Nigerian Catfish Pepper Soup with Scotch Bonnet and Scent Leaf

What you need

• 1 kg (2 1/4 lb) catfish, cleaned and cut into 4 cm steaks
• 1 1/2 tsp salt, plus more for cleaning the fish
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 2 scotch bonnet peppers, stems removed; use 1 for milder heat
• 30 g (1 oz) fresh ginger, peeled
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 tbsp pepper soup spice blend, ground calabash nutmeg, grains of selim and alligator pepper; sold ready-mixed
• 1 tbsp ground dried crayfish
• 1 tsp chicken stock powder
• 1.5 l (6 cups) water
• 1 handful scent leaves, or African basil; sweet basil if neither is available

Method

Restated from the original video

1. 1

   Put the catfish in a bowl and pour over water that has just come off the boil. Swirl gently for 30 seconds, then drain.

2. 2

   Rub each piece with a little salt to strip off the slime, then rinse in cold water. Keep the pieces whole and handle them gently.

3. 3

   Blend the onion, scotch bonnet peppers, ginger and garlic with 100 ml of the water to a rough purée.

4. 4

   Tip the purée into a large pot with the rest of the water, the pepper soup spice, crayfish, stock powder and 1 tsp salt.

5. 5

   Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 min so the spices flavour the liquid.

6. 6

   Slide the catfish into the pot. From here, shake the pot rather than stirring, so the soft fish does not break apart.

7. 7

   Simmer uncovered over medium-low heat until the fish is opaque and flakes at the centre, 12-15 min.

8. 8

   Tear in the scent leaves and simmer 2 min more.

9. 9

   Taste the soup and add salt or more spice blend if needed. It should be thin, peppery and hot.

10. 10

    Ladle the fish and plenty of the soup into deep bowls and serve very hot.

Imported from africanbites.com. Recipe Grab pulled out what you need to cook it; the video stays where its author put it.