The World Cup Food Challenge - Day 5 Nigeria ((Not) Palm Oil Soup)

I mentioned at the beginning of this self-imposed World Cup Food Challenge, that I have never been better placed to do something like this. And in the few days during which I have been doing this, I have had many a reminder of this fact. One aspect of it is really the ease with which I have been able to obtain ingredients. Granted, they are not always fresh, having flown thousands of miles to get here, and may not necessarily be of the best quality, but they can be found. The other aspect, is of course, the people. I cannot help but be thankful for how rich my life is. Over the years, I have moved around a bit, and lived in different countries and learnt new languages. Through the course of it all, I have met so many different people, from so many different walks of life. I have friends from parts of the world I would have previously struggled to find on a map. So many of my prejudices, prejudices I did not even know I had, have been challenged and overcome. The diversity and randomness about my life and everything around it, is something which has made certain aspects of my life more difficult, but every once in a while things happen which remind me why really, I would not have it any other way.

This recipe is an example of what I like about my life now. A house-warming party was mention in a previous entry. At the party, I ended up chatting with other people at the party, as you do over a schnapps or two. Being the season it is, the conversation turned inevitably to football. That is when I discovered that my conversation partner was Nigerian, as he declared that his country was playing that night. I was of course, on a bit of a lookout for potential World Cup countries' nationals who could provide me with a tip or two, but this guy spoke such good Swedish, that it did not even occur to me to ask him where he was from. When he said Nigeria, the little me in my head was jumping up and down shouting "Nigeria! I don't have Nigeria yet!!" Thankfully, what the little me in my head does is not often reflected the erm, actual sized corporeal me. I did however, began to excitedly, and much to his amusement, ply him with questions about Nigerian food. The next thing I knew, there I was taking down vague instructions on my phone, which incidentally and completely irrelevant to this post, was threatening to die on me. I have no idea how "Nigerian" this soup really is, or how accurate the recipe is. Even during our short conversation, he was interrupting himself to suggest other things which I could add to the dish! But really, I love the fact that I have at least one recipe here that is straight from the mouth of a local. I decided that it does not matter how "Nigerian" it actually is, so I have actually not looked up the soup or anything about Nigerian food. The only problem with this dish though, is that he called it "palm oil soup" because it all starts with using palm oil to fry some of the ingredients. Palm oil, I do not have. And despite what I said about availability of ingredients, I did not go out looking for this one. Hence, this is called "(Not) Palm oil soup".

(Not) Palm Oil Soup

Ingredients
Beef, cut into small cubes (Chuck was mentioned specifically. I didn't have any, and it was too late to go to the supermarket, so I used mince beef instead.)
beef stock
1 medium onion
1 paprika
1 can crushed tomatoes (I did have a can of crushed tomatoes, but I was making a rather small portion and would have had to use less than half a can. Not knowing what I was going to do with the remaining half a can of tomatoes, I option for chopped up fresh tomatoes and some tomato paste instead)
1 tin mackerel 
a handful of spinach/ rucola leaves

Method

Frying the onions and tomatoes,
it looks a bit redder in the photo
than it actually was.

1. Boil beef in beef stock.
2. Meanwhile, blend onion with paprika, then fry mixture (in palm oil)
3. Add tomatoes.
4. Add onion and tomato mixture and boil of medium heat.
5. Add mackerel to soup. (I stood at the stove for the longest time with the tin of mackerel in my hands and thought long and hard about it. It seemed like such an odd mix. Mackerel, having such a strong flavour, was bound to overpower the taste of the soup, I thought. But as I debated with myself, I came up with the argument that the whole point of me doing this was to try new food, to branch out from my usual and learn about food from different cultures. That is never going to work if I stand around second guessing the wisdom of the recipe given to me. I wanted a recipe from a local, and I got one. What would have been the point if I did not follow it simply because it sounded strange to me? Decision made, I peeled open the tin and dumped the mackerel into the soup.)
6. Season to taste. (In seasoning, I also added a dash of lemon juice to it.)
7. When soup is ready, add spinach / rucola and boil for 10-15 minutes. 
(Serve with fufu, was the suggestion, fufu being a starchy, dough like food that is common in Africa and the Caribbean (according to Wikipedia).  I had neither the ingredients, nor the time, so I had the soup on its own.)

Verdict: success!
I actually quite liked the soup, mackerel and all. The mackerel was definitely not overpowering, and it somehow worked. It was nice, hearty, and very tasty soup. Despite the fact that I had no idea at the beginning what it was going to be like at the end. Well, I had some idea. It was going to be a soup, that much I knew. And based on the ingredients and how it was to be prepared, I could sort of guess how it should be. It turned out how I expected it to. But of course I don't know if that is how it is actually supposed to be. But, whatever it is, I was well pleased with it. I am also pleased at having made it five days!

Day 1, 12 July - Brazil (Farofa)

Day 2, 13 July - Chile (Chilean Corn Pie)

Day 3, 14 July - Uruguay (Uruguayan Stuffed Zucchini)

Day 4, 15 July - Ecuador (Green Plantain Empanadas with Cheese Filling)
Day 5, 16 July - Nigeria ((Non) Palm Oil Soup