Bitter herb and pepper soup

09/08/2010

Bitter herb.  Anyone heard of that before?  I’ve read about it in the Nigerian literature as it gets mentioned quite often by different authors. 

A while back Revival (The Namibian ambassadors wife, remember?) gave me a stick to put into the ground to see it grow. I had that stick, which did start growing vigorously, in a sack on my back veranda for a month or more. Eventually last Wednesday I got Kenny, our driver, to stop along the road in search of the right size pot.  Roadside nurseries stretch along most of the main streets in Nigeria.  When I explained that I needed a pot and some soil, not a plant, the sales gent simply pulled out a plant and gave me the pot with soil and all, at a price of course.  And the stick plant got potted and its dignity back.  It looked good almost like a decorative plant and developed lots of nice leaves. 

That was yesterday.  Today it has just a few feeble leaves left.  The reason?  Pepper soup.

Fatima was going to teach me how to make the famous Nigerian pepper soup.  It is very easy, but … and there lies the trick, apart from lots of chilly peppers you need Nigerian herbs.  Lo and behold my back veranda had two of the herbs needed: A mint, also from Revival and my stick plant, the bitter herb.  Fatima is going to get me the other traditional herbs from the market because you cannot buy it in a grocery store: atariko (a kind of small chillie), uda (like a small thin mushroom), gbafilo, rigije and uyayak (all leafy herbs).  The internet gave me a list of substitute herbs for Nigerian herbs: aniseed, aniseed pepper, cloves, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, allspice, dried ginger, tamarind pods and fennel seeds.  However Fatima said it is not the same and then believe me, it is just not the same.

We have now a pot of hot, hot (really hot) cold pepper soup, waiting to be heated up for our supper tonight.  Maybe I should divide it, freeze the one half for another brave day and just heat up a small bit. Because I think, at least I, will only have a limited amount. Nick likes the hot stuff and is always smothering his food with tobasco.  Small wonder he likes all my cooking.



With the pepper soup and other soups and stews, the West Africans eat a dough like lump of yams, coco yams or cassava. They are all tubers which are dried, ground and steamed. The cooked product looks a bit like our stywe pap, but they present it in a ball, the size of a tennis ball, wrapped in plastic.  That is how you get it at all the big hotels here.  I am not sure how they presented it in the pre-glad wrap years and in the rural areas.  After opening this package, one pinch off a piece, roll it between your fingers into a small ball and then dip it into the soup or stew before eating it.  It taste very different from anything I have eaten before, but not unpleasant, though I will have to get used to it before it will become a selected choice.



Bitter herb



There is another handy purpose for the bitter herb.  Most useful here where foreigners found that they struggle to keep their stomachs stable and comfortable.  Mix the bitter herbs with water, liquidize it with something sweet such as an apple or honey (to make it more palatable) and drink.  Apparently this green drink is excellent to stabilize the tummies.  No wonder the locals do not seem to battle with upset stomacs, this bush grows every where and they just chew the leaves and  no wallah (pigen English for… yes you have guessed… no problem). The Hausas says Ba Komi, meaning more or less the same as no wallah.