OFE AKWU ISN'T DELTA BANGA SOUP!!

    Nigerian Banga soup is a dish, that is mostly eaten by the Niger Delta people and a native food of the Urhobos' and Isoko people. Most people tend to confuse this soup for Ofe akwu, which is a similar version served by the Igbos but in the form of stew. There are slight differences in the preparation of both dishes, as there is the absence of the Native banga soup spice in Ofe akwu and the use of scent leaves instead of beletietie leaves .
    This is one soup that can be made in different ways either with dried fish, meat or shrimps or fresh ones as an alternative. This soup can also be made with different kinds of leaves such as water leaves, bitter leaves e.t.c. Banga soup is also super delicious with okra (BangaOkra). Some may complain about the long duration of extracting the banga juice but this has been made easy, as banga concentrates are now sold in several supermarket in Nigeria and Ghana.
    As a pure Delta breed lolzz......I enjoy eating this soup with starch, I tried to make starch here in Belarus also, using powdered food starch sold in super markets. It wasn't exactly like the home made Nigerian Starch but it wasn't that bad and was glad I tried an alternative. Before I go on and on talking about my love for banga soup and the few challenges, I had preparing this dish here in Belarus!!......May we go to the soup procedures.

Banga soup before it was thickened

Yield: 5 servings

Ingredients

• 400g palmnut cream concentrate(Bankwus)
• 1kg cow meat (diced and precooked)
• 3 medium size fresh croaker fish
• 900g of fresh shrimps
• 180g of red slim chilli peppers
• 2 whole onions (chopped into little sizes)
• Banga soup spices (IDS Instant)
• 1 Tbsp of Beletietie leaves
• 2 Tbsp of grounded crayfish
• 2 Tbsp of dried grounded hot chilli peppers
• 1/2 Tbsp of dried grounded ginger
• 1/2 Tbsp of dried grounded garlic
• 1/2 Tbsp of salt
• 3 cubes of maggi

Directions

1. Firstly, Parboil or should I say, Steam the fresh meat!!.....Season the meat with, two cubes of maggi, add ginger, garlic, chopped whole onions and a pinch of salt, add the quantity of water required to cook the soup (0.75L). Cook till meat softens a bit (10 minutes).
2. Blend the fresh chilli pepper with the remaining onion and add in the boiling meat stock, let this cook till it boils up (4 minutes).
3. Add in the Banga concentrate, you may add in more water if it looks too thick (0.25L), add in crayfish, grounded chilli pepper, beletietie leaves,salt to taste, fresh shrimps and the remaining maggi cube. This should cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Add in the fresh fish last, as you don't want it to get shattered in the soup. Let this cook for 5 minutes, you would notice that the oil floats to the top of the soup and VIOLA.....SOUP IS READY!!

We the people of the Niger Delta, mostly thicken this soup in a native hot plate called ewere but since I am currently in school and couldn't get access to the plate, I thickened my soup in a non-stick pan.

Banga soup is commonly eaten with starch by the Urhobos and Isoko people of the Niger Delta region but could be eaten with garri, yam, plantain and sometimes rice for those that would find it difficult to make starch, as the starch making process isn't an easy one.

Banga soup thickened

Served with starch

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