Egusi Pudding Recipe

Egusi Pudding

A visitor to my blog asked me for egusi pudding recipe when she saw egusi pudding in the "Cameroon" entry.

Here's how I'll make it.

Boil meat (cut into small pieces), or fish, stock or dry fish, or whatever kind of fish you like (remove all bones), with spices such as fresh ginger, garlic, onion, pepper, salt, and maggi. Use enough water because you will need the broth to mix the egusi.

Grind egusi to a fine, soft powder. 

In a large mixing bowl, pour the meat and broth onto the ground egusi and mix until you have a fine paste. The texture should be about as thick as a cake mixture before you bake it (thick enough but sligtly runny).

Taste for salt and maggi.

Beat in two eggs to help the mixture hold well as it cooks.

Optional: you can also boil a number of eggs, peel them and put aside. You could insert one or two halves in each bundle so that when the pudding is made, when you cut it into slices, there'll be eggs in the middle.

Okay, now if you are in Africa, you could use warmed plantain leaves to make the bundles for cooking.

If you are in the West, you will need to put a pot on the stove. Line it with aluminium foil and put some water at the bottom of the pot.

Then, depending on the bundle sizes you desire, cut up rectangles of aluminium foil and cling wrap. Cut two rectangles of clingwrap for each rectangle of aluminium file and cross them over the alum. foil.

Dish out a scoop or two or the egusi mixture and fold the clingwrap and aluminium foil around it. Make sure to fold the top part, the aluminium foil, firmly enough so that the mixture cannot leak out. The bundle should be roomy to allow space for the egusi to solidify as it cooks. Do that until you have tied all the egusi mixture into bundles. Put them in the pot of water as you tie them. Cover the pot when you are done.

As the pot cooks, the water dries up every 5-10 minutes so that you have to periodically add about a cup full of water. Let the pot cook for about one hour and a half.

Then open one of the bundles to see if it is ready. If it is, all the others are. Then give it about 10 minutes to cool.  Finally open bundles and cut up the egusi pudding for serving.

I hope that this is clear enough. It is hard to explain these things sometimes, and I am happy that the person who asked for the recipe is African and would be able to visualize and better understand the recipe.

For a glimpse of egusi pudding, Click on "Cameroon!!" to view the October 2007 posting.