MIYAN KUKA

Good day everyone, welcome to another exciting time on Gourmetguide234!

Today we will be talking about the LUNGUDA tribe from Adamawa state. The Lunguda are an ethnic group living in Adamawa and Gombe State in Nigeria.

Traditionally, the staple crop of the Longuda is Guinea Corn (Sorghum bicolour). This used to be grounded on stone hand mill and cooked into a thick paste, called “tuwo”, which is mostly eaten with vegetable soup.

Today, however, rice, maize, and millet have now formed part of the staple of the Longuda. Guinea Corn still remains the dominant crop grown by the Longuda.

We will be looking at one of the popular soup of the Lunguda tribe called Miyan kuka.

To get the best of this recipe, one of us, Adeyemi Jeremiah, an Agric Engineer, had to contact a friend from Adamawa who resides in Jos, Miss Irene Dishon, a graduate of University of Maiduguri. She studied English Language and she hails from Guyuk local government area of Adamawa state.

A chat with her produced this recipe!

Miyan Kuka is also called Luru soup. The Baobab leave is one of the major ingredient used in preparing the sumptuous soup; it is one of the simplest northern soups made with dried fish.

Miyan kuka is made using dried baobab leaves; the leaves are usually sun-dried and then ground into powder form. The baobab leaves then serve as a thickener for the soup once it is dried.

Miyan kuka has a greenish look once it’s prepared, but you can add a little bit of palm oil to it to brighten the look.

Miyan Kuka is so easy to prepare that you can just fix this up within 20 minutes.

Miyan kuka is very delicious and has a lot of health benefits in case you didn’t know; the leaves are rich in Vitamin C as well as other nutrients such as alpha.

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons of baobab leaf powder (Kuka)
3 medium catfish (Busheshen Kifi)
3 cloves of garlic
1 small sized ginger (Cita)
1 medium sized onion (Albasa)
1 tablespoon ground crayfish
3 caked disk locust beans (dawadawa )
2 stock cubes
2 Scotch bonnet peppers (Atarugu)
1 cooking spoon palm oil (Mai Ja)
Salt to taste (Gishiri)

METHOD

Bring the kuka powder into a fine colander and sift to get ride tiny particles of leaves.
Chop onion, crush garlic, ginger and pepper and set all aside.
Rinse the beef into a pot, season with half part of the onion, pepper, ginger, 1 stock cube and salt, add water to the meat and bring to a boil.
Add the ground crayfish, the remaining garlic, ginger stock cube, crushed dawadawa(locust bean) and 1 cooking spoon of palm oil.
Add the dried catfish to the soup and leave it to simmer on medium heat.
Remove all the meat and fish into a bowl using a spoon, leaving the empty stock on medium heat.
Add the ground kuka preferably with your hand, a little at a time and stir continuously to avoid lumps.
If the soup turns out very thick during this process, add more water to it and stir.
Return the cooked meat to the soup, stir and leave it to cook for 10 minutes on low heat.
Once you’re happy with the taste and the consistency of the soup, take it off heat.
Serve Miyan Kuka with semolina, millet or Tuwo shinkafa.