Obe Eyen Ikpogiri ( Banga Egusi)

 I am falling in love with this Banga Egusi soup also known as Obe Eyen Ikpogiri. The flavors and texture are on a different level . I remember my neigbhor stopping by unannounce when I was cooking this soup :). I am sure you can guess why.

So far you can find about 40 Nigerian soups  on this site . Did I just say 40.? Yes, you can treat yourself to so much variety of Nigerian soups by simply clicking on our Nigerian soups section.
Today I am bringing something from the Itshekiris. Banga soup is the more popular one from this part. If you like Banga and Egusi soups then you should like Obe Eyen  Ikpogiri . By the way did you notice the similarity in the word ‘Obe’ (soup) between the Yorubas and Itshekiris? I wonder who borrowed from who ? Anyway in Calabar they stayed out of the controversy and call their palm fruit sauce soup Abak Atama.

My Itshekiri friend tells me that this soup is cooked with locally bread chicken with tough meat. I simply made do with the frozen version, but the result was still amazing.
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Enjoy.

Recipe for Obe Eyin Ikpogiri( Banga Egusi)

Ingredients
2 cups Palm fruit  extract
4 pieces Old layer Chicken or Native chicken
1 tablespoon Egusi (fried and ground )
2 tablespoons Beletete,
1 teaspoon Ataiko,
1/2 teaspoon  Erereje,
one tablespoon ground Crayfish
1 tablespoon  fresh pepper
one  tablespoon Onion(ground)
Chopped onions.
 1 tablespoon dry or fresh Bitter leaf
Seasoning to taste

Method
1, Season and steam the chicken with salt, pepper a little onion and seasoning . Cook till half done
2, Pour palm fruit extract in a pot, add all the spices, blended or pounded pepper and onions, crayfish, seasoning, add the chicken also and cook till chicken is just tender.
3, Add a the Egusi, bitter leaves, and cook soup till it is slightly thickened.
4, Finish with the chopped onions and cook for 3 min.
5, Serve with any swallow.