Isi ewu

Nigerian soup made from goat's head

Isi ewu

Alternative names	Goat's head soup, spiced goat's head
Type	meat
Place of origin	Nigeria
Region or state	Igboland
Main ingredients	Goat's head

Isi ewu (English: Goat's head) // ^ⓘ is a traditional Igbo dish that is made with a goat's head.^[1]

It is an Igbo soup similar to spicy cow feet (nkwobi) except that isi ewu is made up of goat head while the latter is made up of cow foot. Some restaurants choose to cook the whole head at once but to reduce the amount of water required to cook the soup, the goat head is cut into reasonable pieces .^[2]

Ingredients

A goat head, calabash nutmeg (also known as ehu seed), onion, potash, palm oil, utazi leaves, and ụgba are required to cook Isi Ewu soup ^[3]

Preparation

The meat is boiled until tender inside a pot; a pressure cooker is mostly used due to the toughness of goat meat.^[4]

Grated onion, seasoning, pepper and salt are added to thickened palm oil made from adding a mixture of sieved potash and water to palm oil in another pot entirely.^[5]

The goat head, brain separate (mashed with mortar), calabash nutmeg, ugba are also added to the thickened palm oil after some minutes.^[6]

Isi Ewu is served with sliced onions and utazi leaves when done.

References

^ Edet, Laura. "Nigeria Recipes: ISI-EWU (spiced goat head)". Archived from the original on 2009-03-01. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
^ "Isi Ewu (goat head) Recipe by Diana Asare". Cookpad. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
^ "Isi ewu, Goat head in spicy sauce". The Pretend Chef. 2017-12-17. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
^ "Isi Ewu". Ritman Bar & Bistro. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
^ "Nigerian Isi Ewu: Spicy Goat Head". All Nigerian Recipes. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
^ Dobby (2015-09-20). "Isi ewu recipe - How to make isi ewu (Sauced goat head)". Dobby's Signature. Retrieved 2022-06-09.