HOW TO PREPARE AFIA EFERE EBOT(WHITE SOUP)

Important tips to note while preparing Afia efere( Calabar white soup)

  • If you are the type that loves viscous soup consistency, you can choose to add 2 pieces chopped okro to your white soup, but this is optional.
  • Use meat broth, for instance the liquid you used in boiling your beef, got meat or chicken meat to cook this soup; it gives a full meat flavour.
  • Aidanfruit (uyayak ) is one of those spicy seasoning normally added to Afia efere, it gives some kind of nutty favour to the soup. Uyayak should be removed from the soup after the soup is cooked, it is not to be eaten it is just a spice just like thyme sprig.
  • Another spice that makes up Calabar white soup is the ehu seeds (local or calabash nutmeg); it produces a nice and earthy flavour in the soup while it cooks.
  • Pounded yam is the best bolus for Afia efere. However, you can serve the soup with semolina, eba or fufu if you are unable to prepare pounded yam.
  • Instead of using mortar and pestle to pound your yam, there is a pounded yam machine that can do the work faster without waste of time.
  • For thickening of afia efere, pounded yam is the main thickener but you can use yam four.if you are able to get yam flour, you can use achi or corn flour, but note that the taste might slightly change.
  • The leaves or vegetables should be add in just a little quantity not more than a cup or a handful, otherwise the soup would look or taste like vegetable soup.
  • Do not add palm oil to the soup, if you do, it will change the taste and the colour of the soup
  • Also the crayfish should not be too much; otherwise it will diminish the flavour of other ingredients in the soup.
  • additionally, stockfish (cod)and snails can be added to afia efere; stockfish adds smoky taste to the soup too.

Ingredients for preparing Calabar white soup

  • 1 kg of fresh goat meat, I used chicken
  • 3 medium smoked fish
  • 2 medium sized fresh okra, sliced (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons ground crayfish
  • One tuber of medium sized yam
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper or 3 scotch bonnet peppers
  • 1 uyayak pod also known as tetrepleura or Aidan fruit
  • 2 cups of chicken broth or clean water
  • 3 pieces of Ehura-ehu or local nutmegs
  • 1 cup of chopped odusa (uziza) leaves or fluted pumpkin (ugu, spinach or curry leaves)
  • 3 chicken stock cubes to make it tasty.
  • Salt to taste

Just before the preparation of Afia efere

  • Peel your yam and cut into small pieces. Cook the yam till tender.
  • While the yam is on heat, wash and cut the meat into even size or pieces, season with salt, pepper, onions, seasoning cubes and some nutmeg and boil for 20 minutes or until soft and tender. This can be carried out faster, assuming you have more than one source of heat, but if you have just one, you will have to wait for the yam get cooked before you cook the meat.
  • Cut the periwinkles and wash severally till you notice the water becoming clean, then add salt to it and keep aside.
  • Chop onion, grind the crayfish and the nutmeg in dry mill, and wash the uyayak and keep all aside.
  • Debone the dried fish, chop the uziza leaves and keep aside too.
  • Finally, check for the yam to see if it is well soften, if it; start pounding them in batches till you feel a smooth consistency (with no single lump).
  • Cut a little part of the yam out, this would be used for thickening the white soup.
  • Mould the remaining into a flask or cooler to keep it warm and soft.

VIDEO ON HOW TO PREPARE WHITE SOUP