I can tell stories for days about Yoyo, oh my!!!!! My mother was very selective about what street food we were allowed to eat, but she had no reservations with Yoyo. Not just for the taste, but for hygienic reasons. We bought Yoyo when it was served straight from the hot oil, so any concerns about food poisoning were eliminated. Oh, Yoyo, oh Yoyo. This minute fish that is dipped in seasoned flour and fried in hot oil. So more-ish. You can eat an entire basket and not realise how much you’ve eaten. Your fingers will just keep going back to the bowl, and going back till it empties. Paired with cold soaked garri, it was one of the things that made me look forward to going shopping with Mummy in Isale Eko (Lagos Island).

I hated those trips, gosh the walking around, going through corners with a human sea of traffic, that would made you stick to Mummy like glue because you were afraid of getting lost. There were no mobile phones then you see, so that fear was real. My mother walked very fast, and with a strong sense of direction, i definitely didn’t inherit that. Don’t pay attention for a second, and you would lose her in the head of the teeming market crowd in Isale Eko. Trying to juggle some bags she made you carry, before we bought things large enough to demand the services of an “alabaru”. Alabaru’s are people who, bless their hearts, for not that much money, they would follow you around the market, relieving you of the burden of carrying heavy bags and bags of goods. Alabaru in Yoruba literally means, someone that helps you with your load. So they would be right behind Mummy, picking up everything that we bought, and carrying it on their heads. Gosh, it used to freak me out, seeing them pile and pile on cartons and cartons of stuff. At the end of your shopping trip, they followed you to the car, to offload, after which they got paid. Mummy always paid them more than they asked for. If we stopped to eat, she would buy them food too. We had our regular “alabaru’s”, who many times I have seen abandon other customers, just to serve “Iya Ola”, because they knew it would be worth their while. My mother shopped for the family in bulk you see, and her mother was one of the largest wholesalers in Nigeria, who had a number of shops in Oke Arin, so Lagos Island was my mother’s play ground. She knew eeeeeeeeverywhere.

One minute she was in front of you, the next minute she has taken a corner, which you didn’t even know existed. She knew her way round like a pro, as I said before, I didn’t inherit that. I still get lost in large shopping centres, and even while driving. If my sat nav was human, it would have abandoned me aaaaages ago, because my penchant for getting lost is legendary. Lol. In the hot sun, buying provisions for the house, what you would normally buy in a supermarket, by mother bought in bulk in markets across Lagos. She knew them all, from Isale Eko, to Balogun, to Gutter – for lace, gold, shoes and bags, to Agege, to Mushin, to Mile 12, my goodness, that woman knew where to get everything in bulk and for cheap, and she dragged me along too, no questions asked. My children don’t know how lucky they will be, we have Costco. Loooool. Anyways, Yoyo was something to look forward to, after walking the length and breadth of Isale Eko. Mummy would stop at the shop of one of her favourite sellers, and we would buy a new plastic container, cold water, and of course Yoyo. She made us wash my hands of course, then we would dig in. Yoyo was sold wrapped in newspaper and packed in a plastic bag. Gosh, the aroma that would hit you when you open the parcel, is something I can never forget till this day. So, when I came across this fish, and best of all I was given free, you can’t imagine how pleased I was to recreate a past food memory. You can read the story of how I got free fish on Instagram

Something to try this weekend. Let’s Cook

Yoyo - The Isale Eko treasure

 

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A bite sized battered fish popularly called Yoyo in Isale Eko.

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks

Culture: Yoruba

You will Need

• Fresh fish - smelt, anchovies
• White flour Flour - or garri for the gluten free version
• Dry pepper - cayenne pepper
• Salt
• Seasoning cube - optional
• Vegetable oil - or your choice of frying oil

How To

1. Rinse the fish after which you pat dry with kitchen paper towel.
2. Prepare the seasonings. I started with Salt and dry pepper .
3. Add white flour to the bowl
4. Or use garri
5. Lay out a wide strip of kitchen paper towel or a dry kitchen tray. Dip the fish into the flour seasoning mix and place on the paper towel. Repeat the process until you have exhausted your fish. . Don't fry immediately. otherwise the flour will slide straight off into the oil. Allow the moisture from the fish to absorb some of the flour, ensuring that the coating will stay intact, to a large extent.
6. While you wait, heat up oil in a pan, enough to deep fry. Once the oil is hot enough, test a batch first with 2 or 3 pieces, to gauge the temperature of the oil. By the time this batch is fried to golden brown, the oil should be hot enough. Fry your Yoyo and serve with Garri and Cold water. Well, I did, you can serve it in a salad, or as a mini burger.

Dooney's Kitchen Tips

Yoyo was always slightly salty, so go a little heavy on the salt. Just a little.
If you are worried about going overboard with the salt, after frying, you can also dust on some extra salt and dry pepper after frying.

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The post Yoyo – The Isale Eko treasure appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

I had such a good day yesterday, which started from sharing a childhood story of my brother, and all the comments that ensued. I was laughing till 12am, I tell you. You guys make Instagram so much fun. You see, I sold my mixer a few weeks ago, because I had a new one in mind. Me and Kenwood, our love is too strong. I bought a mixer last year with baking in mind, but I never baked with it, because the need to, didn’t really awaken in me until one day, a light bulb came on in my head, or should i call it a small still voice that said, you need to get your baking game on strong if you are ever going to make a lasting impact in the food business. Think of your food heroes and heroines, they all bake and cook really well. For some, cooking may be stronger, but they bake too, so you can’t ignore an entire sphere of cooking, just because you haven’t been successful at it. So, I traded up, and sold my Kenwood Chef and bought a Kenwood Chef Titanium which is the top of the range of Kenwood mixers. Taking it a step further, I made sure i got one that has a timer. My problem with baking is sticking to recipes, especially timing. Baking is an exact science. if the recipe says don’t overwork the dough, trust me, it isn’t just fancy English. So now with my mixer that has a timer, if the recipe says whisk for 5 mins, I just set the time and walk away.

Bowl of Gorgeousness

Why the introductory story about a mixer and baking, for a recipe that involves neither, well ever since I bought that mixer, i am now obsessed with attachments, like OMG!!!!, I check Kenwood every day looking for how I can finally utilise this mixer. The previous mixer, the ONLY thing I did with it was use the blender attachment, so basically I was working with an over priced blender. My logic is, the more I use the mixer, the more I can justify the purchase, and the more I will want to use the mixing bowl, to actually bake, or at least make dough related stuff like pasta. I may as well tell you now, that i bought 3 kenwood pasta making attachments, so be prepared to see pasta made with Nigerian flours. Yes, why not, Bean flour pasta for example is a thing, I have seen it. :). So, back to attachments. Anyways, during my search I came across the Kenwood Dicing attachment. I looked at the promotional video and thought OMG!!!!!!, This is a life saver in the Nigerian Kitchen. WHAT!!!!! Fried rice, salads, giz dodo and all the myriad dishes that we include that involve chopping. Next best thing to having a food processor. I bought it from Amazon, stat and tried it out for the first time yesterday. Before I did though, I shared a story from my brother’s childhood antics with plantain. Read about his story, trust me you want to, it is very funny, the comments too, hilarious. Just click on the picture or check it out on my Instagram page. Don’t forget to follow @dooneyskitchen

So, where was I, this nifty little thing almost gave me a heart attack yesterday. I attached it to the mixer and it refused to come on. I watched the video so many times, and I kept wondering what I was doing wrong. I called Kenwood, they had closed, I wanted to call Amazon to lambaste them for selling me a defective gadget, and by some stroke of intuition, to be honest when i think back, it wasn’t me that pushed the knobby base further inward, i swear, it was as if something else was holding my hands, because i had turned that attached section almost 20 times and it didn’t work, suddenly pushed it in further and BOOM!!! it came on. I wanted to scream.

Then I tried the Almighty dodo, and would you believe it, perfect dices.

I love, love, love Salsa, but cripes, the preparation makes me run in the other direction. It is something I order a lot when I go to Mexican restaurants, because i don’t like preparing it myself. Now, I can have Salsa any day of the week I want, even after a long day at work. This time, I decided to make a Naij-Mex, see what I did there, taking a leaf from Tex-Mex. I swapped the avocado for plantain, as they have similar sweetness and softness,and I also decided to add Yaji (suya pepper), to season it. It was so delicious, even my Irish flatmate had a generous portion for dinner. If you are #Team Fitfam, Salsa’s are good for you, and very filling too, no cooking involved, well for this one, you have to grill or fry the plantains. I grilled. To even switch things up a little, the idea was to Redefine the classic “rice and dodo”, so I served the salsa on a bed of rice cakes.

 

Dodo and Suya Salsa - Nigerian/Mexico food fusion

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

A fusion of two cultures known for their bold food flavours. Nigeria and Mexico, combining in this gorgeous healthy bowl of sunshine and yummy stuff that is good for you

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Healthy Nigerian

Culture: Nigerian Food Fusion

Serves: 4

You will Need

• Plantains - 2 at least
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 large cucumber
• 2 pieces of red bell pepper
• 2 pieces of green bell pepper
• 1 piece of Ata rodo (optional) - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
• 1 piece of onion
• 1 piece of Lime
• ½ a lemon
• Salt
• Yaji (suya pepper)

How To

1. If you have the dicing kit, just slice the bulbous ingredients in half, to allow it pass through the chute easily. If you don't have the dicing kit, see the body of the post for a manual option, otherwise get to chopping with a chopping board.
2. Start with the plantain first, so you can grill it in the oven while you are chopping the rest of the ingredients. Dust the diced plantains with a generous helping of Suya Pepper
3. Once the plantains have grilled to brown yumminess, combine with the rest of the ingredients, give it a good sprinkling of suya pepper, and the lemon and lime juice
4. Toss around and taste. If it needs a little more salt, add some salt, and finish off with a sprinkling of chopped parsely.

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The post Dodo and Suya Salsa with Rice Cakes – Nigerian/Mexico food fusion appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Can someone say about time, like seriously, about time. I love, love, love native jollof rice (iwuk edesi). Click HERE for the recipe. There is something about palm oil, crayfish, smoked fish and rice that just works. My grandmother’s smoked fish stew served with plain boiled rice would bring you to your knees. It is a recipe that I will only release in the cookbook. I keep talking about the cookbook a lot now, because I am living proof that when you start to say your thoughts out loud, they manifest faster. So, y’all are going to be hearing about the cookbook from now till I make a big announcement. hehehehehehe.

Notice the earthy colour tones of this rice dish. Proudly Nigerian

Anyways, this recipe came out from the last post on the Salsa. Click HERE. So many of you left comments about how easy making fried rice will be with having the Kenwood Dicing attachment to do all the dicing, and somehow, fried rice just stuck in my mind and I knew i was going to use the leftover salsa to make fried rice. It almost seemed too easy. After my 5K run yesterday, I got home and I was seriously starving, as always. I walked past my packet of Country rice which I bought from the Asian store (which is exactly Ofada rice, I tell you), and I thought hmmmmn Dunni, why don’t you use this rice for fried rice? Eating complex carbs are not advised after a work out, so that takes out white rice, but unpolished rice has far fewer calories and more fibre than white rice, and as soon as my brain locked in on that fact, I decided to go native full on with the fried rice. Let me tell you guys that when I started cooking it, I had no idea what I was going to do next. it all just came to me, and with writing this recipe, I am including a step which I thought of later in hindsight.

There is a certain earthiness about this dish, the colour, the flavour, the aroma, 100% Nigerian. Our fried rice technically isn’t Nigerian, like with dishes from all over the world, we too borrowed it from other cultures. Time we had ours too, don’t you think? Let’s cook

Native Nigerian Fried Rice

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

55 mins

 

A traditional earthy fried rice dish packed full with classic Nigerian flavours

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Rice Dishes

Serves: 3

You will Need

• 1 - 2 cups Ofada rice - depending on the number of people you are cooking for
• 2 handfuls of diced mix veg
• 3 tbs of ground crayfish - or more
• 1 tbs of dry pepper - or more depending on your tolerance for heat
• shredded pieces of smoked crayfish
• ½ cup smoked prawns
• chopped onions
• Salt
• Seasoning cubes
• Beef Stock - optional
• Vegetable oil - or your choice of plain cooking oil

How To

1. Give the rice a good rinse with cold tap water. Proceed to boiling it with salt, beef stock (if you have), smoked fish and smoked prawns. Make sure the quantity of water you use is just enough to almost cook the rice. . I am using the recipe for my mother's fried rice which has gotten great reviews. (click HERE for her recipe). I assure you that this rice on its own will taste so great, you would want to eat it on its own, or pair it with a simple stew. Very earthy and yum.
2. Just before the rice is cooked to the al dente texture, heat up a little oil in a Wok, and add the chopped onions. Let is saute till almost translucent, then sprinkle in ground crayfish and fry it. Frying this crayfish contributes to the end colour of this dish, just the way curry powder contributes to our regular fried rice.
3. Add the diced veg, salt and/or seasoning cube, a sprinkling of dry pepper and let it fry for about 2 minutes tops. . You will soon see that the dry pepper also adds an earthy colour to the veg. Like with mummy's fried rice recipe, don't cook the veggies for too long, so as to keep their integrity.
4. Empty the contents of the rice pot into the wok. mix around with the veggies, to properly incorporate and let them all cook together until the rice is soft enough. You can add a little water to aid in the cooking of the rice, if the grains are still tough. If your rice is too white, i suggest you wait until the rice gets soft before you adjust, because the rice would darken and take on more of the colour of the crayfish and dry pepper as it cooks. If by then you are still not satisfied, then add a little more ground crayfish and dry pepper.
5. Serve hot with your choice of protein. Trust me, your friends and family will empty their plates, sharply

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The post Dooney’s Native Nigerian Fried Rice appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Summer is here and it is here with a bang. For all the days i complained about the cold, now it is too hot. Last week was insane. The hottest July on record. We hit 37 degrees, and while to some that isn’t that hot, for the united kingdom, it is eye watering. Like it wasn’t bad enough, the air was still. I mean no leaves were moving. Like someone said on IG, it felt as if the wind deserted our shores and went on holiday. All my plans to go running last week, i had to shelve. Visions of me probably passing out on the road were swimming in my brain and I thought to myself, Dunni, sit this one out. The fat cells will win this week, you’ll get your revenge, next week. hehehehehehehehe.

When Coca Cola and Yaji come together to make an amazeballs barbecue sauce. Serve with dodo and Yam chips. Oh, it’s time to watermark my pictures. Anywhere you see the “dk” symbol, know it’s my work

I live in a flat with a balcony, and i haven’t done anything much with it but put out patio chairs and air out clothes. It didn’t even cross my mind to barbecue, because you think barbecues, and you think gardens, with people mingling about, definitely not on the tiny balcony of the flat. Well, all that changed when I saw these temporary or should i say instant barbecue’s on someone’s IG page and I thought, oh wow, isn’t that just clever. I definitely have to try that in this weather, before Autumn comes alone and we start whingeing again. Yes, I have become “British” like that. Lol. The stars did align and I saw a video of Coca Cola Chicken on Waitrose’s Instagram page. I had heard about coca cola chicken last year, but it was during winter and I wasn’t inclined to trying it out. With the knowledge of using an instant barbecue, I was definitely ready to try it, and try it i did but with Nigerian flavours. Coca Cola is as Nigerian as it comes, heck we drink gallons of the thing per day in our hot weather.

Don’t worry, your chicken won’t taste like Coke. hahahahahahaha, let me confess now, a part of me was expecting it to. It has this earthy, caramely sticky just absolutely foodtastic taste to it. You have to drop whatever barbecue sauce you have been using in the past and try this one. A crowd pleaser, I tell you. Make sure you save yourself some of the sauce and use it as a dip for chips, yam, dodo (OMG, it is amazing with dodo), and even the chicken you just barbecued. Love, love, love it. I don’t like banding around words like best, but this sauce is pretty spectacular. You know just how Suya and Coca Cola go together like 5 and 6, this will just blow you away.

P.s – I am going on holiday this week, so every day this week you will be getting Summer inspired recipes. Something to try while I am away. Much needed rest, going to pay some of my favourite people a visit and stuff my face. #dooneyskitchensummerrecipes

Coca Cola and Yaji Barbecue Sauce

 

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Prep time

2 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

32 mins

 

A sticky, smoky, earthy barbecue sauce that combines the best parts of reduced cola and the spiciness of Yaji,

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Meat, Fish and Other Poultry

Culture: nigerian

Serves: 5

You will Need

• 750ml of Coca Cola
• 1 tbs of Honey - optional, but it really makes the sauce sticky
• 3 tbs of Yaji (suya spices) - you can add more, but make sure yaji doesn't take over this sauce
• Ata Lilo - tatashe (red bell pepper/romano pepper) and ata rodo (sctoch bonnet/habanero pepper)
• a knob of butter
• two chicken stock cubes
• a pich or two of salt

How To

1. Empty the coca cola into the pot, add the Ata Lilo and stir
2. Add the butter
3. Add the honey
4. Add the Yaji, salt and stock cubes
5. Give the contents a good stir, and let it cook till it reduces. Occasionally give it a stir. It took me less than 30mins from start to finish.
6. You want to let this reduce until it coats the back of a spoon
7. Not too thick, because you are going to use it to marinade the chicken, and you would want it to penetrate the flesh.
8. Also, not too watery because it is a sticky sauce that should cover the chicken while it grills and not spill unto the hot coals below.

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The post Coca Cola and Yaji Barbecue Sauce appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Edesi is to the Efik people, what Iresi is to the Yoruba’s. They both mean rice. Isn’t that interesting how languages can be so familiar? Well, coconut is called Agbon in Yoruba, but Isip in Efik, not even close. hehehehehee. So, you can guess the gist of this introduction, if you didn’t already guess it from the title. Lol. Edesi Isip is coconut rice, but not your average coconut rice, but the Efik version. I promise you, this dish would knock your socks off. You’ve cooked coconut rice multiple times, I even have two recipes on the blog, One a Thai Inspired Coconut rice (recipe HERE) and Coconut Jollof Rice (recipe HERE).

Whilst this dish is epic on its own, because of the flavour of the goat meat, what takes it to super stratospheric levels, is a tip I picked up from one of the best chef’s in Australia, courtesy my new favourite tv guilty pleasure, “My Kitchen Rules”. That show is like going to cooking school from the comfort of your sofa. You learn a lot in just one episode. From cooking techniques like Sous Vide, and Confit, to how to cook meat and seafood, and so much more. I don’t watch anything else on my laptop now but this show. Anyways, one of the signature ingredients for a dish was coconut and the one of the teams made a goat curry. Anyone would immediately tell you that the flavour of goat is waaaaaaay stronger than coconut, so of course, the challenge was to cook something with coconut and the judges complained that they couldn’t taste the coconut instead but the goat, and though the curry was delicious, the team didn’t meet the brief. I sat down there thinking, oh dear, this is so apt. Nigerians cook with coconut a lot, from coconut rice to coconut fried rice to coconut jollof rice, and let me tell you now, 9 out of 10 times, you won’t taste that coconut. You would smell it though, but not taste it as much. The only Nigerian dish where you can taste the coconut is Tapioca, and you know why???? Tapioca itself is a pretty bland cereal, so it takes on the taste of whatever liquid you cook it with. The other coconut and rice dishes on the other hand, because of ALL the myriad ingredients, especially the spices that we add to the rice, decimate the delicate flavour of coconut, leaving it as an after taste, instead of the main player.

So, I sat down there, thinking to myself, as i always do when i watch the show. I imagine what i would have done differently if i was on the show, but for this one, I had no clue. All that changed until one of the chef’s said, when cooking with coconut milk in a savoury dish, start with coconut milk to develop the flavour profile and end with coconut milk to keep the flavour. He then said, if you don’t want to dilute the consistency of your curry, especially when it is perfect and adding coconut milk will make it watery, use coconut cream. It won’t affect the consistency, but will remarkably improve the coconut flavour. I sat up sharply and thought WAIT, WHAT!!!!! Now, why didn’t that occur to me since. Oh wow!!!! You see those fancy chefs, know their onions, because i tried it out with this recipe and I almost screamed. When the rice grains were soft, the intense taste of the coconut, hit my palate so intensely, it was the best coconut and rice dish i have ever cooked. I kept shaking my head thinking, wow, are you kidding me. This is why you should watch MKR. The nifty tips you get from watching the contestants cook, the judges when they critic the teams dishes, and the guest judges too (some of the best chef’s in Australia). I have learnt so much just from watching the show, it is like packing years of experience and years of tutelage into one TV programme. I could have kept this tip to myself to use for the people i cook for, but I thought you know what Dooney, you are not the only one that would have seen that episode, but you are a conduit for disseminating information regarding Nigerian food. So, here you go people, a change is coming to how you cook Coconut Rice. The local flavours in this Efik version is better than the cosmopolitan curry, thyme, etc that we use for other coconut rice dishes. You can take that to the bank!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s Cook

Edesi Isip - Efik Coconut Rice

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

 

An earthy locally flavoured coconut rice signature to the Efik people. High notes of smokey flavour from the crayfish, smoked fish and the likes, in combination with the sweet creamy taste of Coconut milk

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Rice Dishes

Culture: Efik

Serves: 5

You will Need

• Goat Meat
• Chopped onions
• Dry pepper - quantity will be based on your tolerance for heat
• 2 - 3 cans of Coconut milk - depending on how much rice you are cooking with
• 2 - 3 cups of long grain rice - or more
• 1 cooking spoon of crayfish
• 1 small cup of smoked red prawns
• 1 handful of flaked smoked fish
• Salt
• stock cubes - optional
• chopped spring onions for colour - optional
• chopped chilli also for colour - optional

How To

1. Rinse your goat meat, add water to the pot and season with salt, stock cube, chopped onions and a little dry pepper. The stock you get from this is AMAZEBALLS!!!!!! Make sure you boil with enough water.
2. When you have the goat thoroughly cooked, rinse the starch out of your rice till the water becomes clear, add this washed rice to the pot containing the stock. Open two cans of coconut milk and add to the rice.
3. Place the pot on the heat, add ground crayfish, the smoked prawns, and the smoked fish. Dooney's Kitchen Tip: I cook with well dried out smoked fish, which needs to cook in liquid for a while. If you are cooking with the softer variety of smoked fish, then add it towards the end so it still holds its shape and integrity when you stir.
4. With all your ingredients now in the pot, taste the liquid in the pot and season with salt and stock cubes if you wish. The addition of the crayfish will give the rice a little earthy brown colour
5. Add chopped spring onions and chilli. This isn't traditional, but i like to add these two ingredients to coconut rice for a pop of colour. Just to make the dish look pretty and not beige. I also use them to garnish
6. Allow the rice to cook till it is almost dry. Taste it at this point, the grains should still be a little tough. Now, this is where the Australian Chef's advice comes in. Empty another can of coconut milk into the pot and stir. . Get out a large piece of foil, place over the rice and tuck around the edges sealing it tightly, then cover the pot. This basically locks the steam in the pot, and also locks in the flavour of the coconut. Allow the rice to cook undisturbed, and only open the pot after sufficient time, when you think the rice should have cooked through. For even more intense flavour, let it burn a little. The burnt bits will introduce some smokey flavour as well as caramelisation of the milk. So, so yum.
7. I had planned to make a simple coconut curry like sauce to serve with the rice, but by the time i was done cooking, and eating 6 portions of this coconut rice, i decided to add the goat meat to the rice and let it steam with it. It still tasted yum, but now i can't get the idea of goat curry out of my head and i am going to have to make some soon. Lol

Dooney's Kitchen Tips

If you are afraid that the rice will be soggy, if the grains have almost cooked through and adding more liquid may turn out disastrous, back to the Chef's advice, use Coconut Cream instead. Same effect. I wouldn't worry about sogginess if i were you though, because i personally prefer coconut rice to be a little clumpy, because of the fatty content of the coconut milk, it will clump the rice a little, and i just enjoy that rich creamy taste, but it is up to you.

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The post Edesi Isip – Efik Coconut Rice appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Take a few seconds to read that and breathe afterwards. If you speak Hausa or are familiar with Northern dishes, you would stop and think, huh Dunni, which soup is that one o, i haven’t heard that one before. Don’t worry, you truly haven’t heard that one before, because it is a new soup that I concocted in my Kitchen. I recently made Nono, yes the Nono from Fura da Nono. Two kind northern ladies gave me the recipe, and I am still tweaking to my taste and will release the recipe later, but the basic gist that you need is powdered milk, plain natural yoghurt and hot water. Leave to ferment for 24 hours like they said but i found that it tasted better after 48 hours. That is your crash course in Nono. To make this dish though, all you need is just plain natural yoghurt. Oops, I haven’t yet told you the english translation of this dish. Miyan Nama Akuya da Nono simply means; Goat and Nono curry. I used the word miyan here because curry doesn’t have a hausa translation and since miyan means soup in hausa, it is appropriate. I will be releasing a proper recipe for Nono soon. I have tried it once and it turned out great but slightly watery, so i want to do it again and be sure i will get it right, as my recipes are fool-proof and I would like to keep that standard.

From the crevices of my functionally cray cray brain, a new dish has been born. From a girl who has not a drop of northern blood in her, the farthest I have ever gone up North is Abuja, but I am sooooo pleased how this one turned out. When your Aunty leaves the table for another helping and your flatmate goes, I know it is probably spicy, but can I have some of that. You know you’ve done something right. Even before I was done eating, my brain had already started turning thinking about how to refine this dish and make it even more Northern. The tangy sour taste reminded me of Tsamiya (tamarind) and I kept wondering if that would work.

By some weird coincidence, I changed the channel to BBC Good Food last night and there was Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey. What was he talking about? Curries. I thought to myself, now, just look at that. It gets even better. He made a Beef Rendang, and what did he add to the curry that startled me; Tamarind. He used Coconut milk, but some beef rendang recipes also use Yogurt for extra sourness. My foodie guardian angels must have been laughing their asses off. “When your need is greatest, help is nearest to you”. So, there’s my answer. For the 2.0 version of this dish, I will be adding even more Nigerian flavours, most likely throwing out the mixed veg, replacing it with smoked fish and prawns so the soup can be eaten with soup staples like tuwon Shinkafa, Masara or even Pounded yam.

Go tell it on the mountains, a new Northern Nigerian dish has arrived

Miyan Nama Akuya da Nono

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

50 mins

 

A tangy creamy goat and yoghurt curry that is a perfect accompaniment for rice dishes, yam dishes and plantains. A fusion of Northern Nigerian and Keralan Indian flavours

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Traditional Nigerian Soups

Culture: Hausa

Serves: 4

You will Need

• Goat Meat
• Nono - substitute with natural yoghurt
• Dry Pepper - cayenne pepper
• Salt
• Coconut oil - or vegetable oil
• Chopped fresh chili or bell peppers if you don't want the dish to be too spicy
• fresh prawns - optional
• Seasoning cubes
• Goat Meat stock
• Chopped onions
• Mixed veg - carrots, runner beas, peas, sweetcorn, etc
• Spices - you can use a combination of curry powder and white pepper with some ground uziza seeds. Or you can do like i did and use a Keralan coconut curry paste. I used the brand by Anjum Anand (relevant if you live in the UK)

How To

1. Boil the goat meat with dry pepper, chopped onions, salt and stock cubes. Make sure you boil with enough water, so that you get a decent quantity of stock.
2. In a deep saucepan, heat up a heaped spoon of coconut oil lightly,
3. and then add the chopped chilli, onions and spring onions
4. Add the fresh prawns, if you are using them. Season these with salt and seasoning cubes. if you are using curry powder and white pepper, this is a good place to add about half the quantity you intend to use.. Once the prawns turn pink, take them out of the pan, leaving the vegetables.
5. Pour in the cooked goat meat with the stock into the pan, add the rest of the spices, or the curry paste if that is what you are using, and let it come to a boil. Add the natural yohurt and sitr quickly, so it doesn't form lumps . Start with a cooking spoonful worth and then work your way up if you need more. The yoghurt is to thicken and at the same time flavour this dish. Add your fresh chopped mixed veg. When the yoghurt has fully dissolved, your curry will start to form. Taste the curry, and re-season if you need to. Because of the yoghurt, you are likely to use a little extra salt and stock cube to balance out the sourness.
6. Lower the heat to allow the flavours develop more and also for the curry to thicken . You should also re-introduce the prawns back into the pan to allow them absorb the flavours of the curry. You should start to notice a yellow, or should i say mustard colour to your curry.
7. The longer it cooks on low heat, the thicker and richer your curry gets.
8. You have two options with this curry in terms of consistency. You can take it off the heat quickly and get this
9. Or you leave it for longer to thicken and get this The choice is yours.

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The post Miyan Nama Akuya da Nono appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Let me start by saying, YOU WILL NOT FIND THIS RECIPE ANYWHERE!!!! Hahahahaha, I’m just being cheeky. My apologies for being away from posting recipes for over two weeks now, but what’s the best way to come back than to put up a recipe that you will not find online anywhere. Lol. Akara Osu holds many fond memories for a lot of us. It is the kind of Akara that isn’t commonly sold and mostly found in certain select areas in Lagos, mostly in the inner suburbs, and on the side of the expressway in the Ife area. Akara Osu is from the people of a small village Osu, in Osun State. It is also called Akara Kengbe. Some people call it Akara Elepo, but technically, Palm oil isn’t the only thing that makes this Akara all shades of awesome. Its amazing texture and taste starts waaaaaaaay before frying.

I have seen requests for this recipe for a while and why it never occurred to me to ask my mother, I don’t know. Akara wasn’t even on the plan on Sunday. I wanted to make Ojojo (water yam fritters, recipe HERE) for dinner, only to realise at the last minute that my water yam had gone bad from summer heat. Still craving something savoury and deep fried, i decided on Akara. I was on the phone with my mum, now that she has discovered the Whatsapp calling feature, we now have 3, sometime 4 hour gistathons. Thank goodness for Wifi. Lol. Anyways, for some reason, i remembered Akara Osu and I asked “Iya Ola, do you have a recipe”, she said sure and the next thing she said which resulted in a funny conversation which I put up on Instagram yesterday.

Here goes the conversation between Big Oladunni and Small Oladunni:

Small Dunni: Iya Ola, my water yam has gone bad, Ojojo off the menu for dinner, I am craving something deep fried, so I will make Akara. I need the recipe for Akara Osu.
Big Dunni: ah, if only you had a grinding stone, you would have loved it, in fact Iyenekere used to make one that will almost make you bite your fingers.
Me: wait, what!!!!! Grinding stone ke, Mummy are you kidding me.
Big Dunni: Yes now, to make Akara Osu properly, you need to get the beans in paste form. The second you add water in a blender, you have missed it.
Me: errr, there has to be a way round it. I am never using a grinding stone
Big Dunni: manage the blender like that, when next I come I will bring you a grinding stone and teach you how to use it for beans & pepper. Your Father didn’t let me teach you.
Me: (thank you Daddy), teach me how to use a grinding stone, Mummy, you do realise what I do right? My readers would faint.
Big Dunni: ehn, that doesn’t mean you still can’t learn now, you will teach them too
Me: . You are on your own o, bring grinding stone all the way from Lagos, do you know how much it weighs
Big Dunni: ehn, I will pay for an extra box. That grinding stone tastes sweeter, you have to taste it to believe
Me: Mummy, the stone doesn’t add flavour oooo. I have this argument all the time with people.
She didn’t agree. So, I am throwing open, do you guys want to learn how to grind beans and pepper with the stone, because my mother has grand ideas of teaching . Why it never occurred to me to use a food processor to blend beans for Akara, I don’t know. I didn’t use a single drop of water, and it blended it into paste form. It even looks like the same one from a grinding stone.

Ditch the blender forAkara .#theNewNigerianCookery.

But wait, do some of you truly believe that the grinding stone tastes sweeter? Hooow?

Anyways, the conversation continued, 

Me: So, once I have the beans paste, I should whip air into it, right.
Big Dunni: oh yes, use the omorogun and stir in circular motions in one direction, but you already know that now.
Me: ah yes, I just wanted to be sure, because Akara Osu is slightly denser than regular Akara
Big Dunni: yes it is, but it is light at the same time, so you have to find a balance, because you don’t want to be eating Buns
Me: okay mummy, nodding my head. I didn’t even bother arguing. Omorogun ko, I love you Mummy, but little does she know about the #deathtoOmorugun hashtag. 

7 minutes in a mixer, “I made the fluffiest Akara Osu in history” . The food processor  peeled the beans (see how to HERE or to use a blender, click HERE), blended the beans and whisked air into it. #zeroeffort#theNewNigerianCookery #aintnobodygottimeforkitchenslavery. Beht, see the texture of that paste now, looks like buttercream

So Tribe, this is how you become a kitchen gangster. Imagine Akara for dinner on a work night. No stress at all.

The conversation continued, and she was telling me that, for Akara Osu, you don’t chop the pepper like you would for regular akara. You are also supposed to grind it into a thick, rough paste. Then she continued again, stressing that I needed the grinding stone. I didn’t even argue this time. Yes, Mummy. Lol. Not using a single drop of water is the key to getting Akara Osu right. Of course trust Mummy to give me the 411. Apparently, even the kind of pan you use for frying is also essential. She said, don’t use a frying pan, use something that will give you proper deep frying. While she was talking, I kept remembering the “Agbari Ojukwu” pans the Iya Alase’s (commercial cooks) used for our family parties. it is also the same kind of wide round pan that sits on top of burning wood embers that is used for Akara Osu. The closest thing I have at home is a Wok, of which I told my brother to Google it and show it to Mummy if that will work. She said, yes, yes, that will work. It didn’t stop there.

She also told me that there is a method for scooping the bean paste into the hot oil. Her words “don’t use a spoon o”, use your hands, and scoop the paste towards you, and cup your palm to mimic a spoon and then pour into the hot oil. She ended with, watch your fingers, and she very well should because on my brother 5th birthday, i landed in the hospital, because i was scooping chin chin into the oil with my hand and accidentally dipped my hands lower than i planned straight into the hot oil. I can still remember the pain till today. The skin on the four fingers of my right hand peeled instantly, gosh the pain, the swelling afterwards, the blisters. Sorry to gross you out, but I have to WARN YOU. If you don’t feel comfortable using your hand, please use a spoon.

Go tell it on the mountains, you can now recreate the Akara Osu experience in the comfort of your homes. I am sure many of you haven’t tasted it in years. Well, now you can have it on the menu as often as you want. Let’s Cook

Akara Osu

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

A super crunchy, ball of fried beans fritters that holds special nostalgic memories of road trips.

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Beans

Culture: Yoruba

Serves: 2

You will Need

• 2 cups of peeled beans
• half an onion
• 1 piece of tatashe - bell pepper
• 1 - 2 pieces of ata rodo - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper/ chili - depending on your tolerance
• Salt - my mum said, don't use seasoning cubes
• Crayfish - optional
• Palm oil - for deep frying

How To

1. When you have finished peeling the beans, I suggest that you leave it to soak for a while to allow it get soft enough to be blended without water.
2. Attach the knife blade to your food processor and pour in the beans
3. Turn the dial to maximum and blend the beans until it forms a paste. You want it to be smooth, but not too smooth i.e. the beans would not be grainy, but in paste form, just as you would with a grinding stone. See pictures:
4. With your bean paste ready, now blend the pepper. Again, no water, again, you want a rough chop. Rough enough that some of the natural water content of the pepper will make it form a paste too, but you will still be able to see slivers of the components
5. Heat up enough palm oil in your Wok. While you whip air into the bean paste, the oil will be warming up ready for deep frying immediately.
6. Transfer the bean paste into a stand mixer, attach the balloon whisk and let the engine run for 5 - 7 minutes. You will see the bean paste more than double if not triple in size and it becomes so light, it resembles butter cream. If you don't have a stand or hand mixer, use the whisk attachment of your food processor. if you don't have that too, I'm afraid, it is the "omorogun" for you. Stir in circular motions in one direction only until the paste is fluffy.
7. Add about 4 tablespoons of the pepper paste
8. Whisk again for another minute or two to incorporate.
9. Your end result will be a light peach looking paste, almost like moin moin. You know you don't get this with regular akara. With regular akara, you get a colour contrast of the white bean paste and then flecks of chopped chili and onion. Not the same for Akara Osu
10. Scoop with your hands or a spoon into the now hot oil. Always remember to do a tester, to check if the oil is hot enough, before frying a batch. . Only when the oil is hot enough do you add salt, because salt leaches out water, and if you leave the paste salted waiting for the oil to get hot, water will start to leach out and make the paste heavy. All that air you whisked in will collapse, and your akara will be dense and have a funny shape. Trust me, it happened to me, because i was taking pictures of batch 1, by the time i was ready for batch 2, what i just warned you about happened.
11. Salt to your taste, then fry. If your bean paste is fluffy enough, it won't even sink into the oil. It will float immediately. This ensures that the akara doesn't absorb too much oil at all.
12. Fry as many batches as your bean paste can provide. If you followed the recipe closely, you should get the signature texture and crunch of Akara Osu. This was my very first time and I nailed it. You would too

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I don’t know about you, but these little crumbs caused so many fights in my house. . Amongst my siblings, cousins and family friends. We used to stand by the kitchen, watching as the Akara bowl was emptying, so we could scramble for the crumbs at the bottom of the bowl. Oh, the fights that my Mum had to separate because of these tiny crunchy pieces, . Sometimes we used to count them and share amongst us. We the older ones, used it to our advantage. A cousin once dipped his hand in the bowl, threw the crumbs in his mouth and ran, while we were still arguing. We ran after him ehn, threatening. Oh gosh, the memories of erunrun Akara

The post Akara Osu appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

I have received product from Oreo for this post. It is an entry to the Foodies100 Wonderfilled recipe challenge sponsored by Oreo, which marks the launch of two exciting new flavours: Peanut Butter and Golden. The delicious new flavours are available in all major supermarkets at an RRP of £1.08.

So, I received an email from Oreo asking if I wanted to try their two new flavours launching in the UK market and participate in the Oreo Challenge. Goodness me, my eyes popped out from my skull when I read that email and almost had a heart attack. Wait, what, they know who I am, they know about Dooney’s Kitchen, huh, whaaaaaaaaat. I almost fell like rushing out of where I was and screaming. Lindy who contacted me was such a nice lady. I wrote back and said thank you very much for the offer but just to check in, I am a Nigerian food blogger, and you should be expecting me to work with these Oreos applying a Nigerian food twist. She wrote back and said sure, actually we are excited to see the African twist you would add to our products. Oh wow, really!!!!! Are you kidding me? Then I went to ask again how she found me, and she sent me a link to a site showing the rankings of top food bloggers in the UK. Dooney’s Kitchen came up as number 28, and wait for it, the only African food blog in the top 50. Like seriously, my day went straight uphill from there.

When the package arrived, I still didn’t know what I was going to do with it. The Oreo Challenge closes today and I kept ruminating the idea in my head. Funny enough, the day the package arrived, I was eating a packet of plantain chips and cooking. I looked at the Oreos and thought, wait a minute, what if I combine Plantain with Oreos. How I was going to do it, I didn’t know. I asked a friend and she said, Dunni, I don’t think it is going to work. her daughter and another friend who could overhear the conversation at the other end, said the same thing. The thing about me is, it is when you tell me something can’t work that I go ahead and prove you wrong. I am the type that doesn’t really listen to dissenting voices if i have an idea in my head, because it is my vision and not the other person’s, so if they don’t get it, it is up to me to bring that vision to life and ensure that they get it.

I kept munching on plantain chips and the Oreos peanut butter flavour at the same time, and gosh, the flavours made a whole lot of sense. The plantain chips brought another dimension of sweetness and saltiness to the Oreos, and the peanut butter just completed the marriage in taste heaven. OMG!!!!! I am going to do this, I kept telling myself. I am going to do this. I was especially happy with using Plantain because it is something I had NEVER seen anyone use before. trust me, I did an extensive Google search, not just that, this recipe will appeal to Africans, as wait for it, Oreos biscuits are snacks, and Africans loooove snacking on Plantain, so it is two for two. Beyond the shores of Africa, in the Caribbean and all across the Islands, plantain snacks are common, even beyond that to South America, plantains are commonly used as snacks. So, this is a truly global multi cultural way of using Plantains and Oreos Peanut butter cookies in one recipe. BOOM!!!!! There was no changing my mind from there. I truly had my answer. I was going to make Mosa (fried pureed plantain balls) and add Oreos to it, which would melt in the hot oil, to form a gooey centre but still be crunchy at the same time. Like a Beignet or a Bofrot or Tatale, or Zippole but with Plantains instead of flour. I imagine it to be quite yummy, it surpassed my expectations. You NEED TO TRY THIS. Like seriously, head to the nearest supermarket and buy these Oreos. These balls are sweet, spicy, crunchy, gooey and veeeeeery Nigerian too.

When I fried the first batch, it finished before i remembered I needed to photograph it. They were that good. I wanted a more defined uniform shape, so I decided to use the Cake Pops maker to achieve that. From the shores of Africa, to The Caribbean and South America, I present you Plantain Oreo Balls. The Nigerian term for it would be Oreo Mosa. Let’s Cook

Peanut Butter Oreos Plantain balls

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

A delicious multi cultural marriage of Oreos and Plantains, that is soft, gooey in the medium, sweet, salty and crunchy.

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks

Culture: Nigerian Food Fusion

Serves: 10 - 12 balls

You will Need

• 1 - 2 over ripe plantains
• 6 - 8 pieces of Oreos peanut butter flavour
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of cayenne pepper - dry pepper
• A pinch or two of grated nutmeg
• 6 - 7 teaspoons of self raising flour

How To

1. Crush the Oreos biscuits in a food processor,
2. or you can place in a freezer bag and whack with a rolling pin
3. Puree the over ripe plantains until smooth. You don't need to add water. You can whisk for extra fluffiness if you wish. I let my electric whisk run for about 2 minutes, to get the pureed plantains to be very light.
4. Season with salt, grated nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and stir in the flour until well combined. P.S - you don't need to add any sugar as the over ripe plantains and the oreos biscuits are sufficiently sweet.
5. Fold in the chunks of Oreos.. Note, you would want a combination of slightly big and slightly small chunks. The small chunks will melt during cooking to achieve a gooey centre, whilst the bigger chunks, some of it would melt, but the rest will provide the signature Oreo crunch that many of us love and associate with Oreos. I even added a few extra bits of oreo just for luck
6. Your batter should look like this. See the small and big chunks?
7. You can choose to deep fry the batter to get fritters
8. or go even further, if you want well defined, uniform balls, use a cake pops maker.
9. This is so simple to make and so yum, kids and adults alike would love, love, love it.

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Slather on some of the oreos peanut butter filling and double yum

I have read some of your comments on the teaser post on Instagram and suggestions to try this with Akara (fried beans fritters), I really can’t wait to try. That would be deliciously mental. Lol

The post Peanut Butter Oreo Plantain balls – mosa meets oreo appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

So, a few months ago, Waitrose announced the #TasteofSummer competition and the rules were, simply tag pictures of your food with that hashtag for a chance to win 3 prizes. One of which was a barbecue with Heston Blumenthal himself, the other was an evening at their cookery school for a cocktails and party bites course, the last was a garden party hosted for you by Waitrose. Y’all know what prize I would have immediately jumped at, but I didn’t think I would win anything. I have been told repeatedly to have more confidence and faith in what I do. I am getting there, I promise. These past few weeks, from Wayfair, to Buzzfeed, to Oreo, to Aduna, to LazyCook, to Waitrose, did I tell you ASDA sent me their products to try, so did Haagen Dazs, yes you read that correctly. All these major brands know about Dooney’s Kitchen. I still can’t wrap my head around it. The movement is in action. Thank you Lord for Grace and Favour.

Anyways, I was tagged on Instagram by Waitrose, saying I won the cookery course. Geez, I almost jumped out of my chair. I mean, I used the hashtag on NIGERIAN dishes, albeit the fusion ones. Posts like Jollof Risotto, Garri Lemonade, Ogi Popsicles and so on. OMG, I couldn’t believe it. Of all the thousands and I mean thousands of entries, go check that hashtag for yourself on Facebook and Instagram, I was selected as one of the winners. Yaaaaaaay.

The course was to hold in groups of two, so I was allowed to bring one person. For sure, it had to be from my IG followers. The support I have received on Instagram is like nothing I have ever seen before. You guys on there have been like a family of brothers, sisters and cousins that I have never met. So, I simply asked that if anyone could be available on Thursday Aug 13th, they should send me a direct message. Oh wow, the messages came flying in, I didn’t even know how to choose, so my intuition told me to pick the very first person, and that is how I met Tope of @teelonis. When I think of it now, our paths were definitely meant to cross. She herself didn’t think she was going to win, because she said she has never won anything in her life before. We met and hit it off, straight away. We even have someone we have worked for in common. She runs a bespoke gift service, where you tell her about the person you are gifting and she picks out something they will appreciate, complete with cake too. Check her out on Instagram.

Anyways, the waitrose cookery school is a joy to behold. OMG, the cooking space, the decor of the building, gosh it made me hope, it made me pray, it made me wish. I will have a Dooney’s Kitchen Cookery School like that and even better in the future by His Grace. Shall the Tribe say a resounding AMEN!!!

Tope and I had quite the day, making Cocktails,

in her case mocktails

….and some delicious food. I have to bring you guys the recipe for that chicken. Goodness me, I wanted to eat the plate too. Lol

The next thing we had to make was Arancini. You guys, I have seen this thing being made on TV, from cooking shows to cooking competitions, and not once did it occur to me to make it Nigerian, like not once. Even while watching the instructor show us how it was done, it didn’t click until it got to the time to make it ourselves and it was as if a light bulb went on in my head. Of course, OMG, why hasn’t that ever occurred to me before.

Here’s the one we made at the cookery school

here’s the one i made at home. I aced it right?

before we started cooking, we asked for chili powder and crushed chilies. As Nigerian women, we just had to ask for pepper. hehehehehehe. This gave me the idea to use Yaji (suya pepper), when i recreated it at home.

I kept telling Tope that I was going to make this Nigerian. I mean, I made a successful Jollof Risotto, surely I can make Jollof Arancini too. The idea locked in my head since Thursday night, and I only tried it this very early morning.

Poor Tope, I called her very early this morning to ask if we used flour, because all i could remember were breadcrumbs and egg. She said, “yes I think we did, isn’t the recipe in the folder they gave us to take home”? Hand on forehead, of course it is. Oops, sorry i called you this early, bye bye. Lol. Little does she know that she has been inducted into the Dunni’s friends hall of fame. hahahahahaha. My proper friends already know me. They are the ones i call at odd hours to talk about food. Lol

Quick rush to get the folder, confirmed how I was going to do it, and BOOM!!! It worked. Let’s cook

Jollof Arancini

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

Deep fried jollof rice balls. Nigeria's answer to the Italian Arancini (deep fried risotto balls)

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Rice Dishes

Culture: Nigerian food fusion

Serves: 2

You will Need

• Jollof rice - preferably leftovers
• 1 egg
• Salt
• Yaji - suya pepper
• Panko breadcrumbs - best because of its shaggy texture
• Plain flour
• dodo or fried meat - or any filling of your choice
• Crushed chilies - flaky dried pepper

How To

1. Jollof rice in its natural state would not work for this, because the sticky nature of a risotto allows it to be easily moulded into a ball, so you would need the jollof rice to be soggy, and cool down in its soggy nature, making it easily workable.
2. Heat up enough oil to deep fry on low to medium heat, so that by the time the balls are ready, the oil will be hot enough
3. Get three bowls and place on your kitchen counter to form a work station of sorts. In one bowl beat an egg and season with salt, in the other bowl add some flour and yaji (suya pepper) to season, while in the third bowl add the panko breadcrumbs and crushed chilies. Here's a pic of Panko breadcrumbs look like.
4. Scoop some jollof rice with your fingers and flatten/pat down with the tip of your fingers. Place your filling on top of the rice, in this case, fried meat
5. Scoop out more jollof rice with your fingers and mould around the meat till you get a well defined ball.
6. Repeat the process until you exhaust all the jollof rice
7. Dip that ball in flour to coat. This will absorb some of the moisture
8. Shake off any excess flour, and then dip in the beaten eggs
9. Again, shake off any excess egg then finally dip into the breadcrumbs, make sure the ball is properly coated
10. Then place on a plate.
11. Repeat the process
12. By now, the oil should be hot enough. I would suggest that you fry one first to test out the temperature of the oil, and to be sure your balls have integrity
13. Once it works, you are good to go
14. Fry the rest
15. Very easy

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Dooney’s Kitchen Tribe, its slogan is of course, connecting people, through food.

You can try to make Arancini from fried rice too, or even Ofada. Get creative, and don’t forget to share and tag @dooneyskitchen. I would love to see your creations

The post Jollof Arancini – an evening at the Waitrose Cookery School appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Going along to the market with my mother and grandmothers, I learnt to be very friendly with market stall owners, and it was on a visit to white sands market last year that I discovered Ukpo.

I already knew about thickeners like Achi and Ofor (even though I am yet to cook with Ofor), but Ukpo was strange to me. The lady, a Delta woman (who gave me the best peppersoup spice mix i have ever used), said “ah sister, you don’t know about Ukpo, it is very good for soup, Igbo and Calabar people use it”. I was already intrigued. She then went on to say that while Ukpo can be used as a thickener for a variety of Igbo soups, for calabar people, they have a soup on its own, cooked with ukpo and then a little Uziza. She said I should think of it like the Calabar version of Native soup, of which she quickly asked me if I knew about Native Soup. I asked why won’t I know, you look surprised. Her response was funny – ah sister, you know you are one of those ajebutter women and most of them don’t know how to cook, they are always eating outside, including bringing soup from outside for their husbands”. I told her to not make those kinds of generalisations, this “ajebutter”, can cook very well. Then I started reeling out the dishes I knew how to cook, where my father was from and the second I mentioned Delta, she hugged me and said her village is very close to my father’s village, I am family. She warmed up to me immediately, and told me more stuff. She went further to show me even more thickeners and gave quick recipes for them. She gave me an Egusi recipe that I use till date. If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen my Egusi soup, both in pictures and videos. I have been making pretty amazing Egusi soup since then. I am not sharing that recipe, sorry. Looooool.

The few hours I spent with her, felt like attending a spice and Nigerian ingredient master class. She just did not stop talking, and I just let her, making notes and trying to remember as much as I could. It was from her that I discovered that the peppersoup spice mix for fish is different for that of meat. She would point at items on her stall and say sister, do you know this, if I said no, she would quickly go into details about the ingredient and what it is used for. My mum just sat far away and let us talk. That woman is an asset, and one I intend to use in the nearest future. Don’t ask me for her name or her number. If I tell you, I definitely would have to kill you. hahahahahahaha.

In my head, I stored the information as Ukpo, until doing some research, I came across the Efik term, Ibaba. Efere means soup in Efik, hence the name of this dish. Efere Ibaba. Like the woman in the market said, Ibaba in food terms is THE star of the dish.I had forgotten I had this thickener at home until I went hunting for my Ofor in the place where I keep all my thickeners. A request was made for native soup to be thickened with Ofor, and I came across my Ibaba in a bag, all still wrapped neatly and labelled, and I smiled. I woke up very early this morning to cook it, put my own spin on it using palm nut cream instead of palm oil and BOOM!!!!!! Absolutely gorgeous dish. I looooooove the pale mustardy colour, the taste too, Ibaba is very earthy and slightly pungent. Its earthy flavour pairs very well with the aromatic scent of Uyayak, oh me and my love for Efik dishes. Lol.

I forgot to take a picture of the Ibaba seeds. Here it is below. The black ones at the top. The ones below are Ofor chunks. Both are ground into a powder.

Time to update your food repertoire with this dish. Lets Cook

Efere Ibaba (Ibaba Soup)

 

Save Print

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

 

A native soup of the Efik people, pale and mustardy with distinctive earthy and aromatic flavours from the seeds of the Ibaba plant and the fruit of the Aidan Tree

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Traditional Nigerian Soups

Culture: Efik

Serves: 1 medium pot

You will Need

• Goat Meat
• Stockfish
• Smoked fish
• Palm oil - or palm fruit extract
• Salt
• Dry pepper
• Fresh pepper
• Etinkirin leaves - Uziza
• Smoked red prawns
• Ground Ibaba powder - Ukpo
• 1 piece of Uyayak - aidan fruit
• Seasoning Cubes
• Ground crayfish

How To

1. Season and boil your meats till tender. With the meats almost cooked through, add dry pepper, stockfish, smoked fish, smoked prawns and the Uyayak, to infuse flavour into the stock. This will also soften the fish variants. The picture for Uyayak can be found HERE
2. Add palm extract to the stock. I used about 4 tablespoons, but in hindsight, I should have used less. The extract made the soup slightly darker than I would have liked, so use about half of that or 1 and a half cooking spoons of palm oil.
3. Allow the palm extract or the palm oil cook properly in the stock, to be well incorporated.Taste the stock and be sure you are happy with it. .
4. Now, you need to add the Ibaba powder and stir it in.
5. A tip I use with Achi is to add a little ground crayfish with the powder. This helps it to not form lumps in the soup, I decided to do the same with Ibaba.
6. Add about 2 tablespoonfuls of this and stir quickly. Dooney's Kitchen Tip: It will not thicken immediately, so don't be tempted to add more, or you will end up with a globby mess. Give it a minute or two, and you will notice that the soup is considerably thicker. You should only add more of the thickener, if the soup is still watery, and again, go in easy. Start with half a tablespoon and progress from there.
7. With the soup thickened to your preference, add some extra ground crayfish, lower the heat to allow the flavours to develop. Once you are happy with it, add in some chopped uziza, and if you are like me, that likes some pop of colour in your soup, plus extra heat, add some chopped fresh pepper. Remember to take out the Uyayak, before serving, and that's your Efere Ibaba. Very simple to prepare.

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The post Efere Ibaba (Ibaba Soup) appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

You must be thinking, Dunni is at it again. Which one is Moringa Puff Puff? Well, Matcha, the super green tea powder has been coming up lately in my Instagram timeline, and you know that when something about Easter (matcha is from Japan) or Western cuisine piques my interest, I try to see how I can make it Nigerian. Most of the pictures I have been seeing from ice cream to Latte’s to bread, beignets and other baked goods always had this lovely and pleasant shade of green, I almost drove to Holland and Barett one night to buy Matcha. I had tasted it at the International Food Festival in London early this year and it reminded me of wheatgrass. The world has gotten crazy for Matcha. You can say that Moringa is a close alternative, and as with most things African, we are sadly always late to the game. Moringa is gaining ground though, and one of the people leading the movement are the team at Aduna. They are a company situated in London, marketing Baobab and Moringa in these absolutely beautiful packaging. They have made these two products trendy, gaining the attention of the Hemsley sisters and most of all, getting to the top of their category in Richard Branson’s Pitch to Rich competition

Image credit: www.aduna.com

They kindly sent me samples of these super foods and when the matcha bug bit me, before i could grab my keys and head out, I remembered that the Aduna team sent me these products to review and thought hmmmmn, Moringa is a green powder, why don’t I start with that and see how it turns out. Moringa can be used in smoothies, lattes, breakfast cereals etc, but in true Dooney’s Kitchen style, I wanted to go where no one has been before. Add Moringa to puff puff. I wanted to create that pretty green colour, i had seen on baked goods infused with Matcha. I woke up way too early today and decided to try out the batter with Moringa, and would you believe, that just as I was mixing, I opened Instagram and the first thing I saw was a picture of The French Beignets, being sprinkled with Matcha. I had a good laugh. Beignets ( pronounced bain-yay) are the French equivalent of Puff Puff.

Moringa powder is quite strong and I didn’t want to detest my creation, so I kept searching my cupboards for items that would stand up to it, especially to mask the bitterness. I thought of honey and shelved the idea immediately. I thought of chocolate chips and as I was rifling through my cupboards, my fingers hit the tube of condensed milk that I had and I though ah ha!!!! This is my answer. Thanks to Labelle of @foodace that had mentioned earlier that milk makes your Puff Puff creamy, I thought to myself, using condensed milk, i get the best of both worlds, creamy and sweet. In trying to add other spices and flavours to this batter, I believe I have created my best Puff Puff recipe till date.

You can choose to omit the moringa if you want, just to try this amazeballs puff puff recipe, but you will be missing out on that fresh, green, herby flavour that moringa powder brings to this recipe. The choice is yours. Let’s Cook

Moringa Puff Puff

 

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Prep time

1 hour

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

 

Enhancing or upgrading the puff puff experience, using Moringa powder. A pale green colour inside, with a hint of it coming through on the golden exterior. Puff Puff like you haven't seen it before

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks

Culture: Nigerian

Serves: 4

You will Need

• 1 cup + 3 quarters of a cup of plain flour
• ½ - 1 teaspoon of Moringa powder - alternatively you can use well steeped Moringa tea
• ¼ cup of sweetened condensed milk
• ¼ cup of sugar
• ¼ teaspoon of grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon of dry pepper - cayenne pepper
• A pinch or two of Salt
• A dash or two of Vanilla
• 3 - ⅓ cups of warm water
• 1 sachet of fast acting yeast - 7g of fast acting yeast

How To

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, except the moringa and water -
2. Add the moringa powder. The reason i left out the moringa was, i started with ¼ of a teaspoon first, then i worked my way to half a teaspoon
3. After I added the warm water, I couldn't taste or see the Moringa powder as much, so I added another 1.4 teaspoon and then another, making the total, 1 teaspoon.
4. Cover wtih a damp cloth and leave in a warm place for 45mins to 1 hour or even longer, to allow the dough to rise. You will appreciate the pretty green moringa colour after it has risen
5. The rest is standard. heat up enough oil to deep fry, either scoop with your hands, a spoon or an ice cream scoop and deep fry the batter until you get golden delicious balls.
6. Wondering what the puff puff looks like inside, well here you go. Doesn't it look really pretty

Dooney's Kitchen Tips

Alternatively, you can use well steeped Moringa tea, if you can't find the powder. Don't use too much of the tea or the powder, so your puff puff don't turn out bitter.

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Try my Moringa puffs and let me know what you think. If you have access to this Moringa powder, which you can order from Aduna.com and you can also order Matcha, I would suggest you buy them, as I will be working closely with those two in the nearest future. We are going to have such fun with them, you’ll see. This Puff Puff’s are just the beginning.

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First, I have to apologise that this isn’t going to come with plenty step by step pictures, because I was supposed to recreate this recipe at home yesterday, told myself, I would be taking just a short nap, and I woke up this morning. hahahahahaha. This recipe is so simple though, you can do it in your sleep, so you will do fine. It is something to try for this weekend, especially for those in the UK who may be planning a barbecue for the bank holiday, to mark the end of summer. Me thinks, summer ended 3 weeks ago to be honest. it is getting cold again, and all that rain. Sad face.

You can make this sauce also as a dip. I learnt how to make this sauce at the cocktails at party bites event at the waitrose cookery school, and when the cooking instructor made his and told us to taste before we made ours, while we really enjoyed it, Tope and I said we were going to ease of on the vinegar a bit, because it tasted too tart, and would you believe that by adjusting the recipe, ours tasted better. Yup, it did.

You have been having fried chicken for probably as long as you can remember, you have also been making barbecue sauce, probably for as long too, but this particular sauce, yum, yum, yummiest. Try and stop at the shops today or tomorrow would you, and pick up all the ingredients that you need. Let’s Cook

Waitrose Barbecue Sauce

 

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A sticky, delicious barbecue sauce that works with any protein of your choice.

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Sauces and Dips

You will Need

• 
  For the sauce
• 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 3tbsp clear honey
• Salt
• seasoning cubes - optiona
• 1½ - 2 tbsp white wine vinegar - or any vinegar
• 2 tbsp ground chipotle chilies - you can use dry pepper or suya pepper
• 1 tsp red chili flakes - optional
  For the Fried Chicken
• oil for deep frying
• plain flour
• sprinkling of dry pepper - cayenne pepper or smoked paprika
• chicken wings

How To

1. First, you have to set your deep fryer to 180 degrees, or if you are using a pot, add enough oil to deep fry and place on the heat till it get hot enough.
2. First you have to start with the chicken, so in a bowl, combine all the ingredients, i.e. the flour, dry pepper, chili flakes, suya pepper, salt, seasoning cubes (if you are using). Ensure that they are well combined. Add the chicken and toss around until every part of the chicken is well coated with flour.
3. When the oil is hot enough, shake off any excess flour from the chicken and place in the oil to deep fry. Dooney's Kitchen Tip: if you are using a pot, I would advice that you don't get the oil too hot, otherwise, the outside will fry quickly and turn brown, leaving the chicken inside partly cooked or even raw
4. While the chicken is deep frying, quickly make the sauce by whisking together all the liquid ingredients in a bowl. Add as much dry pepper or suya pepper to it as you want, to raise the heat up a notch. Here was Tope preparing the sauce, while i fried the chicken
5. Once the chicken has browned outside sufficiently, drain any excess oil on a kitchen paper towel, and add the fried chicken to the bowl you mixed the sauce in. Toss it around until well combined. Dooney's Kitchen Tip: it is advisable that you combine the chicken with the sauce while it is still very hot, so that it can absorb as much of the flavour, and be sticky and yum
6. Serve with a cheese dip,or on its won with other delicious goodness from the grill, or even a salad

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You hear about things like this, you don’t think they will happen to you this quickly. For sure, a part of me always wished to join the jet set blogger crowd where you get flown around to some of the best places in the world. I follow @melissackoh on Instagram and lmao, that woman has finally made me succumb to envy. Geez, her life is just so fabulous and she is a fashion blogger, doing what she loves and working with these top brands who happily fly her anywhere to attend their events. I look at some of her posts and sigh. My Instagram feed straight up is filled with people who inspire and challenge me. I was looking at one of Melissa’s post in some fantastic location recently, only to read an email a few hours after. The Secret calls it the universe winking at you.

Red Chilies restaurant asked if i could attend their grand opening, guest appearance that kind of thing you think only happens to celebrities. I shared the story of Instagram.

So, when the email from@redchillies.restaurant came in, I typed the standard, “I sincerely appreciate the offer, but I don’t live in Nigeria”. Then the response came back almost immediately. “We know you don’t, but we would still like you to come and all arrangements would be made”. The kind that made me look at my phone, tilt my head and think huh, did I just read that properly? You want to fly me down to Abuja, wait, what!!!! Back and forth, back and forth, ticket confirmed……..The End.
Only around for the weekend. It would be really lovely to get to see as many Abuja Tribers #thehumansofDk at this opening. There will be cooking, grilling and Spiralising .#jetsettingDKBusinessTrip#onefortherecordbooks. So, I guess this opens me up for booking right. Anywhere there is food, my skinny legs and I will get there

So, yes people, yours truly is going to be in Abuja on Saturday. They want a signature dish and some nibbles you guys can munch on. I will be bringing my Spiraliser for a surprise. You just watch and see, it is going to start a trend, and you’ll start seeing Spiralised foods at events. The movement that is Dooney’s Kitchen. I hope you guys in Abuja come out en masse, i would really love to meet as many of you. I started the hashtag #thehumansofDK for you guys to share your stories with food, family and the kitchen.

I am also hopefully coming with a surprise. Watch out on my Instagram page for details. @dooneykitchen.com

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I am sure you must be thinking, hold up, hold up, Dunni whaaaaaat!!!! Of course you can add pepper to a cocktails. errrrr, hello, they are called fiery cocktails. I add half a piece of ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper) to my smoothies and it works a dream with digestion. So, when i came across this post on Kitchen Aid’s Instagram page, a repost from @loveandoliveoil. I was just laughing my head off. The things I find funny. hehehehehehe. It was apt because i haven’t had access to fresh nsukka yellow pepper in over a year, and less than a week after buying a big stash from Utako market in Abuja, I came across this post. Like what are the odds. The Universe just likes winking at me

Of course I had to try it. I won’t be me if I didn’t.

I have had a fiery cocktail before, a long time ago at an event, but that was with chili. Yes, Nsukka peper is hotter, but who is counting. hehehehehehe. it was very yum and mellow with citrus flavours. I made it two straight days in a row. The first day, I tried it, it was way too hot, especially as i was eating my very spicy Yajicurri grilled fish.

Yes, Yajicurri. I have my own signature sauce that I use for grilling fish, chicken, meats and seafood. it is the best thing since slice bread, I promise you.

If you want a jar, please send me an email: the_experience@dooneyskitchen.com.

I can’t give out the recipe, because I intend to bottle it and sell it in the future. I mean, business empires have been built from homemade sauces made in the kitchen of a tiny flat. Y’all don’t expect me to be a blogger for life, do you. Hehehehehehe. That’s the sauce slathered over croaker fish (straight from the fish) and marinated at room temperature for 10 – 15 minutes before grilling.

That’s the finished product. It will remind you of eating grilled fish at joints in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja.

So, where was I again, ah yes, the cocktail. You know i don’t bring you a recipe that i can’t stand by 100%, so i tried it again yesterday, used less of the pepper and at the last minute, I added the juice of half a lemon and BOOM!!!!!! Perfecto. it was citrusy and tingly on the tongue, burning your throat pleasantly too. I loved it. it made me feel all warm and happy inside, and got my digestive juices flowing. I hope you will try it out sometime. other things you can make with nsukka pepper, how about some jam. I intend to try that out too with other fruit combinations. The flavour of this jam, I am sure is off the hook.

Time to be a mixologist. hehehehehehe

Nsukka Pepper Cocktail

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

 

A fiery cocktail with citrus and passion fruit undertones.

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Drinks and Cocktails

Serves: 2

You will Need

• Fruit juice - i used two bottles of JTO (orange and passion fruit)
• 1 shot of Vodka - optional
• the juice of half a lemon
• 2 pieces of Nsukka Pepper - you can use 1
• Ice cubes

How To

1. Very simple. Add all ingredients to a blender, except the lemon juice and vodka. To reduce the heat, you can take out all the seeds.
2. Whizz until the pepper breaks down, almost completely. Sieve into a cocktail shaker, add the vodka, lemon, a little extra ice cubes, and shake, shake, shake, shake.
3. Pour into a chilled glass, and Bob's your Uncle
4. P.S: you can try making a bloody mary or a fiery zobo cocktail with ata rodo. I will just drop that juicy information and walk away. Lol

Dooney's Kitchen Tips

P.S - if you are not using vodka, add all the ingredients to a blender and whizz. it is best you don't blend until the pepper is smooth, as that will help take some of the edge off the heat

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The post Fiery Nsukka Pepper Cocktail appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Yaaaaaaaay, another trip to Nigeria by invitation. Yes oooooo, the ministry is moving, and my head is spinning with all the opportunities that The Almighty has brought may way this year. At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t sure what the year would look like for Dooney’s Kitchen. My prayer was that I would get so excited by what I do, I would breathe, sleep and eat Dooney’s Kitchen. I am so grateful for the growths big and small. You hear about people being flown from all over the world to appear at events or to speak at conferences, and you don’t think such things can happen to you. From Lagos to Abuja, the message of Dooney’s Kitchen is spreading and I didn’t think I will be telling my story this early in the game. Gosh, imagine what 2016, and even 2020 will look like.

To register fro the Conference, please click HERE. Here’s the back story behind this trip. Remember to follow @dooneyskitchen on IG

……..Lagos loading . Months ago, the very lovely@osayia sent me an email asking me if I would love to speak that the 2015 WIMBIZ conference. I thought wow, me speak at this conference. Haaaa, all I do is blog about food, oh my goodness, you and your team of esteemed and I mean esteemed accomplished women, believe my story is worth sharing at the conference. I mean, WIMBIZ is a big deal. That was what was going through my mind, I didn’t even think of the location. After coming down from the high, I sadly sent the response; I am so sorry, travelling to Lagos isn’t in the plan this year. Then Osayi asked for my number and she said what if we fly you down, would you still be able to attend . We have spoken very highly of you to our Board (I was thinking to myself, wait these seasoned businesswomen know who I am), please you have to come. We will confirm details later, but just know that we want you there. It is a good thing I was sitting down for that conversation. If I remember correctly, I was driving (hands free ). This was weeks before I got the offer to fly to Abuja for the opening of Red Chilies. You can imagine my shock when they too said, we’ll fly you down.
I met @smartmoneyarese in London and she said, when they were collating a list of possible speakers and my name came up, some people in the room said, who is Dunni? The excitement on Arese’s face when she was telling me the story. She said the rest were like ehn, you don’t know Dunni, ha, really!!!!! Wait, let us open her blog and Instagram page for you. As they say, the rest is history.
So, yes, I am going to be in Lagos in November, as a guest speaker at the 14th Annual WIMBIZ conference. Please register for the event as soon as possible and take advantage of the early bird discount. www.wimbiz.org. It would be really lovely to meet many of you.
Me, I know I am going to be star struck meeting Mrs Ibukun Awosika . I have started practising my “good morning Ma, lovely to meet you” speech .

For every single person that has used the resources that this blog has to offer, for those who have followed me on social media, I truly appreciate all of you. Your numbers matter, your numbers count. I didn’t do this myself, trust me, you guys have been front and center with me and I hope to see many of you at this conference. Take advantage of the early bird discount. The theme of this year’s conference is Leadership – Step up and Stand out. That right there, describes what I do, in a nutshell. See you in Lagos.

The post Dooney’s Kitchen at the WIMBIZ conference in Lagos appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Here’s one for the history books. Years from now Etinkeni Mmong Ikong will be gracing homes, restaurants and the online space, just like Edikang Ikong. I hope you will remember Dooney’s Kitchen with fond memories, while you dig into this bowl of absolute magic. Don’t bother trying to pronounce it. hahahahahahaha. We can call it the Efik E.M.I. Soup. Basically it means Uziza and Water leaves soup. I totally made it up. Considering how much I love using Uziza leaves, it is incredible that this has never occurred to me before.

How did this come about? On my recent trip to Abuja, i probably bought half the market. hahahahaha. I enjoyed it though. I haven’t shopped at Utako market since 2009 and I was experiencing nostalgia in waves. The market hadn’t changed one bit, so I didn’t get lost thankfully, but the experience was heightened. I was chatting ten to the dozen with market sellers and like with Lagos, I came back well schooled. I mean I spoke with a Hausa/Fulani man selling spices and he schooled me on Kunu Aya (tiger nut milk). I have seen lots of recipes for Kunu Aya and trust me when I say none of them come close to what this man told me. I thought wow, that information is gold right there. He showed me some northern spices that I have never seen before or even heard about. There is so much about the northern nigerian cuisine that we need to explore, and he helped fill some of the gaps for my cookbook. I have promised myself to visit Kaduna or Kano sometime next year and I am looking for someone who will take me around the markets for like  3 – 4 days. My mother is probably going to have apoplexy if I tell her, but I feel like I want, no scratch that, need to do it for posterity. I want the cookbook to be colourful and all-encompassing. No major food culture would be ignored. Fingers crossed, it works out. The first Dooney’s Kitchen Cookbook is something even the world hasn’t seen before.

Speaking of this recipe, the woman who sold me a huge bunch of yellow pepper was such a hoot. We had such a long chat about food, she said I must marry an Igbo man. As she was wrapping up some vegetables for me, I told her to add some Ugba, which I was going to make Ofe Akwukwo with. She screamed. Ehn, how do you know that soup? I told her that I have Igbo friends. When I told her to pack Usu for me, she kept giving me this strange look. She said what do you this ajebutter know what they use Usu for, I told her for forming Mgbam egusi balls for Ofe Okazi, then she screamed some more, and told me to sit down, sit down, ehn, you know that soup too? Oya, which other Igbo soups do you know how to cook? Then I started reeling them out, and her eyes were widening with each dish. hahahahahahahaha. I don’t know what it is about our generation, and I mean women in their 20’s and early 30’s, that the common assumption is that we have become so modernised, we don’t know how to cook. You could see genuine surprise on her face. I told her that I have a food website where I share recipes, and she told me to write it down for her and she would check it out. She repeatedly mentioned that I must marry an Igbo man o, so that my skills won’t go to waste. I remember when I bargained at a price for something else that she sold, and she said no, I would ‘threaten’ her that I would marry a Yoruba man, and she would scream, lai lai. hahahahahaha. I told her that my mother is Yoruba, she looked at me and harrumphed. When I added that but my father is Delta Igbo, she broke out smiling and said I am half way there. I wasn’t even offended. Lol. Gosh, i had so much fun at utako market two sundays ago. Thankfully the weather co-operated and it wasn’t too hot, so i happily spent hours there, shopping and shopping.

So, back to Etinkeni Mmong Ikong. The woman who sold me peppersoup spices, sold me uziza leaves and water leaves. You know how this dish came about? She placed both in the same cellophane bag. When I travel with leafy veg, i wrap in newspapers, to allow the vegetables to breathe, because using cellophane will generate heat and cause the vegetables to start wilting. So, while i was unpacking and putting things in the freezer, I unwrapped my uziza leaves and water leaves almost simultaneously and a slow smile started to form on my face. Of course, of course, of course, I can use the Edikang Ikong recipe, but swap Ugu for Uziza. Hands down, THIS is better than Edikang Ikong. Like seriously, no competition. Uziza trumps Ugu times 500, everybody knows that, so you can imagine how delicious and aromatic this soup is. Gosh the aroma, the aroma, the aroma, the aroma. OMG, you would want to stick your head in the pot and leave it there. So, welcome to try another Dooney’s Kitchen Original, and I don’t even have any Efik relation ties, hahahahaha. Years from now, I hope and pray that Etinkeni Mmong Ikong, or we can shorten it to Etinkeni M. Ikong (sounds like someone’s name, lol), will be a staple in Nigerian and non Nigerian homes across the world.  Let’s Cook

Etinkeni Mmong Ikong

 

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Prep time

35 mins

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

1 hour 35 mins

 

A cousin to edikang ikong, using Uziza and Water leaves. To create a soup that basically is an aromatic flavour explosion from the first bite, to the last.

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Traditional Nigerian Soups

Culture: Efik

Serves: 4

You will Need

• 2 bunches of Uziza
• 4 bunches of Waterleaves
• Assorted meats
• Periwinkles
• Palm Oil
• Stock fish
• Smoked fish
• Snails - optional
• Ponmo
• Salt
• Seasoning cubes
• Crayfish
• 3 - 5 pieces of Yellow pepper

How To

1. Season and boil your assorted meats. Halfway through, add the tough smoked fish and/or stockfish to the pot, to allow it to soften. Let the meats boil till there is almost no water (beef stock) left in the pot. Once you have achieved this, add roughly blended/pounded yellow pepper and stir.
2. When the stock from the meats has reduced significantly till it is almost dry, chop the two vegetables thinly and rinse. If you are using a very sharp knife, may i advise you to be veeeery careful. I sliced off half the top of the tip of my thumb trying to cut the leaves thinly and I am still bitching about the pain almost 5 days after. So be careful please. Another thing to note is that water leaves start to turn to mulch very quickly after rinsing and will reduce into a pool of water in your soup. If you have been struggling with edikang ikong, this is one of the major reasons why, so ensure that it is one of the last things you chop before you start cooking, so the integrity of the water leaves are still intact before they get to the pot.
3. With your leaves chopped, add palm oil to the pot. Like edikang ikong, there is no getting away with using a good amount of oil for this soup. Start with 2 - 3 cooking spoons. . Allow the palm oil to dissolve and combine properly.
4. Add the ground crayfish and perwinkles, then stir. During this time, the liquid content of the pot should have even reduced further. This picture proves it. See how there is no pool of water beneath the spoon
5. Add the water leaves and stir till they wilt.
6. When they wilt, they should look like this
7. Now, add the chopped uziza leaves, stir and give it too a few minutes to wilt and combine with the rest of the pot. There should be almost no liquid in this soup. It isn't dry though, just very mushy and yum.
8. In about 2 minutes, the aroma would hit you, and you will know you are on to something. If you got your stock right from the early stages, you shouldn't need to re-season. If you still need a little extra salt, then re-season. This dish will be the one of highlights of your cooking this year, I promise. If you have been struggling with Edikang Ikong, just use this recipe and all your issues would resolve.

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The post Etinkeni Mmong Ikong appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Me and messing with frying chicken. Do you remember my Garri Fried Chicken (recipe HERE). I put up a picture of a container of Kuli Kuli on Instagram weeks ago and told my followers to guess what I wanted to use it for? I got so many funny answers, but some of you got it right. They guessed I was going to use it to coat chicken. Don’t you just love when that happens. Re-affirms your belief that you are not totally unhinged. hahahahaha. Some people get you.

I should have done it that night, but had to go attend to something else, and the opportunity never came again. Good thing that it didn’t because at the time the idea came to me, I just wanted to make Kuli Kuli Chicken, until I watched Diners, Drivers and Dives on Food Network one evening and Guy was at a diner that sold Chicken and Waffles, which of course is an American Diner style classic, which I must admit, I find very very strange. Like why would you want to combine chicken and waffles. Lol. The calories alone, my goodness. That evening I thought, how about serving Kuli Kuli fried chicken with Akara waffles? That would be  like taking an American Classic and turning it on its head, Nigerian style. I mean, it would look like the classic Chicken and Waffles, but would taste nutty and yum, oh and the Akara waffles too, savoury taste sensation overload. I mean, look at that below. Don’t you just want a plate of that?

So the idea locked in my head, and the opportunity to try it almost came. Guess what, I bought a pack of chicken thighs from the supermarket and forgot it in my fridge till it went past its use by date. I bought the chicken again, and yup, the same thing happened. I am just so busy these days, I forget stuff. I have started writing things down using the Notes app on my phone. You will find the weirdest of things there. So on Wednesday, I went to the store for the third time and bought the top of the range organic free range chicken. I normally don’t buy expensive chicken from the supermarket, but I bought this deliberately. I told myself that if I bought expensive chicken, my Ijebu genes would kick in and I won’t throw away this one. I would find a way to fit making this chicken into my dinner, some how, some how.

Knowing my Friday evenings are dedicated to food shopping ahead of weekend cooking, and my time isn’t my own until Monday, I knew yesterday was my only day, otherwise, that chicken would go bad again, and this one was almost triple the price of regular chicken, so even though I was kinda tired yesterday, I fuelled myself with garri and groundnuts and got to it. This is so simple, it would be a crime not to try it out.

Let’s cook

Kuli Kuli Fried Chicken

 

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Prep time

1 hour

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

 

Taking fried chicken to the next level, using the well loved Kuli Kuli. The Southern Mama's in America have their fried chicken, this is Nigeria's answer to that. Our own KFC, but Kuli Kuli Fried Chicken

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Fish, Meat and Poultry

Culture: Nigerian Fusion

Serves: 4

You will Need

• Soft chicken pieces - thighs, drumsticks
• Kuli Kuli - roughly ground to ¾ of a cup or more
• Plain Flour
• 2 eggs and counting
• Salt
• Ground Uziza seeds - optional or replace with dry pepper
• Yajichurri sauce - optional - send me an email to request for a jar
• Oil for frying
• Other spices or choice
• Seasoning cubes - optional
• Buttermilk or Yoghurt - optional

How To

1. First of all, you need soft chicken to do this,otherwise the chicken won't cook through while frying. You can chose to soak the chicken in buttermilk or yoghurt for at least 3 hours or overnight, to guarantee extra tenderness.
2. Now, that is out of the way, marinade your chicken with your choice of spices. Whatever you choose, it up to you. What you must add though is 2 - 3 tablespoons of ground kuli kuli to the seasoned chicken. I used my mill ot roughly grind the kuli kulie chunks
3. Ensure it is properly coated and marinade in the fridge for at least 45minutes. This is the kind of recipe you start as soon as you get home, so while it marinates, you can do other things
4. Using a freezer bag or plastic bag with no holes, add the rest of the ground kuli kuli, with plain flour, roughly the same quantity as the ground kuli kuli. Add the ground uziza seeds or dry pepper, add some salt and/or seasoning cubes to the flour to season it.
5. Now, take out the chicken from the fridge, shake off any excess bits used to marinade, place it in the bag of seasoned flour and shake, shake, shake, shake it up, sounds like Shakitibobo doesn't it. (just for laughs, lol). Until each piece of chicken is well coated
6. Power up your deep fryer, or heat up enough oil in a pot or pan to fry this chicken. Start with medium heat, so it heats up slowly.
7. Now, whisk 2 eggs or more, depending on the number of chicken pieces you have. You know what I did with what was left of the marinade? I added it to the eggs for extra flavour. Imagine the Yajichurri sauce in eggs and then chicken, OMG!!!! Send an email to the_experience@dooneyskitchen.com if you want a jar of that sauce
8. Dip the flour coated chicken piece by piece into the egg mixture, shake off any excess bits dripping from the chicken
9. Now, here's the KFC trick. Double coating in flour. This is the secret behind the extra crispiness. Say thank you, lol. It wasn't my secret ooooooo. I lay no claim to this trick. Youtube videos and many blogs have given it away. Anyways, once you take out the chicken from the egg, coat it again plain flour this time. Nothing added, then fry
10. Dooney's Kitchen Tip: I have to say this. If your oil is too hot, the outsides will brown faster than the insides will cook, so make sure you start on medium heat, so the chciken is frying slowly, allowing both the insides and the outsides to cook simultaneously.
11. When you bite into this, one of the first things you will notice is the layers of flavour. Like, hot damn!!!!
12. You will be peeling away layers of flavour, from the flour on top, to the eggs, to the seasoned flour after that, then the chicken itself. The Kuli Kuli flavour, if you used enough of it, just powers through each of the layers, creating a taste sensation. Bestest, chicken ever!!!!!
13. Serve with chips, or Akara waffles. Recipe for Akara waffles can be found HERE

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