Growing up, the only fond memory I have about falling sick besides being shipped off to weather the storm at Grandma's place was the amazing Catfish Peppersoup she makes that soothes your very soul. The herbs in the soup detoxify your system and would have you feeling well pretty soon.
The best part of growing up in Nigeria to me has always been the spicy food and the Catfish Peppersoup is filled with spices and herbs that would have you feeling better in no time. I served mine with boiled white rice as that's the way I remember Grandma doing it.
Ingredients for making Catfish Peppersoup
- 1 medium-sized Catfish
- Scent/Basil Leaves (Grandma calls it Nziza leaf pronounced "Inziza")
- Arikoko and Ange ( Nigerian spice, couldn't find a more suitable name)
- Larsor Pepper soup spice
- Ground Pepper (Ata gun gun aka very hot pepper)
- Cameroon Pepper
- Red Scotch Bonnet Pepper
- Yellow Scotch Bonnet pepper (not particularly necessary)
- Crayfish powder
- A bulb of onion
- bouillon cubes
- Salt to taste
Preparation
1. Wash and clean the catfish with running water and then soak in hot water for 1 minute so it stays together in the cooking pot. Take it out of the hot boiling water after 1 minute.
2. Place a pot on the stove with 150ml of water in it and allow water to boil.
3. When the water is boiling, add your chopped onions, chopped red scotch bonnet pepper, ground pepper, Cameroon pepper, bouillon cubes, crayfish power, Arikoko and Ange (local Peppersoup spice), Larsor Peppersoup spice, Yellow Scotch bonnet pepper and a little salt to taste. Stir gently and then allow the ingredients to boil in the pot till the onion softens. leave to boil for at least 3 minutes.
4. Carefully put the fish into the boiling pot and be careful not to stir in order not to break the fragile fish into many pieces in the pot. At this point, you can check if the taste of the soup is to your liking and add a little more Peppersoup spice if necessary.
5. Add Scent/basil leaves (Nziza leaves) and stir very gently so as not to break the fish into pieces and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes.
6. Serve with white rice and Catfish Peppersoup is ready to get you feeling better again.