3poundsboiled meats/fish of choice (I mostly make a blend of beef, beef skin (canda), beef tripes (towel), smoked/fried fish and mushrooms)
4cupsbeef stock (from the beef above)
1/2cuppalm oil
2teaspoonsbaking soda (or kanwa/nikki)
2teaspoonspowdered achu spices
2-4small seasoning cubes (Maggi)
Salt to taste
1hot (scotch bonnet) pepper - optional
For the Achu
4poundssmall cocoyams (taro) - you could add in achu banana (unripe bananas) and some large cocoyams if you so wish
Instructions
To make the achu soup
Warm palm oil in a skillet (frying pan) for about 1 minute. Do NOT bleach it.
Pour the all ingredients except the meat and fish into a blender. Pulse until it is well mixed and yellowish. Taste to ensure that seasoning is perfect. Add a little salt if needed (I assume your beef stock is salted so you might not need to add a lot more salt).You might find some bubbles at the top of the soup. That is totally okay. Pour over the meat/fish and mix. Alternately, you could keep the meat seperately from the soup and put it on the side while serving.Serve with some achu!
To make the achu
Wash cocoyams and place in a pot with skin on. If also using large cocoyams ("mami coco") and "achu banana", place the large cocoyams at the bottom of the pot then add in the small cocoyams and top with the bananas.
Boil until cocoyams are soft and the skin comes off easily.
While they are still warm, peel and process to a paste in a food processor. Traditionally, they are pounded in a mortar but a food processor can do the job though it might not give you a very smooth paste.Again, if you are using "achu bananas", start by processing them first then mixing the banana with the first two batches of cocoyams so they remain warm.
When it is all processed, place into a serving bowl and serve. You could also wrap the achu into lumps using warmed banana leaves or aluminium foil.
Notes
Achu soup keeps well for a couple of days.To reheat, simply place the soup in a saucepan and warm it LIGHTLY, stirring from time to time. Do NOT let it get hot or boil the soup as the water will inevitably seperate from the stock. Achu soup thickens up when kept for a while so do not be surprised if you find it looking thicker than it was when just made.