How To Make Nigerian Ponmo Sauce | How To Make Peppered Ponmo

Looking for a step-by-step guide to make delicious and flavorful Nigerian ponmo sauce?

In this recipe, I’ll show you exactly how I prepare my ponmo sauce with cow skin, pepper mix and basil.

Here are what to expect in this blog post.

The English name of ponmo.
Ingredients for ponmo sauce.
How to cook white ponmo.
How to make ponmo sauce.
Cooking tips for soft and tasty ponmo every time.

Ponmo in English is called cow skin. This is because it is the processed skin of a cow and it comes in two major varieties; white ponmo and brown ponmo.

To learn more about brown ponmo check here

The difference between these two types of ponmo is the method of processing.

White ponmo is gotten when the hairs on the cow skin is removed with hot water while brown ponmo is made when the hair is removed by roasting in the fire.

But, before I proceed to share with you how to cook white ponmo and how to make ponmo sauce, I’ll first list all the ingredients needed below.

Ingredients for ponmo sauce

White ponmo (1 kg)
2 scotch bonnet peppers
1 red long pepper
1 onion
Basil or Parsley or mint leaves or any vegetable of choice.
Cooking oil

White ponmo is hard to soften and can be very chewy, so because of this, it requires certain cooking tips to soften it properly to make it edible.

To make cooking it easy, below is how to cook white ponmo to ensure it softens well enough to add to be added to any soup of your choice.

How to cook white ponmo

First properly clean the ponmo in water.
Put in a basket to drain excess water used for clean.
Fill your frying pan with enough oil for deep frying
Heat the oil till it is hot enough
To avoid oil splashes, turn down the heat before putting white ponmo in the hot oil
Frying till it looks dried and crunchy
Scoop out of the oil into a colander to remove excess oil.
Pour dried ponmo into a pot
Add 2 cups water, 1 tsp salt and 1 stock cube.
Cook for 15-20 mins – more or less depending on the cooking time of the soup you intend to add it to.
Ponmo is now ready to be added to any soup of your choice.

I have made available for you a video tutorial that shows the step-by-step process of the softening ponmo.

Also kindly note that this method is typically for ponmo that would be added to other soups such as egusi soup, efo riro, ogbono soup and many more.

Without further ado, this is how to make ponmo sauce also know as peppered ponmo.

How to make ponmo sauce.

This is called ponmo alata – spicy ponmo and I will adapting some of the steps listed above in how to cook white ponmo.

After frying the ponmo till it is dried and crunchy as in the image above
Remove from the hot oil set aside
Peel off the onion peel
Clean with peppers and onions in water
Blend with 1 1/2 cup water
Clean the vegetable of choice with water.
Slice thinly and set aside.
Reduce the oil in the frying pan that was used for frying the ponmo by 95 percent
Reheat the oil
Pour blended pepper mix into the hot oil.
Season with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 stock cube.
Add the dried ponmo
Mix well and cook till the liquid dries.
When the liquid dried, taste the ponmo to ascertained its softness.
If it is not soft enough, add more water and continue cooking till you achieve your preferred softness
Add sliced vegetable
Stir well
Allow to simmer on low heat for 2 minutes.