Ofe Ugba
Aperçu
Ofe ugba is okra soup cooked with ugba, shredded, fermented African oil bean seed, and it belongs to Imo and Abia states in southeastern Nigeria, particularly to the people of Owerri and Mbaise. Ugba, also called ukpaka depending on where in Igboland you are, is made by boiling, slicing and fermenting the seed of the African oil bean tree. The fermentation is the entire point. Properly done, the shreds become tacky and almost cling together, and they carry a deep, pungent, savoury flavour that has no real substitute. It is eaten on its own as a salad with ugba and abacha, and used as an ingredient here. The distinction that matters, and the one the source is emphatic about, is that you cannot simply add ugba to okra soup and call it ofe ugba. The ugba has to be properly fermented first, and if it is not, the soup will taste like ordinary okra soup with something bland stirred through it. If it has not fermented enough, it is wrapped tightly and left longer. Around that sit the standard components, palm oil, assorted meat, dried fish, crayfish, pepper, and the okra itself for body. It is served with any of the swallows, and it is regional enough that many Nigerians have never eaten it.
My husband loved this so much, spent half my Saturday driving around Inglewood just to source proper smoked Titus fish and dry catfish. Used a standard 250ml cup for the ugba. The final dish was bloody lekker and so authentic, though grinding the ogiri in my dry mill was a bit sticky.