Ingredients for Catfish Pepper Soup

• 500g Cat Fish
• 4 Ehu or Ariwo or Calabash Nutmeg seeds
• Habanero Pepper or chilli pepper (to taste)
• A few scent leaves
• 2 medium onions
• Salt (to taste)
• 2 big stock cubes

Alternative Ingredients for Catfish Pepper Soup

1. Conger Eel (Congrio in Spanish) is a good alternative to catfish. When buying the Conger Eel, ensure you buy the part towards the tail so that the fish cuts will not have big holes in them.
2. Parsley is a good alternative to scent leaves.

Before you cook the Nigerian Catfish Pepper Soup

1. To prepare Cat Fish Pepper Soup, wash and cut the cat fish into 1-inch thick slices. Boil some hot water and pour on the pieces of fish, stir and remove immediately. This toughens the skin of the fish so that it does not fall apart during cooking.
   
2. Now it is time to prepare the ‘secret’ ingredient. Using an old frying pan, roast the Ehu seeds (stirring constantly) till you can smell it. Don’t worry you will know when it is OK to take it off because it has a distinctive aroma. Another way to know that it is OK is to take one of the seeds and try to remove the outer membrane. If the membrane comes off easily, then the Ehu is done.
   
3. Peel off the membrane from all the Ehu seeds and grind with a dry mill.
4. Cut the onions into tiny pieces.
5. Wash and pick the scent leaves and tear them up with your fingers into small pieces.

Cooking Directions

1. Place the pieces of fish in a pot and pour water to just cover the fish, add the stock cubes and bring to the boil.
2. Once it starts to boil add the ground ehu, onions, habanero pepper and scent leaves and continue cooking.
3. Once the catfish is done, add salt to taste and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes and it’s ready!