Obe Ishapa Recipe

This Obe Ishapa recipe is my way of apologizing for the break in transmission. A lot has been happening with work NYSC & other related activities that Afrolems has taken a hit in the past few weeks. I apologize. I am still trying to find my bearing blogging in Nigeria, after the traffic, hectic drive home and other little activities. My friend Christine from Port Harcourt came into town last week and said she had to see me and most importantly, she had to taste what I was cooking this weekend for Afrolems. I told her to come over around midday Saturday as I was going to cook Obe Ishapa for the blog. She immediately said “Afrolems, you have come again o! what is obe ishapa?” I explained to her that it was basically egusi soup with white zobo sepals. For those who don’t understand Nigerian culture really well, people in the south south have so many unique dishes that majority have not bothered to learn about other dishes that exist.

Sometimes, our dishes are just named differently in other parts of Nigeria, so sometimes we can be talking about the same dish but it has different names. I guess that is why Nigerian food blogs are here to educate everyone about the different dishes we have and the methods of making them.

I am currently serving my country in Ogun state so I have come to learn about some dishes that are unique to people living there. When I say unique, I use that term loosely because like I said earlier, different dishes have different names in other cultures. For example the white zobo leaves are called ashuwe in another language.

Obe Ishapa is a regular dish served during raining season in some tribes in Abeokuta as I am learning but of course you can cook it wherever you are regardless of season as long as you have access to the white zobo sepals. I also think this soup was created to avoid food wastage, that is just my theory. That maybe people made the Zobo (Hibiscus/Bissap) drink and then did not want to throw the leaves away, so they added it to their soup lol. Don’t quote me on this theory hehe. I have also heard that the leaves act as a substitute for fish or meat if you don’t have enough money for that. It makes for a different dining experience which would be great for vegetarians. 

One last thing before I type the recipe, if you like the wrist watch you see in the pictures below, don’t forget to use my 15% discount code “afrolemsDW” to shop the Daniel Wellington website for fancy wristwatches. I have gotten so many compliments in the past few weeks that I have been rocking it. This may just become my main wristwatch going forward. You can also redeem yourself if you did not get anything for your Dad on Fathers day 🙂 Now on to the recipe.

 

Recipe For Obe Ishapa

Ingredients (Makes a small pot of soup)

3/4 cup of Roasted Egusi (Ground)

A handful of White Zobo sepals

8 pieces of Beef

5 pieces of Kpomo (Cow skin)

5 pieces of Shaki (Tripe)

1 small piece of Smoked Fish

1 tablespoon of Crayfish powder

Seasoning cubes

1 tablespoon of Washed Iru (Fermented Locust Beans)

1 bulb of Large Onion

3 Large Tomatoes

5 Pieces of Scotch Bonnet Peppers (Ata Rodo)

2 Cooking Spoons of Palm Oil

 

Method

Wash, season and boil your beef, kpomo, shaki and set aside when soft.

Blend your egusi with a handful of Onions and set aside.

Blend and boil half of your onion, pepper, tomatoes till excess water dries and set aside.

In a pot, pour in your palm oil and heat up on low heat till oil is clear. This may take a little while for the oil to be clear.

Increase the heat and fry the remaining onions till translucent.

Stir in the tomato pepper mix and fry.

Add your seasoning, iru, crayfish powder and smoked fish.

Reduce the heat and allow to simmer.

In little lumps, add your egusi to the sauce and allow to simmer on low heat for about 5-7 minutes.

Add your beef, kpomo and shaki with the remaining stock and cook for an additional 7-10 minutes on low heat.

Increase the heat and add the ishapa and stir gently. Allow to cook for an additional 5 minutes and serve hot with any swallow of your choice. I chose two-tone eba.