Hello everyone. Happy Lord's day!
Today on creative Sunday, I'm bringing you all the unique AkwaIbom State Banga Soup which is called Atama in our local Ibibio dialect. Banga soup is prepared with an extract obtained from pounded palm fruits.
It is noteworthy that what differentiates the Efik/Ibibio people's Banga soup from that of other tribes is the Atama leaf. Let's dive into my ingredients and recipe. Stay with me!☺️

INGREDIENTS

• Palmfruits
• Atama leaf (use fresh or dry, I used dried for mine)
• Goat meat
• Cowskin
• Periwinkle
• Stockfish
• Fresh pepper
• Salt
• Seasoning cubes

THE PROCESS

I started my cooking by soaking my properly washed periwinkle in salt water. I sprinkled enough salt in water and poured in my periwinkle. I left it covered until I needed it. This technique helps the salt get absorbed into the shell of the periwinkle and this will make it very tasty after preparation. (I just shared a secret free of charge, say thank you ma) 😁

I also washed my chopables😁 that's my meat and fish and I proceeded to cook them to get my stock water. I added just salt, pepper and seasoning cubes while cooking them.

Next step is to boil the palmfruits. I boiled till the flesh began to tear up. The colour too changed from bright red to a sort of brownish red. That's how you know it's soft and ready.
I filtered the water and pounded the palm fruits into a mash. The flesh was completely separated from the nut at this point.

Using cold water, I squashed and squeezed the juice and oil from the mash and took out the shaft gradually. After this, I filtered it using a thin net filter to get a very clean extract.

The oil and water extract gotten from the palm fruit is what I use to cook my soup. That is the main base. So you pour the extract into your clean pot and proceed to heat it up. I allowed it to simmer a little and I added my stock water, my meat, cowskin and stockfish, as well as my periwinkle. Here I added more salt and seasoning cubes to taste and left it for about 6 minutes to cook.

Next I added my crayfish. I love crayfish so much so I added a little more than normal and I left it to simmer a little then I stirred the contents of my pot in order to get them mixed perfectly. After this, I tasted my cooking to make sure the taste was perfect. Lastly, I added my dry Atama leaf.

The leaves are already dry so I didn't let it cook anymore. I just added it, stirred, tasted my soup for the last time and turned off my gas. Bang! The Banga soup was banging!

A little tip for people who may like to use the fresh leaves instead, the fresh leaves are mostly bitter so you have to wash to your satisfaction which could be extremely bitter, slightly bitter or not bitter at all.

This is where I'll call it a wrap on today's post. If you loved this content please drop a comment, share your own recipe, reblog and follow for more great contents. See you next time with another refreshing post.

Lastly, if ever you get to AkwaIbom State or Cross River State, do not hesitate to order this soup. The taste is divine, trust me! As the name implies, Banga, it's surely a bang! 😂

First image used in my video is property o Hive learner's community