Nkwobi Recipe from Afrolems

Nkwobi is a dish that is traditionally eaten by the Ibo people (a main tribe in Nigeria). It is a very rich dish but slightly high on the calories. If you are watching your weight, you should limit the palm oil and amount of potash in the dish. Hope you have a lot of success making the dish.

Recipe for Nkwobi

Ingredients

• Cow leg (goat limbs – substitute)
• Edible ground potash ( also known as akanwu )
• Blended scotch bonnet peppers ( 1 table spoon)
• Bitter leaf
• 3 Seasoning cubes
• Palm oil ( 2 cooking spoons)
• Onions ( 1 medium size)
• Dry blended red pepper (chilli flakes)
• Salt ( to taste)
• Dry Cray fish ( 1 cooking spoon)
•  Utazi leaves

Method

Cut, wash and season the cow leg with salt, dry pepper and 2 seasoning cubes and bring to boil with 3 cups of water. Boil cow leg on medium heat for 30-40 minutes. Taste to see if it is soft. Once the meat is tender, transfer into a bowl.

Combine the blended pepper, onions, blended crayfish, salt and 1 seasoning cube. Add water and mix thoroughly.

Place a clean cooking pot on medium heat and pour in the palm oil. Bleach the palm oil and add the edible potash and then cover up the pot for about 1 minute. Stir the oil and potash thoroughly until a thick paste is formed. Add some water to the mixture to dilute the paste.

Add the pepper, Cray fish, onion and seasonings to the pot with the paste and allow to simmer on medium heat for 5 minutes.

Place the cow leg in the serving bowl and pour in the mixture. Garnish with the bitter leaves & utazi leaves.

Nkwobi is best served with Boiled Yam or can be used as a stand-alone dish.

Tip from one of our Afrolems Fans as a substitute for Potash.

Growing up, Mother always used dried plantain peels in place of potash. She’d burn it and then use the ash (mixed in water). The result is almost the same.
She made me to understand that too much consumption of potash is not very healthy. Infact, most people react to it. They tend to have running stomach after eating any food that was prepared with akanwu. (African salad, nkwobi, isi ewu, abacha, etc)
So for some of us who reside in areas where potash might be scarce, why not try plantain peelings. #mytwocents#