Getting bored of beans? introduce variety into your diet by making Ukwa.
Ukwa is a nutty snack commonly eaten in the Eastern part of Nigeria. It could be roasted or made into a pottage using the raw nuts, just the way you cook beans. Think of beans, and just replace with the raw Ukwa, like beans it has many nutritional benefits.
You will need
2 – 3 cups of Ukwa – depending on how many people you are feeding
1 cup of shredded smoked fish
Palm oil
Salt
Seasoning cubes
2 – 3 pieces of ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habenro pepper
Instructions
I will like to start by saying, I wasn’t warned that ukwa takes forever to cook. I will be boiling it in a pressure pot from hencefort.
Step 1
Rinse the Ukwa, add water to the pot to cook it
then you add shredded smoked fish. Dooney’s Kitchen tip: the idea to boil with shredded smoked fish came from the fact that i assumed ukwa would taste bland when boiled on its own, and I wanted to amp up the flavour by using smoked fish
Step 2
Place the pot on high heat and cook the ukwa till it softens, just like you would with beans. It takes a while patience is key here.
Step 3
Once it has softened sufficiently, check the water level. If it has absorbed all the water, add a little more, just enough to top it, then add fresh pepper, palm oil, salt and 1 seasoning cube. Stir and just let it cook, till the palm oil and pepper mesh with the flavour of the Ukwa and the pale cream colour has changed to a brown shade of yellow. You may wish to mash it slightly with a wooden spoon to make it more creamy like beans pottage.
and that’s your Ukwa. The aroma and the taste, especially with the smoked fish is just amazing. If you don’t have smoked fish, you can use crayfish.
You can go fancy by serving it in a cored out red or green bell pepper.
Slay concierge tip
Add stock fish if you want to be really different plus honey plus green vegetables.
Interesting Variety is key to a sustainable healthy diet regimen
