urmaniac. I have typed up a "classic" West African recipe for you to try with your gari (incidentally, gari is the name for the meal, once you prepare it as described it is called Eba)
Egusi Soup is one of the traditional soups (stew, really) being prepared in West Africa. The following is an original recipe, though you may not be able to get some of the ingredients. I have tried to indicate possible substitutes.
Egusi Soup
1 chicken, jointed
1 large onion, diced or sliced
4 cups water
salt
4-5 large red peppers, substitute any hot peppers you like, qty to your taste
2 medium sized tomatoes
1/2 cup dried crayfish, substitute 1 Tsp crayfish paste available from Asian stores
1 cup red palm oil, most unlikely to be available near you, personally I do not like it anyway
1 lb fresh or dried fish, cut into pieces
2 cups washed bitter leaves, cut into thin strips, substitute spinach
1/2 cup egusi, that is melon seeds. You might try sunflower seeds as a substitute
preparation
Boil the chicken pieces with the onion until almost tender, add the palm oil (you can leave out the palm oil, although that gives it most of the "original" taste).
Blend the peppers, tomatoes and crayfish to a paste and add to the boiling chicken. Boil for a further 10 mins. Add the palm oil (you can leave out the palm oil, although that gives it most of the "original" taste) and cook for another ten minutes. Add the fish. Mill the egusi seed to a coarse meal and add to the stew. Cook for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally, or until you have a fairly thick sauce. Serve with pounded yam, gari or semolina (polenta).
Personally, I only use chicken or beef, no fish. I also use spices like for an Indian food recipe. Turmeric gives the same coloring as red palm oil. Red palm oil is non-refined oil and personally I do not appreciate the taste.