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I’m a full-blooded Ada Omabala so it’s only natural for me to love fresh fish. It features prominently in some of our local delicacies like ofe nsala, ove arigbi, ji mmili oku, and pepper soup. Our river, the Omabala River, provides us with different varieties of fresh fish like alila, asa, okpo, egbili, and ekwum. Alila (catfish) and asa (African knife fish) are my favourites; in my opinion, they taste better than all the other types of fish. Egbili is not as tasty as the two mentioned above but it doesn’t disintegrate quickly in food so I use it when the other two are unavailable.
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Please, enough of the lecture on fresh fish varieties. The matter at hand is how to clean and marinate fresh fish. There’s a straight forward way to clean fish but the ingredients for marinating fresh fish depends on what you want to do with the fish. I’m preparing this fish for pepper soup so, I’ll use pepper soup ingredients to marinate the fish.

Ingredients

A large bowl Water Stock cubes Salt Uda, calabash nutmeg and uziza seeds. Some already prepared pepper soup spices contain all three.

How to Prepare

Before starting the business of cleaning the fish, I usually put some water in the kettle to boil. Transfer the fish into a clean bowl. Then, gut the fish. This essentially means to remove the gills, all the organs in the fish and the content of the head. After cleaning the fish, rinse them at least twice in cold water to get rid of the blood. When the hot water is ready, pour it on the fish. This will remove the sliminess and harden the fish.
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Now that your catfish is ready to use, the next step is to marinate it for pepper soup. For this, peel, rinse and dice the onions. Pour it into the bowl of fish. Add stock cubes, salt and pepper soup spices to it. Gently toss the fish to ensure even distribution of ingredients. Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge to marinate for 30 to 45 minutes. That’s how to marinate your catfish for pepper soup. When it’s time, bring it out and add it to the soup.   Featured image source: Facebook/Temi’s Kitchen
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This article was first published on 9th November 2020

udevi-obiamaka-angela

Udevi, Obiamaka Angela holds a Master of Arts degree in History & International Studies. She's a freelance writer with a passion for food and healthy living. She can be contacted through her email address, obiudevi@yahoo.com


Comments (3)

3 thoughts on “How to Clean and Marinate Catfish”


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