Seafood Okro soup
Seafood Okro Soup is one of the easiest Nigerian soups to make. You really don’t have to bean expert in the kitchen to to rustle up a great pot of Okro Soup. I met a young lady Mimi the other day at one of those women-mentoring-women meetings. We got talking about the hectic life style in Lagos and how she is coping or may be not coping. Of course I swing the conversation to the kitchen and I get to see again the eating challenge of a young woman living in Lagos.
Mimi works in a human resources firm and also does some buying and selling on the side to make ends meet. For her it’s a hectic life. She arrives home after the usual Lagos traffic, hungry and tired usually at about 8pm.She manages to do cooking for the family over the weekend .
This last weekend she had cooked this’ serious’ Okoro Soup and guess what , lots of beef, stockfish, tripe, and palm oil glistening on the top. With the same glisten in her eyes, Mimi describes how she ‘demolishes’ the hot and fluffy pounded yam with her Okoro Soup. So? What could be possibly wrong with that? Doesn’t she deserve this after a hard day’s job? “Man must wak” for many of us leaving in cities. However, it is the time we eat ,the portion we eat and how the food has been cooked that requires adjustment.
Mimi’s heavy pounded yam should be eaten in the afternoon. Her Okro Soup cooked with a little palm oil can be eaten on its own without the pounded yam if she must eat late in the evening. I am sharing my healthier version of Okro Soup recipe. Seafood Okro Soup with well controlled quantity of palm oil can also be enjoyed. If you want to completely take out the oil you can also try my Oil less Okro soup
How to make Nigerian SeaFood Okro soup?
Ingredients
40 fingers of Okro (okra) chopped
1 ball Bitter leaves ( washed)
1 medium sized Crocker fish
4 pieces of Crab and claws (dressed)
1 cup fresh Shrimp (dressed)
4/5 pieces Yellow pepper (chopped)
1/2 small Onion bulb
2-3 cups of Water
2 tablespoons ground Crayfish
1 cooking spoon Palm oil
2 tablets crayfish Seasoning cubes
Salt to taste.
Method
* Season fish with salt, seasoning cubes, 2 pieces of pepper and half of the onion. Steam on very low heat and set aside. ( boiling fish on high heat hardens the flesh).
* Heat the oil (no need to bleach) and fry remaining onion until dry but not brown. Add your water, ground crayfish, remaining pepper, crab, shrimp, crayfish seasoning and salt to taste.
* Boil for 5 minutes.
* Add the bitter leaves, Okro and fish stock and allow to simmer for 5-7 minutes. Taste for salt.
* Add the fish, swirl the pot and cook for about 3 more minutes.
Serve hot with pounded yam or any other accompaniment of choice.
So fresh and sweet would like to be part of dis