them. I couldn’t get the fresh leaves, had to settle for dried ones. I’ve made Ofe Nsala in the past without vegetables and they turned out just as yum although frankly, Uziza does add a very pleasant aroma and hotness to the the soup.
Ingredients
- full live chicken
- small sized raw Yam cubes OR Yam Powder
- 1 handfull chopped Utazi Leaves/uziza (optional
- 3 tablespoonful ground Crayfish
- 1 medium chopped onions
- 20 g smoked/dry fish
- 3 medium yellow pepper(habanero)
- 2 Stock/Seasoning cubes(maggi, knorr etc) Salt (to taste)
Steps
- Properly wash the chicken, smoked and dry fish and set aside then season and cook the chicken with the dried fish, adding onions, seasoning cube and salt to taste. Cook until done and set aside
- Peel the yam cubes and boil until soft, then pound to a smooth paste, using a mortar and pestle. In the absence of a mortar and pestle, you can place the cooked yam in a food processor/blender, add a little hot water and blend until smooth (you can use the hot water you cooked the yams in). If what you have is yam powder, boil some hot water,add the powder and stir continuously until you get a smooth paste.
- Now add the yam paste bit by bit and leave the soup to cook until the paste is completely dissolved and the chicken is well done. Now, add the pepper, crayfish and smoked fish
- Finally, add the utazi/uziza leaves, taste for salt and simmer for 30 seconds. Tip: you can decide to pound your uziza/utazi leaf.
- The nsala soup is ready best served with pounded yam or semo
