How to prepare Okpa Nsukka.( English Name Of Okpa Is- Bambara Nut ).

First; the business my mother is doing since I was a little child till now I have grown up, is Cooking Okpa and sell it in the market, Sometimes she supply it to people. My mother teach all her children how to prepare Okpa nsukka (Okpa nsukka is the best in Igbo land ).Okpa is a savoury pudding that is very popular in the Southeastern Igbo-speaking part of Nigeria, and also parts of Benue State.

Now let me teach my fellow broggers how to prepare Okpa, if you don't know it before now you will learn it free of charge.

Before you start cooking Okpa(Bambara nut)

• Make sure you prepare the iron cup or plastic bags or even banana leaves, you to rub Palm oil inside the iron cup, if is banana leaves you will wash them in plenty of salt water. You cannot wrap Okpa with fresh banana leaves or iron cup with no palm oil inside.

• Slice all the iron cup in a basket or banana leaves, arrange it in a basket.

• Then put water in a bucket.

Okpa Cooking Directions

1. Sift the Okpa flour into a big enough bowl. Add salt and the crushed stock cubes. Mix it very well ontill you see it have mix well.

2. Add the palm oil. Mix the palm oil and flour together very well till the palm oil is well incorporated into the flour. You will see a nice even yellow colour when done.

3. Pour water in a big pot and set on the stove or using fire wood for the water to boil.

4. Start adding small small hot water to the Okpa flour and mix it till there are no lumps. Watch the image below to see how I crush the lumps without stress by passing the mix through a sieve with a wire mesh. You can also use a blender to get the smoothest mix. But that's a lot of washing up to do later. 

5. Add the pepper. Check for salt and add more if necessary and it's ready to be scooped into the wrappers!

6. Now the water in the pot should be boiling. If not, wait for it to boil and add some spare wrappers or plastic bags before moving on to the next step. These wrappers and plastic bags act as a base for the Okpa wraps.

7. Now to a major step: wrapping the Okpa! In the images below, I showed 3 ways to wrap Okpa: 2 with the banana leaves and 1 with cup iron or plastic bags,Hopefully the images and explanations make sense but if you really want to master wrapping the Okpa, watching the image is so worth it.

8. After putting one end in a cup iron of the as shown in the image below, stir the okpa mix very well and scoop into the cup iron. Tie the other end with a string and place the wrapped okpa in the pot of boiling water. It is important that the Okpa is completely immersed in the hot water.

9. Repeat the above step for the rest of the mix. Make sure you stir the mix, scoop into the wrapper, tie with the string and put in the pot of boiling water before wrapping another one.

10. When done, cover the wraps with more leaves or plastic bags. Cover the pot and start cooking medium to high heat.

11. Cook for at least 1 hour before checking it. The Okpa is done when it is solid all over.

Now the Okpa is done, time to eat it and check how it is, if it is sweet. Now let me tell you what Okpa gives, Okpa' had the highest protein content when compared with the other two dishes. Except for vitamin B2 and zinc, the dishes had appreciable vitamin and mineral values. 'Igbangwu' and 'okpa' had low glycemic index values. The health benefits of Okpa if you ask me? The high protein content of 'okpa' suggests that incorporating it in a meal can help provide enormous benefits to the consumers, such as maintenance of fluid balance, contribution to immune functions and production of enzymes and hormones26.

Both man and woman work I do it because my mother trained all her children to be hardworking and strong. What am doing: I am a Tiler 👷 Engr, I am a singer, I am a farmer, I tran animals because it gives me joy. I have farm animals:- like, Goats, Pigs, Fowls and am praying seriously to God for him to help me build a small house for my animals, because sometimes in the raining season, rain always disturb my animals. My mother tough me all this and how to do business she is doing right now.

Thanks for reading my article and learning how to prepare Okpa nsukka 🙋🏻‍♂️. I specially thank all my friends that have been supporting me in my article so far, I really appreciate, I also what to thank this special father, brother, friend, by name @Maxdevalue.BCH for his special support to me, he build me to know what is Bitcoin cash and am so much happy about it. I love you 💕💯

@Christian_BCH Thanks 🥂.