AFRICAN SALAD (ABACHA) RECIPE

 African salad (Abacha) is a delicious meal that is native to the Igbo people (ndi Igbo). It is one of the popular evening dessert meals in the Eastern part of Nigeria. It serves as kola to visitors, with ugba, which they so much love.  Abacha  (African Salad), is prepared with cassava. There are a lot of processes involved with obtaining the cassava that is used in preparing the African salad.

If you are living in the village or own a farm, first obtain the cassava tubers. Wash thoroughly and cook for 25-30minutes it's till done, then peel to remove the brown outer layer and slice with a special grater. Soak the sliced cassava in cold water overnight, washed thoroughly and dried under the sun. If you are living in the city, no need for this process. Just go to the market and buy the sliced one.

Your African Salad will not be complete without Ugba. Ugba, also known as Ukpaka, is made from oil bean seeds. These seeds are cooked for several hours, then sliced, washed and left to ferment a little bit.

 Ingredients

-         2-3 handfuls abacha

-         2 cups ugba/ukpaka

-         30cl red palm oil

-         2 tablespoons powdered potash (food tenderizer)

-         Fish /Mackerel/Dry Fish/Stockfish

-         1 large Onion

-         Salt and dry pepper (to taste)

-         4 tablespoons ground crayfish

-         2 stock cubes

-         1 teaspoon ground Ehuru seeds (Calabash Nutmeg)

-         1 teaspoon Ogiri / Iru (traditional Nigerian seasoning)

Other meat and vegetables for the Abacha

-         3 Fresh Utazi leaves (Gongronema latifolium)

-         Ponmo / Kanda (cow skin)

-         Garden Eggs | As much as you can eat

-         Garden Egg leaves | 1 medium bunch

-         1 medium onion (for serving)

Before Making African Salad

    -    Prepare the ehuru seeds by roasting, peeling and grinding them with a  dry mill.

    -   If you will use kanda (cow skin), cook till done and cut into small pieces.

    -   Depending on your choice of fish (you can also use all of them), fry or roast the mackerel, soak the stockfish in water and debone the dry fish.

    -   Wash and cut the vegetables into tiny pieces. Cut the big bulb of onion into tiny pieces and cut the medium one in circles. Wash the garden eggs and set aside, no need to cut these.

     -   Grind the crayfish and pepper

    -   Soak the Abacha in cold water and rinse the Ugba with lukewarm water.

    -   Once the Abacha has softened, put in a sieve to drain.

    -   Put the powdered potash in a cup or bowl and pour about 1 cup of cold water. Stir well and you are ready to start making the African Salad.

Method

The key to making a good African Salad is to make sure that all the ingredients are well incorporated, there's a lot of add this, stir, add that, stir. You may wonder why you can't just add everything and stir but if you do that, it will be very difficult for you to get a good blend of all the ingredients.

    -    Pour the palm oil into a sizeable pot. Yes you need all that oil so that your Abacha will not have a dry feel in the mouth when done. Pour the water from the potash mixture, making sure not to pour the sediments.

    -    Stir very well and you'll see the oil turn into a yellow paste.

    -    Add the ground pepper, ground ehuru, crushed stock cubes, crayfish, diced onions and ugba (ukpaka), then stir very well. Please note that we are doing everything off the stove.

    -    Add the iru/ogiri and make sure it is mixed very well. Add the diced kanda/pomo and stir very well.

    -    Now add the soaked and drained Abacha and stir till it is well-incorporated in the palm oil paste.

     -    Add the sliced Utazi and salt to taste and stir well. You can also use dry Utazi if the fresh one is not available where you live. It is important that you add salt last because after adding all that seasoning, your Abacha may not even need salt any more.

     -    You can warm the Abacha if you wish.  Transfer to a stove at this point and heat it up to your desired temperature at medium heat. When done, turn off the heat and add the sliced garden egg leaves, stir very well and serve.

    -    If you like your Abacha cold, after step 6, add the sliced garden egg leaves, stir and serve with garden eggs, fish and onions.

When you are done! Eat with chilled palm wine (optional) for the full effects.

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