Chef Debz or nah?

Last week Friday, I experimented with a different Nigerian soup....

You know how we are more comfortable preparing what we have been eating for years? Luckily for me, I had a mix of Igbo and Yoruba soups growing up, because I was “mixed breed” — my mum introduced my dad to igbo soups, whilst also making ewedu and gbegiri soup— so I kind of had the best of soup life.

But I recently realised that “daasss the end oo” — after pure Igbo (ofe) and yoruba (obe) soups, e haff finished. I have no idea what soups other tribes had.

With all my love for oil and gas (both out of passion and as an Igbo girl seeking money bringing ways (don’t judge me), if I had to pick another state in Nigeria to go to — apart from my usual Lagos and Abuja, my next state will be Delta state (let’s go and cure the land and erm *coughs* make money while at it), but imagine while trying to “collect oil money”, I am told to cook a Delta dish to prove that I am part of the people --- that's when they'll catch me.

(I apologise, but my mind goes places)

And so, in anticipation of the oil and gas money I might need to collect in the future--- I decided to attempt making owo soup. 

My first point of contact was gugu (google) --- my source for all information— we really have things easy in this generation
Then, next I took cooking lessons from my friend Tracy, who is an amazing Delta cook with 100,000 wife yards.

And so, I had to visit the market to buy the ingredients for owo soup as taught by gugu and Tracy:

Starch - was so difficult to find in a Yoruba dominated market
Palm Oil - I had this at home
Orishirishi meat - Beaf, chicken, pomo etc
Spices - Maggi, salt and ko ( I had these at home also)
Kaun (I don’t know how to spell it biko) - Native salt (I may have kept too much in the soup)

According to a mix of Tracy and gugu’s Cooking manual
1. Cook your meat as usual
2. Pour palm oil into the stock (water)
3. Mix your starch seperately in warm water, till it is “pasty”
4. Pour the starch into the palm oil stock water and keep stirring till it is evenly blended
5. I think it was at this point I kept the kaun.

And viola! I had made my first ever owo soup— or at least what looked like owo soup 

The soup (or at least what I made), wasn't so difficult---  It was basically meat stock, palm oil and starch-- pretty easier than most igbo soups. The soup actually came out looking like what I had seen online, maybe just a bit thicker--- but that's all I can talk about-- how it looked.

Talking about the taste, because I had never tasted owo soup before— it was a mystery whether or not it actually tasted like owo soup. So just in case, I made my usual efo riro