Snail soup (ofe ejula) is a delicasy in Nigeria, especially in SS and SE Nigeria. Besides snails and uziza leaves, there are just a handful of ingredient required for this soup.
Season your meat (Any meat you want to use) with just a stock cube and a pinch of salt.
Bring meat to boil for 7-10 minutes, add 2 cups of water and cook till meat is soft.
Add the palm oil and 9-10 cups of water and bring soup to boil.
Add the ground crayfish, and the washed dried fish to the soup, stir, cover the pot and allow the soup to boil for 5 minutes before adding ground ofor (thickener).
Add 2 tbsp first and allow to boil and dissolve with the pot covered, I like my soup light. Ofor should be dissolved in 12-15 minutes with the pot covered.
Add snails to your soup, stir.
If your soup is not thick enough, you can add a little more achi/ofor, cover your pot and cook to soften the snails for 7-8 minutes.
Add the ground scotch bonnet peppers, and add the ogiri too. Let the soup simmer on low heat for 10 minutes with pot half covered.
Stir, taste for salt before adding the uziza leaves.
Stir, and let it simmer on medium heat for 7 minutes. Turn off the heat and serve uziza/ejula soup.
Notes
You can use either ofor or achi for this Snail soup, I prefer achi but I strongly recommend you buy the seeds and ground them yourself. Lots of what is supposedly sold as ground achi is not the real thing.Ofe ejula is served with fufu or eba.If you like, you can also add oha leaves or even bitter leaves to to soup.