Oreva Ewhoforama
ABOUT ME
Hi…… I am Chef Oreva Ewhoforama, the owner and manager of Raev’s kitchen. I was born and raised in the western part of Africa from Delta State, Nigeria. Oreva is 28 years old born January 23rd 1994, I later relocated to Toronto Canada at the age of 20. When I discovered my love and passion for food and cooking, I decided to start my own cooking business.
Raev’s Kitchen was found in the year 2020, now that was a memorable year for everyone due to COVID19. Covid had a major effect on everybody’s lives worldwide especially for someone like myself who’s a single mom with no job and other major life challenges like depression and so on.
Cooking became therapeutic and a means of survival wanting to provide and make enough income for myself and kid. I’ve always loved and had passion for food and cooking that’s why I decided to make it a profession. To gain more experience and sharpen my skills I enrolled in the CEE Kitchen Master’s program Toronto.
I love catering and did get a lot of work experience where I was able to learn how to work collaboratively with others in a fast-paced environment. My goal is to own a restaurant and possibly a franchise where everyone can come together to experience the wonderful tastes and flavours of different African-Canadian cuisine. Outside from being a chef, I love to sing and am a musician.
Â
Owo soup and Starch
Equipment
- 1 Soup Pot
- Ladle
Ingredients
Ingredient List Owo Soup: For assorted meat or fish, you can use: - Cow skin (ponmo) | Cow tripe | Beef | Snails | Dry fish | Stock fish | Shell fish
- Palm Oil
- Salt
- 2 tbsp Powdered potash (akanwu)
- 3 tbsp Grounded crayfish
- 1 cup Garri
- 1 grounded Habanero Pepper
- 2 Stock cubes
Ingredients for starch
- Red palm oil
- Lots of water
- Cassava starch
Instructions
Owo Soup
- Cook the meats and stock fish with seasoning cubes and a pinch of salt till soft.
- Soak the dry fish with hot or warm water till soft.
- Mix potash with little amount of water and set aside.
- pour the palm oil into a small container, gently mixing the potash water into the palm oil while stirring at the same time till the palm oil turns yellow and becomes thick, set aside.
- Clean, debone and break your dry fish into medium sizes.
- Mix garri with some meat and fish stock to get a soft dough.
- Depending on the amount of water left in your pot of cooked meat and fish you can add 2to 3 extra cups of water to your pot.
- Add dry fish, cray fish and pepper to pot, cover and allow to cook.
- After about 8 minutes add palm oil and scoop small lumps of the garri dough into the pot and continue cooking. Do not cover it from this point onwards because it will boil over due to the potash in the palm oil.
- The soup is ready when the lumps of garri have dissolved and the soup is no longer foaming. Stair very well and take off stove.
Starch
- Put 1 cup of starch in a clean pot. Add 2 cups of water.
- Add 3 tablespoon of palm oil to turn the starch yellow when done.
- Mix very well until you get a smooth mixture with no lumps.
- Put on stove, turn heat to medium and start to stirring continuously.
- As it heats up it solidifies.
- Keep stirring nonstop until its yellow and solid, the starch should be yellow allover
- Take off stove and serve immediately
Notes
Starch is one of the many products produced from Casava. I've been eating Owo soup and Starch since I was a kid. Every food has its own nutritional benefits. Starch gives you energy, the fish and other assorted meat gives protein and the red palm oil is believed to be very medicinal. It is a unique dish with a great spectacular taste. This is a traditional meal among the Urhobo/Isoko people for example, you cannot give out a bride without this meal being presented to the groom and his family.
It is a very significant meal with high values in facts it is our cultural heritage. Starch is slimy and even requires a special skill when you're handling it. It’s held firmly and gently pressed with finger then you use it to touch the Owo soup before swallowing. Starch is usually regarded as a laundry agent in other places, they misuse Starch by not eating it because they probably don’t know it’s importance like the Isoko/Urhobo people do.
Owo soup and starch is one of our special delicacies in our parties. One of those things that makes us unique, it is our HERRITAGE. MORE RECIPES FROM OUR MEMBERS
Amber Faria
Andre Jackson
Jayden Smith
Arielle Browne
Dayquan plummer
Jane Mathangani
Nibarria Browne
