Ukazi Soup And Achara Soup With Akpurakpu Mgbam: The Powerful Weapon Of The Umuahia People

It is no secret that the Umuahia people are well renowned for their love of ukazi and achara soup. This soup m can as well be cooked with Akpurakpu Mgbam. This special soup is cooked during festive occasions but for a typical Umuahian, no occasion serves as a special time to cook this. We cook and enjoy it at will. And of course, it is highly sumptuous, delicious and satisfying. Akpurakpu Mgbam simply means molded egwusi or molded melon. Ukazi is a special type of vegetable that is sliced in tiny bits for the purpose of this special soup while achara refers to the edible part of the elephant-like grass..

1 cup of ground egwusi(melon)
Ground usu
Fresh pepper
Salt to taste
Some slices of onion
A teaspoonful of hot water (optional)

Preparation :-

Pour in your egwusi and usu, 2 or 3 balls of fresh pepper and some slices of onion in a clean mortar. Sprinkle in some salt.
Rub it together using your pestle. Rub it as if you are massaging it till it starts releasing oil and the mould comes together.
You can add a teaspoonful of oil to help it release more oil.
Remove from mortar, and squeeze together to remove the remaining oil in it. Then, mould into desired sizes.

Preparing Your Achara

Peel the back of the achara and cut the edible side into desire bits. (The trick in this is seeing it being done and learning from an expert.)

Ingredients For The Soup

2 cups of egwusi
The moulded egwusi(Akpurakpu Mgbam)
Meat, stock fish, smoked fish, periwinkle, mangala etc. (The ultimate choice of the kind of meat and fish accompaniment to be included in the soup rests with the person cooking the soup).
Achi (soup thickener)
The sliced ukazi
Palm oil
The already prepared achara
Pepper and salt to taste.
Crayfish

Wash your meat thoroughly and put into a clean pot. Slice in your onion and sprinkle in some salt Wash the achara and pour it into the pot. Allow the water in the meat to dry up.
Cut your stock fish head or body into sizeable portions. Wash and add to the pot. Add the required quantity of water for the soup and allow to boil.
After it boils, pour in the quantity of palm oil you need.
Allow this to boil thoroughly after which you add the moulded egwusi balls one after the other to the intense boiling water. Allow to boil very well Add pepper. .
Pour in your egwusi and achi and stir. Allow to boil.
Pour in the crayfish after which you add your choice ingredients such as mangala, periwinkle, smoked fish etc.
Add Maggi and salt to taste. When it boils, taste to see if everything is in the right proportions.
Wash and add the sliced ukazi leaf. Allow to boil together and then being down the pot.
This soup can be eaten with garri, foo-foo or pounded yam. This depends entirely on the dietary needs of the person eating the food.