How To Prepare Abacha (African Salad)

This meal is very popular in the eastern part of Nigeria. Most rural dwellers are very familiar with the whole process involved. The first thing to do is to (if you live in the village or you own a far) obtain cassava tubers, wash thoroughly and boil along with water for twenty to thirty minutes then pill to remove the brown outer layer, and cut to tiny bits. The sliced cassava is then soaked in water for 18 hours or more. The last thing to do would be to wash thoroughly with clean water then sun-dry and store in an airtight seal. Dried cassava chips can last more than a year if stored in an air tight dry environment. Here are all the ingredients that are needed for preparing Abacha (African Salad) whethes you are within or outside Nigeria. INGREDIENTS: 6 to 8 cups of Abacha Ehu 3 seeds (optional) 1 to 2 cups of Ugba (Ukpaka) Half cup of crayfish 1 to 2 cubes of maggi About 10cl of palm oil Edible powdered potash (1 teaspoon) Salt and pepper to taste 3 to 5 garden eggs (optional) Utazi leaves (optional) Garden egg leaves (optional) Meat/dry fish or stock fish (optional). PREPARATION Heat or soak the dry Abacha in boiled water for about three minutes, then sieve and keep on a separate bowl. Blend your crayfish and also slice the onions, garden egg leaves. It is advisable to dissolve the powdered potash in about 5 cl of clean water; this is a trick i employ just to easilz filter out unwanted solid materials that is often embedded in potash. Filter the dissolved potash in a mortar or pot, leaving out the residue. Add about 10cl of palm oil and stir to for yellowish paste, add the ground crayfish and pepper, stir, then add the ground ehu. Add the ugbato the mixture and stir, and then add the abacha, salt. It is advisable to heat the abacha just few second before you use so it doesn't get cold, as most people in Nigeria like their Abacha to be a little bit warm. Stir the whole combination and you are almost through with the preparation part. The garden eggs, the leaves and the onions are used mostly to spice up or for decoration purposes and not added during preparation, but while dishing out. They are often sliced and kept aside in different plates or bowls, then added while individual plates are dished out; this also goes for the meat or fish used. Taste the combination in the mortar or pot, if it is not as tasty as you desire, you may also want to turn on the cooker and heat for few minutes if it not as warm as you desire. Serve with the meat and also add the garden eggs (sliced) and leaves to individual plate, most people in the rural centres like to take African salad with palm wine. So get a bottle of palm wine or your favorite soft drink.