CbB: Fresh Okro Soup

Say hello to my freshest Okro soup!!

Tasty.

Quick.

Healthy.

The three words that best describe it.

Fresh okro soup with ugu and uziza leaves serves with wheat flour

People say they eat okro soup with boiled yam, roasted plantain etc and I have always shivered at the thought!!! The mental picture I have of okro soup is the 'saucey', 'drawy' 'tasty' okro-cum-ugu-littered soup my mum made and which I also learnt to make perfectly and enjoy.

One blessed day, I was so sure I had ogbono in the freezer somewhere and just bought other ingredients to make okro soup. Lo! and behold, there was no ogbono anywhere in the house (I coulda sworn someone stole the darn thing!!). I was determined in my heart to make that soup (besides I had made promises I intended to keep) so I made my first ever okro soup without ogbono. As an 'igbo ghel' brought up in the 'igbo ways'- cooking okro soup with ogbono, I was certain it would be disaster all the way but at the end of that success story, I was never going back!

Fast forward few weeks later, I took the bold step again and made my fresh, crunchy okro soup!

Ingredients

Okro

Ugu leaf

Uziza leaf

Fresh pepper (ground)

Onions

Beef

Smoked fish

Crayfish

Knor cubes

Salt

Palm oil

• Cut up my beef into bite size (I prefer having little piece of meat at intervals while enjoying the meal) and cooked it with knor cubes, onions and pepper until very tender. (pressure cooker did the job in 10 minutes) 
• At this point there was a little stock still left in the pressure cooker, so I turned everything into my soup pot and continued cooking as I wanted the water to dry up. 
• When all the water had dried up, I put a little palm oil into the pot that had the meat in it and added more of the fresh pepper and smoked fish (cleaned and rinsed). Basically, the meat and fish were frying with the pepper for like 5 mins. 
• Added crayfish and stirred before adding the okro and mixing thoroughly with the sauce. 
• Added crayfish, salt and pepper to taste and the ugu and uziza leaf. 
• Reduced the heat and covered the pot for a minute before turning off the heat. 

The end result was a fresh, crunchy and tasty okro soup that I could imagine eating with yam, roasted plantain,.....errr......even pasta sef.....#okbye!

CbB: Goulash Chilli Corne Carne

Hungary meets Mexico in my infamous mixed-breed creation.

I have tried out the Mexican Chilli Corn Carne and the Hungarian Beef Goulash and totally loved both sauces. Out of curiosity, I decided to try juxtaposing the two to see how good it gets.

What I love the most about the Goulash is the soft, moist, sauce-soaked, juicy pieces of meat that simply melts away in your mouth without the help of your teeth (hehehehehe) and the richness 'paparika' brings to the  table (or pot as the case may be). So I stole these from the Goulash and gave the Chilli Corn Carne.

Goulash Chilli Corne Carne sauce served with plain boiled rice and duo veggie stir fry

I know it's a mouthful to say but it's equally a mouthful to eat so that's fine. *cheeky grin*

Ingredients 

Beef/Pork/Lamb

Minced meat

Onions 

Flour 

Black Pepper

Oil

Salt

Knor cubes

Tomatoes (4 medium sized)

Peppers (Chilli, Scotch Bonnet, Jalapenos, Tatashe)

Ground paparika

Kidney Beans

Stock

Garlic

Cumin

Corriander

Dried Rosemary

Scent leaves (optional)

• I started out by washing my beef and cutting into bite size. 
• I mixed flour, salt and black pepper in a bowl and tossed the beef in the mix and set aside. 
• I ground all my peppers and little tomato roughly, poured it in a pot and cooked it till most of the water had dried up. 
• I put the sauce pot on the fire with some oil and when it was hot, i fried the meat with high heat till it was browned (not necessarily cooked) then I added the minced meat and continued frying till they browned. 
• I added chopped onions, garlic and my dried pepper mix and continued stirring. 
• I poured in my stock (I normally try to save stock from other meals for occasions as this) and spiced the sauce with cumin, corriander, paparika(extra extra as in goulash), dried rosemary and allowed the sauce to boil. 
• Once it started boiling I lowered the heat, covered the pot and let it simmer gently for about an hour. (this is the process in goulash that allows the meat to literally cook to pieces). 
• I took off the lid after an hour, stirred and tasted, then added my kidney beans and a dash of extra pepper and knor (only cos it was necessary) and left it for another 15 mins. 
• When the 15mins was up, I tossed in the scent leaf, stirred and turned off the heat. 

This is just about how I did it!!

I need not say it was fantastico!!...... fabuloso!!