SOUP DISHES
- Amanda Assiako
- May 5
- 4 min read
Updated: May 12
NKWAN
It is a pot dish made by boiling meat or fish with ground vegetables and/or pulp with spices, and salt and allowed to simmer until the meat becomes tender. The meat or fish can be smoked, fried, grilled or fresh. There are three main types of nkwan based on the thickness and the principal ingredient used. These include nkakra (light soup), abɛnkwan (palmnut soup) and nkatsinkwan (groundnut soup).
There are several varieties of nkakra nkwan based on the principal ingredient used. The principal ingredient can be the meat or vegetable used, which gives the name. The following are the Nkakra varieties found within the KEEA municipality of Ghana.
Nkakra recipe
Ingredients:
tomatoes, pepper, onion, unripe pawpaw fruit, salt, meat or fish, water, soup pot or pan, grinding stone, ladle, spices
Procedure:
Peel the unripe pawpaw fruit and split to remove the seeds in it
Cut the flesh into smaller chunks
Wash the chunks with water and place them in a bowl containing water on the stove
Bring to a boil and remove from the stove
Strain the stock into a bowl to be used later
Select fresh tomatoes, pepper, garden eggs and onion and bring to a boil
Strain the stock into another bowl to be used later
Grind the vegetables with boba in the following order: pepper, garden eggs, unripe pawpaw fruit
Clear the vegetable paste from the boba into a bowl
Grind the onion and tomatoes left in the bowl
Clear the paste into another bowl and add it to the soup base
Set the soup base with the fish or meat in a pan and add the stock
Add the pepper, garden egg and unripe pawpaw paste to the fish or meat soup base and allow to simmer
Add the tomato and onion paste to the mixture in the soup pan and allow to simmer
Ingredients:
fresh palmnuts, dry pepper, tomatoes, onion, Turkey berries, pans, soup pot, palmnut mortar and pestle, colander, water, ladle, meat or fish (including kako)
Procedures:
Select fully matured, ripe palm fruit.
Put the washed palm nuts in a pan, add dry pepper and pour water to the level of the nuts
Bring to a boil on the tripod stove
Set the base with dry, smoked fishes, craps and sprinkle sea salt on it
When cooked, separate the pepper into a bowl and pound the palmnuts with mortar and pestle
Scoop the pounded palmnuts into a pan
Add water to extract the pulp from the fibres and nuts
Strain with a colander to separate the pulp into a pan, leaving the residue
Put the residue in the mortar and pound again
Scoop the residue back into the pan and add water to extract residual pulp
Strain with colander to add the pulp to the already extracted pulp in the pan
Set the soup base with the fish or meat including kako momon, chopped onion and salt in the soup pot.
Pour the strained palmnut pulp into the set soup pot
Place the soup pot on fire
When it starts to bubble, add whole onion and tomatoes to the soup
After a while, remove the whole onion and tomatoes from the soup
Grind the pepper separated from the palmnuts into paste with boba and add to the soup
Again, grind the whole onion and tomatoes taken from the soup with boba and add to the soup
Cut the ntropo (African eggplant) into four parts and add to the soup
Add fish, crabs and meats to the soup
Add the local crab and periwinkles
Leave the soup to simmer until red oil appears on the surface
Fetch a sample of the soup and taste to determine if the desired taste is achieved
Adding Nsamantrɔba to soup is believed to boost blood production.
The elites within KEEA society have a belief that the village folks can bewitched them when they eat the local crab because chewing these crabs comes with stomach problems and other spiritual attacks. The traditional folks also claim that this particular crab has a black substance inside its shell believed to be poisonous that must be blown away before using it to prepare any dish. This is cause the stomach problems but not any spirirual attacks.
Nkatsenkwan recipe Ingredients: dry groundnuts, tomatoes, pepper, onion, water, ladle, meat (chicken), colander, knife
Slaughtering and dressing the chicken
Pour water into a pan and bring to a boil
Catch the live chicken
Place the chicken on the ground while stepping on the feet and wings to prevent movement while slaughtering remove some feather from the neck
The traditional women set fire made of fibrous residue of palmnut to continuously smoke flies aways
Dig a hole in the ground to bury the blood
Cut the neck with the knife and allow the blood to spill
Place the dead chicken in a hweaseambo (Metal basin)
Pour the boiled water on the chicken to soften the feathers before plucking.
Pluck off the feathers completely and pour away the remaining hot water
Use soap and sponge to wash the chicken to remove dirt and slime. This is because most the chicken at the are wild of free range.
Rinse thoroughly with clean water to remove every trace of soap from the chicken
Dismember the chicken to get the required meat
Interesting facts: Dismembering of Chicken
Chicken is the favourite farmed animal used to prepare soup and stew for special occasions in the home and is accorded the honour of precise dismembering after slaughtering and dressing. Traditionally, the accepted method of dismembering a chicken should yield ten pieces of body parts plus one composed 3-in-1 part and three internal organs. The ten body parts include a pair of thighs, wings, hips, breasts and a single piece of the lower back and upper back. The two legs are joined with the neck to make one composed part, while the gizzard, heart and liver are the internal organs that are added to be consumed. Traditionally, being able to dismember a chicken precisely, is considered a mark of maturity and readiness to be entrusted with the soup pot. If a chicken is not dismembered precisely according to tradition, it will be questioned when served because men (husbands, fathers or heads of household) are given the lower and upper back and the breasts when dining. The rest are shared between the women and children.
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