Dooney’s Kitchen is diversifying. For the close of the week, I am answering the call of my readers who have asked for healthy recipes. I’ve got a recipe for fish with spinach, and I am also going to be trying another healthy recipe for Salmon a la paripaso which was posted by a reader from my Facebook Group.

I am really looking forward to trying these out. I hope my weekly menu plan helped you with your menu choices this week. I will be updating that page with new weekly menu plans by Saturday afternoon/evening, so don’t forget to stop by that page. You will find something there that everyone will enjoy.

It’s 2am, this food blogger is going to bed. Have a nice day ahead everyone. TGIF

Sunday is Father’s day and this dish is sooooo daddy centric, I wish I could transport it right to Lagos and serve him dinner. Shortly after med school, while I was interning at a hospital in Abuja, my dad had a stroke scare that freaked all of us out. That day is forever ingrained in my head as one of the worst days of my life. The phone call no child ever wants to receive and it forever changed my perception of him. As a young girl, he was infallible, the one who was always strong, my hero, our support and strength, the refuge of our family. He was never ill a day in his life and we took his health for granted despite his advancing years. After that harrowing incident, his diet and work pattern had to change drastically and he fought us on it. It didn’t help that I lived far away and as the eldest, I wasn’t around to back mumsie up. Lord knows we have stubbornness in common. I remember that was the first time I had ever screamed back at him because he was refusing to listen, wanting to brush the incident off as a minor thing, just so all of us wouldn’t worry and watch over him like a hawk.

Part of his diet changes was to reduce his protein, salt, sugar and oil intake. No mean feat, because those four items describe his favourite meals. Palm oil was off the table, out the window went meat, eba (garri), starch and pounded yam were thrown out too so we had to find creative ways to feed him. When I started getting requests for healthy recipes, I simply flashed back to making daddy’s meals so today I am bringing you one of them a little amplified. It is only amplified because I have listed some ingredients that I used, which I couldn’t find readily in Lagos. Nevertheless, this is a great dish regardless, so don’t sweat about not having some of the ingredients.

So if you have parents whose diet need to be modified, or you are on a diet yourself or on a journey to eating healthier, this will really work for you. You can still enjoy your taste of 9ja without having to feel like you are “eating grass like goat”, lol. Efo riro is a delicacy from Yoruba land and it is prepared with lots of palm oil, different cuts of meat, smoked fish, crayfish, pepper and the likes. This is Efo Riro de-constructed. Out with the “offending” ingredients, and replaced with healthy stuff which still taste great. While the taste may be different, the experience of eating is the same. Here is to you daddy, the best father any girl can ever wish for. Happy Fathers day in advance.

You will need

1 bunch of Spinach - in local markets this is called Efo Tete or Green

1/2 of a red onion

1 green chilli - in local markets you can purchase shombo or buy from the mallams who sell vegetables

2 firm tomatoes

1 ata rodo - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

1 large clove of garlic

1 small broken stalk of ginger

Curry Powder

Dried Thyme

Cayenne pepper - dry pepper

Garlic salt - optional

Onion granules - optional

200g Chunky pieces of fish: I used Cod - you can use 1/4 to 1/2 cut pieces of 1 whole fish. Make sure it is not an oily fish like catfish/titus, this is a healthy meal

4 scallops - you can substitute with fresh prawns or crabs

Olive oil

Salt

Seasoning cube - knorr chicken cubes preferred

How To

1. Marinade the fish with a sprinkling of curry, thyme, cayenne pepper, 1/2 of 1 knorr chicken cube (you can use a whole one if you want), onion granules/powder, garlic salt, and a teaspoon of Olive oil. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: to make healthy meals more palatable, it has to be seasoned properly. Oil, and salt are great flavour enhancers, so if you are reducing the quantity you cook with, you have to amp up your spices to compensate. Place in the fridge to marinade while you chop the other ingredients.

2. Chop all the ingredients except the fish and/or seafood components. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: always make sure you chop the garlic and ginger a little finer than the other ingredients. No one wants to bite into a chunk of garlic or ginger

Chop the spinach finely

3. Heat up a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, add all the chopped ingredients to the pan and sprinkle over half a seasoning cube.

Sauté the vegetables in the pan for 2 minutes

4. Lower the heat, add the marinaded fish to the pan and stir gently. Let this cook for 2 – 3 minutes and watch the fish turn from pink to a lovely shade of white. You may need to move it around gently with a wooden spoon to equally transfer the heat.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: unlike my other recipes where i advocate searing the fish. This time, you wont do that because you want the fish to release its juices into the pan which will also season and cook the vegetables. At no point should you be tempted to add water. Just remember, use low heat and you will be fine.

5. When the fish has cooked, you will be left with a thick mix of fish and vegetables. Thick is what you want. The spinach will soon change the consistency, you’ll see. Add the spinach to the pan and gently stir to combine. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: gently stir, so you don’t break apart the fish.

Spinach cooks very fast. You only need a minute or two maximum. It is one of those vegetables that you definitely do not want to over cook. Stir around to combine.

As soon as you notice that the colour of the vegetables have changed to dark green and the juice has been released into the pan, you are done.

……….and that’s it. Simple and easy right?

Tell me this doesn’t look like Efo riro. If you have always been cooking with spinach because it is the only accessible vegetable where you live and you are getting bored of it, well I have just resurrected it for you. If you have foreign friends/family, you will like to cook something Nigerian for, here’s your answer. They will loooooove this, trust me.

Serve with healthy sides such as boiled potatoes, brown rice, wheat bread – who said diets have to be bland and boring?

My stars of the show – Scallops and Cod

After plating and taking pictures, I ate the rest of it, straight from the pan. Lol

Yes, I wrote that because it truly is the simplest dinner in history. Zero effort, well you have to take the fish out of the freezer or buy it from the store or local market. Lol. The cooking involved is done by our kitchen ally, Mr Oven so you can put your feet up and catch up on gist online, chat with your friends or significant other on the phone while your dinner cooks itself. This is also a very healthy meal, packed with proteins, vitamins and good fats.

I wrote about grilling your meats or fish in a post HERE. Grilling is truly the easiest form of cooking, and it also happens to be the healthiest because you are not deep frying in oil that will clog your arteries. Grilled meats and fish are always juicer and tender because the meats/fish are contained within the confines of the oven and most evaporated juices are usually absorbed back into the meats or fish. If you’ve always fried your fish or meats, grill it today and taste the difference. Also measure your stress and energy level and tell me if this isn’t a very good cooking idea. To my readers in 9ja, you can prepare this too. Simply use cut pieces of fish. I won’t bore you with the details of filleting your own fish. Too much trouble, just cut up your fish as normal. When you buy meat at the local markets, tell the butcher to leave some of the meat in large slabs, which you can cut into fillets on your own at home and freeze for dinners such as this.

I made this right after cooking my deconstructed Efo riro. I had just bought fillets of salmon from the store, and the thought of freezing such gorgeous fish didn’t sit too well with me. So despite my long day, and having already cooked something else, I whipped out the oven tray, placed my ingredients on it and whacked it in the oven. Leaving the oven to do its business, I sat on the sofa browsing furniture sites while on the phone with a friend who is decorating her new house. Apparently after hiring an interior designer, my friends feel they can pick my brain, for free if I might add too. I should start invoicing them, honestly. Katie didn’t come free. Lol.

You will need

1 fillet of fish/ meat 

Cayenne pepper - dry pepper

Salt

1 teaspoon of olive oil

Curry Powder

Thyme

A selection of chunks of vegetables you have at home or can easily purchase - cherry tomatoes, ata rodo, onions, cucumber or zucchini, red and green bell peppers. 

How To

Dinner on easy street begins

1. Cut your vegetables – you are not chopping finely. This an express and rustic meal. So, as you will see in the picture below, just whack them up into any shape you like. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: It is not meant to look pretty. when you grill vegetables, they need to be of bigger size to withstand the heat from the grill. So, no salad sized veggies here.

2. Get out the oven tray. Place your meat or fish on the tray alongside the vegetables.

3. Sprinkle over the seasonings, and olive oil and place in the oven. If you are using meat – beef, lamb, goat, veal, score the meat with a sharp knife i.e. make 2 or 3 incisions in the flesh of the meat on both sides. The incisions should not be so deep as to come out on the other side, just deep enough to let the heat and spices seep through. Curry and Dried thyme are are my favourite seasonings. if you have your own favourite combos, by all means use them just be careful with fish. You don’t want to overpower it with spices to the detriment of letting its natural flavour shine through.

4. Turn the dial to grill which is the wavy line marker on the oven knob or dial. Set the temperature to 220 or 230 and close the oven.

…….and that is it. In 4 simple steps. It will need to be in the oven for at least 10 minutes if you are using fish. So, before you set off on that long phone call on the sofa, set the timer.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: If you are using fish, place it skin side down. You have to go check on it at least every 5 minutes so you can flip the meat or fish over. In the case of fish, flip it over, so that the skin can crisp up. I don’t know about you, but I totally detest soppy fish skin. Ugh!!! With meats on the other hand, you will need to leave in the oven for longer. For my 9ja readers, our meats are usually much tougher, so give it at least 20 minutes. For my readers who like their meats medium rare, please pay close attention to your meat so you don’t over cook it.

Dinner is ready.  Now, how does that feel? Great right? A meal with no effort it is almost ridiculous. It is worthy to note that you can do this even for dinner for a family. As long as your oven tray can fit in your fish and meats.

If you are not uber health conscious, you can serve this with a side of fried chips, which is what I did or you boil some rice and serve with stew from the fridge or freezer.

served with Onion rings too – my fave

I have also started my hair journey. I am not blogging about that, thankfully. I have not been so inspired by youtube videos before, not to talk of videos on growing relaxed hair. So tomorrow is deep conditioning day while I undergo my big weekend cookout. Ms Socially Awkward who sent in her Ofe Nsala recipe has spurred me into action so I will be cooking Ofe Onugbu (bitter leaf soup), assorted meat pepper soup – so I can add pictures to an earlier post HERE. I will also be making stew, and as an off shoot of that, I will be preparing peppered chicken so I can write about it for readers who requested for my recipe.

Those are my ideas for now. If there is something you will like me to cook, so I can post the recipe, well you have between now and tomorrow afternoon to request via email or drop a comment. Have a lovely weekend folks and Happy Fathers day to all our amazing dads. My dad is the best dad though. Lol

Hello Everyone, I hope you are having a great weekend. Dooney’s Kitchen now has an official Facebook page. It is my way of getting the message across to many more people and offer more content from the site. At the moment, my settings prevent me from adding videos to this site, so I have found a way to cheat a little. Lol. I will be adding videos via the Facebook page. So, look out for interesting videos of me cooking. I will also be adding interesting hints and tips on the Facebook page, so be prepared for a more interesting experience from Dooney’s Kitchen. I am looking forward to interacting with my readers more via Facebook and hopefully acquire a new crop of readers. So, please click on the Like button straight away.

Here is the address.

https://www.facebook.com/DooneysKitchen

Look for Dooney’s Kitchen on Facebook and remember to share with all your friends. Lots of cooking going on in my kitchen today, tomorrow I’ll be hosting a secondary school classmate that I haven’t seen in over a decade. That should be fun, so, look out for more exciting and detailed recipes in the following week. Have a happy weekend people and thank you again for being part of the Dooney’s Kitchen community.

Peppered meats are a winner in every party. No party is complete without it. I mean, why simply fry the meats and serve when you can take it further by cooking it in a delicious tomato sauce which enhances the taste by like a million. Assorted meats can be served as a starter, popularly called small chops – i know right? Nigerians sure love our meats. While I was making this, I was just flashing back at the numerous parties where I have been served assorted meats and I swear I could almost smell it. I am one of those people who have olfactory memories. Lol. I kept remembering plates and plates of the stuff garnished with onions, green bell pepper, ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper) and tatashe (red bell pepper). So I knew instantly how I was going to plate this dish and I was very pleased with the results. Thank you for all the Likes and comments from the “So you think you can cook Facebook Group”. All of you guys ROCK!!!!

Funny thing is this invention is quite recent, because I remember that growing up meats were simply served straight from being fried in hot oil. Lord bless whomever came up with this idea of adding the pepper to meats. I am sure it was one of the “Iya Alase”  (english for hired commercial cooks) that came up with the idea. For my readers who are already caterers, I am sure that this recipe will be familiar to you, and I hope you will still be able to pick a few things from my method. For my other readers who probably haven’t tried this before or only do so when they entertain, I believe you should up your game. Don’t wait for a party before you treat yourself, your friends and your family.

The guest of honour at 9ja parties

You will need

An Assortment of boiled meats - I used roughly 1 – 1.5 kilos

Tomato Paste/puree - 2 small tins of the Derica brand

8 plum Tomatoes

3 cooking spoons of Olive oil

Salt

Seasoning cubes – knorr chicken cubes preferred

3 cups of Beef Stock

2 tablespoons of Curry Powder

2 tablespoons of Dried Thyme

2 1/2 Red Onions

4 Tatashe - red bell pepper

1 stump of Ginger

2 large cloves of Garlic

For Garnish - Red onions, Tatashe or red chilli, Green bell pepper or green chilli

How To

1. Once all your meats have been boiled, deep fry or grill. If you are making this for a large party, the obvious choice is to deep fry, but for home cooks or mini parties, please take the healthy route and grill. Simply turn it over when one side has browned. Honestly the end result is the same and much much healthier.

You can see from the picture below

2. While the meats are grilling or frying, blend your pepper mixture. You can do this while the meats are boiling to save time. The pepper mixture comprises of tomatoes, ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper), tatashe (red bell pepper), red onions and ginger. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: ginger is to serve as an accent taste so you need just a hint of it. Also, to make your pepper mixture a little sweeter and aromatic, lean heavily on the red onions. 

3. Boil the pepper mixture to reduce the water content until you get a thick paste. Dice 1 red onion and 3 cloves of garlic. Heat up Olive oil in a big pot and sauté the onions and garlic till they soften and you can smell the aroma of onions and garlic.

4. Add the reduced pepper mixture to the oil, sprinkle in curry powder and thyme, and fry till it thickens. Then you add cups of beef stock, enough to dilute it but not to make it watery, followed by tomato paste/puree. Let this fry again till you get a medium consistency in terms of thickness.

Some may think to get peppered meats is just as simple as make a very thick stew, then toss in the fried meats, wait a few minutes to allow the stew coat the meats and then take it out. N-O. No. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Here is the trick for yummy assorted meats. It is a 4 step process. Boil the meat, fry the meat till it toughens in consistency, then boil again and fry. I have been to some parties where the meat is so tough (though delicious) and it ruins the experience. Assorted peppered meats are supposed to be soft, that you can tear apart with your fingers and it will be oozing with delicious tomato sauce. For my readers that are caterers I hope this will help you. Trust me, your customers will love it and guests at the party will be asking for your number.

5. You add the meats and stir, then you lower the heat to allow the meat boil in the pepper sauce. This allows the meat to soften and absorb the stew that you made in Step 4.

Remember that frying has toughened the flesh of the meat, so boiling again in the stew infuses the flavour of the stew into it. You may wish to re-season again with curry powder and dried thyme.

6. Let the meats boil for at least 10 minutes, you will notice that the colour and texture of the meats have changed a bit from the dark brown of frying. Once you get to this point , crank up the heat and then the last step of the process which is another round of frying will begin. The intense heat will thicken the tomato sauce and fry it, which at the same time fries the meats again thereby transforming the plain boring fried/grilled meats into peppered meats.

7. You will notice you have gotten it right when the meats have an orange sheen to them, especially the Saki (tripe) and the cow leg. Even the meats have an orange look about them by observing the grains of the meat.

………and that’s it. Garnish with sliced red onions, thin slices of green pepper or roundly cut green chillies, tatashe (red bell pepper) or red chillies

Sorry you couldn’t have a taste of this. I know I made you salivate, so it is your turn to enact your revenge. Follow this recipe and post your results.

Get the toothpick out and devour. Lol

The 3 Kings – Saki, Cowleg and Beef

Okay, okay one last picture and I promise to stop tormenting you. Lol

I decided to play around and create the Chanel logo with sliced onions. Lol

I have written about Egusi soup before. I stayed with using fish and seafood as the protein component and I enjoyed it so much. If you’ve always cooked your Egusi with meats and varieties, I will suggest you try fish and seafood. The difference the flavour is quite different and pleasant. The recipe for my Crab and smoked seafood Egusi soup is HERE.

I cook Egusi soup with two different methods depending on what result I am aiming for. I used one method for the last post on Egusi soup, so today I am using the other method. This method creates lumps with the Egusi, and enjoy biting into those lumps. I will explain in the steps how I create the lumps. If you’ve always used water to create the lumps, you will pick up a new tip today.

The topic says two vegetables. This is not exactly new but it is not common either. Many people are set in their ways regarding the vegetable choice for Egusi. I believe Ugwu leaves (pumpkin leaves) come out as the winning choice. Option number two is spinach and this will probably be the default for those who live out of Nigeria, as it is the most accessible and price friendly vegetable.  Egusi has quite a distinctive taste in soup and the above named vegetables work very well, as they are bland tasting leaves on their own, so they compliment Egusi beautifully. Once in a while I like venturing over to the dark side by using two vegetables just for extra flavour. This other vegetable is a flavour packed leaf that will serve as the accent to the soup because like I said earlier, Egusi has its own flavour and the last thing you want is to tamper with that. It is unlike Efo riro (vegetable soup), Afang Soup and Edikaikong where the vegetables are the stars of the show, so when using  a two vegetable mixture you have to be careful so as not to create a flavour clash. Your dual vegetable combinations are as follows:

• Ugwu and Efinrin – (scent leaf/basil)
• Ugwu and Bitter leaf
• Ugwu and Uziza leaves (hot leaf)
• Ugwu and Utazi leaves – a reader just suggested this, as another option to create a little bitterness

If all you have access to is spinach, this combination will still work. Simply substitute the Ugwu with spinach and work with any of the combinations above.

I picked Efinrin because personally I think it is the best option. Personal preference though. I am not a huge fan of bitter leaf. Uziza leaves I absolutely love, but I prefer it in Ogbono soup. Oh my goodness, uziza leaves work magic in Ogbono soup. If you try it once, you will never put ugwu or spinach in your ogbono soup again. My recipe for Ogbono soup is HERE

You will need

500 – 700g of an assortment of meats - i used beef, lamb, saki, cow leg, pomo (cow skin) and stock fish

1 cup of Ugwu

1/4 cup of Efinrin - you have 2 other choices of vegetables listed above

1/2 cup of ground crayfish

1 1/2 cup of Ground Egusi seeds

Palm Oil

1 Tatashe - red bell pepper

3 pieces of Ata Rodo - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

Salt

Seasoning cube - knorr chicken cubes preferred

1 large red onion

How To

1. Wash and boil the meats with enough water to cover the meats. Season with salt, 2 seasoning cubes, and half of the red onion. Cover and let it boil till the meats are soft.

2. Blend the egusi with chopped chunks of the rest of the onion, to create a very smooth thick paste. Some recipes will recommend mixing the egusi with water instead. That is fine, but a little boring. Egusi and onions are a match made in heaven. If you’ve always used water, try onions and you’ll agree with me. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you want to create a thick paste because you are going to fry the egusi in palm oil to create lumps. Some prefer their lumps big, about the size you will feed a baby others prefer much smaller lumps. The thicker the paste, the bigger the lumps so watch the volume of water you use when blending.

3. Roughly blend the tatashe and ata rodo and set aside.

4. Heat up 1 – 1 1/2 cooking spoonfuls of palm oil in a pan for a minute or two. Using a spoon or your fingers, scoop balls of the egusi paste into the pan. The size you scoop will determine how big the lumps will be.

5. Let the egusi fry for 5 minutes on medium heat and watch as the lumps solidify in the palm oil Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: my aunties and grandma will probably scold me for not frying this in more palm oil. Yoruba people did not acquire the tag ofe nmanu (oily soup) people for no reason. They sure love their oil, but as a modern cook I have to eat healthy. Watching this soup made so many times, the egusi paste will actually form fried balls while being deep fried. It is up to you if you decide to fry in a lot of palm oil or just a little. 

After 5 minutes, you should get a result similar to the picture below. The Egusi should take on the consistency of scrambled eggs. It has also absorbed most of the palm oil and its colour has changed to a lovely shade or orange. This is what you want. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: if you don’t use medium heat, the egusi will burn and the colour will turn brown, so, lower the heat. As you can see from the image below – no burnt bits.

6. Add the pepper and mix carefully with a wooden spoon so as not to break the lumps. Let this fry until the pepper combines with the egusi thoroughly.

add the meat and 1cup of beef stock to start with and stir carefully

let it boil for 3 – 5 minutes till you get a more fluid consistency. If the mixture is still thick, add a little stock to it. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you need enough fluid in the mixture to accommodate the vegetables, otherwise it will be absorbed and you will be left with a thick sludge.

7. Add the ugwu leaves and stir. Vegetables should not be left to cook for long. Ugwu leaves are quite tough, so to get a healthy balance of retaining the nutrients and allowing to cook for a little longer, simply lower the heat and let the vegetables cook for 5 minutes. Halfway through that, add the efinrin leaves and stir. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the flavour of efinrin leaves are very easily destroyed in heat, so you add efinrin last. This will also apply to uziza leaves. If you are using bitter leaf on the other hand, which is a much coarse leaf, you will have to add it to the soup at the same time as the ugwu leaves.

you are very likely going to need to add a little more stock. Roughly 1/2 a cup or more. Some people enjoy their egusi soup dripping in liquid stock, so personal preferences will come into play here. Stir and taste for salt and seasoning cube. Re-season if necessary.

………….and that’s it. Notice the extra dimension of flavour and aroma the efinrin leaves  gives the Egusi soup, which makes a huge difference from using ugwu alone? I know you do. Lol…..

For my readers who are caterers, when next you prepare egusi soup for a party, go out of the norm and use two vegetables. Wow your guests with a flavour of Egusi soup that they will not be expecting. That surprising hint of something extra that will make them ask you what’s in it. Such deviations from the norm makes your food more rememberable and next time they need a caterer, they will ask the host for your number.

Once in a while, I make Egusi soup without adding vegetables. My grandma prepared it like this many many times. I especially enjoy it with boiled rice, boiled yam and even fried plantains. If this is what you seek, simply stop at the end of Step 6.

This post is titled two vegetables Egusi soup, so of course, that is what I will plate. Lol

Egusi soup with assorted meats

Quickly prepare Eba (garri) or pounded yam and descend on this bowl of deliciousness

Those words ring true for me, I’m afraid. Baking has always been my Achilles heel. Despite my many trials at it, the results are not very encouraging. Lol. Meat pies, Samosas and pastry products like chin chin, I manage to get right but the rest, let me just say I have accepted my fate and I will stick to what I know best – cooking. I have been receiving some requests and questions regarding baking and I am sorry if I have not been able to properly answer them, which is why I have contacted a good friend of mine who is a professional baker. Aanu is going to be writing about baking.

She is a pro at this and she also runs her own company Victoria Grace cakes et al.  Aanu has kindly agreed to be our resident baker and pastry chef. To start the series of posts, she has asked me to put some feelers out there, so she can respond to the needs of you the readers. Her wish is my command, so I am aksing you the readers today:

• What will you like to know about baking
• What problems have you been experiencing with baking that you would like answers to
• Do you have any special baking recipes you will like to read about
• How about making homemade chocolates or ice cream or truffles
• Any pastry related questions

I am making up these questions as I go along and she would really love to hear from you guys, so that we can kick this into gear. Aanu is very very good, and I consider this a privilege that she has agreed to write for Dooney’s Kitchen. Some of the answers or useful baking hints and tips will be posted on the Facebook Page (Dooney’s Kitchen) whilst detailed responses will be on the blog, including step by step pictures. So, for easy interaction with Aanu, don’t forget to Like the Facebook Page.

Welcome on another phase of the journey. Dooneyskitchen.com is expanding into baking. Whoop, whoop

My attempt at making Caramel Croissant pudding – my baking skills revealed. Covering my face. Lol

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Hello everyone, thank you for all the support and words of encouragement. The weekend starts tomorrow, a great period to try something new. I hope the content of this blog so far has given you material for experimentation. If you have never tried to make bitter leaf soup before, my recipe is coming right up. Simple but detailed. So, my brothers and sisters from Eastern Nigeria, I am honouring you guys today.

In the spirit of the new and exciting series of baking related posts coming up, I have decided to give you the readers a soft landing. If you have always bought caramel in a bottle, you will never do so again. Making my own caramel was inspired by Aanu as she is a passionate advocate of baking from scratch and home made ingredients. Aanu makes her fondant from scratch, her own chocolate sauce, vanilla extract, cinnamon extract and so much more. You guys are in for a treat, you have no idea.

Another one of her home made products is caramel and I have seen pictures. I love caramel, who doesn’t? Any flavour of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream which has a caramel component makes me stretch my hand into the supermarket freezers without even thinking sometimes. I have always watched caramel made from scratch on Food Network, but it never really struck a chord in me until a few weekends ago when I wanted to make French Toast and I decided to give it a try. Oh Lawdie, Lawdie, Lawdie. Once it had cooled down, I tasted a teaspoonful and it was sooooo good that I ended up leaning on the kitchen counter and I was consuming it in spoonfuls. It was by far the best Caramel that I have ever tasted. Luckily caramel keeps very well in the freezer (3 months), so I intend to whip it out any time I want to serve cake and ice cream to guests, or even cookies or slices of fruit. Now that Aanu will be educating us about baking, test your measuring skills with making caramel and give your confidence a little boost.

hot bubbly, delicious caramel

You will need

1 cup of Sugar

1 cup of Double cream – you can substitute with milk especially condensed milk

Salt

1/4 cup of unsalted Butter

How To

1. Pour half a cup of water into a deep saucepan and blend 1 cup of sugar in a mill. This is to make the sugar granules finer. Pour the sugar into the saucepan and turn up the heat to medium.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Keep a close watch until the sugar solution turns a nice caramel colour. This took 15 – 17 minutes.

Do NOT stir the sugar solution and be very watchful. As soon as the colour starts to change to golden brown, shake the saucepan to spread the caramel evenly otherwise the centre will burn while the outer edges haven’t fully caramelised. You don’t want burnt caramel.

You should end up with this golden brown sugar syrup

2. Turn off the heat and add pour in the cream. I used a combination of 150ml double cream and 100ml milk making 1 cup. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: You have to be careful here because as soon as you add the cream it will bubble vigorously.

This is why you need to make the caramel in a pot or a deep saucepan to prevent kitchen accidents. Melting sugar is dangerously hot. 

• As double/heavy cream may not be easily accessible my some of my readers, I did some research on using milk as a substitute. This is what I found. Traditionally, caramel is made with double/heavy cream because it has a much higher fat content that milk (kitchen science). If you are going to use milk, use less milk to prevent ending up with runny caramel or make a mixture of half milk and half butter to emulate the fat content of double cream.If you are also using milk, make sure it is slightly warmed in a microwave and pour it in gradually while stirring. Remember, milk has a lighter weight than cream (less fat), so you pour until you achieve a thick consistency of caramel. Any more and you end up with runny caramel which is basically sweet milk and you will be very disappointed.

3.  Add the butter and whisk. You may need to put it back on low heat depending on the temperature of your kitchen – I actually used a butter substitute, which is a healthier version and it still turned out great. If you used a mixture of milk and butter, you will not need to add any more butter.

4. Once the butter has melted, add salt in pinches until you achieve the salty taste that you like. I used roughly 1/2 a teaspoon of salt.

……..and that is it. In four simple steps you end up with a gorgeous result. If you have always bought caramel from a plastic bottle, once you taste this you will never go the store bought route again. Caramel can stay refrigerated for 7 days or for 3 months in the freezer. You only need to reheat gently on very low heat – do not be tempted to boil it again.

One of many uses of salted caramel – on French Toast. I will be posting the recipe very early tomorrow morning, so that you can make Saturday morning breakfast with a difference.

Are you already hungry for breakfast?

Today I am taking you on my journey of changing perceptions regarding some foods. To my brothers and sisters from the East, my apologies if I have marginalised you guys. I realised last week, that I hadn’t written about dishes from the East, so I am changing that with this post. I will be relishing in the delights of Bitter leaf soup. If you are from another ethnic tribe and you have never tried making bitter leaf soup before, you’ve got no excuse now. Lol. If my grandma can see me now, she will be very surprised. Growing up, I did not like anything bitter leaf at all. I mean, which child would. Moving on into my adult years I still carried with me, this bias towards bitter leaf. Banga soup is the most popular dish where my dad is from and bitter leaf is the recommended leaf for it. When I met my friend Joy, from Calabar, she introduced me to the Atama leaf which is used by the Efik people for their banga soup which they call Atama soup. Since then, I have been preparing my Banga soup with the Atama leaf. My grandma would probably call me a traitor for this, but hey if I can’t enjoy a dish I cooked, what is the point. Sorry grandma. Lol. If you want my recipe for Banga/Atama soup, click HERE.

My displeasure with bitter leaf changed when a friend of mine Amaka A. taught me how to prepare this dish. I had always complained about bitter leaf soup to her hearing, and she said she will change my perception, by teaching me how to prepare it. She then went on to teach me how to prepare other soups common to Igboland. So, Igbo Kwenu! Kwenu Kwezo Nu! I really salute you my countrymen from the East, because your soup finally won me over to eating bitter leaf. Ofe Onugbu is the only thing I can eat with bitter leaf in it.

So, if like me you don’t particularly like anything with bitter leaf, I encourage you to give this a try. If you are the kind of person who is sceptical about preparing dishes from other cultures. I will also encourage you to try something new today and expand your cooking repertoire. This is one very very tasty meal.

You will need

5 pieces of cocoyam - i used the specie of cocoyam that look like big pebbles. I don’t know what it is called in Igbo. 

1 1/2 cups of chopped bitter leaf

500g of assortment of meats, poultry and fish- i used beef, chicken, saki, cow leg and stockfish

1/2 cup of smoked prawns

1 wrap of Ogiri

Beef stock

3 pieces of Ata rodo - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

1 piece of Tatashe

1 1/2 cooking spoons of Palm oil

1/2 cup of ground crayfish

1 middle piece of smoked fish - i used Eja Osan

Salt

Seasoning cubes - knorr chicken cubes preferred

Pictures of the ingredients can be found on the Ingredientspaedia page HERE

How To

Depending on where you live, your options for bitter leaf will either be the leaves in its original state or already chopped and washed. If you are a pro, you will probably go for the first option which will involve picking the leaves off the stalk and then “washing” the leaves by rubbing it between your palms and fingers while it foams and you later decant the dark green liquid, fill the bowl up with clean water and continue washing. You will repeat this process many times till the concentration of the bitterness reduces to a tolerable level and the water is much clearer. As a Delta girl, mama taught me how to do this. Very tedious process I remember. She would never buy the already washed one from the market because she also wanted to keep some of the greenish water for medicinal purposes. Two uses in one purchase. Lol. I shudder, remembering the taste of some of her herbal concoctions. Mama had herbal remedies to cure everything. My cousin used to say the smell and taste of the stuff was enough to chase away even evil spirits. Lol.

For easy street cooks like us, we go straight for the already washed option. Life is too short, please. Lol. If your leaves are still bitter, boil it for 5 – 10 minutes in plain water and decant the water into the sink.

1. Boil and season the meat, chicken and stock fish with with salt, seasoning cubes and chopped onions. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: if you have always been boiling your meats with enough water to drown it, I will advise that you reduce the volume of water, so as to get a rich tasting stock. A rich tasting stock is the base of a successful dish. When the meats have almost softened, add the smoked prawns and shredded smoked fish.

2. Once the meats have softened, boil the cocoyam with the skin on for roughly 15 – 20 minutes. You could also do this right about the time you add the smoked prawns to the boiling meats to save on time.

3. Test the cocoyam for softness with a fork. it should go right through without resistance. Once it is soft, take it off the heat and dunk it in cold water for a few seconds to cool it down, to allow you peel the skin off. Then add to a blender. My traditional Igbo cooks are about to fly off the handle here. Lol. Traditionally, you are supposed to pound the boiled cocoyam till it forms a smooth paste. I don’t have a mini mortar and pestle, and it is not worth taking out the food processor and cleaning it afterwards. Besides, a blender will guarantee you no lumps. Just blend with a little water. The blender will resist at first, simply mash it with a spoon for easy blending. Here is my result

4. You should have roughly the volume of 2 – 2 1/2 cups of stock with the meats. .Add pepper to the pot and let it boil for 2 – 3 minutes, followed by the wrap of ogiri and palm oil which you allow to boil for at least 5 minutes so as to prevent any curdling sensation on your tongue and to also dissolve the ogiri. You will know the ogiri has dissolved when you can smell and taste it in the stock.

5. Scoop the cocoyam into the pot in spoonful size increments and watch while it swells up in size, after which it will dissolve completely to give a smooth creamy sauce. Personal preference will come into play here. Some people prepare this soup with a little more stock so as to make the soup watery or they take out some of the cocoyam. I leave all the cocoyam in because I prefer a creamy consistency. So, whatever works best for you. Cooking is personal.

Once the cocoyam has completely dissolved, add the crayfish and stir. Taste for salt and seasoning cubes, and re-season if necessary. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Crayfish also works like a thickening agent, so I add it to the pot after the cocoyam has completely dissolved so as not to interfere.

6. Lower the heat, add the bitter leaf to the pot and stir. Personal preference will come to play here again. Some people chop their bitter leaf less finely, so you can pick the leaves with your fingers and chew. I don’t, because the best way I can tolerate bitter leaf is by not having to chew it. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: i lowered the heat, so as not to thicken the creamy sauce further 

Leave the pot to cook for 5 minutes. Add more stock if you wish. I added a little

……….and that’s it. Serve with your choice of starchy additions. I enjoy Ofe Onugbu with yellow garri.

Bon Appetite….

So, you’ve met this great guy, you’ve gone on a couple of dates and if you are like me, restaurant food gets tiring and you would like to chill out at home and get to know each other better in a relaxed atmosphere without the pressure of being on your best behaviour. You can invite him to yours, (or if he spent the night, er my hand is not there!) and start the day with an incredibly sweet breakfast. Now you don’t want to look like you are trying too hard, so this is a very simple meal but with a wow factor. If you are a guy who loves to cook, hey save yourself a restaurant bill and offer to cook her breakfast instead. Women love that. Are you married and it has been so hectic lately, you haven’t had the time to put some spice into your relationship plus meal times have been a lot of reheated food from plastic bowls. How about you ship the kids off to Grandma’s, or Aunty Kate who owes you big time or a trusted friend, and devote a day to each other.

Who wouldn’t want this for breakfast

This is a very very simple breakfast

What You Need

Salted caramel - as much as you want

2 tablespoons of Desiccated coconut

Vanilla

3 Eggs

Milk

1 teaspoon of Cayenne pepper – dry pepper

The recipe for making Salted caramel can be found HERE

How To

1. Cut up a loaf of bread into thick slices and set aside.

Beat three eggs in a bowl add the cayenne pepper, a splash of vanilla and a splash of milk. Whisk until thoroughly combined.

Add each slice of bread to the egg mixture and let it soak through thoroughly.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: A common mistake many people make and it results in dry french toast. Press the bread down into the mixture and ensure that it soaks through completely. 3 eggs were just about enough to soak through 3 1/2 thick slices.

2. Heat a teaspoon of butter in a pan on medium heat and add the bread. Let it fry for about 2 minutes on each side.

Once it has browned, lower the heat to allow the eggs cook through. This will create crunch on the outside and softness from the cooked eggs on the inside.

3. While the french toast is on the heat, in a separate pan heat up the desiccated coconut with a pinch of sugar.

Let this sit on the heat for about 2 minutes till the coconut shavings turn brown

………….and that’s it.

Plate the french toast, and drizzle the caramel generously over it. Complete it with a sprinkle of desiccated coconut to create extra crunch and flavour. You are probably going to scream about the calories. Come on people, move over to the dark side just for this morning. Crunchy and soft french toast with gorgeous sweet caramel, er whatever you do with the caramel after breakfast is none of my business. To feel less guilty, add a bit of fruit. I have used strawberries, tangy mango and apple slices.

Aanu’s Baking Corner is born…………..YAY!!!

Hi people. Let me start off by thanking God for the privilege of sharing some of the things I’ve learned in this baking journey I’ve been on for a while now. Everything I know has been a gift and an indulgence of God’s grace over me. I thank Dunni (Dooney) for the opportunity to be a part of this beautiful blog, and I thank you for your attention, questions, and interest.

Now, a little about myself. While I have baked since I was a young kid, I’ve baked professionally for about two years now. I’m working on my Pastry Arts degree so this process, and the ideas I will be sharing, will be as much of a learning process for me as it may be for you. My creative outlet is VictoriaGrace Cakes et al, and thank God people are willing to pay me to do what I love.

Okay, all that formal stuff aside, I’m a little nuts, yeah I said it. I had to wait till the third paragraph to let you in on this not-so-secret so as not scare you off. And because you’re reading this, IT WORKED! LOL. I’m crazy about cakes because those suckers can be challenging. How many times have you baked the SAME recipe in the SAME oven using the SAME ingredients and tools and that thing just decides one time it wants to be glorious and the next it prefers to look like the Grand Canyon? I love challenges, and cakes kick butt; so I’ve made it my life’s mission to kick the butt of cake all over the U.S. and across the pond too if y’all will give me a visa.

Baking vs. Cooking

Folks, there is a difference. You can’t approach baking, especially cakes, like you would general baking. Now since I’m not a culinary chef like Dooney I can’t speak to cooking as a chef but general cooking. Regular folks cooking and baking are worlds apart.

1. Baking is an exact science. I’ll give a few examples.

X amount of baking soda neutralizes Y amount of acid. It could be the vinegar, buttermilk, and natural cocoa in that red velvet cake or the molasses you decided to add to a recipe because you thought molasses would go with the recipe. You can’t just substitute things in a recipe like you would habaneros for jalapenos or ata rodo for bell peppers because you want to modify the spicy-ness of a culinary dish for example and not pay attention to how you are changing the balance of your recipe.

Baking powder and soda are not always interchangeable, and when they are, baking soda has 4 times the leavening power of baking powder. So substituting 1:1 for example would likely be a death knell to your recipe.

What am I getting at? To bake well, you’ve got to approach the process with an appreciation for science, and a willingness to be exact—even when it comes to changing stuff or tweaking recipes.

2. Precision.

You know how moms and really good cooks never really measure anything, they just keep adding till it tastes good? Yeah. Stop right there. Take that knowledge and tuck it into your cooking

One of my very few successful attempts at baking. Traditional English Christmas Cake.

Next attempt, not so successful. Chocolate cake disaster. I can’t wait for Aanu to update our knowledge on making successful chocolate cakes.

Hi everyone, we survived monday, lol, so I hope your week is rolling along nicely. To give you some bit of good news and more things to look forward to, I’ll like to give you a list of recipes that will be coming up

• Dipping sauces – I took on the challenge to make mayonnaise from scratch. Phew, I have never had to stress over something that much in my kitchen. Luckily, I got it right, and refined the recipe to my taste and a flavour I know you guys will appreciate. So, be on the lookout for homemade mayonnaise 9ja style. I made two kinds, one plain which will serve as the base for anything else you want to add and another garlic and lemon flavoured with a hint of chilli. They are so good, the people who tasted it knew for sure that it wasn’t processed. Sorry, Heinz, you guys just lost a customer. As for the third homemade dipping sauce, I’ll just leave you guys to guess what it can be. Lol
• In the spirit of dipping sauces, of course you know I had to pair it with something fried. Well, I’ve taken fried yam a step further. A little hint will be Yamarita. Those of you who are customers of a popular confectionery in Lagos, Nigeria will know what I am talking about. I am bringing Yamarita into your homes, dipping sauce and all. Oops, I just gave away my hint above. Lol. The other fried food is seafood. Yummy, crunchy and delicious, so be on the lookout for that.

• Aanu’s baking corner has been launched, and it will be a first of many posts. Inspired by her, I have decided to tackle pastry. I will be posting my recipe for Deluxe Meat pies.
• For my readers who have asked for healthy recipes for people on a diet, I have been considering you guys and I will be posting a healthy recipe using Salmon. If you don’t have access to salmon, you can make this dish with Crocker fish. Salmon a la paripaso it is called. if you are a member of the So you think you can cook Facebook Group, you may have seen this posted by Emeka. I am using his recipe, and I added my own little spin on it.
• I walked past the aisle in the supermarket yesterday and I spotted Coconut. I will be hosting two of my very good friends this weekend, so Coconut rice it is. Creamy, simple and oh so delicious served with barbecued ribs. In the meantime, a popular breakfast favourite is Tapioca, and it goes soooooo well with coconut. Look out for me plating Tapioca beautifully. Who said cereal breakfast can’t look posh and inviting. Lol
• Malta has been on my mind lately, and some genius idea has been brimming in my head regarding that country. Fingers crossed. I will be sharing with you my experience of Malta, a gorgeous country you all should be considering for your next holiday. One of my favourite moments in Malta is food related. Something as simple as pancakes, but this is not just any type of pancake but Crepes Suzette. I will also be posting a video on the Facebook Page showing how it is made, so please remember to Like the Facebook page so you can share in the experience.

Okay, I will leave you with that, before you start dreaming of food at work. Thanks again for visiting my blog, and I look forward to interacting with you more this week. Cheers

Houston we have an announcement – we are about to put Mr Biggs out of business!!! Yes, you read that correctly. You are about to create competition. As you’ve probably guessed, I am so excited, that I had to blog about this as soon as I had seen the results and tasted it. Baking is my Achilles heel as I said in the last post. Meat pie is one of the contributors of the problem and it is so frustrating because it is the only pastry that I like. Chicken pie – thumbs down, fish pie – double thumbs down. So, you can imagine how painful it is, when you can’t be great at preparing something you really enjoy. If I start to list my disaster experiments with meat pie, I would not finish today.

They say with age you mature because life has happened to you and you have so many experiences under your belt. Not for everyone though, to some age is just a number. Lol. Those words also ring true for cooking. Ask any chef, and they’ll tell you the same thing. You pick up so many tips with time, you’ve made so many mistakes and you’ve learnt from it. You’ve gone through tutelage in so many forms and it shapes the cook that you are today. I have just read you my journey with cooking, and I know that there is still so much to learn. Today the 26th day of June in 2013, all that came to play today and I doubly excited, blessed and deliriously happy. That is why this post is titled, a little bit of Ina, a little bit of Nigella. You must be thinking, Dunni all this for food, and I will respond. Yes ooooooooooooooooo. If you have always had troubles with meat pie, like Pastors will say, all your troubles end today. Lol. Your troubles with meat pie you are dropping as you are reading this post.

Nigerians, we love meat pie. It is the national favourite from Lagos to Calabar to Kano to Maiduguri. It flies off the shelves in confectionaries, especially Mr Biggs who was probably one of the pioneers. The threat of not getting Mr Biggs meat pie will make any child who grew up in the early 90′s behave. I am sure that as you are reading this, you are reminiscing about your many memories of meat pie. Once it became popular, other confectionaries started selling meat pies, but none could compare with Mr Biggs. Sadly as all good things that come to an end, the quality deteriorated badly and Mr Biggs lost its glory. One of the unique qualities of Mr Biggs’s meat pie was the creamy meat filling. Gosh, I am remembering diving into the pastry crust and getting mouthfuls of creamy delicious meat filling with carrots and potatoes. You could also see the hint of dried thyme. Yum, yummy. Many caterers and confectioners have tried to recreate this distinct consistency and they just did not get it, or even come close. Well, all that ends today. No joke, you are about to thank me big time. Lol. I have pictures to prove it and I am going to share the story with you now.

You will need

Dough

3 cups of Self raising flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

250g of margarine

2 eggs

1 cup of  cold water - straight from the tap

1/4 of cold milk - surprised to see milk? you will soon understand why below

1 teaspoon of salt

Filling

300g of mincemeat

2 carrots

6 baby potatoes

curry powder

dried thyme

cayenne pepper - dry pepper

salt

3 tablespoons of flour

seasoning cubes - knorr chicken cubes preferred

1 red chilli - you can use ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper)

1 green chilli

1 bay leaf

Olive oil

The pictures will be posted on the Ingredientspaedia page HERE

How To

Meat Filling

1. Chop the carrots into cubes, and set aside. Chop the chillies into circles, then chop each circle into quarters and set aside. Peel the skin off the potatoes and boil with a little salt. Dice the onions finely and set aside. Once the potatoes are soft, chop into cubes.

2. Heat 1 cooking spoon of Olive oil into a shallow – deep frying pan. Pour the mincemeat into a bowl and season with salt, 1 seasoning cube, sprinkle in a teaspoon of curry, dried thyme and cayenne pepper and combine. Pour the seasoned mincemeat into the pan and fry until the meat turns from pale pink to a lovely shade of light brown.

3. Add the chopped ingredients from Step 1 (except the potatoes) and stir. Depending on the quality of the mince that you are using, you will have some water leach into the pan from the mince.

Don’t worry, it is not a problem. Let the contents of the pan fry for at least 5 – 7 minutes to allow for the veggies to soften properly.

4. The mince will start to resemble the shape of tiny pebbles and it will taste crunchy. Don’t you worry, you are still on track (i worried myself, until I remembered Nigella Lason’s recipe of mincemeat sauce). Add a cup of water to the mixture and stir. Let this cook for another 5 – 7 minutes.

The water will be absorbed into the meats.

5. When you taste the mince again, it will still have the crunchy effect, no problem, add more water to the pan, about half a cup this time and lower the heat. Add 1 bay leaf and re-season with a pinch of salt and half a seasoning cube.  You may need to repeat this process at least one more time. Remember to continue on low heat. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Leave the bay leaf in for about 5 minutes, then take it out. You only want a hint of the flavour.

What you are trying to achieve is a saucy kind of look to the meats. See above. At no point should it be dry, if it is dry my dear, you will be disappointed when you are done with baking. You are trying to re-create the childhood experience of Mr Biggs meat pie. Creamy filling is key. I made the filling yesterday evening, and it was too dark to make the dough and take pictures, so I simply kept the filling in the fridge.

6. By this evening, the mincemeat mixture had absorbed all the water and it tasted soft and plump and delicious. So I simply put it back on low heat, added a little water and the chopped boiled potatoes.

You can do this if you want, but if you want to make meat pie in one day, simply take the frying pan off the heat, and let the mince rest while it absorbs all the water. Once this has happened, put it back on the heat and add a little more water.

Once the mixture was dripping in liquid, I looked at the pan and I knew something was missing. Suddenly I remembered Nigella’s fish pie. When she cuts it out of the pie dish, it is creamy and dripping with juice. I remembered I used to say to myself, that is how Mr Biggs’s meat pie looks. British fish pie you see, is made with milk so I looked at the pan and said nah – milk, no way. This is 9ja meat pie. Dunni, think, Nigella has mentioned something about a guest being lactose intolerant. What did she substitute for milk? A lightbulb just came on in my head. FLOUR!!! Lol. So, I mixed 3 tablespoons of flour with a little water from the tap and I added to the pan. The result was instant, and I was dancing a jig. My neighbours must think they live next door to this crazy woman who keeps dancing in her kitchen. Lol

7. Mix 3 tablespoons of flour with a little water to form the consistency of milk, and add to the pan. Stir and watch as the mincemeat mixture turns all gooey and creamy. It should not be dripping with any liquid at all. Re-season with half a seasoning cube, stir and let this cook on low heat for about 1 – 2 minutes.

Voila

is this evoking the Mr Biggs meat pie filling? You bet it is. Lol.

Remember, my measurements are based on the quantities of ingredients I stated above. You may have to adjust based on how much of each ingredient you are using. I haven’t gotten to the pastry section which is an exact science, so you have some leeway with the filling.

Now to the dough

1. Mix the dry ingredients into a big bowl, with the measurements I stated.

• 1 cup of flour plus 1 teaspoon of baking powder = self-raising flour. Short story: I knew I had flour at home, so despite going to the store after work to pick up eggs, I sauntered past the flour aisle and I said, nah, I have flour at home. Only to open the store and see self-raising flour. Oh my GOSH – why didn’t I just pick up the flour? For goodness sake, flour is really cheap and you can’t have too much of it, as it doesn’t go bad. Then the little red devil in my head said, come on, use it like that. Strike 1. Lol.

So, I measured 3 cups of self-raising flour and I decided to throw in a teaspoon of baking flour for good measure. At this point, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just winging it. Lol. Aanu will probably call it dumb luck. Please do not try this at home with other recipes. The goddess of baking is one mean personality, you don’t joke with her measurements. Lol.

2. Break the margarine apart into chunks

rub the flour with the margarine until the consistency of the flour resembles grains

and the colour has changed to pale yellow

Feel through the flour to ensure that the flour has properly combined with the margarine

3. In one hand, hold a cup of water, and pour a gradually into the bowl, while you combine the flour and water with your other hand. Do NOT pour in all the water at once.

This is where I hit my first snag. By the time I had poured in more than 3 quarters of the cup, the dough was not sticking together, neither was it watery. It just was not combining well. I added the last bit of water, mixed again, and still no luck. I thought to myself, oh dear, not again, if I get the pastry wrong, I’m screwed. I was too worried to take pictures at this point. I addded a sprinkling of flour, thinking it will help, nothing. I repeated that twice, still no luck, then I remembered a tip from Ina Garten, bless her. She said add about 1/4 cup of cold milk if your pastry starts to give you worries. Ding, ding, ding, it worked. Whoop, whoop, it came together just like that. Next thing Ina says is, never overwork your dough. Once it combines, put it in the fridge, and let it rest for 30 minutes. This is to allow the gluten molecules relax, and something or the other, I can’t remember now, but I’ll Google it and update this post. I did that, and 30 minutes later, all the worries I had disappeared, the minute I touched the dough.

4. Mix the flour and water to form the dough. If you faced the same problems I did, just add milk. Remember not to overwork the dough.

It will have the look of rough cement. Lol. The cold fridge is about to change that when the gluten molecules break down

If you have always rolled your dough immediately, please don’t do it again. To get the kind of result I got, Ina is very very correct. You need to let your dough rest under cold conditions. Wrap it in cling film and place in the fridge

5. 3o minutes later, take the dough out of the fridge, and notice the difference in texture. The dough should feel smoother, and more elastic.

see the difference after being in the fridge?

Tear off a chunk enough to fill your palm, coat your palms with flour and knead gently. You should feel the dough respond to your fingers and smoothen into a ball.

I went a little OCD here because I was surprised at how well the pastry had been transformed from staying in the fridge. So, I put the rest of the dough back into the fridge, while I made one pie. I did not want the dough to gain temperature from sitting on the kitchen counter while I made the rest.

6. Coat the rolling pin with flour and roll the pastry till it flattens.You want to roll the pastry till you achieve about a quarter-inch of thickness.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Another tip with rolling pastry that I have picked up from Food Network. Never put your weight on your hands when rolling pastry. The action should come only from your wrists. If you have been resting your weight on the rolling pin you will over flatten the pastry. Just roll gently with the power of your wrists. You will know the pastry is too thin, when the edges start to have a wrinkly torn and over stretched look. Simply roll back into a ball and flatten again.

7. Using a cookie cutter or the cover of a pot, cut out a circle and remove the extra bits.

Add the creamy filling to the middle of the circle. You will need about a tablespoon and a half. Don’t over fill the pastry

Break one egg in a bowl and whisk. Using a brush or your hands, lightly coat the inner circle with the egg wash.

Fold over pastry over the filling and press down gently with your fingers.

Dip a fork in water, and press down on the pastry and drag towards you to seal. Repeat this process across, till you completely seal the pie.

8. Rub margarine on a baking tray, place the pie on it and put the tray in the fridge to chill while you make the rest.

9. Take out another chunk of dough from the fridge and repeat Step 5 and 6 till you have exhausted the dough. I was able to make 7 meat pies with this dough. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: When you are halfway through, pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees. his should be Gas Mark 4 or 5 for my readers who live in the UK.

10. Once you have all the pies on the tray, coat with the beaten eggs. This is to give the meat pies a lovely glistening light brown colour. Place the tray into the pre-heated oven and let it bake  for 25 minutes.

Despite the kitchen being a mess, I couldn’t bring myself to clear up. I literally sat down and watched the meat pies bake. Lol. I had done everything right, this was the crucial point now. I put the meat pies in at 19.47pm and I sat there watching as it increased in size, and I kept thinking, please Lord, please Lord, let this work. Lol. By 20.04 pm I could see that the pastry had turned golden brown, but 2 pies at the most extreme end of the tray were darker than the others so I brought them out, and left the rest in for another 3 minutes. Ta daaa!!!

Break the meat pie apart, and you will be taken back to that memory of Mr Biggs meat pie, with a meat filling that is gooey, creamy, soft and delicious. The pastry too is very light, flaky and very tasty.

The tips of the meat pie, break apart and it tastes crunchy. You are going to love this, I promise you. This will take you back to those days of Mr Biggs meat pie, and the filling will even taste better as it wasn’t mass produced. I hope you enjoyed reading this, I have described my experience this evening with much detail. You should have no problems making this. No problems at all. I am so psyched with my success with dough, I just might make my own bread one day. Making bread is the big daddy of dough. Aanu to the  rescue. Lol

The taste and experience of Mr Biggs, right in your kitchen

Now, it is time to tackle another confectionary favourite. Yamarita Fries and fried tomato sauce. Luckily, I made this yesterday, so I just have to write about it and attach pictures. See you in the next post.

Q: I would love to know about cookies, cupcakes, and making ice cream without an ice cream maker with accurate measurements.

A: Hi. What specifically about cookies and cupcakes? Not sure about making ice cream without an ice cream maker but here’s a link I found you might consider. http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-ice-cream-without-124210

Q: Please what is the accurate measurement for a plain sponge cake! All the cakes I bake just never seem to rise!

A: A basic sponge cake formula is equal parts flour, sugar and eggs i.e. 1:1:1 with some formulas including salt, baking powder and flavorings/spices. Some variations of the formula have up to 1: 1.7:1.7

Unless you’re planning to develop your own recipe, the above information may not be of much use to you. If your sponge cakes consistently fall, the issue may well be your technique vs the recipe. Since the bulk of the leavening (rise) of a sponge cake is tied to how much air you can get into your eggs. The bigger question becomes: Are you properly getting the air into your eggs and from the eggs to the batter?

What does your recipe call for as far as preparing the eggs? And what’s your technique? Does it call for BEATING yolks with part of the sugar first to RIBBON STAGE and then making a meringue by WHIPPING the whites and the rest of the sugar which is then FOLDED in? These words are emphasized for a reason. Beating, whipping, and folding are not the same thing and if you’re not doing these correctly, you’re not going to get good results even with the best, most balanced sponge cake recipe on earth.

How do you handle your cake after it’s baked? Hopefully you’re NOT greasing the pan before you bake. Do you invert immediately you get it out of the oven to prevent your cake from falling?

Do a search for videos on the internet showing these mixing methods, and also for stages of a meringue. If your recipe calls for stiff peaks and you’re only whipping to soft peaks, your cake is going to reflect that difference.

3a. Q: What are the best kinds of chocolate not the ShopRite packaged chocolates for home use baking? The dairy milk ones don’t turn out well.

3b. Q: What is a chocolate and/or red velvet cake recipe that you will recommend? I never seem to get those right.

A: Your choice of cocoa is going to depend on your recipe. Natural cocoa vs Dutch process cocoa (common in Europe); cocoa and chocolate are not the same thing. Natural cocoa and Dutch process cocoa are not the same thing. What does your recipe call for? While the brand of cocoa you choose will depend on personal preference, the type of cocoa you use will depend on your recipe and what you’re going for. Natural cocoa is acidic, with a bitter edge compared to Dutch process which is neutral and produces a much darker cake.

Why is this acid/neutral thing important info? It ties to the leavening in your cake. While some recipes can handle switching between these types of cocoa, many recipes do not. Natural cocoa recipes will call for baking soda (which is alkaline). Acid + Base gives off CO2 along with the corresponding salts. That CO2 affects the rise of your cake. Dutch process is neutral and is used in recipes with baking powder (which contains the acid and base that react to form the CO2. If you use neutral Dutch cocoa in a recipe that calls for natural cocoa, what’s your baking soda going to react with? Enter weird tasting cake with crappy texture and probably zero rise.

With regards to chocolate, again, what does your recipe call for? Dark? Semi-Sweet? Milk? White? Each of these has specific amounts of cocoa solids to fat to sugar that can throw off a recipe. So when substituting, you’re going to consider how your choice affects the balance of the recipe. Dark chocolate has much less sugar and fat compared to milk chocolate. So when you decide to use dark chocolate for a recipe that calls for milk chocolate, there’s a good chance you’re going to have to increase the sugar and fat to mimic the effect of milk chocolate (you’re probably also going to introduce milk solids if the recipe doesn’t already have that). If a recipe calls for baking chocolate and you want to use cocoa, you’re going to have to increase the sugar and fat to mimic the effect of chocolate because a straight cocoa substitution will yield a super dry cake.

I often don’t recommend one recipe over another because almost always I’ve found the issue is not the recipe but inappropriate substitutions (often because the individual does not understand the role of each ingredient) or poor technique (inaccurate measurements of ingredients, off temperature of ingredients or oven, wrong mixing method, stuff like that). Martha Stewart’s red velvet recipe that has gotten good reviews. You might try that.

This week has been an incredible journey of trying something new. I am very grateful for the breakthroughs and the results. Today, I am going to be demystifying making sauces from scratch i.e. homemade. This is a journey from England to Spain and Italy with a hint of 9ja. My trio of dipping sauces are:  Aioli, Mayonnaise and Marinara. You know that bottle of your favourite processed salad cream or mayonnaise? You are about to throw it away very soon. Okay, maybe not throw it away, but once you make this, you won’t be replacing that bottle or jar in your fridge with store-bought. You will simply be making your own. Like home-made caramel, homemade dipping sauces are the way to go.

I had tweaked this 5 times. All that time I was basically throwing away cupfuls of oil and eggs. Quite upsetting. It got to the point where I wasn’t even sure I got the taste okay, because I had been tasting mayonnaise for close to 5 hours. Everything tasted the same. By the last try, I said to myself, enough. If this is not good, I’ll just have to start again tomorrow. The day after, I gave it a quick taste and i thought to myself, boy this is good. Let me try it with a sandwich.

I’m not that much of a sandwich person. So, armed with my homemade mayonnaise, I decided to toast 2 slices of bread and spread the mayonnaise over it to test the waters, before I fill it with other ingredients. The minute I chewed and my taste buds kicked in, I believe I screamed Oh My goodness with my mouth half-open. I had given up, and I was prepared to throw this batch away. The garlic, lemon, salt, a hint of sugar was just so perfect, I ended up toasting 2 more slices. Now, I am on the hunt for sandwich fillings, I suddenly have this new-found reason to love sandwiches. It was worth all the effort. I am never buying store-bought mayonnaise. It would be great if you guys make your own mayonnaise too. Let us swap stories, frustrations and all. I have made two different kinds. With mustard and without. If you like mustard, your choice is clear, if like me you don’t like mustard, I have also given you an option. I have also used two methods – manually and with a food processor. For the love of all things holy, if you have a food processor please don’t attempt to make this manually. I know I have just scared away those who don’t have a food processor. Yes it is a bit tedious, but once you get the hang of it, it is smooth sailing all the way. I will be posting my mistakes and pitfalls, so you can avoid them, or solve them the minute they arise.

Aioli

Aioli is a mayonnaise, but a garlic mayonnaise. It is of Spanish origin. I added cayenne pepper, to give it some kick and a hint of 9ja.

You will need

1 egg yolk

1 tsp of red wine vinegar

1tsp of djorn mustard

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbs of lemon juice

1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper – dry pepper

3/4 – 1 cup of oil - I used olive oil but vegetable oil or sunflower oil is preferrable

How To

This was easy peasy because I made this in a food processor. It is also mayonnaise, but extra flavourful because of the garlic and the cayenne pepper

1. Chop the garlic and crush it till it forms a paste. Or you chop into tiny bits. No one wants to chew on a chunk of garlic Place the egg yolk into the jug, and add all the other ingredients  except the oil. Turn the machine to maximum to combine. 

2. Like i said above, the oil is where it gets technical. You MUST add the oil drop by drop at the beginning. When you get the consistency of mayonnaise, then you add the oil in a steady stream. So, add the oil in a little drop, put the machine on and let it combine. Add another drop, let it combine, add another drop let it combine, and keep going until you can see the creaminess of the mayonnaise form.

Once you achieve this, add the oil in a steady stream while the machine combines, and that is it. The oil is what gives the aioli volume, and also makes it more creamy and silky. Simple, simple, very simple. Like I said above, if you add the oil too fast, the mayonnaise will split. Be warned. Lol.

……………………………..and that’s your Aioli. All ready to dip your crackers, chips, fried yam, calamari or even mixed into salads

Basic Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is a classic British dipping sauce. It can be served as a dip, tossed in a salad, grilled with chicken breasts, and so much more

You will need

1 egg yolk - most likely you’ll need 2 

1 cup of oil - I used olive oil because that was what I had at home. It is recommended yo use sunflower oil or plain vegetable oil

Salt

White wine vinegar – optional, but you can substitute with white wine

1 – 2 tablespoons of Lemon juice

Sugar

Mustard - I found that this is a matter of personal taste. If you like mustard add it, if you don’t take it out. If you are using mustard by the mellow variety, you don’t want something too strong

How To

I have stories to tell with this one. I tried 3 methods, blender, food processor and by hand.

Blender – So, I started by combining all the ingredients into a bowl. it didn’t help that I was watching Nashville (amazing show by the way), so I wasnt concentrating. I tried to whisk with a fork, and I thought to myself, use a blender. After pouring in all the ingredients, this is what I ended up with.

Lol. I knew that couldn’t be right. Down the drain. Okay, pause the TV show now, and concentrate. I checked google and I realised that you don’t add the oil at once when making mayonnaise. That is a golden rule that you can’t ignore, other wise it will split, as you can see below. A split mayonnaise is when the oil doesn’t combine with the other ingredients and you end up with a liquid solution, hence from the term, split.

Little did I know that the mayonnaise was still salvageable. I am a mayonnaise making novice, I simply threw it down the drain. Wasted all that oil and an egg. I know better now, and I will share the escape strategy below. So, I brought out the food processor.

Food Processor - I added all the ingredients, except the oil, just as I read online and I added the oil, drop by drop. In about a minute or two the creamy consistency was achieved and I felt great. Yipeee. Then i looked at the egg whites and I thought, why should i waste it. Some recipes state use the whole egg. Wrong move. As soon as I added the whites, the mayonnaise turned to the consistency of pancake batter. Oh dear, what have I done?

as you can see, pancake batter. Apparently, adding the egg whites at that stage is a no-no. I could have left it in the fridge, and it would have thickened, but impatient me tried to fix it. I sprinkled a little flour into it

which was fine, but the flour affected the taste. before the flour, it tasted gorgeous. I was really pleased. The hint of salt, sugar, the lemon. Perfect. By now, I was at it for hours, including making the Aioli and the marinara, so I was exhausted and I decided to plate and take pictures

mayonnaise 2nd attempt

After plating and taking pictures. I sat down to enjoy my dips with calamari and chips. I loved the aioli and the marinara, but the mayonnaise didn’t sit right with me. I decided to take a shower and co-wash my hair. Mayonnaise is a very good protein treatment for those who are on a hair journey, so I simply used it as my deep conditioner/protein treatment. My hair loved it. It had never felt that soft and silky, I would definitely be using it again. It is waaay cheaper than a fancy protein treatment.

I don’t quit something I start. I usually envisage the end result, and if I don’t achieve it, I do it again. My mum will say, this is one of the positive aspects of being stubborn. You just don’t give up. As I had succeeded with the aioli using a food processor, I decided to tackle the mayonnaise again by hand.

Manually

1. I started with one egg yolk, salt, white wine vinegar and lemon juice. I used a big plastic bowl and a fork. Trying to whisk such a small quantity in a big bowl was a pain, little did I know it was about to get worse. Lol

2. Add the oil, drop by drop and watch as the volume increases and it takes on a light creamy consistency

3. keep adding the oil drop by drop and increase to a steady consistency. Whoever came up with this idea, should be kicked. Unless you are ambidextrous, as a novice you will go wrong. Which of course I did and the mayonnaise split.

I kept adding the oil, hoping it would magically fix itself. It only made it worse

Back to google again. If this happens to you, don’t despair, you can still save it.

4. Simply break 1 egg, extract the yolk and whisk. Using a fork, take out bits of the split mayonnaise and add to the egg and whisk

told you it was salvageable. Lol

5. Keep adding the split mayonnaise to the bowl in forkfuls, and whisk. Watch as the mayonnaise turns creamy

Keep at it, and you will get a bowl full of creamy, delicious mayonnaise. Adjust for taste with salt and sugar

……………………….and that’s it. My successful homemade mayonnaise. Last attempt. 

Store in a jar and refridgerate. It keeps for weeks

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: You actually may be able to get away with making mayonnaise in a blender. As long as you don’t make the mistake I did, which was adding all the oil at once. It should also turn out light and creamy. If you are using a blender though, don’t use olive oil because the blades will turn the olive oil bitter. There is some science behind this, don’t ask me please. Lol. USe sunflower oil or vegetable oils. The eggs must also be at room temperature. I learnt that lesson the hard way by my 5th egg or so. Don’t use eggs straight from the fridge.

Marinara

Marinara is a simple fried tomato sauce. I have always maintained that Nigerian food just needs packaging to sell it to the rest of the world. Marinara is our very own ata din din. That fried tomato sauce that we eat with yam, plantain or boli. Fried tomato sauce just sounds bleh, but when you call it marinara it is suddenly interesting and sophisticated. Marinara is Italian by the way, and with all things Italian, it sounds sexy no? 

You will need

1.2 of 1 red onion

2 tomatoes

1 red chilli

Olive oil

Salt

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp dried thyme

1 clove of garlic

1 – 2 bay leaves

Salt

Seasoning cube – knorr chicken preferred

How To

1. Chop the onion, tomatoes, chilli and garlic and set aside

2. Heat up 2 cooking spoons of olive oil, add the curry powder and thyme. let this fry for a minute. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: frying spices in oil, intensifies the flavour.

3. Add the chopped ingredients from Step 1

sweat out the contents of the pan and keep frying

4. Keep frying until the tomatoes break down. At no point should you add water . Add 1 – 2 bay leaves, 1 cube of seasoning cube, a sprinkling of salt and stir

keep frying until the sauce reduces and the colour turns dark and the sauce is thick with golden coloured oil showing at the sides of the pan. Taste for salt and seasoning.

…………………………………………………………………..and you are done. Your delicious marinara.

Do you remember Yamarita fries sold at TFC. If you do, you must remember the delicious tomato sauce it is sold with. Well, here you are.

 So, that’s it. My trio of dipping sauces. Aioli, Mayonnaise and Marinara

In another post, I will be writing about two fried foods that you can serve this. Calamari and Yamarita fries. See you in the next post.

Yamarita, yamarita, yamarita. I remember the first time I saw this written on the menu board in Tasty Fried Chicken popularly called TFC, I wondered what it was but I ordered my regular fried rice and chicken, because I am not adventurous with food sold commercially. I stick to what I know I will like so i don’t get pissed about wasting money. Lol. On another visit to TFC, the customer in front of me ordered Yamarita fries and I decided to stand back and watch what would be served. I was quite impressed to see yam packaged better than the fried yam (dun dun) phenomenon that most of us grew up with. I don’t particularly like yam, you must have read on my Yam and plantain porridge post HERE. One of the maids I grew up with used to boil it with sugar, and it became tolerable, which explains why I cook yam porridge with plantain - the sweetness.

Yamarita is basically fried yam, but fried yam 2.0. Just as with fish, prawns or any kind of seafood, you roll the yam in flour, dip it in egg and fry. As simple as that, and very sophisticated too. I know I probably sound like a broken record on the issue of packaging and presentation which will be the messiah of Nigerian food to a global audience, but Yamarita fries embodies what I mean perfectly. If you plate this simple dish, all fancy fancy, it can be served at a posh restaurant anywhere in the world. Which is what ticks me off with restaurants in high brow areas of Nigeria. The chefs are not creative or imaginative enough with Nigerian food. I don’t blame them too, you give your clientele what they want. When I think of chefs like Heston Blumenthal who pushes the boundaries with food, I will still maintain that if you create, your clientele will still respond.

So, today I am making fried yam extra special. It is not even that much work. You can serve this at home, or for guests, either as a starter or our popular after the main meal “small chop”. I am pairing it with an intensely delicious tomato sauce, just as TFC serves it. One thing missing is the Charcoal lit chicken though. My mouth is watering just remembering that chicken.

You will need

12 – 15 rectangular slices of yam – or more depending on how many people

1 egg

3 – 4 tbs of flour

1/2 tbs of cayenne pepper – dry pepper

1 tsp curry powder

Salt

Seasoning cubes – knorr chicken cubes preferred

2 Tomatoes

1 red chilli – you substitute with ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper)

Olive oil

1/2 red onion

1 clove of garlic

How To

1. Cut the tuber of yam into circles, peel off the skin and cut rectangular slices about an inch thick and rinse with tap water. Create as many slices as you want. I will calculate about 4 – 5 slices per person.

2. Boil the slices with enough water and salt. You will need roughly 7 – 10 minutes, but you have to monitor this closely because you don’t want to over cook the yam which will cause it to break apart when you fry in oil. So, by the 7 minute mark, test with a fork. If it gives way easily, then take it out off the heat. If you can still feel a little resistance, let it boil for another 2 – 3 minutes. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: as soon as the yams are soft, drain out the water. If you leave the yams in hot water, it will continue cooking.

3. While the yams are boiling, prepare the flour. i.e pour the flour unto a plate, sprinkle in the cayenne pepper, curry powder, salt, half a seasoning cube and combine thoroughly. Break an egg in a bowl and sprinkle in cayenne pepper, the other half of the seasoning cube and a little salt. Also heat up oil in a deep saucepan. You need the oil to get very hot. The volume of oil that you use will depend on the size of the pan. You are going to deep fry the yam slices, so you need enough oil.

4. Take the boiled yam slices out from the pot, one by one and roll in flour

dip the flour coated slices in the egg mixture one at a time

drop in the hot oil. If the oil is hot enough, each side should turn crisp and golden in under a minute, flip over to let the other side fry, then sieve out of the oil with a frying spoon.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: yamarita is as pleasing to the eye as it is tasty, you want it to be golden brown and not burnt. So, don’t let it sit in the oil for too long. This method can be used to fry fish or chicken. Hey, KFC’s famous chicken is fried like this. British fish and chips is also fried like this, though some recommend batter. I intend to try this out at home soon, and I will put it up, once I do.

5. Fry the rest of the slices.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: depending on how many slices you have to fry, you may have to turn down the heat a little bit, because the oil can get too hot and the yam will burn in a matter of seconds. You don’t want that

…………………….and that’s it. Delicious, crunchy Yamarita fries. Doesn’t it look gorgeous

Now, to the Ata dindin - yamarita is not complete without this

How To

1. Chop the onion, tomatoes, chilli and garlic and set aside

2. Heat up 2 cooking spoons of olive oil, add the curry powder and thyme. let this fry for a minute. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: frying spices in oil, intensifies the flavour.

3. Add the chopped ingredients from Step 1

sweat out the contents of the pan and keep frying

4. Keep frying until the tomatoes break down. At no point should you add water . Add 1 – 2 bay leaves, 1 cube of seasoning cube, a sprinkling of salt and stir

keep frying until the sauce reduces and the colour turns dark and the sauce is thick with golden coloured oil showing at the sides of the pan. Taste for salt and seasoning.

…………………………………………………………………..and you are done. Your delicious ata dindin

…………………………………..and there you have it. Yamarita and ata dindin

crispy, golden and delicious

If you want to serve yamarita with other dipping sauces, your options are plain mayonnaise, but I will recommend Aioli which is garlic mayonnaise. My recipe for homemade mayonnaise can be found HERE

Teaser pic for the next post. Yamarita vs Calamari.

This post is about moving out of your comfort zone, food wise. Calamari is uber rich and sophisticated. Order calamari in a restaurant and it will be slightly pricier than other items of the menu as with most seafood. I love most seafood, and for many of them I am not sure exactly what it looks like raw. The first day I ordered calamari, it was intriguing because it resembled onion rings. I had eaten it many times, and naively thought the raw version was also ringed shape. Boy, was I wrong and mildly grossed out when I realised it was made with squids. Barf alert. Squids, oh my gosh, I have been relishing squids. Are you kidding me? That slimy octopus looking thing. Oh my goodness. Lol. Calamari tastes great, so I mostly blank out the image of squids anytime I’m eating it

On my first trip to Billingsgate market, I decided to brave it and buy squids. Watching the stall owner pick up handfuls of squids and seeing the slime drip through his fingers, I just stood there saying to myself, Dunni you know you can decline and tell him you are no longer interested. Nevertheless, I paid for it and told him to wrap it in multiple layers of plastic. On getting home, I rinsed it with lime and packed it into the freezer. I never went back to it again for months despite bypassing it every time I opened the seafood freezer compartment to pick up my regular favourites like mussels, prawns and crab. While contemplating making Yamarita fries, I decided to get out the squids and make calamari as part 2 of my finger food posts. What happened in the days preceding making calamari was last week saturday was a strange coincidence. I was flicking through channels and I stopped at a life and style channel that I hardly watch, only to see how to clean a squid. My shock at what I watched was palpable. All I did was rinse off the slime with lime juice and chuck in the freezer. Oh, dear. Cleaning squids is so very far from that, I could have given myself food poisoning. If you have never tried cooking squids at home because you have always considered it yucky, I hope I change your mind with this post. With my new-found confidence with preparing squids and enjoying it spiced to my taste and cheaper too, I am going to be exploring other ways of cooking the loads of squids in my freezer. Grilling is another option, or cooking it in a rich stew or in Paella. Today, I will be deep-frying it and serving it homemade Aioli. If you read my last post on Yamarita fries, this will be similar.

You will need

Squids - i used 8

Flour

1 egg

Cayenne pepper

Salt

Seasoning - knorr chicken cubes preferred

1 tsp cayenne pepper - dry pepper

1 tsp Curry powder

Olive oil

Aioli – recipe HERE

How To

I will start with instructions on how to clean a squid, so you don’t make the same mistake I made

1. Layout the squids in a bowl/sink. Preferably the sink

2. Cut the tentacles from the body

3. Chop off the bulbous part of the tentacles, squeeze out the black squid ink and throw in the sink. This ink is edible, so you may want to save some to make black (squid ink) risotto or pasta. Using your index finger to feel for the bottom of the tentacles, push upwards towards you and the squid’s eye will come out. As you can see from the picture below (with two black tops). Detach this, and throw in the sink. Next thing will be for you to pull each tentacle through your fingers and scrape off any plasticky feeling bits. The Japanese keep this on, and it taste crunchy, so you can skip this step if you wish.

4. Put your fingers inside the main body of the squid and pull out all the inner bits, just as you would when cleaning fish. Pull out everything.

of importance to note is the transparent vertebrae. You will need to pull that out too

5. Rinse the conical-shaped body of the squid, in and out

cut into rings about 2 – 3cm wide

6. Repeat all the steps for the rest of the squids

the difficult part is over. Now, to turn this into delicious calamari

7. Pour a generous amount of oil in a deep frying pan or saucepan and place on high heat. Get out an empty freezer bag or plastic bag. Prepare the flour mixture using all the dry ingredients i.e. 3 – 4 tbs of flour, 1 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, salt and half a seasoning cube.

transfer all the rings and tentacles into the freezer bag and shake around to ensure that all areas are coated in flour

8. Break an egg into a bowl, season with the other half of the seasoning cube and whisk. Dip a couple of rings and tentacles into the bowl

9. Place the rings into the pan of hot oil and fry till the rings and tentacles turn golden brown. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: don’t leave it in the hot oil for too long. Golden brown is what you are aiming for. If you are worried about the squids not cooking through, don’t worry, it will cook through and be soft of the inside, crunchy on the outside.

…………….and that’s it. Golden, crunchy and delicious Calamari. Isn’t the yucky squid cleaning experience worth it now? Lol

You can replicate this recipe using fish, prawns, and crabs. Bon Appetite………

My pancakes are legendary. Okay, okay it is not my recipe, but my Mum’s. This is the pancake recipe I grew up with and absolutely love. My siblings, friends and cousins who have spent weekends and holidays in my house will testify. Her pancakes taste and smell like really thin cakes. Mummy’s recipe was my pancake view of the world, well into my adult years, and I simply assumed all pancakes must taste like that. Major naivety eh?  I have given this recipe to many friends who loved it, and for one of them, she must make Aunty Dunni’s pancakes for her girls every week, or else, they’ll hound her about it. Lol. I am happy to be sharing it with the world today. It is nothing fancy,  just a great combination of spices. Pancakes are way more than simple batter. They should smell great and taste great. There is an American-European divide when it gets to pancakes. Americans make theirs thick, while Europeans tend to go the paper-thin French style route called Crêpes. I have never liked American pancakes, apologies to all Americans reading this. I prefer Crepes any day. Thin pancakes with crunchy crispy edges, brings back memories of fun breakfast times in childhood.

My mum would wake up early on Saturday morning, mix the batter in a blender and set aside in the fridge. Another naive assumption. I thought everyone made pancake batter in a blender. I never knew people made it by hand. Anytime I mentioned making pancake batter in a blender, people gave me weird looks. Blender, are you kidding me, why not make it by hand. My response has always been, why make it by hand? Hand mixing and mixing to get rid of lumps. It only takes seconds to make it in a blender. So far, no one has complained and I hope I am introducing something new to you today. Mummy’s pancakes are so good, we could go through 3 blender jugs of batter in one breakfast. Each of us fighting for who got the first one, who got the last one, how many each person had, had. Oh dear, the arguments were hilarious.

Because crepes are so light, you can eat 10 and not realise it. Especially as you will probably not get to eat the 10 at a stretch. As each crepe was done, it was dished straight into a plate and consumed in seconds. You had to wait your turn again after everyone else had, had at least one, hence the squabbling – “it is my turn not yours”, “you just had yours 2 minutes ago”, “it is not fair mummy”, “Ola is cheating – as the eldest, I capitalised on this”, “okay let us have 2 crepes at once”. It was the one time no one left the kitchen. We all stood there eagerly awaiting the hot pancakes. No one dared to leave, so you didn’t miss out and others got to eat more than you. At times, Mummy got tired of the squabbling and told us to line our plates up. It was a funny sight to see plates arranged in a row. You picked yours when it was your turn and took your plate to the back of the queue to line up again. Good times. Thanks mummy.

Today, I am bringing some of that fun, magic and precious memories for you and your family (especially my readers who have children) with this recipe. Get out the blender people, you are going to be making batches and batches of this, if you don’t end up bullying your family and cheating by eating it straight from the pan. Lol. I will be amending mummy’s recipe slightly by adding two extra ingredients thanks to Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith. It was a gamble that paid off. I was so scared of messing with a her recipe, thank goodness it paid off. So, here goes.

You will need

2 eggs

330g of plain flour - i measured 1 cup (250ml) + 1/3 cup of flour (80ml)

140g of sugar - i measured 1/3 + 1/4 (60ml) of sugar

1 cup of milk - i used semi skimmed milk

1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper - dry pepper

2 pinches of ground nutmeg

a dash of vanilla

pinch of salt

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter - an extra ingredient

zest of 1 orange – another extra ingredient

I ended up with 600ml of an aromatic, zesty, creamy and tasty lick the spoon batter. Lol….

How to

1. Add all the liquid ingredients to the blender, followed by the dry ingredients except the flour and salt. Whizz in the blender for a few seconds. To zest an orange, you only need a grater. Lightly pass the orange across the grater. Only lightly, just to get the zest. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: if you apply pressure, you will get to the lower layer which is bitter. Use a toothpick or a fork to pick out the bits stuck to the grater.

2. Measure the flour and add to the blender in portions until you have run out of flour. Add a pinch of salt, and taste. Notice the difference the salt makes? ………..and that’s it. Simple eh? Saves you the trouble of mixing by hand doesn’t it? You have your batter ready in seconds.

Mummy’s Tip: mummy always let the batter rest in the fridge for 30 – 45mins, and it tastes better than frying immediately. 

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Pour some oil into a small plastic container. This is to help you carefully pour drops of oil into the frying pan. You are going to need 2 drops, maximum 3 to coat the pan. The oil is to only coat the pan. Twirl the oil in the pan and turn it upside down. If oil drips  out of the pan, you have added too much. Simply decant the excess drips back into the plastic container.

3. Once your pan is coated with oil, heat up the pan. It needs to be very hot, and you can test it by pouring a teaspoon of batter in the pan. Don’t worry, your first pancake may not be great, as the pan may not be hot enough. It takes experience to get a great first pancake so don’t beat yourself up about it. The next pancakes will turn out well as the pan will be hot enough.

first pancake

4. Now to frying. To get really thin pancakes, you will need a ladle spoon. Great option gauging the volume of batter. Take about 3/4 of a ladle spoon of batter.

Tip into the pan, and as soon as the batter hits the pan tilt it to spread the batter around the pan to form a circle

small circle

make a bigger circle

5. Let it sit in the pan for about 30 seconds, any longer and it will burn, especially if the pan is very hot.As soon as you see the edges start to crisp up, flip it over.

see how thin the pancake is, you can see the frying spoon through it

Ta da……..

see the crispy edges? Best parts – yum

see how thin it is

6. Repeat the process from the first Tip above, until you have exhausted the batter. Remember to only add drops of oil, no more. If you want a more round pancake, fill the ladle with more batter tip into the pan and twirl around the the batter completely covers the pan.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: this I learnt from my mum. Despite a hot pan being the secret to a successful crepe, a too hat pan spells doom because the crepes will burn almost instantly. See below. To prevent this, vary the heat by turning the knob off and on. You can go on to make at least 2 pancakes with the heat off. You will know when you need to turn the heat back up when the next pancake takes longer to brown. This will be tedious for those of you with gas burners, so simply turn the heat down to the lowest and take the pan off the heat completely, rather than having to re-ignite too often.

this may be okay for some people, but I prefer my pancakes golden brown and not dark brown

………….all the batter exhausted

Grab a bite of your crepes and taste the vanilla, the nutmeg, orange with a hint of heat from the dry pepper

You can serve Crêpes with chocolate sauce, sugar or cream. This is very popular in Paris. They have this street Crêperie vans over there, who serve yummy crêpes made right in front of you on a hot skillet and served in paper. Deeeeelicious. I mean, the French invented Crêpes what do you expect. Lol

……………you could also garnish with a selection of fruits, or the classic fruit-pancake combo - berries. I chose strawberries

crunchy tips, with the added sweet crunch of sugar. Big smiles all around. Lol

Disclaimer: I feel I have to add this. I will not be responsible for putting your kids into sugar induced high. Lol. Enjoy!!!!

I hope you enjoy your Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast. Bon Appetite……..

The Crabs and King Prawns in my freezer have been calling out loudly for some time now. The last time I cooked crabs was for my seafood Egusi soup (recipe HERE) which I prepared months ago. I have rummaged through my freezer and based on the ingredients I have, two options are standing out, for this weekend’sc ooking. So I’ll like you the readers to please vote for which dish you would like to see the recipe of. Authentic Efo Riro with Soko vegetables (yoruba style vegetable soup) or Ila asepo (yoruba style okro soup). Please vote. The soup with the highest number of votes wins, and you’ll get to see the recipe once I’m done.