Cookbook:Atama Soup

Atama soup is a very rich palm fruit soup, made of vegetables and mudu palm fruits and mostly consumed by the people from Southern Nigeria. It is the Akwa Ibom version of banga soup.

Ingredients

 * 1 kg meat
 * Smoked fish
 * Mudu palm fruit
 * Small piece of lime/alum
 * 1 tablespoon ground crayfish
 * Small bunch of atama leaves
 * Medium-sized snails
 * Water
 * Small piece of uyayak
 * 2 cubes of maggi or more to taste
 * 1 cup of periwinkles
 * Salt to taste

Equipment

 * Pot
 * Stove
 * Knife
 * Bowl

Procedure

 * 1) Cut a little piece of the tail end of periwinkle, then wash thoroughly and boil with a teaspoon of salt of about for about 8–10 minutes until it foams. Remove and wash thoroughly to get rid of the dirt.
 * 2) Wash and boil palm fruits for about 30 minutes. Drain off water and pound for few minutes. Add palm fruits to warm water, mix thoroughly, and drain off the oily extract.
 * 3) Remove unwanted bits of snails, add 2 tbsp salt, and knead to remove the slime. Use lime to wash snail thoroughly to remove the remaining slime. Season and boil snail until it’s cooked.
 * 4) Cut and finely grind the atama leaves.
 * 5) Pour the oily palm fruit extract in a pot, boil for about 5 minutes, add boiled snail, meat, cleaned fish, periwinkle, pepper, and maggi. Stir and allow to boil for about 10 minutes.
 * 6) Add atama leaves, and let it boil for 10 minutes without stirring.
 * 7) Add uyayak and salt to taste, then stir well. Allow to simmer for another 10–15 minutes.
 * 8) Remove from heat, then serve with pounded yam, fufu, or boiled rice.