This Nkwobi soup recipe is cow leg mixed in a spicy palm oil sauce. This Recipe is the most popular type of Nkwobi, it is a delicacy from Igbo land of Eastern Nigeria. Learn how to cook this Recipe now.
It grew from a beer parlour (pub) favourite to a classy restaurant staple and with my simple recipe, you can have it on your dinner table. Some vendors in most beer parlours, bulk up the cow leg by mixing in cheaper cow skin (ponmo) from the cow’s head and body
Nkwobi soup
Nkwobi, cow leg mixed in a spicy palm oil sauce
Servings 4
Calories 350kcal
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg Cow leg
- ½ small onion
- 1 cup ugba (ukpaka)
- 1 cup Palm oil
- 2 tablespoons Akanwu (potash, kaun*)
- 3 seasoning cubes
- 1 tablespoon crayfish or 1/2 crayfish seasoning cube
- 2 Ehuru seeds toasted and ground
- 2 scotch bonnet/fresh pepper
- salt
- 1 small onion thinly sliced (garnish)
- few utazi leaves thinly sliced garnish
- ½ chopped scotch bonnet/fresh pepper
Instructions
- Have the butcher remove the large bone from the cow leg and cut the cow leg into small pieces.
- Wash thoroughly and place in a pot.
- Add water, salt and two seasoning cubes, cook meat until very soft.
- Be careful when adding water and salt because you want to have just a small quantity of concentrated stock left in the pot when the cow leg is ready.
- Set aside to cool down.
- In a small bowl, put akanwu and water, stir until well mixed, leave to stand to allow any sand to settle at the bottom.
- Meanwhile, thinly slice onions into rings, shred utazi and chop pepper for the garnish, set aside.
- Pour palm oil into a medium-sized pot.
- Add 3 tablespoons of the akanwu (potash) water and stir continuously using a wooden spoon, add more and stir until the oil thickens and the colour changes from red to yellow. (If it is cracking, add another 1/2 tablespoon of akanwu water and stir. This mixture is called ncha (soap))
- Add one seasoning cube, ugba, crayfish (and crayfish seasoning cube if using), ehuru, scotch bonnet and about 1/4 cup of concentrated meat stock and stir well. Taste for seasoning and add salt if needed.
- Scoop the cooked cow leg pieces into the slurry and mix to get the sauce into the crevices.
- Place over low heat to just warm through, about 1 minute, stirring.
- Dish into bowls garnished with onions rings, scotch bonnet and thingly sliced utazi.
