Nkwobi and Isi Ewu: How to Make Them at Home

Nkwobi and isi ewu are evening food. They arrive in a wooden mortar, they are eaten slowly with cold beer, and they take longer than you want them to.

They are also, essentially, the same dish.

The difference

Nkwobi is cow foot. Isi ewu is goat head, which is where the name comes from.

Same sauce, same aromatics, same method. Isi ewu is richer. Nkwobi is more forgiving and easier to source in America.

The sauce is the whole thing

Everything difficult is in one step: turning palm oil into a thick, bright yellow sauce.

This is not a reduction. It is an emulsion, and it requires akanwu.

1. Dissolve a pea-sized piece of akanwu in a little water, let it settle.
2. Pour off the clear liquid and discard the grit.
3. Whisk it into palm oil a little at a time.
4. It thickens, turns opaque, and goes bright yellow.

Still red and runny means more akanwu water. Soapy means too much. There is a window and you find it by doing it.

Making nkwobi

1. Boil the cow foot with onion and seasoning until properly tender. Ninety minutes on the stove, forty in a pressure cooker.
2. Make the sauce as above, in a bowl, off the heat.
3. Season it with ground crayfish, ground pepper, a crushed seasoning cube and salt. Nkwobi should be properly hot.
4. Fold the meat through until every piece is coated.
5. Top with thinly sliced utazi, onion rings and garden eggs.

The utazi matters

Utazi is bitter, and it is there to cut through the richness of the palm oil. Without it nkwobi is heavy and one-note. Slice it very finely and scatter on top rather than mixing through.

Where people go wrong

• Undercooked meat. Cow foot needs real time.
• Sauce made on heat. The emulsion is made cold in a bowl.
• Too much akanwu. Soapy and unrecoverable.
• No utazi. The dish needs the bitterness.

Serve in a wooden mortar with cold Guinness, often with ugba folded through at the end.

We ship the palm oil, akanwu, crayfish, pepper, utazi and ugba across the United States.