Practical West African cookery

The cook must understand that the pot must be kept simmering for at least two or three hours after the first boiling point has been reached. Vegetables, in no matter how small a quantity, all improve the taste of soup, but only carrots, turnips, onions, tops of young onions and parsley should be used in beef, mutton or chicken broth. If other vegetables are used, then the soup is treated as a vegetable soup. The meat and vegetables must be carefully washed ; the lid kept tilted on the saucepan or the native pot so that the steam can escape, and the cook should be induced to take off all the scum as it rises before the first boiling point has been reached. The proportion of water to Nigerian meat should be about three pints to 2-lb. meat, or to l^-lb. meat and £-lb. bones. The quantities given in the following recipes are sufficient to make two good platefuls of soup. Soup is much better if made in rather large quantities, and can always be heated up again. If the soup is not all finished at dinner, the remainder can be kept till the following lunch, though it is safer to give a short boil in the morning in very hot weather. A native cooking pot with a lid is almost better than a saucepan for making soups, on condition that it is kept absolutely clean and scalded out with boiling water each time after use. Chicken Broth. (1). 1 fowl, old and skinny and freshly killed, if nothing better can be had. l£ pints water. 1 onion stuck with one clove. 1 teaspoon salt. 1 native pepper (berkono) or a pinch of black pepper. A pinch of nutmeg. (3 large carrots, 3 large turnips and a bunch of parsley if available). 1. Clean the fowl, cut off the wings and legs and break its carcase into four pieces. Put it all into the large saucepan or native pot, together with the neck, feet, the salt and pepper. Pour over the cold water and set it on a slow fire. With a spoon remove the scum as it rises to the top and throw it away. Keep the fire low so as to keep the pot from boiling as long as you can. If the soup is in a saucepan it should take about twenty minutes, or half an hour if in a native pot. 2. As soon as it boils throw in the onion, the berkono and the nutmeg (and the parsley, carrots and turnips split in four pieces). Throwing in the vegetables will stop the boiling, watch it till it boils again, then put on the lid a little sideways so that the steam can escape. 3. Put the pot on the range as far as possible from the fire with just enough heat to keep it simmering. If on a native fire keep several large pieces of wood just burning so as to give out a slow and equal heat. Let it cook thus for at least a good hour, then pour the soup through the sieve and serve. Notes. After the second boiling point has been reached, pick out the legs and wings with a fork, cut off the best portions of the meat and return the bones to the pot. This meat can be cut into small squares and put back in the soup after it has been strained, together with squares of the carrots and turnips.