HOW TO MAKE AFIA EFERE IN ONE HOUR

Afia Efere is an oilless Efik soup that is guaranteed to wow whoever eats it. This soup is known popularly as white soup although it doesn’t look white in colour, and uses fewer ingredients than its Igbo twin, Ofe Nsala.

INGREDIENTS

• Goat meat
• Assorted meat
• 1 medium-sized smoked fish
• Yam
• 2 calabash nutmegs (ehu or ehuru)
• 3 pieces of uda – optional
• 1 fresh Cameroon pepper
• 1 tsp uziza seeds
• Uziza leaves, chopped
• Uyayak pod (Aidan fruit), rinsed thoroughly and divided into two
• 3 tbsps ground crayfish
• Dry pepper – to taste
• 2 stock cubes
• Salt – to taste

METHOD

1. Boil goat meat and assorted meat with smoked fish until soft.
2. Prepare your spices (calabash nutmegs, uda, uziza seeds and half of the uyayak) blend or grind in a dry mill into an almost-smooth powder.
3. Add some water to the ground spices, and filter using a fine mesh sieve.
4. Peel and wash your yam and cook until soft.
5. Add extra water, crayfish, dry pepper and remaining half of uyayak to the pot of meat and bring contents to a boil.
6. Taste for salt and season if necessary to your taste.
7. Add the ground spices in tablespoons, tasting as you go so that you don’t add too much. Turn down the heat to simmer so that the spices can permeate the meats.
8. Make smooth pounded yam by mashing the boiled yam traditionally or using a food processor or blender.
9. Turn up the heat on your meal and add the pounded yam in medium-sized balls.
10. Once the yam has dissolved completely, taste for seasoning and salt again and readjust if necessary.
11. Add your freshly-chopped uziza leaves, stir and take off the heat.
12. Serve with pounded yam.

CHIDIRIM NDECHE