INTRODUCTION

Hello my wonderful food lovers, it is time for me to make my entry in this special contest that organised by @steemitfoods and sponsored by @gbenga and specifically for African steemians and steemit foods lovers.

Today, I want to participate in this contest by preparing our native food. The name is Ukwa or bread fruit.

African breadfruit can be classified alongside beans because it is similar to it. It is known as Ukwa in Igbo and the scientific name is Treculia africana.

Ukwa is such a versatile food with a natural delicious flavour. It can be cooked plain without any ingredient, not even salt and it will taste great especially when prepared with fresh Ukwa.

You can even drink the water plain as you can see here without adding anything

It can be roasted and eaten with coconut or palm kernel. It can also be prepared as a porridge.

Ingredients

1kg of African Breadfruit
1 big size dry fish
1 stock cube
1 cooking spoonful edible liquid potash
Palm oil (enough to colour)
5-6 fresh bitter leaves (utazi leaf)
Pepper & Salt (to taste)
Corn/Maize, you can also use sweet corn
Ripped plantain

Ripped plantain

Fresh pepper, dry fish, stock fish, salt, sweet corn, and stock cube

Breadfruit, edible potash and utazi leaf

Notes on the ingredients

• Wash the ukwa thoroughly in cold water. Stones and sand usually settle at the bottom.

• Pound the pepper.

• Rinse the bitter leaves, slice and set aside.

• Peel the ripped plantain and set aside

Sliced ripped plantain, sweet corn, sliced utazi leaf, pounded fresh pepper

Cooking Directions

Step 1

Put the thoroughly washed ukwa in a sizeable pot.
Pour enough water to cover the ukwa. The level of water should be about 1 inch above the level of the ukwa.
Add the dry fish or stock fish, cover the pot and and place on fire. Allow it to boil, then add the edible potash and cook till well done. The ukwa is done when the seeds melt when pressed. You may need to top up the water while cooking so watch it closely.

The thoroughly washed ukwa or breadfruit with stock fish and dry fish in a pot.

Step 2

Add enough palm oil to the well done ukwa, add pepper, stock cubes, add the sweetcorn and salt to taste.
Stir. Cover and cook on medium heat till the palm oil changes colour from red to yellow. This should take about 5 minutes.

Step 3

Stir and add the bitter leaves.
Cover and leave to simmer or till the leaves wilt but still green and the ukwa is ready to be served

The breadfruit has softened

I have added the yellow corn here

I added the leafs and fresh pepper and stock cube

Then the oil and it is ready after cooking

Step 4

Fry the ripped plantain in a groundnut oil. I added onions to the oil for a better taste.

The groundnut oil with onions

Frying in progress

Fried plantain is ready

Now that everything is ready, I then served the food thus

Breadfruit with fried plantain, garnished with utazi leaf and pounded fresh pepper

This is food is very healthy and delicious. Come and join me.