African

Ofe Oha

Name: Ofe Oha
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 1 serving
Cuisine: African
Ingredients: 120 g beef; 20 g stockfish; 25 g dried fish; 60 g cocoyam corms; 1 tbsp red palm oil; 1 tbsp ground crayfish; 1 tsp ogiri Igbo; 40 g oha leaves; 5 g uziza leaves; 1 scotch bonnet; 1 onion; 1 stock cube; salt; 400 ml water; 150 g pounded yam or fufu

An Igbo classic from eastern Nigeria: a rich palm oil soup thickened with pounded cocoyam and finished with hand-shredded oha (African rosewood) leaves, simmered with assorted beef, stockfish and dried fish, and eaten with pounded yam.

Lunch & dinner 25g+ protein 8g+ fibre

80 min20 prep · 60 cookMedium616 kcalper serving

Method

Cover the 20 g of stockfish with boiling water and leave to soak for 30 minutes until springy. Rinse the 25 g of dried fish in warm water, break it into bite-sized flakes and pick out any bones and hard skin.
Boil the 60 g of cocoyam corms in plenty of water for about 20 minutes, until a knife slides through easily. Peel while still warm and pound in a mortar to a completely smooth, sticky paste with no lumps of skin — this is the thickener that gives ofe oha its body.
Put the 120 g of beef in a medium pot with the chopped 1 onion, the 1 stock cube, a good pinch of salt and 400 ml of water. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 25 minutes, then drain the stockfish, add it and simmer a further 15 minutes until the meat is tender and the stock is well flavoured.