Adaeze › Igbo home cooking
Oha soup does not wait for you, nne. Once the base is going it moves at its own pace, so everything must be sitting ready before the palm oil goes in. The meat and stockfish should have been cooked the day before if you can manage it, or at least earlier in the day.
Season the goat pieces generously with salt, one stock cube, half an onion sliced, and a few whole black peppercorns. Cook in a covered pot on the hob with just enough water to cover, simmering for 60 to 80 minutes until completely tender and falling from the bone. Pull the goat meat fully off the bone once cooked and shred it well or cut it very small. You want no tough chunks and absolutely no small bones going into the soup. Reserve all the cooking stock — you will need it warm at Gate 04.
Soak the stockfish in warm water for at least 30 minutes, longer if it is very hard and dry. Then rinse it, remove any remaining bones very carefully, and break it into manageable soft flakes. Stockfish bones can be sharp and small, so take your time with this. Set the cleaned fish aside.
Blend your pepper base the night before if possible: one large onion roughly chopped, two medium tomatoes, one scotch bonnet (remove the seeds if you want less heat), and two large tatashe peppers. Blend until very smooth. Keep it covered in the fridge overnight.
Wash the oha leaves carefully. Strip the leaves from the woody stems, which you discard. Oha leaf is not cut with a knife — it will blacken. Shred it by hand, tearing gently into pieces. Set aside in a bowl.
Measure out your cocoyam paste. If you are using ede ocha (the white cocoyam), boil the pieces until very soft, roughly 25 to 30 minutes, then pound or blend until completely smooth with no lumps. This is your thickener and it must be perfectly smooth. Set it aside covered so it does not dry out.
Measure your ground crayfish, your ground ehuru, and your ground uziza seed into small separate bowls so they are ready to go at Gate 02. Have your palm oil measured and in a bowl near the hob.
Warm the reserved goat stock gently before Gate 04 so it is ready to go in hot. Have a ladle nearby.
Have your wooden spoon, a deep pot or Dutch pot, and your hob ready. Clear the space around the hob before you begin.
Put your Dutch pot on the hob over a medium-low heat. Pour in the palm oil and let it warm slowly until it clarifies and that raw, sharp smell softens and becomes something quieter and more fragrant. Now pour in your blended pepper mixture. It will spit a little when it hits the oil, so stand back for a moment and then stir it all together. Turn the heat to medium and leave it to cook, stirring every four or five minutes, for fifteen to twenty minutes. Do not rush this, nne. You are cooking out all the water from that blend and you will see the colour shift from a pale watery orange to a deep, concentrated terracotta. If you walk away too soon the soup will taste raw and sharp and no amount of time later will fix it. Stay with it.
Oya. Now we wake this base up. Add the ground crayfish, the ground ehuru, and the ground uziza seed directly into the pot. Stir everything together well so the spices are fully combined with the base. Let them toast in that hot oil for two to three minutes, stirring gently. The crayfish goes in dry and properly ground, nne. I am not flexible about this. Wet crayfish or poorly ground crayfish gives you a muddy flavour and undoes everything Gate 01 just built. You will know this moment is working when the smell shifts — that warm, deep, briny richness coming up from the pot. Do not skip this and do not rush past it.
Add the pre-cooked, well-shredded goat meat into the pot and stir it through the base. Then add the cleaned, de-boned stockfish flakes. Stir everything gently to coat the proteins in the base. Now add the cocoyam paste, dropping it in by small spoonfuls. Stir as you go so it dissolves into the soup rather than sitting in lumps. This is what thickens the oha soup into something with real body. Let everything cook together for five minutes on a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, so the goat and the stockfish begin to take on the colour and flavour of the base. The soup will still be quite thick at this stage and that is correct — Gate 04 will loosen it.
Now ladle in your warm goat stock gradually. Start with about 500ml and stir it through. You are looking for a consistency that is thick but still flows — like a good hearty soup rather than a stew. Add more stock a ladleful at a time until you reach that point. The stock must go in warm, not cold from the fridge, because cold liquid will shock the base and the cocoyam paste can seize. Taste now and adjust your seasoning with salt and your remaining stock cube if it needs it. Let the soup simmer gently on a low heat for ten minutes so everything comes together properly.
Turn the heat down to its lowest setting. Add the hand-shredded oha leaves into the pot and stir them through gently. You are not cooking these, nne. You are just letting the heat of the soup soften them barely — one to two minutes at most. The moment they turn a deeper green and become just tender, you stop. Overcook the oha and it loses its slight bitterness and its beautiful green and the soup becomes dull. Taste the soup one more time. Adjust salt if needed. A final crack of white pepper if you like. Then you are done. Taste twice before you serve. Always.
Once cooled, transfer to a lidded container and refrigerate within two hours. Keeps well for three days. The cocoyam base holds steady in the freezer — portion it before freezing and defrost overnight in the fridge. Reheat gently over a low flame with a splash of warm stock or water to loosen. The oha leaves will have softened further but the flavour will have deepened.
General guidance only. Always check food carefully before eating — if in doubt, throw it out.
Cook this with Adaeze, guided gate by gate in her own voice.
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