Eru is one meal that everyone in my house loves. From Mr N. to baby girl, no leftovers are guaranteed. Some weeks ago, my parents sent me some dried Eru and crayfish all the the way from home. I leaped for joy knowing it will be a while before I visit an African store to purchase these leaves. My parents eh. They wrote my names on the packs as though they were sending me off to Form 1 in boarding school. See the packs below.
Eru is a wild plant that is harvested from the forest in Cameroon. In Nigeria, it is called Ukazi or Afang. Natives of Cross Rivers State use it to prepare the famous Afang soup. Afang soup has a striking similarity to Eru but it is more “soupy’ and the Eru is ground or pounded prior to preparation. Another soup that really looks like Eru is the Edika Ikong, also prepared by the Calabar people of Cross Rivers State in Nigeria. It looks almost like Eru. Permit me to say that Eru is the grandmother of Afang! I have tasted the two and I know who the mama is and who pikin is. Lol!
I’m yet to see someone who doesn’t like this delicacy. It is that meal that will make a responsible man fail to follow the queue when he notices it is almost finished at a party. Lol. But seriously people just love this dish. I’ll show you below how to make the perfect Eru everytime but first let’s look at some Eru don’ts:
-Don’t add water after adding in your Eru. It is a ‘dry soup’ You sure need water to cook your meat/fish but make sure the water is dried before you put in your spinach/waterleaf. The spinach will provide the moisture you need.
-Don’t add onions to Eru. I have seen some recipes including onions and that is just out of place. Original Eru needs no onions.
-Don’t cook Eru without crayfish. My Mom always says, “crayfish is the ingredient of Eru.” No amount of dried fish can replace crayfish in Eru.
-Don’t eat Eru with a spoon (okay, I’m kidding on this one!)
Let’s start cooking, people.
ERU RECIPE
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients
6 cups of Eru/Ukazi
3 bags/bundles of spinach/waterleaf
2-3 pounds of meat/fish of choice(beef skin/canda, beef stripes, beef, goat meat, dried/smoked fish, stocked fish, snails, and/or others)
2 cups of crayfish
3 cups of palm oil plus half cup of canola (or groundnut) oil
1 crayfish seasoning cube (Maggi Crevette)
1 Habanero pepper (optional)
Salt to taste
Method
If you are using dried Eru, start by soaking it in water.
Wash your meat and put in the pot to boil. I used beef skin and beef stripes AKA canda and towel.
While the meat boils, chop your spinach or waterleaf and set aside.
When your meat is half-boiled, season with salt. When it is cooked, add in spinach and start stirring. Spinach is quite soft and will shrink fast as seen below.
Then you drain Eru and add to pot. The small liquid from the Spinach will make the Eru soft.
Add in your fish and mix. I had some already boiled stock fish so I threw it in.
Then add the oil, seasoning cube and lastly crayfish. Tip : Mixing palm oil and canola/vegetable oil keeps the oil from becoming hard when the Eru is cold.
Stir well and voila, Eru is ready. Serve with Water Fufu (Akpu), Garri or even Pounded Yam.
The works of Mr N’s hands-
Ehen, if you try this abeg come back to gist me by dropping a comment below. Enjoy!
Thanks dearie!
Cudos dear..that green color…..hhmmm…100 commentaire
Nuvi, I once ate Edikan Ikong and thought I was eating Eru. We are indeed related- children of the same family. I'll be posting more recipes. Thanks, hun!
It's got Similarities with Edikan ikong but in place of Eru(uziza ), Pumpkin is used .
Going through some of your post shows you are from Cameroon, all Africans are really related.
Looking forward to more recipes. I'm a foodie, so you've got me on that aspect.
Thanks, Eby!
I love this.
Hahahaha I tell you! I wasn't for the groundnut oil mix before but I tried it and loved it. It doesn't have to be a lot of it. A little bit will do. Na really bon appetit in arrears. Eru has been digested and flushed a long time ago.
Ah be don tok say that eru ansa well well. ๐
Na we contri chop. I don't know about the groundnut oil mix. My mum never did cook it that way and being a mama's daughter, I cook like her. But I have seen pple do it and I have been wondering why. Now I get the clue.
Bon appetite in arears. BTW Ya reme sabi tie bush cargo all oyibo dog no fit smell am ๐
I tell you, Nata.
Thank you
Your cooking recipes are always what I use to confirm mine and even learn a whole new. My cooking has become so good now because of you.
God bless you
God bless you too, dear. Thank you for the feedback.
Good but you have to make sure the water leave is dry ( just small water left) before putting your eru. Eru should be moist not watery. Too much water from the water spoils soap.
Thank you precious. Learnt a lot from this
You are welcome, Joel.
Looks green and yummy.
What causes eru to be bitter? I thought it’s young leaves that do that but I but some with better leaves and it was still bitter meanwhile I used to cook the best eru in my family. What makes it bitter now
Hi Barbie, it may be the kind of eru. I have had that happen to me too. If that happens, you could try adding more crayfish to see if it helps cover up the bitter taste. Hope this helps.