I had the pleasure of learning how to make this soup during my NYSC days in Bayelsa State. You see, before my ‘stint’ in Bayelsa, I did not know that it was possible to eat rice with Banga soup.
Every restaurant or ‘food place’ I visited while in Bayelsa sold rice but never sold stew with it. You either eat it with Banga or you don’t eat it at all. So, I had to adjust my Lagos taste buds, learn how to make Banga soup and live like a Bayelsa indigene and I haven’t stopped making it since then.
See below for the recipe. You can thank me later.
Ingredients
- Palm fruit extract (This is the most important ingredient)
- Crayfish
- Stockfish
- Chicken/Beef/Turkey/ Fresh fish
- Bangaspice
- Pepper (Cameroun Pepper)
- Oburunbebestick also known as Banga stick
- DriedBeletientien(atama) leaves/ Dried bitter leaves
- Periwinkles
- Smoked Prawns
- Seasoning cubes
- Salt to taste
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Method:
- Wash your palm fruits thoroughly and put them on fire to cook.
- Check the palm fruits to be sure they were soft enough, put them in a mortar and pound them with a pestle. This way, you extract the oil from the palm fruits. (These days, most people just use their food processor to make this process better. I still stick to my mortar and pestle though.) Next, boil the extract until there is no oil left.
- Then, add your already cooked stockfish, pepper, crayfish, salt and seasoning, add the Banga spice.
- Drop the Obunrubebe stick into the already cooking pot (Obunrubebe is a special Banga spice used to add flavour to the soup). You can keep the stick after this cooking for subsequent use.
- Make sure you keep checking the Banga soup so it doesn’t become too thick.
- Add the beletientien leaves, let it boil for some time before you add any other already cooked protein into it.
- Reduce the heat and let it simmer for a while.
- Your soup is ready.
Kindly remember to remove the Banga stick before serving, serve with Starch or Fufu.
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