Lemon grass flavored Yam and Fish Peppersoup

The sky suddenly gets cloudy in my part of town in Lagos.The belly of the sky rumbles, the wind is slapping angrily at the windows and roof. Some thing tells me its going to rain.Its Saturday afternoon and really no plans to step out of the house, certainly not in the rains.  So it’s going to be Pepper soup but with some interesting twist, yam cubes and the lemony aroma of lemon grass.
I kind of like the smell of lemon grass wafting through the house and activating my salivary glands. I just love the fragrance of lemon grass which is why I planted some in my garden .i have also taken the liberty to add some vegetables, cabbage and carrot, making the dish even more balanced nutritionally .
Today’s dish is sometimes given to new mums after child birth but I guess we can all do with a little pick me up pepper soup from time to time. The Igbos call this dish mmiri oku ji, the Ibibios call it Afia Abia. I am sure there are several different names for this dish  in the Niger/ Delta area of Nigeria.
Even it’s not raining where you are , you will enjoy this simple clean  meal.

Recipe ( serves 4)
8 – 12 (cubes of yam)
4 pieces of fish
1 finger Uda (crushed and deseed )
1 table spoon Crayfish
8 strands Lemon grass
Seasoning cube to taste
Dry Pepper to taste
Utazi leaf( optional)
1/2 cup Cabbage (chopped)
1/2 cup Carrot (diced)
1/4 cup Boiled Green peas
Salt to taste

Method
1, Season fish with salt and tie each piece up with lemon grass leaf
2, Fold up some pieces of lemon grass put in a pot add 1 cup of water and bring to boil for 10 minutes  to extract lemon grass juice.
3, Place fish in a pot, pour on the lemon grass juice, add 2 cups of water,the yams, Uda, dried pepper, seasoning, crayfish and bring to boil, first on low heat to cook the fish. Take out the fish after 15 minutes and set aside
5, Take up the heat and continue cooking the yam until soft. Add the vegetables and cook for 3 minutes.  Return the fish into the pot and cook for about 2 minutes . If you are adding Utazi this should be added just before you return the fish to the pot.
6, Serve Hot