African Bread (Ukwa) Recipe

African
breadfruit belongs to a food group of its own. I didn’t know where to
put it, but in the end I settled on the bean section, since breadfruit
is the most similar to beans. It is known as Ukwa in Igbo language and
its scientific name is Treculia africana.

Ukwa are a variety of foods with delicious natural flavors. It can be cooked
plain without anything, not even salt, and it will be very tasty,
especially if it is made with fresh Ukwa. It can be eaten with coconut
or palm kernel. It can be prepared in the form of porridge, which is the
subject of this page.

Ingredients:

700 g of African breadfruit

2 medium dried fish

2 small stock cubes

7 g of potash

Palm oil (enough to color)

5-6 fresh bitter leaves

Pepper and salt (to taste)

You may also read:WHAT IS A BREADFRUIT

Additional ingredient commonly used in bread porridge:

White Puna Yam

Cereal/corn, you can also use sweet corn

Notes on the ingredient

Freshly peeled ukwa or dried ukwa can be used for this recipe.

You can use stock fish instead of dry fish, or both.

Buy fresh bitter leaves I mean bitter leaves that have not been washed
or pressed.

Always add palm oil to make your Nigerian food taste better.

Dietary
potash acts as food tenderizer. Only small amounts should be used. If you’re
lucky enough to buy freshly picked ukwa seeds from the same tree,
you won’t need to use food tenderizer.

Before cooking Ukwa

If you are using dried ukwa, soak it overnight in plenty of cold water. If you’re using fresh ukwa, skip this step.

The
next day,debone and wash the fish or dry fish and break it into pieces.

Wash the ukwa thoroughly with cold water. Stone and sand often settle at the bottom, so be careful of those.

Grind the pepper.

Wash the bitter leaves and set it aside.

<< READ ALSO ON: HOW TO STORE AVOCADOS – WHOLE AND PEELED >>

Cooking Directions:

Place
the washed ukwa in a sizeable pot.

Pour in enough water to cover
the beans. The water level should be about 1 inch above the level of the ukwa.

Add edible potash. Add dried fish or stock fish, cover the pan
and cook until done. Ukwa is done when the seed is melted when pressed. You may add water while cooking, so watch it carefully. If you
are using a pressure cooker, top up will not be necessary.

Add
enough palm oil to thewell done ukwa and add pepper, stock cubes and
salt to taste.

Stir, cover and cook over medium heat until the palm
turns from red to purple. This should take about 5 minutes.

Stir and add the bitter leaves.

Cover and leaves to simmer or till the leaves wilt but still green and the ukwa is ready to be served.

Watch video here:

Cooking Ukwa with pressure pot

If
you have a pressure pot, ukwa is one of the Nigerian recipes that you
should use because it cuts down the cooking time a lot.

For the pressure pot, follow the instructions above from step 2.

Then, for step
3, add edible potash, dried fish or fish products, pepper, salt to
taste, stock cubes and palm oil.

Cover, pressurize and cook for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes with the above settings, the ukwa will be done. Depressurize the pan under running water and add the bitter
leaf.

Cover and cook until the vegetables are tender and still green.
There is no need to stir the pot during this step.

Stir and its done

AFRICAN BREAD (UKWA) RECIPE