I am not a huge fan of Chinese takeaways to be honest. The grease, the salt, the sugar, and Lord knows what seasonings they use, plus some of their questionable hygiene standards just gives me the heebie jeebies. I have tried so many, from the local takeaways to the extremely posh restaurants, and nah, something is just not right about the food. For the sake of not being a picky eater, I have managed to lock down just one Chinese dish which I order all the time, and I mean all the time. King Prawn Fried Rice. Even at that, at some places it is not so great.

Last Saturday, I was watching the show Saturday Kitchen and there were two Chefs competing in a light hearted Chilli challenge. One of them was Thomasina Miers, someone I admire so much for the way she has brought Mexican street food to London in a big way, with her chain of restaurants Wahaca. She truly is my inspiration, because one day by His Grace my Nigerian street food restaurants like Wahaca and even better will be scattered all over the place. If you watch Food Network, she presents the show Mexican Food made simple. I can’t remember what Thomasina cooked on the show, but the dish of the other Chef struck a chord in me because it was a Chinese dish I truly detest from takeaways and restaurants. Chinese Sweet Chilli Beef.

Once the show was over, I said boy, I am going to try this, and I am glad I did. I made this dish a few days ago for a friend from out of town who was visiting with her family. Staring at the pan when I was done, and tasting it like 10 times, I couldn’t believe I made a Chinese dish that could taste so good and I mean real, real good. As they were facing a long drive back home, I kinda made this dish in a hurry, plus it was already getting dark when I started cooking and we emptied the pan for dinner and takeaway, so I couldn’t take pictures. Yesterday evening, I decided to make this dish again, all calmly and relaxed. It was even better than the last dish, by miles, and that one was really good. I am now sooooo inspired to try many more Chinese dishes, my local takeaway has lost a customer. Full Stop. I spent half the amount of one bowl of takeaway making this, and I have enough leftovers for 2 more meals. Think of your budget on Chinese, and tell yourself, enough, I can do better at home. Lol.

If you have had the shredded beef and green pepper sauce served at Nigerian parties, this is it, but with more va va voom.

You will need

400 – 500g of Frying Steaks - for my readers who buy meat in the market from butchers, you simply need a slab of meat, sliced thinly.

2 – 3 Carrots

1 Green Pepper

2 eggs

Olive oil

1 piece of red chilli or ata rodo (scotch bonnets/habanero pepper)

1 green chilli

Spring onions

Ginger

Red Onions

Dark Soy Sauce

2 – 3 tablespoons of Corn Flour

Water

Sweet Chilli Sauce

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1 teaspoon Curry Powder

1 teaspoon Dried Thyme

1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper - dry pepper

2 teaspoons Jumbo seasoning powder or Knorr chicken cubes

Salt

Coriander

How To

If you are buying meat from the butcher, especially in Nigeria, where our beef can be very tough, whack it a bit with a rolling pin, to flatten and tenderise it a little. If you are buying meat from the supermarket, make sure it reads Frying Steak on the packet.

1. Cut the meat into rectangular strips and set aside.

2. Break two eggs in a bowl, and season with curry powder, thyme, garlic powder, seasoning cube, salt, dry pepper and whisk. When it has fully combined, add 1 tablespoon of corn flour and whisk. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you will face some resistance at first whisking in the corn flour, but this will disappear with further whisking. Add another tablespoon of corn flour and whisk.

3. Pour this eggy mixture onto the meat and combine with your hands, making sure the meat is properly coated. You may wish to sprinkle in another tablespoon of corn flour, if the mixture is too watery. Leave this in the fridge for 30 minutes and proceed to chopping the vegetables.

4. Julienne the Carrots.

This is just a fancy word for cutting carrots into thin, long strips. Do the same for the green pepper, red onion, chillies and ginger, only that you will have to slice the ginger much thinner. No one wants to bite into a chunk of ginger. Chop the spring onions in rings and set aside.

Pour a decent amount of Olive oil into a small pot and turn the heat to high. You are going to deep fry the meat, so gauge the volume of olive oil. The key is to use a small pot, so the oil can be deep enough, without having to use too much oil.

5. When the oil is hot enough, place the strips of meat into the pot one by one, till there’s no more space. As the meat fries, the coating will turn into pastry, and change from white to golden brown. Once it is golden brown, take it out of the oil and drain on kitchen paper. Fry all the strips of meat.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: be careful to fry the strips individually. If you drop them into the pot in clumps, they will stick together. See below.

6. Heat up your Wok or Deep frying pan with 1 cooking spoon of the oil you just fried the meat in, add all the chopped ingredients and stir fry, making sure you shake the pan every few seconds, or you stir with a frying spoon.

7. Once the onions have turned translucent, add the fried meat and stir, then add soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce and let it cook for 1 – 2 minutes.

Then readjust again with soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce. At this point I was just dipping the bottle of each sauce slightly into the pan and tasting as I went along. So, I didn’t measure. Soy sauce and Sweet Chilli sauce have a personal preference in terms of their concentration in food, so let your taste buds guide you.

8. With each addition of both sauces, let it cook for about a minute before readjusting. Stir the beef with the vegetables and add 1 teaspoon or 1 cube of knorr chicken cubes and keep cooking. Keep adjusting with the soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce to your preference. Be careful it doesn’t burn. Turn down the heat if you have to. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: by adding more of both sauces to the pan, the beef begins to cook in the liquid of both sauces, plus the water content of the vegetables, creating a glistening sludge around the strips of meat. 

One of the things, well two of the things I don’t like about Chinese cooking is soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce, which is why i started using both sauces sparingly at first, but I found that by adding more, it enhanced the taste of the dish, and I was loving it. Be careful though. Taste very often, so you don’t add too much and overpower the dish. You still want to taste the vegetables.

9. The recipe I used says stop here, but nah, I wanted more sauce. So I added half a cup of water, just so I could get a more liquidy sauce, plus the pastry around the meat, will soften with the addition of water, and absorb the sauce, making it taste even better. Taste for salt, I doubt if you will need to add more, I definitely didn’t. The soy sauce already contains salt, plus you added seasoning cube much earlier. Stir and let this cook till you see the liquid sauce heat up.

Add chopped coriander and stir. Leave it to cook for another minute or so, and take off the heat.

better view of the sauce

see the difference, adding the water makes? Now you have juicy and tender meats, plus crunchy vegetables, all in a rich, delicious sauce. Yum

the contrast of colours – the orange of the carrots, the deep green of the coriander, the green pepper strips – art in a Wok

From start to finish, this dish took less than 45 minutes. Including chopping and all. If you order Chinese, you will definitely spend more money, and you will wait at least 30 minutes for it to be delivered.

Feast on the pictures and be inspired………………

has your takeaway ever looked this good?

uhmmmm, yum

Eat straight from the Wok. Remember to boil some rice, Spaghetti or Indomie noodles, and treat yourself to a fresh, homemade, healthy and delicious dinner. Remember to eye the pamphlet of your takeaway as you are sitting down to eat this. Lol Chinese who? Lol

I boiled a packet of Indomie Noodles and sprinkled in a little chopped coriander when it was done. I have never tried that before, and I really enjoyed the difference in taste.

Treat yourself, treat your friends and family to a spectacular dish that requires minimal effort

I was invited to write for a new Events Magazine under their food column. It was quite an honour to be able to get my work out there to thousands of new readers. To take it a step further, I decided to get a stand at the event, where I can showcase my food to lots of people and the services I now offer.

If you are local to Stratford, or you don’t have anything planned for next weekend Sept 7, why don’t you come on down, bring along friends and family, and have a fun day out. Plus, you can finally get to taste my food. I will have many taster dishes on display plus takeaway packs of food. I am so excited to be at this event, I have started counting down. Plus the one and only Iya Ola will be coming with me, and you’ll get to see the woman who taught me everything I know.

Here are details of the event

Look out for The Dooney’s Kitchen Banner

There will be lots of Dooney’s Kitchen Flyers to pick up

more about The Dooney’s Kitchen Experience

I hope you can attend. It will be really exciting to meet some of you. See you next Saturday

To a lot of people, especially Yoruba people, Ewedu is this simple vegetable that you prepare as an addendum to be eaten with stew. So its only function is to be the sticky addition to stew that you eat with Amala or Eba (garri). Not me. My Ewedu like a lot of things I prepare is a little, okay a lot OTT.

So if you’ve just been plucking Ewedu, plonking it in hot water for a few minutes and serving it with stew, let me show you something different. When you are done making Ewedu my way, you are going to love it so much you will be tempted to eat it without stew.

So you’ll need:

Ewedu leaves and Okro - ratio 70 – 30%

3 tablespoons of Iru - fermented locust beans

Kaun - potash cubes

2 tablespoons of Ground Egusi

1/4 cup of Ground Crayfish

1/4 cup of Eja Sawa - hard dried smoked fish. You can use any smoked fish you can find or large smoked Prawns. There is a picture on the Ingredientspaedia page HERE

Seasoning cube - Knorr chicken cube preferred

Are you thinking WHAT!!!! Dunni this is Ewedu, simple and quick Ewedu. Yes, you read all that correctly, that is how I make my Ewedu. Nothing simple about it, but it is quick I assure you

So here we go:

1. Get a bunch of Ewedu leaves. usually it is sold in a bunch so i’m afraid I don’t have a measurement guide for Ewedu. Anyway, carefully pick the leaves of the thin stalks. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip #1: Unlike other vegetables where you pick the leaves with the stalk and set aside the thick branch, with Ewedu you only pick the leaves. So, pick your leaves and rinse thoroughly

2. Rinse the Eja Sawa and soak in hot water to soften it. Chop off the okro tip and roughly chop the rest of it, dissolve the Egusi in a little water to form a thick paste, rinse the iru and set aside. Also roughly blend the crayfish and set aside

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip #2: Traditionally Ewedu is made by adding the leaves whole in hot water and when it is boiling, it is pulverised with a short broom with hard bristles called “ijabe”. This is 2013 people, use a blender. You must be wondering, why okro? I picked up this useful tip from Aunty Joke. Ewedu can be tricky. Sometimes you just get it wrong and it refuses to be sticky and elastic, and you are left with this flat green concoction that looks like the green juice people on diets have for breakfast. Very, very disheartening. So Aunty Joke said Dunni my dear, use okro, not only are you guaranteed of the result it also gives the Ewedu more body and volume. So, okro it is.

3. Ewedu is not a fine textured soup. Remember the “ijabe” was used in the past which gave it a rough appearance, so blend the okro first then add the ewedu leaves and roughly blend till the leaves are in shredded bits. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip #3: If you add both ingredients together, in the time it will take to blend the okro smoothly, the ewedu leaves would have been totally pulverised. 

4. You are left with this thick glob of green veggies, set it aside. Now I can introduce measurements. So, for every 500ml (half a blender jug) of blended ewedu and okro use 1/2 a cup (125ml) of water. Crush one thick chunk of Kaun into the pot add water and turn on the heat till the Kaun totally dissolves and the water is bubbling. Kaun is important to keep the Ewedu sticky. If you don’t have kaun, don’t despair the okro would do the trick Dooney’s Kitchen Tip #4: You can use the water you soaked the smoked fish in.

5. Add the mixture in the pan and let this cook for 3 minutes on high heat. In about 2 minutes you will begin to see bubbles form. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip #5: Make sure you have a deep enough saucepan so it doesn’t boil over. Once it starts to bubble add the Egusi, smoked fish and Iru and sit vigorously, you will notice the egusi forming little lumps about the size of drops of water. Let this cook for another  2 – 3 minutes and turn down the heat to very low.

6. Add the crayfish and sprinkle in 1 seasoning cube stir and let this sit on the cooker on low heat till they dissolve. This should take 1 minute or less than two. You can use salt instead of a seasoning cube, I just prefer using a seasoning cube

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip #6: Ewedu and okro cook very fast so 6 – 8 minutes should do for 500ml. When over cooked the colour changes from a deep lovely green to a yucky slimy brown. You don’t want that.

So, that’s my Ewedu reloaded.

Try it out and you’ll never go back to making Ewedu plainly again. If you want the full Buka experience, serve Ewedu with Buka Stew (recipe - HERE) and Hot fluffly Amala.

The second picture on the Buka Stew post shows a bowl of “plain okro” prepared using this recipe, so if you don’t have access to Ewedu and  you want to prepare plain Okro because you don’t have the time or the resources to go full on Okro Soup (recipe –  HERE) or Ila Asepo you can use this recipe, simply take out the Egusi. I hope that helps.

A couple of weeks ago, I was amidst some friends and new people and the topic of food and cooking came up. I was not surprised when the conversation led to cheap pot shots about Yoruba women not knowing how to cook, and of course an argument ensued. Knowing Nigerians and how we can argue over the smallest of things, the argument escalated. In a bid not to join in, I just sat there and let them have a go at it, all the while having a smirk on my face, and perpetually raising my eyebrow, I was surprised it hadn’t uprooted from my face. At some point one of them suddenly remembered I was seated and he said ah sorry Dunni, you are an exception, you are even half Yoruba anyway. As if I escaped half of “the curse”. Mind you my mum and grandma; Yoruba women taught me how to cook. At that point, I saw my chance to lay it into him and the rest of them real good.

Yoruba people get a lot of flack about not knowing how to cook or are culturally deficient in terms of delicious dishes. I really don’t know where that assumption and annoying stereotype came from. When it is time for people to diss cooking, they seem to take easy shots at Yoruba people, especially females. Oh, Yoruba food is this, it is this way, it is one kind. I personally have been at the receiving end of such derogatory comments. I always smile with glee when I get the chance to shut them up. You just let my Aunty Beebee from Ibadan prepare Gbegiri with Ewedu for you and you will drop to your knees, or my Iperu relatives cook a wicked Ifokore, you will sing to high heavens. My late grandma’s Palm oil stew will knock your socks off. Need I mention Ofada sauce which virtually everyone wants to learn how to cook. Moi-Moi elemi meje was named for a reason. My Ondo and Ijesha friends will put my manual yam pounding skills to shame. I don’t even know if I should continue typing. There are so many dishes in Yoruba land, I don’t know where the misconception started from. Pardon me, I am a little vexed. I am about to shut some people up today.

In no part of the world do all the women have cooking on lockdown. It is a myth. Cooking is not a gene that can be inherited. It is a skill like any kind of skill. Some do great at it, some don’t. It shouldn’t be used to judge a person, or their character or damn an entire tribe of people for that matter. You have good cooks and bad cooks. I have tasted many terrible dishes made by women who are from areas famed for cooking in Nigeria. Many, many times. My best ever Tiramisu was served in Paris by a Middle Eastern Chef. Not in Italy or by an Italian.

May the real Efo Riro please stand up? This is one of the glory dishes of Yoruba cuisine. The Edikang Ikong of Yoruba people. If you have tasted this cooked properly, you will agree with me. Funny story. I have used this particular soup to *cough* *cough* shut up a particular older woman and her entourage of “ebi” who just did not like me because I was Yoruba “aje butter”, so I must be lazy and not know how to cook. The look on her face after tasting this was priceless. Absolutely priceless. She announced loudly in a room full of people. Ah all your sins have been forgiven (which sins?), you haven’t offended me again. We thought you couldn’t cook. She ate the soup with so much relish, the other people  in the room flew from their seats to get plates. My ears must have been burning that day from praise. I have never witnessed that much instant transformation from outright coldness to warmth as if I was some long lost child. I just sat there faking a smile on my face, meanwhile inside, I was hissing and rolling my eyes. So, all it took was food. Chai. “I for don cook since na”. A part of me wanted to interject, sarcastically, so Yoruba girls cannot cook eh. My mother would have had my head because she raised me better. Lol.

You will need – sorry, I am going all Yoruba on this recipe.

1 bunch of Efo Soko – the big daddy of Efo Riro

1/2 cup of Iru horo – whole locust beans

1 1/2 Tatashe – red bell pepper

2 – 3 pieces of Ata Rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

1/2 cup of Ede gbigbe – crayfish

1 cup of Eja Sawa – dried fish

1 piece of Eja Osan – dried fish

300g Ara Eran – Beef

100g Saki – tripe

100g Pomo – ow hide

2 cooking spoons of Epo pupa – palm oil

1 piece of Alubusa – red onion

Iyo – Salt

Iyo Knorr – seasoning cubes

Yoruba lesson ends here. Lol

Eja Osan and Eja Sawa

wash the soko vegetables in warm water to get rid of its dark juice

iru horo

Crayfish

How To

1. Boil and season all the meats with salt, lots of chopped onions and seasoning cube. Halfway through cooking, throw in the Eja Sawa. Eja Sawa is a very dry and hard fish. It is common to soak it in hot water, but this loses some of its flavour, so I add mine shortly before the meats have properly softened so it has a symbiotic relationship with the stock. It is one of the few dried fish that can hold its own against the strong flavours of meat.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the secret to any great tasting soup is the stock. If you get this right, you will not need seasoning cubes at the tail end of cooking. If your soups have always tasted the same, boil the meats with eja sawa and watch people lick their fingers in pure delight. I just gave out one of my secrets. Shhhhhhh. 

2. Roughly blend the Tatashe and ata rodo. Bring this to a boil and reduce till it forms a thick paste. Proper Efo Riro just like Edikang Ikong is not liquidy or dripping.

3. Give the iru and the crayfish a good rinse. Remember not to drown the Iru in water in order not to lose the flavour. Rinse the eja osan thoroughly and shred into bits. Dice the onions and set aside. You need all the ingredients prepped before you start.

4. Heat up palm oil and fry the onions till it is translucent.

Add the boiled pepper and Iru and fry for ….minutes. You want this to fry till you have a thick paste, because of the stock which will be introduced to dilute it slightly.

Once it is fried, add the meats, and ground crayfish to the pot. Add stock in cooking spoonfuls to the pot and stir. I used about 6 cooking spoons. You have to be really careful with the stock so you don’t end up with liquidy Efo Riro (before you get accused of not knowing how to cook. Lol). Lower the heat, to allow the meats to absorb the essence of the pepper, iru and crayfish. Let this cook for 5 – 7 minutes.You also do not want to use high heat, which will evaporate the stock. Keep frying till you have a semi-thick stew that tastes heavenly. It is just about to taste even better. You may not even need to re-season with salt and/or seasoning cube if you get the balance very well. If after tasting you still need to, go ahead.

5. Add the soko and dried fish. You always add the dried fish with the vegetables for two reasons. 1. So it doesnt break down. 2. Two, you want its taste to stand on its own. Dried Fish has the tendency to absorb all the flavours around it, so the less time it spends in a pot filled with bold flavours, the better.

6. Vegetables are absorbent, so once it is in the pot, stir to increase its interaction with the already fried sauce. It will absorb the sauce and at the same time leach out it’s own liquids, creating a beautiful chemistry.

Lower the heat further so you don’t lose the nutritional value while you are allowing it to soak up all the delicious goodies. Cook for about 3 minutes, 5 if you are cooking a larger quantity of vegetables.

………………there you have it.

Efo Riro and Pounded yam – I can hear the people you are trying to shut up, not uttering a single word for the next few minutes. Prepare for a barrage/onslaught of praise. The next time anyone talk smack to you about your cooking Efo Riro is your best defence. Lol

Enjoy!!!!!!

One of my last posts, I was regaling my distaste of garden eggs. I believe I HATE Ogi more than I hate Garden Eggs. Ugh!!! Ogi just never agreed with me for one second and my mother pressed on, thinking I will cower down. If you’ve ever read Barbara Taylor Bradford’s Act of Will you will understand to an extent. Till date, my dad stays out of our fights because he says we have been at it since pregnancy, so he won’t get involved. Both of you are two of the same person, he says. My mum is an amazing cook, children loved coming to our house. Nieces and Nephews, the children of friends, yet her own child turned her nose up at her food. My grandma, also an amazing cook tried her best to make me like the thing. Naaaaa, I refused. Despite being served with delicious akara or moi-moi, I would manage to finish my plate leaving the Ogi.

My mum did not believe in throwing away food, so if it took you 1 hour, you will finish it. I used to hold my breath and take in half a spoon, all the while making vomit threatening noises, which earned me stern looks and warnings from my mum. Imagine eating a bowl of Ogi so slowly, till it turns into a cold solid glob of yuck. I called her bluff a few times and threw up, resulting in a good smacking for throwing up intentionally and messing up everywhere. Lord knows I was a very mischievous child, so a little part of me derived pleasure in watching her horror of me vomiting over the floor. Even the smacking wasn’t so bad, because it meant I will no longer have to endure finishing the bowl of Ogi. Ogi was the bane of my breakfast, along with custard and cereals. I was a veeeeeery difficult child to feed. With Ogi she finally gave in and picked her battles somewhere else. She has jokingly told me, that I will get my just desserts when I have a picky eater for a child, and I should not look to her for any sympathy. Lol. She said she actually prayed for a child that will eat, when she was expecting my sister. Her prayers were answered. My sister eats like a horse. Bottomless pit is what we call her, yet she is model skinny and very tall.

I will like to shout out to Nkem O because she inspired this, after dropping a comment on my Garden egg stew post regarding our common hatred for Ogi. She thought of making it in a dessert, and it got me thinking. It is possible you know. It didn’t even take me long before Crème Brûlée filtered through my thoughts. Crème Brûlée is a French dessert which basically means burnt cream. I don’t like processed custard. Eeeeew, that flour that turns light orange once you mix it with water and boil till it thickens. Naaaa, you can’t pay me to eat it. Crème Brûlée is made from home-made custard, and after my first taste years ago, I am a huge fan, so it was an easy choice for me. Yes people, I loved it. Experimenting produces some astonishing results. Dunni who has hated Pap for over 2 decades, went through the bowl and licked the spoon till the end. If you hate pap like me too, welcome to the journey of eating it as a dessert. If you already like Pap, Yay for you, because you are going to love it more.

You will need

1 cup (250ml) Pap mixture - i only had the yellow variety, use whichever blend you wish

A dash of Vanilla essence

3 Egg yolks

Milk – optional

Sugar - to your taste

Demerara sugar - brown sugar

Pineapple chunks - or your choice of fruit

Crème Brûlée is made with double cream or heavy cream (american), so I simply substituted the double cream for Pap. Lol

How To

1. Take a thick chunk of Pap, add a little water from the tap to dissolve it

2. Boil water in the kettle and pour over this thick mixture. If you are skilful, you will cook the Pap immediately. Me, I don’t get so lucky. 

So it’s back to the pot to cook it.

For some of you reading, you can make your Ogi in a bowl, without needed to put it on the cooker. My mum makes it like this too. She doesn’t cook it in a pot. Once she pours the hot water over the thick mixture, it thickens immediately. My mum says cooking it in a pot reduces its sourness.

3. Once, you transfer it to a pot, add a dash of vanilla and leave it on the heat, till it thickens. You want to get the consistency of Ogi that you will serve, but slightly watery. if you leave it too long on the heat, and it becomes too thick, simply dilute it with milk

4. While the Pap is cooking, break 3 eggs and extract the yolk. Whisk the egg yolks with sugar in a bowl that can withstand heat. I used roughly 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: to extract just the yolk, break the egg into two and pour the egg yolk unto your fingers, and allow the egg whites slip through your finger. 

5. Once the Pap has cooked and is bubbling nicely, take it off the heat and pour into the bowl containing the yolks and sugar. Make sure you are whisking constantly while you are pouring in the pap.

see the consistency that I ended up with?

The next step is to pour it into small ceramic bowls (ramekins) and bake. I hesitated at first, because old memories of eating Ogi flooded back, and one of the reasons I hated it was the lack of texture. I thought of serving it with crackers, or some pastry which I have eaten at a restaurant. I did not have pastry at home, but I had fruit. Pineapple to be exact. I love baked pineapples, so I lined the base of my ramekin with chopped pineapples.

6. Add chopped pineapples or your choice of fruit

7. Pour in the Pap and egg mixture more than half way. Add more pineapples 

and top it up with more pap mixture. Remember not to make a watery pap and egg mixture, otherwise your dessert will not set.

8. Place the ramekin in a deep baking tray, and add cold water to the tray, till its level gets to almost half of the ramekin. This creates what is called a bain-marie, which is a French word for water bath or double boiler. Place it in the oven, set the temperature at 200 or Gas Mark 3 and let it bake for 45 minutes. A bain-marie is a way of cooking gently and gradually at an almost fixed temperature. You can use a bain-marie for many uses e.g. melting chocolate, making custard, making sauces. My Food Network knowledge coming to the rescue. Lol

I was quite anxious for my result, and thinking I was a genius, I found on Google that Crème Brûlée with Pineapples was not a new thing. I was slightly deflated, but still elated that at least I came up with a novelty idea of using Pap and creating a true Nigerian dessert. So, go to town with yours. Use any fruit you like or any spice you want – cinnamon, cloves, even lavender, rose water, the list is endless. Let’s make our very own Pap very Posh and sophisticated.

9. Let the Pap Brûlée bake till the top feels wobbly, then take it out of the oven

Technically, Crème Brulee is served cold, so after baking, you leave it to cool in the fridge for 2 – 3 hours till the custard sets and when you want to serve you sprinkle brown sugar over it and then burn the top which makes it a Brûlée. With my childhood memories of cold Pap, I did not want to risk hating my creation, so I eat it warm and I still loved it. I will put it one ramekin in the fridge next time and try the other warm again. Whichever temperature tastes best wins. After al this is a new creation. If the French serve Crème Brûlée cold, this is Pap Brûlée. The rules can change. Now my mum is around, I want to truly shock her by making Pap that I will eat with delight in her presence. Lol. I will tell you guys her response.

To burn the top, you need a blow torch. As I did not have one, I simply used a lighter. It was more time-consuming, but it was worth it. What is a brûlée without the top being burnt and crackling. Delicious. I tried to use a grill as suggested on some sites if you don’t have a blow torch and it was a disaster, so I will NOT recommend it.

result from the grill – it burnt the sugar alright but it heated up my cream mixture which was already a semi sold, and it turned it liquidy to my annoyance

Here’s my result of patience, using a lighter

I loved this soooooo much. The vanilla, the sugar, the burnt sugar on top. The best part was the pineapple which had baked in the mixture, making it sweeter

see the chunks of the pineapple that has baked in the creamy mixture. Even more yum

This is a Dooney’s Kitchen Invention. Something I am very very proud of and I know I will take far. Imagine seeing Pap Brûlée on a menu, or shop bought, with a multitude of flavours. This is Pap 2.0, Pap in the 21st century. A true Food Fusion. 9ja meets France. A delicious delight. If you have tried many of my recipes before with success, and you are skeptical about this one. Journey with me into new territory of a Nigerian dessert. Try this, trust me you will like it too.

Zobo, the popular refreshing drink made out of steeping mauve coloured dried leaves in warm water. The English, or do I say the Carribean name for Zobo is Sorrel. I never liked Zobo drink to be honest. It wasn’t something my mother made at home often (thankfully), so most of my zobo drinking memories were from drinking it at a friend or family members house or at parties where it was served to kids and young adults. It used to amaze me how people gulped the thing down with such relish. I could barely tolerate it. To not come across as a snotty teenager I used to hold my breath, gulp it down with such speed and you couldn’t pay me to ask for seconds. The smell was offensive, the taste was offensive, ugh!!

At some point, it was the craze everywhere. No party was complete without the deep mauve coloured drink. It used to amaze me why this was so because any spillage and your party dress was almost ruined. Zobo used to rank up there with Kunu, which I still don’t like but now that I have been making zobo myself a few times now and finally perfecting the recipe which I am writing now, I just may go ahead and try out Kunu. This is my chic Zobo drink, with a little kick and lots of ooomph.

You will need

2 cups of the zobo leaves

6 cups of water

1 orange – juice and rind

1/2 a lemon – juice and rind

2 tablespoons of whole cloves – called konafuru

1 tablespoon of dried chilli flakes – substitute with dried shombo or cayenne pepper (dry pepper)

1 cinnamon stick – substitute with 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon powder

2 tablespoons of organic honey

2 stumps of fresh ginger

Sugar syrup to finish – optional

Zobo leaves – also called Sorrel

cinnamon stick, whole cloves and ginger

How To

1. Measure two cups of the zobo leaves, pour into a colander and give it a good rinse with cold water. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the leaves tend to hold a lot of dust and particles so ensure you rinse it properly. Preferrable under a running tap, reducing the essence of the leaves rinsing out. i.e. don’t sit it in a bowl and rinse. This will cause wastage.

2. Measure the cloves and grind into a powder

3. Prep the other ingredients i.e slice the orange, extract the juice and cut up the pulp and rind into quarters. Do the same for the lemon. As for the ginger, I used two stumps showed in the picture below. Peel the skin and pound in a mortar and pestle or roughly blend.

4. In a pot, add the zobo leaves and 6 cups of cold water. Set the heat to low and add all the ingredients from Step 3, including the cinnamon stick. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: i know some recipes state that boil water and pour over the leaves, like making tea. I have found that the taste of the drink is more intense when you let the leaves steep slowly with the ingredients. The end result is also a very rich and thick juice. Intense heat also destroys the flavour, hence low heat. This will take time, but the results are so worth it.

5. When the mixture starts to boil, take it off the heat. remember my earlier comment about intense heat? I gave it a taste and I loved it, but I wanted to give it a little extra kick. I added more cloves (about half a teaspoon) and a little ginger (a small bit) which gave it more oomph, but I still wanted that kick. I thought to myself, what, what, what, then it hit me. Aaaaaah, dried chilli flakes. 1 tablespoon and BOOM!!! I got what I wanted. One sip and you can taste all the aromatic spices permeating through your taste buds and on swallowing you feel a tingling sensation from the chilli. Perfect.

I thought 1 tablespoon was a tad much at first, and that was probably because the drink was still hot. When it cooled down, it was much better. You can use less if you wish. Transfer the mixture into a plastic bowl, add the honey and leave to cool down. Ordinarily you would sieve out the leaves, the orange, lemon and cinnamon stick once it cools. No, I did not do that, I left it to steep further for 2 days. Day 1 on my kitchen counter and Day 2 in the fridge.

Each time I tasted it, it was much better. By day 2 it wasn’t improving anymore, so I strained out the leaves and the other ingredients. What you will be left with is a really thick drink. Rather than dilute it with just water, transfer the sieved out contents to a bowl and add hot water. Use the resultant solution to dilute the drink, that way you get as much as you can out of the leaves, after which you can discard.

Leave to chill in the fridge, or hasten the process by adding ice cubes and serve garnished with slices of Orange, Lemon and Lime. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: don’t add sugar syrup until you are ready to serve. I find that sugar alters the taste after some time in the fridge.

Spicy, sweet and sharp

a drink that is relevant, whatever time of the year.

To serve in a glass, add ice cubes

Add a slice of lemon to the edge of the glass. Cheers!!!!

With my big batch of Zobo chilling in the fridge, I am going to give it a twist by making cocktails out of it. A zobo Martini, which I term a Zobotini, a Zobo Margarita - get out the tequila. You could also make a Sangria with it, to make your own signature cocktail. Get creative with it. I will also be making a dessert out of this. Ice cream machine to the rescue.See you at the next post. Cheers!!

As you all probably know, I am proudly half Ijebu. Many of my food memories and experiences as a child came for the delicacies of the Ijebu people. My mother and her mother were very very close and I got the full on grandma experience. Mama of blessed memory has passed on now, but she will be forever remembered. Ojojo was one of the delights of spending time at Grandma’s. She knew how much we loved this, and she made the best there is. With her toothed smile, she would proudly proclaim in Yoruba “eyin omo mi, mo ti mo ipe e n bo. Mo ti rin Isu ojojo kale, mo n duro kede kin to bere si ma din. This in English is – welcome my children, knowing you are coming, I have grated water yam and I have been waiting for you to arrive before I fried it. Pardon my written Yoruba – i can’t read nor write the language, despite speaking it fluently, don’t ask me what grade I got for the WAEC exam.

Ojojo was a delight at Grandma’s. She would fry batches and batches of the stuff and we would all line up in the kitchen waiting our turn. You didn’t dare leave for the fear of others having more portions than you. Straight from the fire, despite it burning our fingers, we would rushingly eat it, just so we could have more. Ojojo is like a never ending snack. You can never eat your fill. Ask anyone who has ever had it, you can never get enough of it. Mama could grate 2 tubers of water yam, and it would be gone in minutes. She used to be so pleased to see us all gobble it up. As she got older, she could not grate the water yam anymore as her hands were not steady. Nevertheless, Mama would give us money to buy ojojo from the road side seller a few minutes from our house. Grandma’s are the best, and I will be forever grateful that I got to have the full on experience with one grandmother. Mummy allowed us buy it because it was served hot. You needed to see the queue for ojojo. It was sold in minutes. Ojojo always brings back very very good memories. My sisters favourite food by far. She can start grating at 11pm. The end result always made up for the trouble. I don’t know how to explain the taste. Akara (my recipe HERE) doesn’t come close. Ojojo is savoury sweet, and spicy from the chopped ata rodo. Each piece you take makes you crave for the next one, even before you are done with the one in your mouth, you want another. Thank you Mummy for bringing water yam along with you. Other uses of water yam is Ikokore (recipe HERE).

You will need

1 piece of water yam - water yam can be purchased at many local markets in Nigeria. For those who live abroad, it can be purchase in African and Asian shops

1 ata rodo - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

1/2 red onion

2 tablespoons of ground crayfish

Salt

Seasoning cube - optional (my grandma never used it)

Olive oil - for frying

How To

1. Peel off the skin of the water yam, cut it into big chunks and grate it.

2. Chop ata rodo and onions finely, grind crayfish and add to the grated mixture.

3. Season to taste – I used one knorr chicken cube and salt. Mama would probably shake her head because I used a seasoning cube. Lol

4. Combine with your hands until smooth

5. Heat up olive oil for frying, and when hot, using your fingers, form a ball with the dough and drop into the hot oil. Leave it for fry for a 1 – 2 minutes, when the edges have turned brown, flip it over to allow the other side to fry.  Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: ojojo is deep fried, but I ration the oil in the frying pan, such that I don’t have to dunk the mixture in a lot of oil. I hope that makes sense. 

once browned evenly on both sides, sieve it out of the oil, let it drain on a kitchen paper towel (if you can wait that long) and start munching away.

Trust me, this will disappear in minutes. If you have lots of grabby hands at home, cut that down to seconds. To make ojojo a little more filling like a meal, serve with cold Ijebu garri.

an Ijebu delight

Ojojo can serve as a delightful starter. it will definitely wake up your guests’ taste buds for the main course. I have this idea to pair ojojo with a dip. I have not decided what would go best, but I am envisaging something spicy.

After a very busy Friday and Saturday, which I spent giving the whole place a good clean, Sunday evening came and I realised I had no food in my freezer for the week. The Horror!!!! No food in my freezer is a disaster of epic proportions. Mind you, I have a ton of ingredients, both fresh, dry and frozen to feed an entire army, but I haven’t developed the magic spell for them to combine into hot delicious food. I am still waiting on J.K Rowling to invent something. Lol. Before starting the blog, I used to have these huge cook outs, producing food that would last 3 or even 4 weeks at a stretch. Now, thanks to you guys, I find myself cooking only for one week, and even at that, sometimes I will cook during the week to have new material for the blog. The positive side of this is, I get to do what I love, and the feedback you guys give me is a very good ego boost. My boss must think I have a new boyfriend or something because the time I spend grinning at my phone (when comments come in via email) is becoming suspicious.

So, Sunday evening after a huge meat shop from my favourite halal butcher, I kept staring at my freezer wondering what to cook. I came across my wrapped package of raw Egusi seeds and thought to myself, what else can I do with Egusi that I haven’t blogged about. Two options came to mind Ofe Okazi (okazi soup) and Egusi Ijebu. For sure, the Ijebu variant would win. Yes, I am tribalistic like that. Just joking. Y’all already know how much I love my mother’s side of the family. If you have never tried Egusi Ijebu before, let me introduce you to my Grandma’s recipe today. You will lick your fingers, I promise you. This was Mama’s specialty and I remember eating it hurriedly with Eba and the juices running down my fingers. My sister has a weird way of adding plain boiled okro to it. No one got time for that. The minute Mama took the pot down from the stove, plates at the ready and it was time to eat. You would not talk till your plate was empty and you asked for more almost immediately. The beauty of Egusi Ijebu is the aroma. I can smell it from a mile away. Ogiri and Iru are the star components and you don’t, I repeat, you don’t mess with that flavour profile. If you’ve never added ogiri to your egusi soup before, the Ijebu’s are welcoming you to a whole new experience.

You will need

1 cup of Egusi seeds

1 medium-sized onion

1 piece of tatashe – red bell pepper

2 pieces of ata rodo – scotch bonnet/Habanero pepper

1 wrap of Ogiri

1/4 cup of Iru – fermented locust beans

Assorted meat – goat meat, saki, cowleg, pomo, beef

Panla – stockfish

1 cooking spoon of Palm Oil

1 – 2  cups of Beef stock

Seasoning cube

Salt

Eja Osan or Eja Kika – smoked catfish

How To

1. Boil your meats with stockfish. Only season with onions, seasoning cube and salt. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: it is advisable to not season meats used for native soups with curry, thyme and the rest. They will interfere with the other ingredients creating a weird flavour. For stews and sauces, you can use them. When boiling you meat, start with a little water at first to get a rich stock, later on you add more water.

2. Toast/dry fry the Egusi in a frying pan for 3 – 5 minutes, stirring regularly. This will brown the egusi a bit and enhance the flavour. After which you rinse the Egusi and blend with the onion till it is very smooth. Blend with as little water as possible. Set this aside.

3. Roughly Blend the tatashe with the ata rodo pieces and set aside. Rinse your iru with just enough water to ease out any dirt and stones.

Iru

Tear apart the Eja Osan into bite sized chunks and rinse

With all your ingredients prepped and your meats boiled

4. Add the palm oil to the pot and let it heat up for a minute or 2. Add the blended pepper and fry till the water content evaporates and it thickens. This should take about 3 minutes.

5. Lower the heat and add the iru.

Continue frying until you can smell the aroma of the iru in the pepper, and the pepper has thickened further to the consistency of well fried stew.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you lower the heat so that the iru can cook and fry with the pepper, without burning the pepper. If you fry on high heat, you will end up with a burnt mess. Remember, the flavour profile distinct to Egusi Ijebu is its aroma. Don’t ruin all your hard work before you even start.

6. Once you can smell and taste the iru, add the egusi paste, stir and cover the pot. Still on low heat, let the egusi fry for 7 – 10 minutes, stirring gently occasionally.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you need the egusi to fry properly to release its oils and its flavour. You will know when the Egusi has fried properly by the light orange colour and change in texture.

7. Add the beef stock, the meats, stockfish, wrap of Ogiri to the pot and stir. This will raise the volume of the contents of the pot, then you increase the heat.

ogiri

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you add the ogiri with the meats because you want the flavour to be absorbed into the meat. This is where the finger licking, bite your tongue bit sets in. Ogir and meat flavour = wowzer. By raising the heat, you speed up the cooking process, meaning the ogiri permeates into the egusi faster. No chance of burning as you have increased the water content of the Egusi. Nevertheless, stir regularly.

8. Let it cook for another 5 minutes, and watch as the Egusi thickens and bubbles begin to form at the top and the aroma is permeated by the Ogiri. It is unmistakable. If you have never cooked this before, you will just know it smells different.

Taste for salt and seasoning and re-adjust if necessary. If you used a rich and delicious beef stock you would not need to. Once the Egusi has thickened, add the chunks of smoked fish, stir and lower the heat. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you lower the heat to allow the steam of the egusi to cook soften the smoked fish which will release its flavour and at the same time absorb flavour. Let this cook for another 2 minutes and dilute the soup if necessary. I did just to create extra fluid as Mama’s Egusi Ijebu was never thick.

while it is still on the heat, oil will flow to the top and form patches, like the picture above. One final stir and the oil will combine beautifully.

Before you take it off the heat, ensure that you are satisfied with the taste. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: be careful with salt when cooking Egusi Ijebu. There are no chopped veggies which help to absorb salt, so be really careful with salt. You can go from delicious to salty, just like that. If you are wondering why I did not use crayfish, the answer is, you don’t as crayfish has a very strong flavour, which will interfere with the Ogiri and Iru. The flavour of Smoked fish and Stockfish compliment Ogiri and Iru beautifully. Crayfish is at the other end of the spectrum, so you leave it out.

…………………………………..and you are done.

Egusi Ijebu is best enjoyed with Eba. No doubt about it. Cold Eba to be precise. I decided to have fun with Eba and shape it in petal moulds. Hehehehehe.

do this for your little ones who don’t like starchy solids. Make it fun by moulding into fun shapes. You can do this with eba, amala, pounded yam and semovita. Simply line the moulds with a little oil, scoop the solid into the mould and tip it out. It took me all of 1 minute. Compare that to stressing with your little one to eat. I hope this helps some poor stressed out mum’s of fussy eaters.

Eweseo o, eyin Omo Alare (an Ijebu Greeting)

For my other Egusi recipes I have blogged about Egusi soup with two vegetables (recipe HERE) and Seafood Egusi (recipe HERE). For other Ijebu recipes on the blog. Ojojo (recipe HERE), Ikokore (recipe HERE) and Ebiripo (recipe HERE).

I will still be making Okazi soup one day. I have a wicked recipe. Stay tuned………………

Guacamole is one of those foods that I have known about for ages but have never eaten. Despite having access to an abundance of avocado pears in Nigeria, I never attempted to make the stuff by myself. I have watched many shows on Food Network and BBC Good Food where Guacamole was prepared and it still didn’t tempt me to trying it out myself. Despite how delicious looking, fresh and refreshing the green dip looked, and making mental notes a hundred times to try it out, I never did. Fast forward to eating out at a mexican restaurant chain weeks ago, I finally tried out Guacamole. With a lot of excitement, I dipped nachos into it and let me just say it was quite a let down. You know how you have been itching to try something out, you have built up an expectation in your head, naively assuming that it will be so good, because how can it not be? Well I was disappointed. I won’t mention the restaurant chain’s name because the owner is a celebrity chef I have a lot of respect for. She didn’t make the guacamole herself, so I can’t hate on her work.

After making my Kilishi pizza HERE (which I am still psyched about by the way. lol), I decided to take on the challenge of Guacamole, with a Nigerian twist. Immediately the idea of using Ube came to mind. Afterall Ube is a pear fruit too, another specie of pear that is also creamy and green like the avocado pear. Then another thought hit me, what do we eat Ube with in Nigeria? Corn of course. Boiled or roasted, corn pairs beautifully with Ube. A mixture of sweet from the corn and tangy from the Ube is a delicious match, made in taste buds heaven. Suddenly an idea was born. I am going to make a Ube and Corn deconstructed Guacamole.

What does deconstructed mean, when it gets to food? You may have heard this term before. It simply means “take the foods that are normally combined in the dish, change their forms, and then plate them together in a different way. It’s not just about taking the dish apart, but putting its elements back together”. “It’s “chef speak” for re-creating a dish. When we talk about “deconstructing” that means to take the original recipe to a new level. Literally, taking it apart and putting it back together again”. To deconstruct food is to take apart a dish or recipe or whatever into its different taste elements or ingredients.

For example, my other Efo Riro recipe (HERE) is deconstructed because instead of blending the ingredients for fresh pepper, I chopped it instead. Hence, deconstructed. Follow my drift? Don’t worry, it may take some time to get used to the concept. I am a Food Network pro. I have heard the word so many times and seen it in action, it is second nature to me. Therefore, in the spirit of experimenting, here is another Dooney’s Kitchen Original.

You will need

1 standard size avocado pear

3 pieces of ube

1 small onion

1/2 a piece of ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper. You can also use jalapeno or serrano pepper

Salt

1 teaspoon of dry pepper – cayenne pepper

sprinkling of chopped basil (about a tablespoon) – fresh efinrin would so, you can also use coriander or cilantro

1 clove of garlic

1/2 a lime

3 tablespoons of boiled corn pieces

tomatoes – optional (i substituted tomatoes for corn)

This is really, really easy. No much cooking involved, just chopping and mashing. The recipe above is for a small batch (i was experimenting), double or triple this if you wish.

How To

1. To Cook Ube, you either dunk it in hot water, or you dry cook it by placing it in an empty pot and placing the pot on heat. You will know when it has cooked through by gently pressing with your fingers. The skin should feel soft to touch. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: ube in its raw form is purplish in colour, which mostly darkens to a deep hue of purple immediately after cooking. If you leave ube for a while after cooking, the skin changes colour to brown. I had totally forgotten about that. In a way it was a good coincidence. You will see why below.

2. Boil the corn, or you could roast/grill it. I chose the easy street option (not to talk of fast) of boiling. Aint got the time to grill in an oven, turning it over a hundred times, to brown each side. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: roasting will probably be better as it will introduce a smokey flavour to the guacamole. I made this at 8pm yesterday, hence the easy street option. The next time I make guacamole, I will roast the corn and share the results with you guys. You can cheat and simply use sweetcorn, if you don’t want to go through the trouble of boiling corn. Shhhhhhhhh. It will be our little secret. hehehehehe

3. While the corn is boiling, slice the avocado and take out the pith. Using a spoon, scoop out the green creamy stuff and place in a bowl or small mortar.

Finely chop the ata rodo, onion, garlic and add to the bowl or mortar. Sprinkle in the dry pepper and the juice of 1/2 a lime.

now, the ube should be soft and cooled. Peel the skin off the seed, add to the mortar and then proceed to gently mash all the ingredients together. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: trying to separate the creamy bit from the skin of the Ube proved too difficult, so I decided to use both because hey, when we eat Ube we don’t peel off the skin. Adding the ube will colour the guacamole slightly i.e. a slight brownish hue from the skin, which was fine. Imagine if the skin was still purple, I am not sure if it would have been visually appealing.

Using a knife, scrape off the cooked corn from the cob and add to the mortar. P.S – the corn must also be cooled, and I also used roughly 3 tablespoons. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: guacamole can be creamy or chunky. Personally i think chunky is way nicer, so don’t be too aggressive with the pestle/fork/spoon. Mash enough to have creamy and chunky bits.  

4. Pluck a few basil leaves and chop

add to the bowl/mortar and stir. Sprinkle in salt to taste and you are done.

……………………..taste the Guacamole and taste the difference. The flavour of the Ube rhymes perfectly with the avocado. The corn also adds a sweet dimension to the flavour profile. It will remind you of eating Ube and Corn but so much better, because of the other ingredients. You will have a creamy, savoury, tangy and sweet mixture. If you have had Guacamole before, you will just know this is better. If you haven’t tried Guacamole before, welcome to creamy deliciousness. This will now be the standard to measure all the other guacamole’s you will eat. Hehehehehe.

Traditionally Guacamole is served with Nachos. As I had already gone the route of making this Nigerian, I decided to go further by serving it with, wait for it………………………Plantain Chips.

Plantain chips and Guacamole – AMAZEBALLS!!!! The sweet and salty plantain chips surprisingly works well. SCORE!!!!!

Now that party season is amongst us, try this out for your guests. Many dips are a unhealthy, processed mess. This is healthy and fresh. If you are hosting a really fancy dig, plate the Guacamole in small avocado pears and top with 2 or 3 pieces of plantain chips

ube and corn have gone fancy

Make a guacamole they probably have never heard before and experiment away with what to serve it with. I used plantain chips for a more Nigerian feel, you can use fried spicy meat, suya, yamarita fries, prawn tempura, plain fried yam, spicy chin chin, grilled chicken, etc. Guacamole can also be used as a spread for a sandwich or place in a fajita wrap with chunks of meat, fish or chicken. Think of it like mayonnaise but 100 times better

when plating a dish, use colours that compliment i.e. avocados are green inside and brown outside. The tablemats reflect that

If you would rather prefer a family style of serving, simply spread plantain chips on a tray, and pour the Guacamole into a bowl which everybody can dip into. You can have this tray either passed around by a waiter or member of the family

or place on a table for everyone to go pick themselves.

This post is the first of the series of Party inspired posts that will be coming up in the run up to Thanksgiving and Christmas and of course my birthday on the 26th.

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First of all, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone for the vote of confidence which got this blog nominated for food blog of the year. I started blogging in March and the response has been phenomenal it is overwhelming sometimes. I have never really been one for accolades, as I am a very shy person (who would have known, lol), and the thought of getting up on a stage to speak in front of people would freak me out, but this time around, I want this one and I want it bad. The time, cost, effort to run this blog is virtually one of the hardest things I have ever done, but the challenge is worth it and it is highly fulfilling. I am already validated every day with each kind comment that you guys leave on the blog, the Facebook page, Twitter, The So You Think You Can Cook Facebook Group and now Instagram, in fact without that I would have quit like ages ago (*just kidding, you will have to drag me out of my kitchen kicking and screaming).

So, you guys a kind request for me, for you and all of us that visit and use this blog, let us get to voting. Dooney’s Kitchen for Food Blog of the Year. Too bad, I can’t solicit Olivia Pope to campaign for me, but there is a bit of Olivia Pope in all of us, so let’s get to campaigning. Facebook, Tweet, Instagram, BBM, Email, Word of mouth, let us get the word out there to our friends, family, colleagues, etc and bring a win home. Voting has started, PLEASE CLICK on the link below to VOTE. You cna also click on the link on the top left hand corner of the blog

http://nigerianblogawards.com/vote2013.php

THANKS EVERYONE!!!!

The beauty of being Nigerian amongst other things is the tons of relatives you have. Ask any Nigerian, we have enough relatives to fill a football field may times over. I guess it has to do with our grand fathers and great grand fathers marrying many wives and having many children, who then went on to proceate the earth as per The Lord’s command. Lol. With inter tribal marriages, you now have a wonderful blend of relatives to boot, and with that comes exposure to different languages, cultures, dressing, traditions and of course food. Y’all know that I am half Delta, half Ogun, what I would like to let you know is that there is also a little Edo thrown in the mix and Ghana too because my paternal grandma was half Ghanian, half Edo (Benin to be precise). I even have a Ghanian name – Amma, which means a girl born on Saturday. My sister is called Efua (a girl born on Friday), a name that has stuck since she was born, despite having a different first name. The Edo side of the family meant I spent many Christmases and holidays in Benin because of relatives who lived there. I have first and second cousins from Edo State. There are lots of Edosa’s, Efosa’s Esi’s, Ohimai’s, Osas, Ikponwosa’s, Adesuwa’s, Efe’s, Ehi’s, Osayigbovo’s, Isoken’s, Oghogho, Osaretin’s, and Uyi’s that I am related to. If you guys see your names here, I am shouting out to you.

As regards food, what I was introduced to from that side of the family was Owo soup with boiled green plantains which always caused trouble for me because I would eat all the soup licking my fingers in glee and eye the green plantains which I hated. Another soup I was introduced to was Black Soup, which Mama served in a black earthenware pot. My cousins and I used to joke that it looked like Juju food. Juju meaning black magic. Hehehehe. It really did to us kids because the colour, the slightly bitter taste plus the pot it was served in, did not help matters. Especially when in those home videos we were never allowed to watch, the witch doctor always had some simmering dark looking concoction in a black earthenware pot. She always cooked it with huge chunks of bush meat which I think was the only reason we eat that soup. That meat made up for everything else. My experience with this soup is part and parcel of knowing how to wash bitter leaves. I did not think it was funny then. Just my luck I had two grandma’s who made sure I knew how to wash those leaves till your fingers were raw. Luckily she left the stone grinding of the vegetables for her and my Aunties to do. Phew.

It is called Black soup because of the colour. The vegetables she used (bitter leaf and efinrin) are stone grounded and added to a palm nut meaty and fish stock base. My grandma loved anything bitter. Geez. She had an entire array of bottled herbs which she made us line up and each drink a tablespoon of. The grandchild that will decline had not been born yet. She had herbs for EVERYTHING, with tales of how it will make you grow big, strong and healthy. Not to mention tall. The irony, because the woman was barely 5ft 4. I shudder when I remember those herbs, with their nasty brown and sometimes green or even black colour, with Lord knows what floating it in (sticks, vegetables, whitish stuff, ugh), for Lord knows how many years.The liquid in those bottles will put the fear of God into you. You just misbehave and she threatens you with a spoonful of herbs, you will obey with immediate effect. Don’t you dare cough or sneeze beside her, you will get a spoonful, or per chance a sudden rise in temperature, she will whip out a bottle with stern looks daring you to not open your mouth or feel the lash of a whip she aptly placed by her side. Grandma’s are just the same everywhere and I would love to hear your own stories about yours.

Enough of stories, let’s get to cooking

You will need

1 1/2 cups of blended bitter leaves

1 cup of Efinrin – basil is a good substitute

Assorted Meat - i used goat meat and beef

Assorted offals

1 big piece of stockfish

1 piece of smoked fish

2 – 3 pieces of at a rodo - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

1/2 cup of crayfish

1 1/2 cooking spoon of Palm nut cream

Seasoning cube - knorr chicken preferred

Salt

I have a big batch of bitter leaves which my mum brought for me, and in my experience it loses its potency after a while in the freezer, so I am using it in as many dishes as I can to exhaust it. I am preparing this soup from memory. If I missed anything out, you the good people of Edo State please point it out.

How To

1. Boil and Season your meats. if you are using offals like liver, heart and kidney boil in a separate pot. For saki and cow leg, boil in the same pot as the meats. Remember to cook the meats with a strong tasting smoked fish variety like stockfish, smoked red prawns, eja sawa etc. I wanted a really strong and rich stock, so I used stockfish and later added smoked fish before the meats were completely soft.

2. Whilst the meats are boiling, proceed to washing your bitter leaves. I explained the process HERE. Once the leaves are less bitter, pour in a blender and blend till smooth. Set this aside.

3. Pick the efinrin or basil leaves off the stalk, rinse and blend too, then set aside

4. Blend the ata rodo and add to the pot of cooked meats and stock. By now, you should have added the offals to the pot of meats.

5. Once the pepper has dissolved into the stock, add the palm kernel cream. I used 1 heaped cooking spoon and a half. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you can use palm oil too, but palm nut cream is so much better for this soup. It adds a certain authentic and local flavour to the soup. I used the canned version. If you can’t source it, use palm oil

Let the palm cream dissolve. This should take about 3 – 5 minutes, depending on your cooker, then add crayfish. Taste the palm nut stock, you want it to be really strong and rich . My personal tip, slightly salty. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: This is because bitter leaf has a really strong and over powering flavour, hence you need a stock that is rich enough to match it, otherwise all you will taste is bitter leaf and nothing more. 

6. Once you are happy with the stock, add the bitter leaf to the pot. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: add the bitter leaf one cup first and stir, if it is not enough, add 1/2 a cup more. Like I said in the tip above, you don’t want a pot of soup where you have this strong bitter leaf taste like a herbal concoction. Stir and watch the soup change colour. Green at first, then it will darken. Give it 2 – 3 minutes bubbling up before you taste. Bitter leaves have a lot of fibre in it, and you will notice that the soup has thickened considerably, not a problem. Dilute slightly with beef stock or water and continue cooking. When it has darkened in colour, taste again and you should notice that the bitter leaves have combined beautifully with the stock. If it is still tasting really strong and herbal, lower the heat and let it cook some more.

7. Add the efinrin. I remember Mama’s Black soup being bitter with a strong hint of the efinrin flavour too. I am guessing that the quantity of the bitter leaf must have been a little more than the efinrin hence my 1 1/2 cup bitter leaf to 1 cup efinrin. Once you add the Efinrin, stir and lower the heat as high heat will deplete its flavour fast. Remember that efinrin is added lastly to pepper soup? This is why. Give it another 3 – 5 minutes cooking on low heat, stirring every minute or so. Taste as you go along and half way through add a little more crayfish to finish off. When you are satisfied with the taste overall, take it off the heat …………..and you are done.

hot, bubbling black soup

Black soup is really delicious. The aroma is heavenly. Efinrin is such an amazing herb, it makes everything better. The bitter leaf will have a bitter but sweet after taste to it. Honestly the taste of this soup is something better experienced yourself. I hope you try it out. A coincidence my Grandma would find very amusing. I have not been feeling too well for the past few days and I had this and it really did make me feel better. I guess grandma and her herbs, there really are some magical healing properties to it.

In honour of my Grandma, I served it in a black ceramic square bowl. I don’t have the black earthenware pot, so I thought this would serve.

White plates also showcase this soup fabulously

I have shared my grandma herbal concoction experience, I really would like to hear yours. Hehehehe. Let us all reminisce and have a good laugh about the woman who gave our mothers’ or fathers’ life.

P.S – up next from Edo state from me would be Owo soup

I get food or in this case drink inspiration from unlikely places. This time, from Sex and The City. It is one of my favourite shows till date, and I can never get tired of watching re runs of it. If I could choose the character closest to me, it will be difficult because I consider myself a Char-miranda-lotte. hehehe. Just because I see a bit of myself in both characters. Miranda is the driven, ambitious, independent take no prisoners kind of person, and she also has a soft spot but hides it under a thick veneer of being a kick ass woman (which is a good thing). You just have to get to know her to realise that she is sweet and vulnerable like any woman. Very like Moi. Charlotte on the other had, I also find some connection with because she is the green eyed, hopeful, trusting, hopeless romantic. A Pollyanna with her own rose tinted glass, and somewhat naive view on life, plus parts her story resonates with me in more ways than one. The other two, I have zero connection with their characters. Don’t get me started on the Carrie-Big Conundrum. Never wanted to bitch slap a person so hard in my life before. Oh, I do now, Olivia Pope is next person needing a good bitch slapping to shake her out of her love juju slumber (not my words, but my hilarious friend Funke O.) As for Samantha, I have no words. Loooool.

We all know that the cocktail The Cosmopolitan was made famous because of that show. One evening while watching the show, as the crimson drink was swirling in the martini glass, the idea popped in my head. Of course I can make Zobo into a cocktail. A Martini was the first idea, using a cue from the Martini glass, The Cosmopolitan is served in. Sure, that must be possible, I thought. As I am not that much of a drinker (party popper alert!!) I did not have a clue as to how to make a Martini, so I started researching. I remembered that the English name for Zobo is Sorrel, and Voila!!! I came across Sorrel Martini recipes. I was so tripped. Great food minds think alike. I will make a Sorreltini with my little twist and call it a Zobotini. I knew I had to be prepared to go all the way, so I bought a cocktail maker set. Using my special Zobo recipe (posted HERE), I give to you guys Dunni’s Zobotini.

You will need

1/2 cup of my Zobo drink - unsweetened

1 – 2 shots of Vodka - depending on how strong you want it

1 tablespoon of Demerera sugar syrup - to sweeten it

A squeeze of lemon

How To

First, I will like to start with how to Rim a glass. This is very important as it is part of the experience of having a cocktail. Even if it is homemade, recreate the bar/dining out experience in your home and make yourself and your guests feel special

1. Get out your cocktail glass, cut half a lemon/lime and rub it all round the edge of the glass. Make sure you give it a mild squeeze at the same time to ensure that the rim is coated in lemon juice.

2. Depending on what cocktail you are making, you can rim with sugar or salt. For a Martini, you rim with sugar. I chose to use a combination of demerera sugar and white sugar. Demerera for colour and also because I was using it as a syrup in the Zobotini. Pour the sugar onto a flat surface, like a plate or worktop. Tilt the cocktail glass at an angle and roll it around till the sugar crystals stick

start at an edge and keep rolling. You may need to do this a few times.

keep rolling till you get this

final result – place in the fridge or freezer to chill while you mix the cocktail

3. Using a cocktail shaker, add ice, about 3 or 4

measure in the rest of the ingredients

4. Cover and shake vigorously for a while. If the shaker gets too cold, simply wrap in a napkin and continue shaking

Pour out the liquid into the cocktail glass,

add a slice of lemon to the cocktail glass and Voila!!!!!! - Zobotini

You know how at a bar, you will be served a cocktail with a bowl of nuts. I thought, why not replace this with chin chin. It is brown, it is crunchy too. No? hehehehehe. Enjoy the pictures

the ultimate pairing – chin chin with a zobotini

does the colour remind you of a Cosmopolitan? Who said it was so 90′s, you can rock this drink any day

Have a girls night in or even a bridal shower and get to mixing…………..

rimming the glass with lemon and sugar makes the cocktail glass smell great, and taste great before you even take a sip of the Zobotini

Enjoy with chin chin

I will still be experimenting with more liqueur goes by, especially with party season upon us (my birthday inclusive), and hosting guests, I already have a ready supply of guinea pigs. You could also join me in my experimentation and share your results with me. Have a cocktail mix party with your girlfriends a la Sex and The City or make it unisex, all the more fun. Guys always bring an interesting spin to alcoholic drinks. Hehehehe.

P.S - If you had to choose a character in Sex and the City, who would you be and why?

I have written about Egusi twice now, but it is one of my favourite soups, so I make it a lot. I sometimes make it with two vegetables (recipe HERE), or I make it very luxurious by using a combination of seafood (recipe HERE). Egusi soup and Eba is my winning meal any day. This evening despite not ing so great, I decided to teach my flatmate how to make Egusi soup. Teaching guys to cook is always an experience. We started with Aya made 2 weeks ago and that was a success, which he re-created for his family and they loved it. If you still want to sign up for Cooking Lessons to show off your new and improved skills for Christmas, spaces are still available.

When I teach, I go full on. The easier option would have been to plainly fry the Egusi but I wanted to show him something that many people probably don’t get correctly and that is making Egusi into balls and making those balls stay. It was a good thing I did so because something just occurred to me today, and I believe this tip is golden and would be 100% replicable. For pros or for novices, this will work.

You will need

Powdered Egusi

1 Onion

1 piece of Tatashe - red bell pepper

2 pieces of ata rodo - scotch bonnet/habaenro pepper

Iru

Assorted Meat

Beef Stock

Crayfish

Seasoning cube - knorr chicken cube preferred

Salt

Palm oil

Ugu vegetables

Smoked Fish

How To

1. Grind the Egusi into a smooth powdery form. Use a mill for this. Then cut the onion in half, blend one half and finely chop the other half.

2. Gradually add the blended onion into the Egusi powder until it forms a thick paste. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: gradually because you want a thick paste. If you add too much liquid onion, the balls will not form and you will need more powdered Egusi to thicken it. 

3. Once you have a thick egusi onion paste, add the chopped onion and then proceed to forming into balls with your left palm and fingers. I am right handed, which is why i stated left palm. You need the balls to be slightly big, this is to make allowance for breakages. If the balls are too small, you will end up with tiny sized balls like a peanut, which defeats the purpose really. To enjoy egusi balls, they should be big enough to be picked and chewed. Trust me, this is heavenly delicious.

4. Place the balls into a bowl, if there is no space, put into more bowls and place in the fridge. You may be thing huh? Fridge, why?. This is the tip I just discovered. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: it occurred to me whilst forming the balls that cold air will really help the balls to set, thereby keeping their shape. If you have always had problems with this, fridge to the rescue. The cold air will harden the balls, such that when you add it to the pot to cook, it will hold its shape. Don’t believe me, see pictures below. After all in many recipes, we place things in the fridge to harden, why not with Egusi balls

5. Whilst the egusi balls are chilling, do the rest of the prepping i.e. blend the pepper, grind  the crayfish, wash and chop the vegetables. Once you have blended pepper, heat up palm oil in the pot and add the pepper to fry.

6. Once it has fried, ensure that it has thickened, then check on the egusi balls. If the paste sticks to your fingers immediately you touch it, you need to leave it in the fridge for a little longer. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: You know it is ready when you can pick up the balls easily and you don’t feel like it will dissolve in your hands and the balls feel semi solid.

7. Once the egusi balls have set, add them to the fried pepper, add a little beef stock or water, to prevent the pepper and Egusi balls from burning, and lower the heat to medium. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the contrast in temperature of the cold Egusi balls and the fried pepper will will keep the egusi balls in place. Don’t forget, lower the heat. If the heat is higher, the pepper will be more agitated, therefore breaking down the egusi balls. Lower the heat

keep frying, and shake the pot with your hands in a circular motion. Do NOT stir with a spoon. Keep frying until the oil floats to the surface, this is very important. See below, the oil is peeking out amidst the bubbles

8. The add the meats, iru, crayfish and a little more beef stock to create a more fluid soup. Once you add the meats, shake the pot in a circular motion too. You will notice that some of the egusi balls have broken down and many are still intact. See picture below, the balls are still intact, whilst bits of it have dissolved in the soup giving the characteristic orange Egusi soup colour.

keep the heat on medium and let the soup cook. You will see some tiny bubbles floating on top. Taste for salt and seasoning. if you sued a very rich beef stop you should not need to re-season. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: if you used water, 1 cube of Knorr chicken cube and salt will do. This time you can stir with a spoon gently.  If the balls are too big for you, break apart gently with the spoon.

9. Once palm oil is floating at the top in patches, add the Ugu vegetables and the smoked fish. Stir to combine properly. Ugu is quite a dense vegetable, so don’t add it in chunks. Using a sprinkling motion, add the ugu vegetables to the soup. Dooney’s Kitchen tip: personal preference will come into play here. Some people like their Egusi with lots of vegetables, some like it just showy in the soup. Whichever you prefer. I like mine half way, just showing, so that I can eeeeeeenjoy the egusi without chewing too much vegetables.

10. Leave to cook for a few minutes, tasting the soup every 2 minutes or so to check whether the ugu has softened. it will be crunchy at first. I wanted to show that some of balls are still intact. See picture below

Once you stir Egusi, it thickens up, which is fine. Leave it to cook until the liquid floats to the top with patches of oil. Believe it or not I used just 1 cooking spoon and a half of Palm oil. I am not one for lots of oil in Egusi soup, and most of my soups.

see picture below, the liquid content is oozing out. At this point taste the ugu again to check for softness.

keep the heat on medium, stir occasionally. Once you get to the point you are satisfied, turn of f the heat and eeeeeeeenjoy!!!!!!!!!

make some Eba, quick!!!!!!

still see the balls, still intact. Very yummy

……………..and that’s a wrap. My student really enjoyed the experience, and the verdict was it was Scrumptious, best Egusi ever. I am very pleased. Now off to boil some yam

The Palm nut tree is local to Nigeria and a few other countries I think. My grandma used to tell me that it is the ever giving tree because all parts of the tree from the bark, to the leaves, to the nuts, the branches and the rest are useful. There is actually a prayer in Yorubaland attached to this tree. I can’t remember the exact word, because it is said in proverbs, but it is along the lines of your source of wealth, strength, love, health etc shall be continuously replenished just all the Palm nut tree is ever giving. If anyone can remember that proverb share please, as it is a very good prayer.

As regards food, the juice extracted from the Palm kernel is used for soups across Nigeria and indeed West Africa. The famous Banga Soup for one which is local to the people of Delta, Atama Soup is the Efik version (recipe HERE). It is also used in Black Soup which is native to the people of Edo State (recipe HERE). I am sure there are many other soups that the juice extracts used for. If you know of other examples, please share. Today I will be writing about Ofe Akwu which is native to the Igbos and is commonly eaten with rice, whilst the other soups I mentioned are eaten with starchy solids.

I have been making Banga Soup for a long time, from the days of learning how to from my Grandma. On relocating to Abuja, I made new friends and one of them Amaka, introduced me proper to Igbo soups, and I mean proper. Amaka is from Anamabra State and she schooled me real good. I owe most of the Igbo soups I know how to cook to her. Ofe Akwu is quite simple to make. Very simple in fact, and the vegetables used are quite easy to source. I was not doing too great this past Sunday and I had friends coming over to check up on me. Even though I had some food in the freezer, I was craving something freshly prepared, and visitors coming over was a very good motivation to make something. I enjoyed it, they enjoyed it, everyone was happy. I will like to pass on some of that happiness to you too.

You will need

200g can of Palm nut cream - this is what I have at home. if you would like to extract the juice from scratch, there are videos on youtube that will help explain the process

1 wrap of Ogiri

Assorted Meats

Stockfish

Smoked fish

Beef Stock

Small bit of Nchawu - scent leaf/efinrin/basil

1 handful of chopped Ugu

Fresh pepper - i used ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper)

1/2 cup of ground crayfish

Salt

How To

1. Boil and season your meats with the stockfish. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: this is the first base to a successful pot of soup. Get your stock right and it is home sailing from there. If you have a dense and chunky smoked fish that won’t disintegrate in the pot on boiling with the meats, add it too.

2. When the meats and the other components have softened, add the ogiri. Ignore the smell, the taste is in the eating. hehehehe. You will soon notice the change in aroma and taste.

3. Add fresh pepper. The quantity depends on your tolerance level. I added half a cooking spoon at first, and let it cook with the stock but added more as I wanted it to be more spicy.

4. Once the pepper has dissolved properly into the stock, add the palm nut paste and stir.  Once thoroughly combined, lower the heat to medium allow the palm nut paste to cook properly. If you are using fresh palm nut extract, no need lowering the heat as you will need high heat for the extract to thicken.

With every few minutes, taste and you will notice a change in flavour, from a harsh concentrated palm nut taste to a more subtle one which compliments the flavour of the ogiri nicely. This should take right about 10 minutes, and you will notice that the soup has thickened considerably with patches of oil floating on top. Ofe Akwu is not watery like Banga soup, it is a little thicker, hence eaten with rice. Try to find a happy medium though. Not too thick, not dripping watery.

5. If your beef stock was rich and intense, you would not need to re-season. Before you get tempted to re-season, add crayfish first, stir let it cook for a minute or two then add salt. If you are still not happy, add 1 seasoning cube.

Once you are happy with the taste, add chopped Nchawu (efinrin/basil). I used dried Efinrin because I did not want to drive to the store to pick up fresh basil, and what better than to use the native Nchawu, albeit the dried version. As it was dried, i simply crushed in between my palms and added to the soup.

Give it a minute or two for the essence of the Nchawu to permeate through the soup, add the chopped Ugu, lower the heat further to allow the Ugu to cook without unnecessarily thickening the soup. Once the ugwu is soft yet crunchy, take it off the heat.

Considering that the picture above was taken after lunch was over and the pot was almosst empty, I feel like I should add a little warning, especially for someone who will be making this for the first time. Ugu is a very naughty leaf. Yes, I used the word naughty. Due to its high fibre content, it absorbs water very quickly, hence your lovely bubbly pot of soup, will turn to a much thicker consistency if not served immediately, especially if your kitchen is cold. Not to worry, add a little water, lower the heat and warm it back up again.

…………..and here is my Ofe Akwu. Sunday Lunch went down as a hit. They were too shy to take pictures, nevertheless, thank you guys for coming. I appreciate the concern.

…………..and that’s a wrap. Enjoy with white rice or prepare a starchy solid if that is your preference.

The inspiration for this came from work, or is the better sentence at work. First of all, I would like to say that I love Christmas. The child in me just can’t seem to grow up when it gets to this festive season. Maybe it is because I was born at the end of November, so I have been wired to always be in a happy, joyous and festive mood from November all the way into the New Year. I am the person that will stop and smile at every Christmas display in a shopping centre. I still peer into the windows and wave at Santa. I don’t know whether it is my cloud 9 haze, but people seem to be much nicer during this period. They are patient, kinder, relaxed, smiling more etc. I know it can’t be just me who notices this, because as soon as January rolls in, you can feel the grouchiness coming back.

This magical seasonal fairy dust has also sprinkled its way into work and in 6 out of 10 off work conversations, there is something festive or Christmassey up for discussion. We have talked about parties, pressies, food, embarrassing family dinners, Menus, you name it. All we IT folks just drop our geeky brains for a few minutes and be normal human beings. Last week, we were talking about alcohol and how everyone seems to drink more during the holidays, then the topic shifted to cocktails. A colleague said her husband has a penchant for sweet cocktails, which she doesn’t understand, to which I responded, I am inclined the same and she said at least you are a woman. Imagine a guy at a bar ordering a daiquiri or a pina colada, and we all laughed. My reasoning which I explained to them was this. I don’t like the taste of most spirits used in cocktails, but when it is mixed with something sweet, my taste buds deceive my brain that it is ice cream or something, and I enjoy it. Then we went to talk about their friends and family members who embarrass themselves at Christmas dinners. The hilarious comments and faux pas some of them make under the influence. Gosh I laughed so hard, my tummy hurt. British people and alcohol, oh dear. Let me just stop here, because I am a bona fide proud lover and resident of the United Kingdom, I consider this home too, so don’t let me diss my own ‘people’ too much.

Laughs over, jokes over, we went back to work. I attended to a few things, got a breather and then my brain started churning. I was playing back our previous conversation, my mind suddenly stopped at Pina Colada and then it hit me. Pina Colada is made with rum, cream of coconut and pineapple. Ding! Ding! Ding!. This was almost too easy. Zobo drink can be made with pineapple too, so it is ‘a natural’ pairing. Why I never thought about it before, I don’t know. It was probably because I had some grand Zobo ice cream in my head, I didn’t see what was right in front of me. I have mentioned making a zobo ice cream for ages but never got round to it because I wanted to pair it with something. A plain zobo ice cream will not be creative at all, at the same time, pair it with the wrong thing and you end up with a yucky funny tasting mess. I have also never made ice cream before, so I wanted to use a recipe I could tweak. Many ice cream recipes don’t contain a liquid flavoured ingredient (apart from milk and cream) that you have to use so much of to retain its flavour. After loads of head scratching, Pina Colada to the rescue. Back home in the evening, I started researching recipes of Pineapple and Coconut ice cream, with the intention of replacing the Coconut milk with Zobo. Get my train of thought now? 400ml Coconut milk can be replaced with 400ml Zobo drink. BOOM!!! The rest of the story to make this was a tad frustrating, but thankfully the end result was magnificent. I tweaked a recipe from Delicious Magazine.

You will need

400ml zobo drink - my recipe HERE

300g Pineapple

150g sugar

250ml double cream - also called heavy cream

a dash of Vanilla extract

1/2 a lemon

3 egg yolks

How To

1. Break the 3 eggs, extract the yolks, measure the sugar and whip with a fork or whisk

2. Transfer the whipped egg and sugar mixture to a pot on low heat. Measure the zobo drink and double cream, then add to the pot. Whisk gently, to cook the egg yolks.

3. With the pot simmering nicely, cut the pineapple into chunks and whizz in a blender to form a pulp. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: in hindsight, I should have whizzed the pineapple a bit more, the pulp gave me problems during the later stages.

the recipe calls for 400ml of zobo drink and I did not have enough, so I added a few zobo leaves to concentrate the flavour, and to also give it the deep pink colour I was looking for.

4.  Leave the zobo cream mixture on the heat to thicken. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: zobo is more liquid than coconut milk, even on addition of double cream, it did not help thicken the mixture to a runny custard like consistency which the recipe state. To achieve this, you have to leave it on the heat to thicken up a bit. You should also be watching out for the colour. I was aiming for a mild shade of fuchsia. Spillage alert: double cream tends to boil over, so watch it closely. Once it has a light custard like consistency, add the pineapple pulp, vanilla and lemon juice. Let it cook a little more to further thicken. Ensure to taste to be sure that you are happy with the sweetness. Pineapple is sweet too anyway.

end result, a runny zobo cream  pineapple custard. Mine was too runny, make yours to be thicker than this.  Let it cool completely, better still don’t make the mistake I made. Put it in the freezer to chill. Now to the interesting stuff

I have a Kenwood ice cream maker. This is a really really cheap kit that cost me less than the price of 2 tubs of Ben and Jerrys. It makes Ice cream and Sorbets. I got it on eBay.

the top half contains the engine, while the bottom half is the bowl. This bowl should be kept in the freezer for at least four hours, preferably overnight. I wasn’t taking any chances, I left it in the freezer for 3 days (OTT, I know. lol). Don’t worry, there are no electrical components in the bowl, so it can stay in the freezer as long as you have the space for it.

take the bowl out of the freezer, connect the top half and lock it in place. It is IMPORTANT that you turn it on BEFORE you pour in the zobo and pineapple cream mixture.

Once the motor is running, carefully pour in the mixture and leave the machine to churn for 20 minutes. At least that is what the manual said. Hmmmph!!! that was not my experience.

20 minutes later, I had what you will call runny ice cream. I raced to find the manual and it advised that it is best to chill the mixture before adding to the machine. Nevertheless, that didn’t explain why my “ice cream” was runny. Off to YouTube, still no solution. Then I gave up and put it in the freezer. After all, there are websites that show you how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, don’t be discourage. It is a simple process, freeze the creamy mixture, and whisk every hour or so till the cream sets.

I followed that process, and I ended up with a sludgy Sherbet or Sorbet like consistency. because my creamy mixture was runny to start with. If you start with a thick creamy custard, you should have no problems making ice cream manually. It was delicious no doubt, but I wanted Ice Cream.

then I had the idea to give the machine one more try. With my sorbet like mixture which was very cold and very thick, I attached the machine to it, and in under 5 minutes. BOOM!!!! I got creamy and smooth ice cream, just like it is supposed to. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!.

………………………and that’s a wrap. Scoop it out and serve.

I narrated my experience, for the benefit of those who may face the same problems that I did. This was my first time making ice cream, and hitches are part of the cooking experiment process. I will itemise the mistakes I made, so you watch out for it.

• The pineapple pulp was not smooth enough and the strands as you will see in the pictures below were preventing the cream from forming

see the pink strands? Those came from the pineapple pulp

• The creamy custard was not cold before i added it to the machine. In my excitement, i didn’t let it cool down enough
• The mixture was too watery – in hindsight I should either have reduced the volume of the zobo drink or increased the volume of the cream. Remember that the fat content of coconut milk ensures that it thickens naturally. Add it to double cream, and you will get an even thicker mixture. Zobo has zilch fat in it

Here’s the result of my experiment. When you make ice cream at home, the freshness hits you as soon as you taste it. Then you know the store-bought stuff is truly bad for you. I have tasted many a pineapple ice cream, but nothing came close to the real taste of pineapple that I got from this one.

core out a pineapple and scoop in the ice cream

 i will be upadating this page with a restaurant style serving of this delicous ice cream. I will also be pairing it with chocolate chip cookies and homemade madeleines.

There are times when I deliberately switch things up when I am cooking so as not to get bored with my food. I got a text from someone who said her brother is down with the flu and he wants packs of assorted meat peppersoup. We all know that peppersoup is the default choice for recovery. The fresh herbs, spices and the heat from the chilli acts as some magical medication that flushes nasties and germs out of your system. Plus, eating lots of chilli increases your appetite, promotes digestion and helps settle your tummy. The next time you or yours are not doing so great, especially with the cold front that has settled in, make some peppersoup and watch them feel a little better.

My mum has a special touch with her peppersoup, especially when you are ill. There is a long standing joke at home that her peppersoup will drive even the devil from your body, because it is just so hot. I told her it should be used by priests during exorcisms. hehehehehe. One sip of it, and your entire mouth is on fire. It tastes so good, despite the heat that you will find yourself taking more spoons of it. If you weren’t hungry before, your appetite will come back in full force. She usually served it with Yam or boiled rice.

Fish or meat, peppersoup is the ultimate Nigerian starter. I have made probably a hundred pots of it, and pepperosup has a way of surprising you in taste. i.e. despite following a recipe, no two pots of peppersoup are ever the same. Very weird

Update 1 - While cutting up the meats into smaller pieces, I suddenly had the idea of blend an onion, with ginger and ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper). Usually, I blend the ata rodo, chop the onion and leave ginger out of it entirely as the peppersoup spice already has ginger in it. I took a gamble and it paid of tremendously. I got this intense freshness and sweetness from the ginger and the onions.

Like my previous post on Assorted Meat Peppersoup HERE. I boil the meats with the spices from scratch. If you are used to boiling your meats first and adding the spices later on, I suggest you try my method. Every time I have made this, especially for new people the feedback has been head swelling inducing. I still made this at a friend’s house for his birthday party two weekends ago. As expected, the pot emptied very fast.

Update 2 - Another new thing I tried was adding about 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil to the peppersoup while it was bubbling and boiling. I don’t know where the thought came from, but it worked too.

Update 3 - i think this was the best of all. Peppersoup is traditionally made with Efinrin. Also called scent leaf or nchawu. If you live abroad, basil is the closest substitute. Efinrin is quite difficult to source where I live, but the dried variety is very common. After crushing dried Efinrin into my pot of Ofe Akwu (recipe HERE) last week, and I loved the local flavour I got, I decided to do it again with the peppersoup. This made it taste wonderful, local and of course familiar. Part of the visual appearance of peppersoup is the chopped fresh herb floating in the soup. The crushed efinrin only gave me black dot like patches, so I decided to take a gamble and use fresh basil as it is in the same family as Efinrin. BOOM!, BOOM, BOOM!. 3 minutes after, the aroma was heady, the taste was phenomenal. It was as if the basil made the efinrin taste better, or maybe the other way around I don’t know, but it worked, worked, worked.

Yesterday, I was going to visit a dear friend of mine, and I know that her son’s favourite food is Jollof rice. Aunty Dunni duties therefore dictate that I must bring along with me some Jollof rice for him. It important to note that this is the first time I am making Jollof Rice after my mum’s visit. I just replicated all her hints and tips and I produced a delicious pot of Jollof rice, with the fab party colour, not a single soggy grain of rice in sight, thankfully and a delicious taste. The only negative was that I used the stock from the Jerk Chicken that I prepared on that day, which made it too spicy for a child, but fine for adults. I was a little stumped about it, but white rice and blended tomatoes to the rescue. A quick 5 minutes adjustment and it was mild enough for him to eat.

The recipe for my Part Jollof rice is HERE. I also have Mummy’s extra hints and tips HERE, which I put to good use and followed below. Here are my pictures and process

1. Wash the rice properly with cold water, and let out as much starch as you can till the water is clear. You can choose to reverse this process and boil first till al dente then wash out the starch, it is up to you.

2. While the rice is boiling, proceed to make the pepper base. One thing of note mummy said to me when she was around was this. Yes tomato paste is needed for the orange colour, but it should only assist in the process and not be the major ingredient. i.e. if you use too much tomato paste, all in a bid to get the orange colour, the fried stew will taste sour and the colour you will end up with will be a shocking shade of orange, and not the mild pleasant to the eye type that is served at parties.

for this pot of jollof rice, i used 3 pieces of tomatoes, one onion, 2 large red bell peppers, and a big dump of ginger. Mummy said, the blended pepper should have a deep red colour, not the pale red colour that you normally use for regular stew which is full of tomatoes. I used the same method as the recipe i had posted earlier. i.e chop onions, fry in the oil, add the blended pepper, beef/chicken stock, bay leaves, tomato puree/paste and fry. For this pot I used half of a 210g tin of DeRica.

see the colour? This is what you should be aiming for

I took this shot under low light to demonstrate what you should not end up with. See how really dark red this tomato base is? If yours looks like this under good lighting, chances are that you used too much tomato paste. Not to to worry, just blend 2 or 3 pieces of tomatoes, add to the pot and fry.

While boiling the rice, just add water that is enough to top it. You are boiling the rice to be al dente, not to completely cook it. The grains in the picture below were al dente. The rice was not completely cooked, but not hard either. Watch your rice closely while it boils, if it gets soft before you add the pepper base, the flavours won’t combine properly

After running cold water into the pot to stop the cooking process, I titled the pot to strain out the hot water, then I added all the pepper base and left it to cook. See picture below, see how much liquid is left in the pot. This is just enough to cook the rice. You really have to be careful here. When you add the pepper base, just add a little water, like the picture below. I reasoned with 2 knorr chicken cubes and a little salt

a good way of gauging is to check the bubbles emanating from the pot, you should still be able to see the rice, and patches of water floating on top. If all you can see is the pepper stock floating and no rice, just tilt the pot a little and decant some of that water. You may end up needing it for top up, or you may not. Don’t take the chance and end up with soggy water. To get this, I actually decanted some water. Just a little, but thank goodness I did otherwise the rice would have been soggy.

a few minutes later, this is what I got. Gorgeous Jollof rice in colour,t sate and consistency. Not a single soggy grain in site.

For added flavour, just like in parties, add onion rings and tomatoes, turn the rice with a wooden spoon and let the steam cook the veggies. Also leave it on the heat for it to burn a little, to release the smokey party flavour. While it is burning, carefully turn with a wooden spoon to circulate the smokey flavour. Careful here, so you not use the wooden spoon to mash the rice grains.

……………and there you have it. Beautiful Jollof rice.

Don’t you just want to eat that straight from the screen. Hehehehe. I remember calling my Mum yesterday and hailing her. The student has learnt very well from the Master

Even though Thanksgiving is not celebrated where I live, I still participate in my own way. This year, I have lots of things to be thankful for. Too many to name, but one which ranks very high on the list is the success of this blog and the support plus overwhelming feedback I have received from each and everyone of you. My phone has never been so busy, and each time I receive a notification, there is something to smile about. It is very poignant that I am writing this on the day before my birthday, which I normally use as a day of reflection and taking stock of the past year. I have never felt so accomplished, fulfilled and hopeful for the future. Finally the path is clear where I can take my passion to greater heights. I can now see where I am going to, and I am loving the journey. The joy I get from knowing that I am making a difference in people’s lives, in people’s homes, bringing smiles on people’s faces, making children happy, building people’s confidence in themselves and their abilities, strengthening family bonds and marriages knows no bounds. One of my wishes this year was to make new friends as I am mostly stuck at home. I am still mostly at home, but I now feel like I have a thousand friends. I have never met any of you guys before (save for one or two), but it already feels like we’ve been best buddies for years. The comments, the questions, the friendly banter, the prayers, the head swelling inducing praise, the excitement that is tangible when a recipe was a hit is very heart warming. I asked for friends, and I got so much more than I bargained for. For that I am grateful, and I pray that as Dooney’s Kitchen gets bigger and bigger, I will carry all of you along as part of that success. I will hold all these memories dearly and cherish them, no matter how big this blog gets. The week of Thanksgiving 2013, will be remembered.

For my readers in North America who will be gathering round the table with friends and family in Thanksgiving for all His Goodness, Grace and Mercies, I hope this post comes to you at a good time, and you prepare dishes that with a difference this time around. Under each course, I have listed options for you to pick and choose. While you are feasting, don’t forget to mention Dooney’s Kitchen to your friends and family. Just being cheeky. Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

Starters - Battered Fish, Peppered gizzard and Plantain cups, Mosa and lemony palm oil sauce, Yamarita fries, Salmon crepes and coconut chilli sauce, Ukodo, Assorted Meat Peppersoup, Moi Moi and fish sauce

Food platters with optional dips - Dodo ikire, Skewered prawns and seared scallops, Potato chips with Ube and corn guacamole, Calamari and garlic mayonnaise, suya spiced grilled beef, served with the suya spice

Mains/Sides - Party Jollof rice with Jerk Chicken, Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya, Gbegiri, Amala and ewedu with buka stew – use big chunks of goat meat, beef and Saki, Chinese sweet chilli shredded beef and rice, Lumpy Egusi soup and Pounded yam, Banga soup and Starch, Ofe Owerri with Yellow Garri, Coconut rice and Peppered Meats, Thai Chicken curry and Jasmine rice

Salads - basil and tomato salsa, warm kidney beans and sweet peppers, abacha and fried fish, Avocado salad, Coleslaw

Drinks - Zobotini, Chapman, Zobo for the kids, Lemonade

Desserts/sweet options - Banana bread and guilt free banana  Ice cream, Pancakes with chocolate sauce and a dollop of ice cream, Pap and pineapple brûlée, Puff puff dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar served with a creamy custard dip and/or a chocolate dip

I hope this Menu inspires you. So, get to shopping and cooking. Spare me a thought and remember to take pictures and leave comments after the dirty dishes have been cleared.

Before we get carried away with the festivities, if i could just chip in that voting is still on and I hope you and yours have voted for Dooney’s Kitchen to win Food Blog of the Year. If you haven’t you have one more week before voting rounds up. It would be a belated birthday present from all of you. Remember to vote at www.nigerianblogawards.com

Happy Thanksgiving from Dooney’s Kitchen