Ekpang-Nkukwo
This was a high in demand recipe from many of the Afrolems fans. I posted the photo of the meal seven days to Christmas and since then Ekpang-Nkukwo has been on the mind of many of my Afrolems followers. It is a native Efik meal and apparently is also native to Cameroonians. The English name is coco-yam pottage and the Efik name is Ekpang-Nkukwo. Here is the recipe below, hope you enjoy it.
Ingredients
8 medium tubers of cocoyam
1 bundle of spinach or cocoyam leaves
1.5 cups of periwinkles with their shell
Dry fish
1 cup of crayfish
1 cup of tiger shrimps
4 cubes of maggi
1.5 tablespoons of dry pepper
½ teaspoon Crushed dry bitter leaves
1 tablespoon blended crayfish
4 cups of water
3 cooking spoons of palm oil.
Method
Peel and grate your coco-yam
Wash your cocoyam leaves and cut into small pieces (alternative- baby spinach leaves)
Grease your pot with a cooking spoon of palm oil
Line your pot with periwinkles and season with a teaspoon of salt, pepper and 2 cubes of Maggi cube.
Boil 1.5 cups of water
Scoop some cocoyam onto your leaves and wrap them till the edges of the cocoyam are sticking out on both ends of the leaves.
wrapping the ekpang nkukwo
Once this is done, put the pot of the cocoyam on low heat and let it heat up for about 10 minutes.
Season with 1 table spoon of salt, 1 table spoon of dry red chilli peppers, 2 cubes of maggi, a pinch of crushed dry bitter leaves and a tablespoon of blended crayfish.
Add dry fish, shrimp, and dry crayfish but don’t stir in.
Pour in the hot water slowly around the edges and still leave on low heat for 5 more minutes.
Increase the temperature to medium heat and pour in 2 cups of water as your pottage cooks. Cook for 20 minutes on medium heat with a covered pot.
Add more water as need be until the cocoyam at the ends of the leaves start to harden.
Stir your pottage gently at this point and reduce to low heat for cook for 5 more minutes.
Pour in 2 cooking spoons of palm oil, stir in and leave to simmer on low heat for 5 minutes and food is served.
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does this mean u don’t take the leaves out?
Hi Anastasia, you do not take the leaves out. You cook it with the cocoyam as it is wrapped
Thanks for putting the alternative to cocoyam leaves (baby spinach). You saved me the trouble of looking for those. Can you also use water yam instead of cocoyam?
Hi Sharon, you cannot use water yam for this. You cannot even use the cocoyam for thickening soups. It has to be the hairy cocoyam.
Whoa, that was quick! Thanks for clarifying that. “Hairy” cocoyam, it is then
If I don’t get baby spinach, can I use Pumpkin leaves? And also can I use the periwinkle that isn’t in the shell? Bcos that’s hard to get were I am..
You can use perwinkles that are not in the shell. You can use lettuce to replace spinach if you do not have baby spinach.
Pls where can I find prewinkles here in Canada? Since u here too..i guess u can help me out.
I get my periwinkles from the Oceans grocery store. It is an Asian grocery store
Ooh..okay..thanks a lot
could you occasionally give a pictorial representation of steps to cook the food. cos I’m still trying to imagine how to wrap the cocoa yam in leaves
Definitely. I would start doing that. Thanks for the suggestion.
Well i do cook mine wit water yam n i wrap it wt pumpkin leaves..
grate ur water yam, salt it a little, take in small qtys n wrap in ur pumpkin leaves n line it up in a pot n heat for sm tym bt dnt allow it to burn, in a seperate pot, heat ur palm oil a little, pour in ur sliced onion n tomato ( u cld mix fresh n tin for redness). When d tomato is done, pour in ur stock water(enough water to cook ur cocoyam till it is done), pepper, crayfish n maggi n bring to a boil, then pour it into d cocoyam pot n allow to cook, do not stir) when u see that it is done, use a wooden spatula to turn, by then d water has turnd to porridge. Bring it down n serve.
That sounds interesting. Would try your method this weekend