Best meal for a great Saturday evening with friends

                                   
Spice up your wacky Saturday evening with a delicious bowl of catfish pepper-soup made by a truly traditional Nigerian woman. We bet you won't forget that experience in your lifetime. Pepper-soup is a longtime traditional meal for most Africans and they never get tired of it despite it's spicy and pepperish nature. Find out how to do it on your own below:

Ingredients for Catfish Pepper Soup

    500g Cat Fish

    4 Ehu or Ariwo or Calabash Nutmeg seeds

    Habanero Pepper or chilli pepper (to taste)

    A few scent leaves

    2 medium onions

    Salt (to taste)

    2 big stock cubes

Alternative Ingredients for Catfish Pepper Soup

    Conger Eel (Congrio in Spanish) is a good alternative to catfish. When buying the Conger Eel, ensure you buy the part towards the tail so that the fish cuts will not have big holes in them.

    Parsley is a good alternative to scent leaves.

Method of cooking

    To prepare Cat Fish Pepper Soup, wash and cut the cat fish into 1-inch thick slices. Boil some hot water and pour on the pieces of fish, stir and remove immediately. This toughens the skin of the fish so that it does not fall apart during cooking.

    Now it is time to prepare the 'secret' ingredient. Using an old frying pan, roast the Ehu seeds (stirring constantly) till you can smell it. Take one of the seeds and try to remove the outer membrane. If the membrane comes off easily, then the Ehu is done.

    Peel off the membrane from all the Ehu seeds and grind with a dry mill.

    Cut the onions into tiny pieces.

    Wash and pick the scent leaves and tear them up with your fingers into small pieces.

    Place the pieces of fish in a pot and pour water to just cover the fish, add the stock cubes and bring to the boil.

    Once it starts to boil add the ground ehu, onions and scent leaves and continue cooking.

    Once the catfish is done, add salt to taste and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes and it's ready!

Catfish Pepper Soup should always be served hot. It can be eaten alone with a chilled drink But it's not a bad idea to take it with Agidi, Boiled White Rice or Boiled Yam.