I must confess the very first day I heard the two words Jerk Chicken, I couldn’t stop giggling. It was so funny at the time and I promised to try it out the next time I see on a restaurant’s Menu. When I finally tried Jerk Chicken, I did not expect the intense flavour that hit me on the first bite. Phew, and I thought Nigerian food was spicy. Geez, Jerk Chicken is our peppered chicken 2.0. It is a Jamaican delicacy which is way more intense than our Peppered Chicken, more like Chicken suya, even more intense than that too. Even if you like your food really spicy, Jerk chicken will still blow your head off. I have eaten it subsequently, and the flavour never fails to hit me on the first bite.

I have seen many recipes on Jerk chicken but never tried it out before, because the sauce just looked complicated and I didn’t want to mar the experience I have had with eating Jerk chicken at restaurants. All that changed when I watched an episode of Cooking for Real with Sunny Anderson where she made Jerk Chicken. She made it look so simple, I made a mental note to try out Jerk chicken at home. This was months ago, and I had totally forgotten about until 2 weekends ago when I came across a bottled jar of Jerk Chicken seasoning at the African Store. I picked up the bottle and said to myself, this is my answer to finally making Jerk Chicken. Cop out I know, but what the heck, it comes in a jar, I might as well.

The next conundrum was the chicken. I don’t buy supermarket chicken because of the way they are raised, and mostly because it is tasteless (no offence to supermarket chains). I usually buy what we call ‘hard chicken’, also called Provera Chicken I think from halal butchers. This chicken is truly ‘hard’. It boils like forever, and sometimes you will need to boil it in a pressure pot. Watching Sunny Anderson cook Jerk Chicken, I knew supermarket chain chicken will not work, I also knew my hard chicken which takes forever to cook will not work as it will not be soft enough. Then I remembered my slow cooker. My Aunty Bukky gave me hers, which had been lounging in her store and she hardly used. As I have never cooked Jerk chicken before, let alone in a slow cooker, I went to google to find out if it had been done before. Thankfully yes. The delights of slow cooking cannot be over emphasised. This was just brilliant. This is so easy, no ‘cooking’ was done on my part.

For Thanksgiving this year, rather than make peppered chicken, or roast a traditional turkey in the oven, try Jerk Chicken 9ja style. You can do this too in the oven on low heat.

You will need

Chicken

Curry Powder

Dried Thyme

1 piece of Ata rodo

Garlic

Ginger

Red Onion

Bottled Jerk Chicken Seasoning

Bay Leaves

Fresh Basil

Knorr Chicken Cubes

Salt

How To

1. Blend the ata rodo with the onions and ginger using a little water. Dooney’s Kitchen TIp: you need a little water, because chicken naturally contains water, and you will need the stock to baste the chicken.

2. Add the chicken to the slow cooker, or oven tray

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, what you just blended, and tablespoons of the Jerk chicken seasoning.

like I said above, Jerk chicken seasoning is explosive, so use it to your tolerance. I used about 3 tablespoons and on hindsight, I think that was too much.

4. Cover the slower cooker, and set the timer to low. The jerk chicken should cook in about 6 hours using hard chicken.

I did the steps above, shortly before I went to bed, and woke up to the place smelling amazing and gorgeous really soft Jerk Chicken.

To crisp up the skin a bit, I laid out the chicken pieces on foil, set it on an oven tray and set it to grill for 5 minutes

see how soft the chicken is, it is totally falling off the bone. This has never happened to me with ‘hard chicken’ before. Yaaaaay.

This is perfect for Thanksgiving as you can just throw the chicken in the oven, and go about your other duties. Pair with a cool salsa to temper down the heat a bit. Recipe for Basil Tomato Salsa HERE

First Birthday Post, Yaaaaaaaaaay. Hopefully I’ll make it a tradition to post something new on each Birthday. Thanks to you guys for making me have more reasons to celebrate and be thankful this year.

If you are looking for ideas for what to serve for Thanksgiving dinner, click HERE. Coincidentally, I am still awake at 3am and what do i see on TV? Jamie Oliver one of my food heroes, is making JERK CHICKEN. Sure, that has to be a sign. Hehehehe. He is making it differently though, making the Jerk sauce from scratch too and also using ‘soft chicken’. Pen at the ready to take notes.

I have always been fascinated with the culture spanning the entire landmass which used to be called Persia. It is colourful, beautiful and very glamorous. I have dreamed about visiting the Arabian lands, ever since my days of a little girl reading about Lawrence of Arabia and other legends from that part of the world. One of the weird and wonderful things my parents made me read as a child, all in a bid to culture my mind. Having a mum who read English Literature did not help at all, but it makes for good conversation plus I appear smart and cultured when I am among snooty intellectuals. Note to parents, if you want your children to develop weird social skills as adults, stick them in the house with their noses firmly buried in a book.

When I choose a holiday destination, food ranks high on the list of what I want to experience. That is why you probably won’t catch me visiting Scandinavian countries (no offence) because I wouldn’t know the first thing to order. Moroccan cuisine is absolutely fabulous. Their use of spices turns out gorgeous aromatic food. As part of my birthday tradition of picking up and upping sticks out of here, I called on my fellow ‘Johnny Walker’, my boss on all things travel and said Dayo, let’s go somewhere in Arabian Peninsula or Persian Gulf. Doha came up since he lives there, he said nothing to experience. Same with Dubai. It may be in the middle east but it is as western as it comes.

Map of the Persian Gulf and North Africa at hand, we started looking through countries. He’s very adventurous like myself, but a tad OTT. He said let’s do Azerbaijan. Azer what, errrr no. Batzra, What!!!!. Okay, let’s do Iran. My response was are you okay at all? My father is in his 70′s do you want me to give him a heart attack? I can just imagine the phone conversation. Daddy, I’m going to Iran on a holiday. My mum would probably scream so loud I will hear it all the way from Lagos. After lots of back and forth banter, with each suggestion he made more ridiculous than the next, we finally settled on Amman, Jordan, with a day trip to Petra. I was so psyched only to look through the visa regulations and my face fell. The application process will take 8 – 10 weeks. Perils of holding a Nigerian Passport. Back to the drawing board, lets start ticking. Egypt (too unsettling), Oman (visa headache), Istanbul (weather not as warm at this time of the year), Tunis (a bomb went off there recently), Algeria (not interesting enough), then we finally settled on Morocco and the obvious choice was Marrakech. In the Marrakech vs Casablanca argument, Marrakech wins hands down and we are doing day trips to Essaouira (the windy city of Africa) and Ouarzazarte (the door of the dessert). You can’t truly explore Morocco in one trip, so I am definitely going back. Fes, Agadir, Tangiers, me and my tiny legs must reach there.

Morocco is a bundle of historical and cultural influences because of its history of being conquered by the French and Spaniards. It is still traditionally Arabian but very cosmopolitan at the same time, which is why it is fascinating to Westerners. Unlike Dubai which is all flash and probably no substance culture wise, Morocco has been able to find a happy balance of being traditional, and cultural as well as modern, which ticks all my boxes travel wise. I like to soak in the culture, and explore with comfy shoes, and camera in hand. I am planning to unleash my EOS 100d on the sights of Morocco. I also can’t wait to buy ornaments, garments, fragrances and of course spices. I am coming back with a box full of goodies. Ahead of my trip, I wanted to make a Tagine, because the last time I made it something went awry. A Tagine is simply a stew, very similar to our Nigerian stew but packed with more spices and dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, dates, apricots, prunes) and nuts (almonds, pine nuts etc). I intend to grill the cooks to the fullest, wherever I eat, and it will be easier to understand their recipes if I have cooked it before. Thankfully this turned out absolutely beautiful and I can already feel the sights, sounds and smells of Morocco. Look out for my many pictures and posts from my trip.

You will need

Lamb

Saffron

Paprika – substitute with dry pepper/cayenne pepper

Ginger

Red onions

1 can of chopped tomatoes – substitute with 3 large tomatoes

Sunflower oil – any oil of your choice

Ground black pepper

Garlic

Harissa paste – substitute with tomato paste

Sultanas or raisins

flaked almonds/pine nuts

dried dates – if you wish

dried apricot – if you wish

1 – 2 pieces of ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

Moroccan spice powder – you can substitute with turmeric, ground coriander, ground cinnamon

1 cup of Couscous

1 teaspoon of butter

Seasoning cube

Salt

How To

1. Grate/blend the onions with the garlic, ginger and ata rodo. Pour it over the lamb with the powdery spices and a tablespoon of oil to combine properly. Leave in the fridge for 45mins to 1 hour. With the Lamb marinating, chop the onions, blend the tomatoes and set aside.

I wanted to go traditional here and used a Tagine pot. I got it cheaply on eBay. You can use a crock pot, dutch oven, regular pot or even a slow cooker or casserole dish which you place in the oven. With a slow cooker or casserole dish though, brown the meats in a pan first.

this is the base of a tagine pot

during cooking, the conical-shaped cover is placed on the base, sealing the heat in. A tiny hole is created on the conical cover to let out steam. I believe this process of cooking makes the tagine taste more intense as the spices are sealed in

2. When the meats have marinated, add a little oil to the pot, let it heat up, shake off any excess spices off the meat and add to the pan. Allow it to brown on each side for 2 minutes.

flip the meats over to allow the other side to brown and caramelise.

3. Then you add the chopped onions, and stir around to sweat it down.

once the onions have softened, add the blended tomatoes, the remaining portion of the marinade, seasoning cubes, salt and a little water. Cover the pot and set the heat to the lowest and let it cook. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you need to set the heat to low, as traditionally a tagine is cooked this way to allow the spices permeate the meats slowly. A tagine is a stew, but like i said above, an intensely flavoured stew.

see the tiny hole on the middle portion of the cover?

While the pot is bubbling away, cold steep your saffron. Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. This tiny little container cost a pretty penny. Lucky thing is you don’t need that much. You only need a few strands of Saffron. Just a little goes a long way. It is a precious spice that evokes luxury, some form of specialness to a dish. If my husband will agree with me to name at least one of our daughters after something food inspired, Saffron is definitely top of the list. Hehehehe.

you only need a few strands of it – some will even say this is too much

and a little water to the bowl and leave the saffron strands to steep. Gradually you will see the water change to a pale shade of orange with a lemony green tint. Saffron is also used in Paella dishes to give colour and flavour.

4. After about 30 minutes, open the pot and you should have a bubbly pot of ‘stew’ glaring back at you. Add the saffron and your choice of dried fruits, stir and cover the pot again. I don’t like dates, I did not have apricots at home, so I used just sultanas and raisins.

if the stew is too thick, add a little water to dilute, and leave it to cook. You want a fluid stew-like look but not watery. See below. Taste for salt and seasoning and re-adjust if necessary. It would already smell amazing by now.

keep checking the tagine every 10 minutes or so. When the stew has thickened and fried considerably, turn off the heat, and simply leave it sitting. Don’t open the pot.

5. Then proceed to making the couscous. This is easy peasy. Chop a little onion add to the pot. Add the butter/oil, pour in 1 and a half cups of water and bring to the boil.

add the couscous, turn the heat to the lowest, and allow the couscous absorb all the water

you will know it is ready when the grains have plumped up. Fluff with a fork. Some people like their couscous grainy and crunchy, some like it fluffy. Taste it, if you feel it is not soft enough, add just a little water, leave it to absorb and fluff again. For a little colour, I added tiny pieces of chopped ata rodo. There’s my cooked Couscous

now, back to the gorgeous tagine which you have left to rest for a bit. See, it looks just like stew doesn’t it

Sprinkle over chopped coriander, basil or parsley and serve with the pot.

Serve with Couscous in bowls. This dish is a very good option for entertaining or family dinner

Let everyone serve themselves and tuck in…………………..

see how gorgeous and thick the Tagine is? This was personal preference though, you can make yours slightly more fluid

with the raisins popping out, all plump, juicy and filled with spices

Morocco beckons. I hope you guys in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Hello everyone, I am back from Marrakech, and it feels good to be back, well save for the big chill. I made this shortly before I left, and I will like to share this with you, for your Christmas party. I have written about making dodo ikire before. See recipe HERE. I called my Aunty Bunmi who lived in Ibadan for years as her husband was a consultant at UCH. She told me what to do, but I think I must have misunderstood something because although it was delicious and made me reminisce, it turned hard and crunchy soon after.

When my mum was around in September, i told her what happened to my dodo ikire and she said, you know why the one’s you buy on the road is always soft and chewy? It is wrapped in plastic almost immediately, thereby retaining warmth and moisture which prevents it from hardening. With the way you make dodo ikire, air is against you, so you must find a way to strike a happy balance. When i ended up with overripe plantain a few days ago, I thought back to the conversation I had with my mum, and I decided to try something different this time, and  remove one ingredient I must say it worked. I also wanted to make dodo ikire pretty and chic too. Hehehehe.

You will need

2 overripe plantains

1 piece of ata rodo - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

1/4 of an onion

Salt

Palm oil

How To

The last time i made dodo ikire, i chopped the overripe plantains and i also used red bell pepper. This time, i removed the red bell pepper and i mashed the plantains to a pulp instead. The last time, I added salt at the last minute, this time i added salt after mashing, which extracted water out of the plantains which helped make it chewy, and less charcoal tasting, if that is a word. Loooool

1. Peel the overripe plantains, and mash to a pulp. Chop the ata rodo and the onions and add to the bowl. Add salt to taste and combine thoroughly.

2. Heat up palm oil in a pot, and using your fingers, take out balls of the mixture and add to the hot palm oil

3. Once the plantain balls are frying in the hot oil, leave it to fry on high heat undisturbed. When you start to see the edges turn brown then carefully flip over.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the method behind it is this. The raw plantain mixture is a little liquify, the first phase of frying will thicken it to form a ball, which will hold it together, but the insides will still be uncooked. You need to let it form that ball first, which will caramelise the plantains.

4. Then with a spoon or fork, you gently break apart the balls. You will see that the insides are still relatively uncooked. Now, you lower the heat, otherwise the cooked bits will burn while the uncooked bits get some heat.

if you have had dodo ikire before, you will remember that it comes in roughly shaped balls.  I hope looking at this image brings back fond memories. When you can see less of the pale orange colour, take it out of the heat.

Like i mentioned above, unless you are going to wrap in plastic wraps immediately, don’t let it fry till it gets too burnt, otherwise it will harden when exposed to air after a few minutes and taste charcoal, which will ruin your wonderful dodo ikire experience.

…………and thats it. Make it chic and mould the chewy balls around a toothpick or cocktail stick. Serve this to your guests and watch it disappear in minutes. Dodo ikire, is savoury, sweet and chewy at the same time.

How chic is this?

notice how it is not totally burnt, to get that chewy delicious goodness, you need to ensure it doesn’t burn too much.

you can either stick in on a toothpick immediately, or wrap in a plastic wrap and then mould on a stick later. Remember, to preserve the chewiness, it should not be exposed to air for too long before serving.

Looking back, this was one of the first recipes that I posted. In fact, it was the second recipe on my Bella Naija BN Cuisine feature. When I look back at the pictures from that post, I can’t help but cringe for a few seconds and that feeling is replaced by pride and gratitude for how far I have come in this food blogosphere. This past weekend, I decided on a do over on one of my favourite stews till date. The Ijebu’s are known for very many wonderful things, of which Aya Mase is one of them. It should be our official tribe stew because of its fame and popularity.

I taught my flatmate to make this stew weeks ago, and while teaching him, I picked up a few new things myself and that pot was the best I have ever made. I made a mental note of all the new things I picked up and I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn’t just a fluke, so I recreated it on Saturday to take to a friend’s house for her daughter’s birthday party and BOOM!!!!, same result, just as good as that last pot. If you have tried my aya mase recipe in the past (recipe HERE) and loved it, this is even better. I think what clinched it for me was the duration of bleaching the palm oil. It was quite a coincidence that I came across this realisation. While he was prepping for the stew, I forgot to tell him to bleach the palm oil. I remembered at the last-minute, and I kept saying cripes, he should have been bleaching the palm oil while he chopped the meats, so cooking can start immediately. Nevertheless, he put the palm oil on the heat, and I could see that he was already tired from all the prepping. This is someone who barely cooks. He complained the entire time and said, he now understands why ofada sauce is expensive in restaurants, and he won’t begrudge them the price again. Hehehehehe.

I could sense that he had already had enough of the process, so roughly 10 minutes or even less, I told him to take it off the heat, with a caveat that the next time he makes it, he should let it bleach for much longer. I realised this was probably not correct, when the stew was done. Let me tell you why. Although we were not bleaching that much palm oil, but prior to that day, I would have bleached for at least 20 minutes. Now I know better, it is not necessary. Longer than 10 minutes, and that distinct villagey/local aya mase flavour is lost amongst the powering smokey flavour that you get from bleaching for a long time. I wrote villagey because once the stew was done, it tasted and smelled EXACTLY like the old woman who sold obe ata dudu (the local name for aya mase) in Iperu my mother’s village. As in, EXACTLY and it was down mostly to the Palm oil. From memory, I could now perceive that local aroma, and it was different from the other aya mase’s I have made, and I am really good at this stew. I also picked up two new key tips. Trust me, try this for Christmas and your guests will abandon whatever else you serve and descend on this. Here is how to:

You will need

1 cup of palm oil – roughly

6 -7 pieces of green bell pepper – basically green tatashe

3 pieces of ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

2 wraps of Iru – fermented locust beans

3 – 4 cups or more of chopped assorted meats

Beef Stock

Seasoning Cube

Salt

1 large onion

1 cooking spoon of ground crayfish

How To

1. Blend the Green Pepper with the ata rodo and boil till it reduces and becomes thick. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: if you have been blending green pepper with onions and chilli, stop it now. Lol. You only need two ingredients for the pepper to get that local flavour

2. While the pepper is boiling, cover the pot and bleach the palm oil. This is roughly one cup. Be a little obsessive about this. Set the timer if possible. As soon as you start to approach the 8 – 10 minute mark, turn off the heat. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: if you have an electric cooker, just leave it there to absorb latent heat. If you have a gas cooker, as naked flame burns hotter than electric cookers, just turn off the heat and leave it undisturbed to cool. DO NOT OPEN THE POT, until the body feels totally warm.

see the colour of the palm oil? It has blackened like expected BUT it is not entirely charcoal black. Tilting the pot, you can see that it has a golden honey like colour. This is exactly what you want. The days of black like charcoal palm oil for ofada sauce is not necessary. You miss out on an aromatic essence when you over bleach

A little Dooney’s Kitchen science behind it is this. You only need to bleach for a few minutes at first because remember, the palm oil will still continue bleaching along the entire cooking process. So, you only need to kick-start it for a couple of minutes at the beginning to darken it. No point burning the hell out of it (pardon my French) at the start, when it will still continue bleaching while you cook. I hope that explains it.

3. Once the pot has cooled, put it back on the heat and add chopped onions.

let it fry till it softens, and then add the iru and let both fry. The aroma wafting from the oil will let you know that you have got a winner right there

a new tip i picked up: let the onions and iru fry until bubbles of palm oil float to the top i.e. the onions and iru have absorbed some of the oil at the beginning. They release this oil once they have fried sufficiently, and it floats to the top. Make sure this happens before you add the meats. See below

4. Add the meats, stir and let it fry. At the beginning, the meats take over the pot, with time, as it fries, it will release the oil which will float to the top

see? after a few minutes, the oil is coming back up

when you get to this point where the oil is seeping through amongst the meats and also floating to the top, then you know your meats are ready for the pepper. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: doing it this way is key.

5. Add the boiled pepper and stir. Like above, let it fry until oil floats to the top

then you add stock, roughly 1 cup, stir and let it fry until you start to see patches of oil on top. If you have got very rich stock, you may not need to re-season with salt and seasoning cubes. If you need to, simply do.

see the patches of oil in the picture below? Oil floating to the top signals the end of a stage and the beginning of the next.

6. Add ground crayfish

another tip I want to share. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the addition of crayfish is more like an accent to this stew. Remember that in times past, seasoning cubes were not used, so crayfish is meant to replace that. What I am trying to say is, now we now use seasoning cubes, the flavour of crayfish in this stew should be mild i.e. it should not hit you the minute you smell or taste this stew like it would in our Nigerian soups. The flavour of crayfish is intense, so for this stew, you want it to play a minor role i.e. it should just be there in the background. Something your taste buds will pick up at the end. If you go overboard with crayfish you will miss that local flavour you have tried so hard to achieve in the previous steps.

7. Stir and let the crayfish cook and combine with the stew. Lower the heat, and let the stew gently fry till it releases the oil back up again. At this point, you can add boiled eggs, while you are letting it fry. Once the oil starts to float back up, taste again for salt and seasoning, and re-adjust accordingly.

………….and you are done. Stay tuned for my Grandma’s Alapa (palm oil stew), it promises to be a lick your spoon clean experience

Serve with ofada rice (unpolished rice), regular long grain rice or even perfumed rice like Basmati or Jasmine rice. I always enjoy it with fried plantain too (dodo).

You may be wondering what Alapa is, you probably have not heard of it before, even if you are Yoruba or you speak the language well. Don’t worry, this is not something new, you already know it by its English name. Alapa is simply Palm Oil Stew. That is all it is. My grandma was the boss of this stew.  From friends, family and neighbours at her house in Onipanu all the way to Iperu where she was from, my maternal grandmother was well-known for this stew. She had business interests in selling household goods; she was a major and I mean major distributor for PZ, Cussons, Leventis, Nestle, Lever Brothers and co, otherwise, if she had opened a Buka, it would have been very successful too.

When we had large family functions, despite hiring Alase’s (commercial party cooks – they were the first step towards caterers we have now), Mama always supervised the cooking of the stew that was served. The rest of the food she left to the Iya Alase’s to handle but the stew, no way, she was there from start to finish. Even for a party of 1000 upwards, Mama made the stew for it. Iye Gbuyi’s (as she was fondly called after her first child) stew would make you lick your plate clean and ask for more. Anything served with her stew was the first to finish at our family parties. When she cooked it with Goat meat, Ram meat or Awo (guinea fowl), you will forget your name. Loads of women learnt from her and also passed it on to their daughters and granddaughters. I am bringing one of my family recipes to you today. If you have eaten palm oil stew before or you make it yourself at home, trust me you haven’t made it like this before. Many of you reading this would have tried out my Buka Stew recipe. I can beat my chest and say this is even better. You must be thinking WHAT!!! Dunni, nothing tops Buka stew, trust me this does.

I have held this recipe close to myself for a while thinking Buka Stew should be Dooney’s Kitchen signature stew and Alapa I will keep within the family, but when my mother’s best friend passed away suddenly and so painfully with her only child a few weeks ago, thinking back on her life and in discussions with my mum trying to help her get over the shock, we were also reminiscing about other people who have passed away and the impact they left in our lives, especially another recent passing, Uncle Mike, our lesson teacher, someone who was pivotal in the education of all 3 of us. He passed away on Sunday after a protracted illness. This prompted me to share another of my Grandma’s food legacies. To live in the hearts of people is to live forever. This post is dedicated specially to my Grandma who raised the wonderful woman I call Mummy today. Iye Gbuyi, you will never be forgotten, your legacy lives on in all us and we hope we are making you proud. To Uncle Mike, we all passed WAEC Maths and Physics because of you, you will never be forgotten. To Aunty Jane who understood my mum so deeply, your friendship was enviable, and delightful Chinwem who were buried today, the shock of your death still lingers and is very painful but The Almighty understands and we have to give in to His Will. We pray for His Grace to lead you onwards in your Journey.

Over the years, I have tweaked this recipe a bit, just so that my daughters and granddaughters can also say this was my Alapa – sorry Grandma. Nothing tops yours though.

You will need

2 cooking spoons of Palm Oil

3 pieces of Tomatoes

3 pieces of Tatashe - red bell pepper

2 – 3 pieces of ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper) - depending on how hot you want it

1 red onion - for blending

1/2 red onion - chopped for frying

Assorted Meat

1 wrap of Iru - fermented locust beans

1 small tin of Tomato puree - I used the Derica brand

1 piece of smoked fish - i used smoked catfish

Beef Stock

Seasoning cubes

Salt

How To

1. Boil and season your meats accordingly. While the meats are cooking, blend all the ingredients for the pepper and boil it till it becomes very thick. Wash the iru with cold water. Chop half an onion, and also clean and tear apart the smoked/dry fish.

2. Chop half an onion. When the meats have become soft, heat up palm oil in the pot on low heat for a few minutes till it darkens a little bit. Just a little bit.

Add the onions, the iru and the boiled meat. Allow the meat to fry until it browns on each side. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: best to fry in a non stick pot or pan, because the onions and iru will burn a bit and stick to the pan. 

For health conscious people, you can skip this step if you wish, but I am afraid, the effect is not the same thing. My grandma was allergic to any kind of vegetable oil, so she cooked with only palm oil. She lived till 86.

I am only using 2 cooking spoons of Palm oil, so whether you fry or you don’t fry, the 2 cooking spoons of palm oil will still be used in the soup. Frying the meat this way in palm oil, iru and onions gives it this kind of flavour that is special and vital to the overall taste of the stew

3. Fry all your meats. Take out the fried meat and set aside.

You are probably going to be left with only a little palm oil at the end. Not to worry, transfer this oil and the charred bits of iru and onions to the pot you want to cook the stew with.

Add the freshly boiled pepper and let it fry till you end up with a thick sauce.

it will go from this

to this

4. Add beef stock to dilute, and the tomato puree. Let this bubble up and continue the frying process.

When the stew thickens up a bit, add the fried meat, and continue cooking for the next 5 minutes or so. Taste at this point and re-season if necessary. Mine was fine because I used a very rich beef stock.

Now, my grandmother used to do two things I found quite odd. One of them I can explain, the other I simply can’t.

5. Once the stew has thickened up a bit, add a little extra palm oil. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: she does this to get back the original flavour of palm oil which has been lost from all the frying. Palm oil has its own flavour as we all know. When you fry with it, its original taste changes to a smokey version, which on its own is amazing but fresh palm oil flavour is also sublime. Those who cook with palm nut extract will know what I mean. So, by adding a fresh palm oil so late in the game, you get the best of both worlds. The fresh palm oil flavour AND the smokey palm oil flavour. This is probably why her stew ROCKS SOMETHING AWESOME!!!!!. In the spirit of tasting ingredients fresh, I also added a little extra fresh Iru.

The next thing she does is, she adds water to dilute the stew to the point it becomes watery. Why, honestly I don’t know. You have been frying stew for a while, it is now thick and then you dunk water in it. Don’t ask, even my mum probably doesn’t know why. I couldn’t ask her today of all days, but I will later on and if her answer is explainable, I will update this post, otherwise just accept it like that. Mama’s Alapa was always light and fluid. You add it to rice and it will sink nicely to the middle and bottom, leaving patches of stew on top. It was never watery i.e. no water separation at all. That was a no-no. Paired with ewedu or fresh okro, or even vegetable soup and it just flowed smoothly.

6. After adding the extra palm oil, add water to dilute, let it be watery enough to slide off the spoon easily, turn down the heat, and let the stew and meats bubble along nicely. The addition of water will dilute the salt and seasoning, don’t re-adjust just yet. Trust me, if you do you will end up with a salty mess later.

7. In about 5 minutes, you will have noticed that the stew has thickened a little bit. It should still have that watery look and feel to it. Add in the strips of the smoked catfish, stir gently.

Further lower the heat and wait a few more minutes, the stew will thicken just a little bit more, but still be ‘watery’. Taste the difference now. Come on. Taste it. Turn off the heat, cover the pot, and simply let it simmer nicely.

……………..and you are done. If Buka Stew was your secret weapon at home, you now have an arsenal of stews.

Mama always served in a deep large bowl and a ladle for which the stew will be scooped out and served to everyone. Miss that woman plenty.

I have been advised or is it cajoled to marry an Igbo man. Hehehehehehe. Because I seem to know how to cook all their soups. *their words not mine*. I know a few friends and relatives who will disagree, but these are the same people who don’t like to hear me say, I can marry a White man you know, in a lot of ways we share the same ideologies on marriage and family, so we will suit just fine. Hahahaha. Olumide one of the most vocal will say “you are not allowed”. Lol.  When someone on the Facebook Group So You Think You Can Cook, mentioned the many Igbo recipes that I have, I went to Google ‘Igbo Soups’ just to be sure that I haven’t missed anyone out. According to Google, I haven’t but I know that there must be some out there that I probably haven’t tasted or even heard off. This is to challenge to all my Igbo readers out there, please enlighten me. I have heard of one other soup called Ofor soup, but it is basically the same as the Native Soup from Rivers. I spoke to my friend Chiby yesterday and she gave me the low down on this soup. Once I source my fresh fish this weekend, I will be making it.

If you’ve always found the cuisine of the Igbos frightening and complicated, especially if you are a new bride looking forward to pleasing your new in-laws with their tribal or clan food, don’t be. As numerous as their soups are, the variety is mostly down to the choice of vegetables which names the soup. There is a lot of commonality with the technique. I have the recipe for Ofe Onugbu (bitter leaf soup) already (recipe HERE), I also have the recipe for Ofe Owerri (recipe HERE). If you have looked at them or tried them before, this recipe will be a breeze for you. The only difference being that Oha/Ora leaves are not to be chopped with a knife. Apparently, it makes the leaves bitter, so you have to tear the leaves apart with your fingers.

You will need

3 pieces of Cocoyam

1 – 2 handfuls of Oha/Ora leaves

2 wraps of Ogiri

1 piece of Tatashe - red bell pepper

2 pieces of ata rodo - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

1 1/2 cooking spoons of Palm oil

Assorted Meat

1 piece of Stock fish

1 piece of smoked fish

Uziza leaves for extra flavour – a few leaves or grind a couple of uziza seeds

Beef Stock

Seasoning cube

Salt

How To

1. Season and boil your meats with the stockfish until tender. When you have a sizeable volume of stock that you think will cook the soup, add the blended tatashe and ata rodo.

2. Put the cocoyam to boil with enough water. Do NOT add salt.

was and tear apart the smoked fish into bite sized portions

3. Let it boil with the meats until the pepper dissolves thoroughly, turning the stock to a shade of orange.

then add Palm oil.

4. Let the palm oil dissolve until you see bits of oil floating at the edges of the pot.

5. Once you have a rich oil filled stock, then add the wraps of Ogiri. Start with one wrap and let it dissolve. In a few minutes you will be able to smell and taste the ogiri in the stock. If you want a much stronger flavour, depending on how large your meat and stock is, add another wrap.

6. Right about when you add the pepper to the meats in stage 2, you should have put the cocoyam to boil. Once it is soft enough, and I mean soft enough not just for the fork to go through, but to break it apart, take it off the heat, peel the skin and put in a small mortar to pound. You can use a food processor or a blender. If it doesn’t move smoothly, just add a little hot water to get the blades moving.

pound the cocoyam until soft, smooth and creamy.

it is okay to have tiny lumps. As long as they are not hard lumps, it will dissolve into the stock.

7. Add the cocoyam paste to the stock in balls. Right about morsel size. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: I prefer to lower the heat once the cocoyam paste is in to reduce the chance of burning.

in a few minutes time, between 3 – 5 depending on how low the heat is, the cocoyam paste will dissolve and thicken the stock.

you should be seeing the stock change to a pale shade of orange and it should be thicker in consistency, but not as thick that it is like a sludgy custard.

8. Add crayfish to the stock, which will thicken it further and give it flavour. Give the crayfish a few minutes to dissolve and taste the soup. Re-season if necessary.

9. Then you add the oha leaves. Note of Caution: Oha/Ora leaves are not to be chopped with a knife. I was told it makes it bitter. Who am I to argue. Simply tear the leaves apart gently with your fingers

give it a stir, add shredded smoked fish, lower the heat further and let it cook for a few minutes. Not too long, to retain its colour if you are using fresh. I was using frozen, so the leaves had darkened a bit to a deep shade of green, but the essence and flavour of the leaves was still there.

………………..and that’s it. Serve your Oha soup with any starchy solid of your choice.

Some people may be wondering, Dunni why Pounded Cocoyam? That’s strange, isn’t cocoyam simply used as a thickener? Well you are correct, but I am all about pushing the boundaries and exploring options. Sometimes I shake my head about the inane arguments some people have over food and their unexplainable stand on how things must be done. You can’t use this and call it the same soup. Crazy, I know. You left this out therefore it is not the same dish. BS in my opinion. If you have read the arguments some people put up, a non Nigerian will look on and wonder if there is more to it than food. Food is like Fashion, do what you want with it. Express yourself, surprise your taste buds. The greatest chefs in the world thought outside the box. Enough of the preaching.

I decided to pound the cocoyam because I enjoy pinching out of the paste while i put it in the stock. I just love the taste of boiled coocyam. Luckily I had one big piece left, so I decided to boil it to the point that it was soft, just the way you would with yam. Too soft and it becomes a paste. I pounded the cocoyam, wrapped it in cellophane and left it to cool a bit. it toughened up after a few minutes, and I served it on a plate and moulded it in a shape similar to the uncooked Cocoyam and decided to be cheeky by even adding hairs. I am guilty of many things, and attention to detail is one of them. I also decided to be cheeky by serving the Oha soup in the shape of a Comment icon. Hehehehehehe.

This was my Sunday Lunch. I hope you all have a nice week and are preparing for Christmas. if you need an help with your Christmas cooking or Food SHopping List, just let me know, I am happy to help. First Christmas as a Food Blogger, and I am very excited.

I think you all know by now that I cannot bake to save my life. You are either a good cook or a good baker and I have decided to accept that phrase and stick to my side of the fence. A few months ago, I had a student Deola who came for Cooking classes. She is a whiz at baking and decorating and I was practically begging her to either start a baking blog or bake for profit, but she is a mum with a toddler plus a resident doctor in training, so I can understand that she doesn’t have the time. It is not easy to walk away from medical training, although I did and it was the scariest decision of my life, which turned out to be one of the best.

On the day of her last class she said Dunni, I will prove to you, that you too can bake. This is a simple recipe even a child can follow. I looked at her and laughed. I said Deola, trust me, the gods of baking don’t like me at all. Even when I plan to follow a recipe to the letter, the cooking brain part of me feels smart with itself and tries to tweak it. The result = disaster. There must be some sneaky little devil (according to cartoons), which must be sitting atop my head taunting me to not follow the recipe, or even when I do follow the recipe, I think my measurements are always off. Anyways, Deola was kind enough to bring along all the ingredients for the cake including her hand mixer. I watched her make the cake and it was so easy and effortless. I can imagine how it must have felt to her watching me cook. All the things I was discounting as easy and she was disagreeing with me, now the tables had turned. It was a fantastic experience to have two people in one kitchen at opposite ends of the food making scale. A Cook and a Baker. In a few short minutes, she had made the batter and the cake was in the oven. I was just staring at her in amazement. The result was soooooo good, I eat almost half before she left. Did I mention that she also baked me a Lemon Madeira cake? For the next 3 days, all I ate was cake.

Then she said to me, I want you to re-create this yourself one day and to encourage you, I am going to be leaving behind all my tools plus her hand mixer. I have a food processor, but it is such an enormous thing to bring out and clean. She must have sensed it because she said, here’s my hand mixer now you have no excuse. Weeks after, whilst looking for something in the store, I came across her hand mixer and I decided to go buy bananas and wait for it to rotten. Again, the little red devil told me to add milk (instead of orange juice) and peanut butter, I don’t know why I deliberately sabotage my baking. Anyway, the taste was GREAT. The texture not as good as hers. I will be leaving out the milk and peanut butter next time or find a way to incorporate the peanut butter at least and still get the texture that she did, because the peanut butter was absolutely gorgeous in the cake. Hey, bananas and peanut butter are a match made in heaven. The recipe is Dan Lepard’s. Deola’s Baking Hero.

You will need

200g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
250g plain flour
4 medium eggs
Finely grated zest of an orange and 15ml juice
200g well-mashed banana - I used 2
3 tsp baking powder

How To

You will need 2 blackened bananas. See below

1. Melt the butter in the microwave. This is what makes this recipe sooooo simple and very quick.

2. Mash the bananas to a pulp with a fork 

3. Add the melted butter to the sugar in a pot or mixing bowl and whisk gently till the sugar combines well with the butter.

4. Mix in 100g grams of the flour and whisk until smooth

5. Then add one egg and whisk properly till it combines before you add the next. To save me from myself, I whisked each egg in a separate bowl each time before adding to the batter and then gently combined it. Do the same for the remaining 3.

6. Then add the rest of the ingredients, starting with the mashed banana, orange juice and zest, then sift in the rest of the flour and baking powder. Ignore the pictures below – I used ground nutmeg instead of the zest of an orange, but I am adding the picture to remind you of what to do.

do not use milk please – use orange juice. This picture is just to serve as a reminder of the steps.

here is where I sneakily added peanut butter. hehehehehe. Take your chances if you may.

7. Combine all the ingredients gently, and your batter should look like this. The entire time this was made by hand in a few minutes.

8. Line a bread pan – silicone or metal, whichever you have

pour in the batter carefully and bake at 160C (140C fan-assisted)/320F/gas mark 2½ for a little over an hour.

me being mischievous again, I decided to sprinkle a little brown sugar over the top. This one I got right, I must confess. It gave it a delicious crunch.

When a skewer pulls out with only a few crumbs sticking to it, it’s done.

Voila!!!!! my banana bread/cake.

I took out a few slices and it disappeared in seconds. The texture was a little more crumbly than I expected, but who cares, I loved it. Yes it was likely the milk and peanut butter but I have learnt my lesson now.

I baked this at night, and I abandoned my dinner and descended on it with Chocolate chip ice cream Deeeeeeeelicious.

Bake this for Christmas and watch your guests come back with empty plates. This is so easy, in under 20minutes or even less you have the batter in the oven. The easiest cake you will ever make. Trust me.

Terry, our resident So You Think You Can Cook baker has posted a recipe for home-made bread. Many people have tried it out with amazing results, with lots swearing never to buy bread again. I have ordered a metal bread pan and I will try it out myself too. I promise to pinch myself hard if the thought of tweaking his recipe ever comes to mind. That little red devil will not succeed this time around. Hehehehehehe

You may have seen my Zobotini before. If you haven’t yet, click HERE. I did not stop at a Zobotini. Once my brain gets an idea, I run with it. I thought of a Zobogarita i.e. a Zobo Magarita . I made this cocktail with the same recipe above but substituted the Vodka for Tequila. Honestly, I don’t know which one I liked more, but if I had to choose, it will be the Zobogarita. There was something about Tequila that just rocks with the flavour of my Zobo drink (recipe HERE).

You will need

1/2 cup of my Zobo drink - unsweetened

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

1 tablespoon of Demerera sugar syrup (optional) - to sweeten it

Salt.

How To

1. First, you will need to rim the martini glass or whatever glass you use. With a Margarita, you rim the glass with salt. To prevent the sharp taste of salt, I decided to add a little sweetened zobo with the salt. Just a little to form a thick paste that will stick to the glass, so you get a hint of sweet and salty when you take a sip. To learn how to rim a glass, click HERE

2. After rimming the glass, place it in the freezer if you want to serve in the next 5 minutes, otherwise, chill in a fridge.

3. Mix the drink in a cocktail shaker with Ice. Shake for a couple of minutes

and pour in the chilled glasses. Serve immediately

Your cocktail is ready to drink

Surprise your guests this Christmas with a cocktail they will not be expecting

Serve with finger food, and let the alcohol flow with the conversation and merriment.

Don’t you just love the deep crimson colour of this cocktail?

Make a Margarita even the poshest bars will envy. Lol

For effect, hook 2 or 3 zobo leaves on the glass, or you can rinse the leaves and drop in the cocktail to float around

I also thought of a Zobo Sangria and so many more cocktails but I did not have many of the spirits at home and I did not intend to go out and buy them just for the sake of. The recipes for the cocktails I have listed can be found online, just think of your favourite cocktail and work in zobo into it, or let the alcohol you have at home guide you into making your own creations. In that vein, I decided to create something with a stamp of originality. I made a Zobo CC2 cocktail.

Zobo CC2 

I have decided to make my own signature unique drink using the liquor I have at home. I did a lot of experimenting, trying to find out which one works, and trying not to get drunk in the process. Shhhhhhhh. There is one I really liked because it was sweet, tangy and smelled amazing. I love fruity, girly cocktails. You won’t catch me ordering some strong stiff drink. The word CC2 came from the ingredients – Coffee and Citrus.

2 shots coffee liqueur - soiree/ tia maria

1 shot orange liqueur  - grand mariner

3/4 cup zobo drink

Ice cubes

How To

1. Start first by mixing the two liquors in a Highball glass. Add 2 or 3 ice cubes

Then dunk in the zobo, carefully swirling for effect and serve

My sext Zobo CC2

it can stand proudly alongside any cocktail. It tastes sweet, it tastes of coffee, citrus, cloves, ginger, vanilla, and zobo. All those flavours just mix together creating an aromatic heady sensation that smells and tastes great.

Enjoy!!!!!

I hope I have given you exciting ideas for Christmas. Out with the boring sodas, orange juices, beer and wine. Spice up your Christmas and keep your guests talking about Zobotini et al for weeks.

Ooooh, lest I forget, for those who haven’t seen it yet. I also created a Homemade Zobo and Pineapple Ice Cream. Click HERE for the recipe

Sorry guys that this is coming late. It was supposed to be published elsewhere, and I really don’t know why it hasn’t left to me, a Christmas Menu from me should have been published at the later 2 weeks to Christmas to help you guys plan your shopping and possibly try out some options on the Menu before the d-day. Anyway, better late than never. Here goes:

Starters/Appetisers

Your options can be either one, two or three depending on how many guests you are expecting and if you will be doing most of the cooking. You can choose from 3 cooking methods.

Frying - Prawn Tempura/Battered Prawns OR Yamarita Fries

Grilling - Beef, Chicken, Fish or Seafood. Just make a spice rub, whack in the oven to grill and continue with your other duties

Soups - Fish/Assorted Meat Peppersoup OR Ukodo (urhobo peppersoup)

Sandwiches/Salad - This is the no cooking or minimal cooking option, and not just a regular sandwich for a beach party or something but Tuna and Crab Bruschetta or Tomato and eggs Crostini. Don’t let the fancy words scare you, just get a baguette or regular slice bread, rub olive oil on it and throw it in the oven, let it grill for a few minutes and layer over slightly warmed tuna and crab meat or quick fried eggs with slices of tomato and you are done. Or you could make a simple salad and serve with chunks of bread or the Grilled meat/fish.

For guests who arrive early, you can serve chin chin or plantain chips with dips such as Mayonnaise, Guacamole, Efinrin (basil/scent leaf) infused Ata din din with cold drinks like Zobo or Zobotini for adults.

Main Course – One rice dish (trust me, you don’t need two), Two native soups served with a starchy solid, Stew with lots of meat and one totally unexpected dish if you have got the time for it, or you could go for a curry instead of stew. Your options are:

Stew - Seafood Stew or the local version Fisherman Stew. Something I know for sure that your guests will leave your house and talk non stop with the men telling their wives they must come to you to teach them how to make is Buka Stew. You can never go wrong with Buka Stew. Kick it up a notch and serve Alapa if you have mastered it, or stay in your safe zone and serve Buka stew.

Curry - Thai Chicken Curry, or Goat Curry with Jasmine or Basmati Rice. Don’t forget the lemongrass

Rice dishes - Do you really need two? Everybody eats Jollof rice and Fried rice at parties. Save yourself the monotony and serve Coconut Rice instead or King Prawn Fried Rice. If you must cook either Jollof rice or Fred rice, choose one and make the other rice dish something different.

Native Soup - Make one vegetable and one creamy option because creamy soups mostly cook themselves while you focus on the vegetable stew which needs ore of your attention. Creamy soup options include

• Egusi Ijebu
• Banga Soup
• Owo Soup
• Miyan Taushe
• Ofe Nsala – white soup
• Ewedu served with Buka Stew or Alapa

Vegetable soup options include:

• Efo Riro
• Egusi Soup
• Afang Soup
• Edikang Ikong
• Black Soup
• Ottong Soup
• Oha Soup
• Ofe Onugbu – bitter leaf soup

Wild Card – I mentioned a wild card option previously. This should be something totally unexpected, something most people don’t traditionally eat at Christmas parties or even prepare themselves at home. Your wild card could also be a Chinese dish. Something that has a ‘special’ tag to it. Your options are

• Ikokore
• Ebiripo
• Yam/boiled plantain and Garden Egg stew
• Yam porridge with shredded Efinrin (basil/scent leaf)
• Ukang Ukom – unripe plantain porridge
• Ekuru
• Turkey noodle stir fry
• Chinese Shredded beef

Dessert – if there is room for it, you can make my simple Banana Cake and serve with ice cream Trust me, this will go down well with your guests. if you have Tapioca at home, make a Tapioca pudding. I know we see Tapioca as breakfast, but the way I make it, it is a bonafide dessert. Another way of taking Breakfast into dessert is to serve my Crepes, and make a simple syrup with orange juice and slather over it. Feeling adventurous, you could try my Pap and Pineapple Brûlée or Zobo and Pineapple Ice cream. With this menu coming late though unless you have tried it before, don’t experiment.

One more thing to add, presentation, presentation, presentation. If you are having a large shindig, you can still be mindful of how the food you have worked so hard to prepare is presented. Use large fancy serving bowls. If you look around, I am sure you have or your friends or family coming over will have. After all, you are doing all the cooking and hosting, let them contribute something. They can always take their dishes home in the evening. If you are having a small intimate do, then earn your Martha Stewart stripes and get inspired by some of the dishes you have seen me plate. it doesn’t have to be Food Network perfect, but you should be proud of the plate you serve, so put your best foot forward this year and be the Hostess with the Mostess.

I hope this blog has inspired your Christmas Menu, and my apologies for it coming late. I was hoping to reach a wider audience. Oh well, lesson learned. Prepare for a very romantic Valentines inspired Menu. If you’ve always been going out, well dining in is the new eating out.

Merry Christmas to You guys and Yours. Thank you for being a huge part of my 2013, I hope we do more and be more in 2014. Seasons Greetings from Dooney’s Kitchen

There is one word that has the power to either irritate or inspire me. That word is cannot or more powerful can’t. That word just ignites the rebel in me in more ways than one, much to my mother’s chagrin. Tell me can’t and just watch fire light up in my eyes. One person who knows me well recognises the signs. You get that look in your eye when that word is mentioned, I have been told. Your eyes narrow, and one can almost see irk rising in you or your brain churning with ideas just to disprove that word. Lol. You then arch one eyebrow and dare the person to explain their justification for using that word, to the point of foolishness. Considering I have never been in-front of a mirror when that word is used, but the person knows me well because that is pretty close to what my mind is thinking and more. Can’t, Really? That is the polite version. Hehehehehehe

Well, some person I don’t know or even met, mentioned that word (albeit the americanised version – aint) in a comment on Bella Naija, and the wheel that sets me off kicked into gear. It even had more of an effect on me because it was mentioned in relation to food. Oh, the word can’t, does not belong anywhere in food and unfortunately in Nigerian food, we almost see it as a right of passage, to the point we try to justify its usage because of “cultural or tribal sensitivity”. Balderdash!!! Sorry, I have been reading a lot of books set in Medieval times and that word just tickles me. It means Nonsense. It is the ancient version of BS. What was the comment about, if you are wondering? Well it was from a post written by Ola Orekunrin an inspiring young woman who runs West Africa’s first indigenous air ambulance service – The Flying Doctors Nigeria. Here is a link to the article http://www.bellanaija.com/2013/11/28/the-flying-doctor-sex-food-drugs-davido/

Here is how the ‘conversation went, permit me to share, so you can get the full picture. Ola the author of the piece wrote this ”Many of our dishes such as ‘akara’ and ‘dodo’ contain extremely high levels of fat that predispose us to heart disease and strokes. Then a BN reader left a comment under the name Lilz asking

“But does Akara have that much fat?”

Then someone ‘named’ Natty responded with

it is fried with oil

A subsequent comment under the name TA said

“If you want to know how much oil Akara packs in a single ‘ball’,squeeze one such akara ball into a white kitchen paper napkin. Personally,I have been on the search for a healthier way to eat Akara,but alas there’s none,(like the southern natives in yankee will tell you aint no healthy way to eat the southern fried chicken). Only alternative is to fry it in Canola or other such ‘healthy’ oils that boast no cholesterol but the taste is never the same! Ah! Nothing beats the taste of Akara deep-fried in palm oil and washed down with my glass of zobo. The only thing is to reduce your portion or the frequency at with you eat such meals. I have restricted mine to once in 2 months on ‘environmental sanitation saturday where I have as many shrimps encrusted akara as I can consume with my bowl of Ijebu garri on the rocks. Lol! 

Then Ms Socially Awkward, who has contributed a recipe to this blog responded with

what about steaming them the way the chinese do with dumplings? Although, I personally don’t know the first thing about making akara and could therefore be talking rubbish…

Then TA came back saying

@ My one and only Mz SA,you mean to tell me,you don’t know a thing about fried Akara?!  Oh dear,then I can’t help you. Lol!  But I can tell you this for free; ‘aint no way Akara can be cooked except deep-fried,otherwise the Akara becomes something else like moi moi’.

After which Ms Socially Awkward responded with

Of course!! Akara & moimoi come from the same
mixture of beans, how can it not turn mushy if you attempt to steam it? *smacks head with palm* However, I still see potential in the technique for making dumplings. Maybe it’s time I got a food processor…

A new person Jo joined the conversation, saying

@MZ Socially… Actually darling you are are talking rubbish  . That would be moin moin

Then comes the clincher from TA which really got me thinking

Lol! Yeah,and the day someone comes up with a healthier technique for deep frying Akara,I shall personally nominate the person for Noble prize in Science. He!he!h!

The entire time I was reading this conversation, if you had put electrodes on my forehead, my brain wave activity must have been through the roof. This article was posted on November 28 and I haven’t stopped obsessing about the idea. Last week I was chatting with my friend Kemi, and I wanted to offload what had been swimming in my brain for weeks. The idea of shallow frying Akara. She asked me “Dunni, how will it hold”, “will you put flour or egg in it”. I said I had no idea, then she said if it breaks apart, add eggs it just might help and let me know how it turns out. I said thanks but a part of me said naaaaah. I have heard people use eggs in akara and egusi to keep the ball shape and I commend them for it, very creative, but I wanted to use a traditional recipe, just so that this could be a real triumph. A case for true ingenuity. I am chasing after that Nobel Prize for Science. hehehehehe. I am pleased to say that it worked. I made Akara with less than 2 tablespoons of Oil. Here’s how

You will need

Bean paste

Chopped red onions

Chopped ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

Ground crayfish

Salt

Seasoning cube - if you wish, I didn’t use it

Sunflower Oil

How To

1. Make your bean paste by peeling the beans and grounding till a smooth creamy taste. Traditionally with making the paste of Akara you are advised to grind the beans with a little water because you need the bean paste to be really thick in order to get the traditional akara ball-shape. With this method, you have no such restrictions because you need the paste to be really light.

2. Add the chopped onions, chopped ata rodo, ground crayfish and season to taste. In my last post on Akara HERE. I made a meaty and fishy version of Akara with shredded/thinly chopped meats and small bits of fried fish. I would have gone this way, but I did not have any meats/fish readily available (all frozen), besides I wanted to still stick to a traditional Akara recipe. In the future, I will be amending this method using meat, fish, seafood and even veggies.

3. Heat a few drops of oil in a pan, just like you would when frying a pancake. See my recipe HERE on frying Pancakes. When the oil is sufficiently hot, add a little bit of the bean paste and tilt/swirl the pan gently, to make a wider circle right about the size in the picture below. I wanted to make a Christmas tree shaped flat Akara. Hehehehe.

4. Just like frying a pancake, wait until the edges are brown, but a better judge of this is to carefully lift a side up to see if it is brown. Then carefully flip over, and by carefully, I mean CAREFULLY, otherwise it will not hold and it will break. Remember Kemi’s question which I wrote above “will it hold”? Ta daaa, I got my Christmas tree shape. Lol.

Once flipped over, let the other side brown and take it out of the pan.

My first two trials were successful that I squealed in delight. I was sooooo happy, I was dancing a jig in my kitchen. Then I decided to fry a big one, just like you would a Crepe. Errrrrr, it did not work. Kemi’s question came to life. It did not hold at all. Despite letting that side brown properly, when I tried to flip it, it broke.

I did not plan to add anything to the bean paste beyond the traditional recipe, so I went back to making them small. If it is not broken, don’t fix it. Those famous words ring so true. Lol. I went back to my previous method of frying in smaller circles and I was successful.

Overall I made 10 pieces with the batter that I had. 2 I ate on the spot, the other 8, I plated.

With this size, you will get great results, with crispy edges, just don’t add too much batter to the pan to start with, so that when you swirl the pan, to get to this size, it will be sufficiently thin.

You can make it much thicker if you want though. The general idea is to shallow fry.

When I had exhausted the bean paste and piled all the akara on top one another (i forgot to take a picture), it looked a little bland and too much like American Pancakes, so I decide to be inspired by the pictures of American pancakes I have seen topped with either a honey, maple or chocolate syrup and decided to go Nigerian by topping with Ata din din (thickly fried stew) or Ewa Aganyin sauce (recipe HERE).

Voila!!!! Much improved. I stared at this picture for a while, grinning mischievously. Not in a million years would you think this is Akara. Oh, one of my foibles is Mischief. It makes for interesting interactions with people. Hehehehehe.

Then I thought, okay I’ll add a few pieces of beans on the plate and in the background to provide a clue. *wicked grin in the background.

In terms of colour, it is the same as the deep fried version

The true Nigerian ‘Pancake’

To naysayers, this tastes EXACTLY like the deep fried akara balls. Trust me, I compared. I blended the bean paste thick to make the deep fried version, and then later split the paste in half, added water to make the thin, shallow fried version. When I compared both, especially if you cut through 5 thin ones at once to get a thick piece, it tastes the same, even better because of the crunchy edges. If you pick up only one thin one, the taste and texture is sublime. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Enjoy the pictures and be inspired to make your own. If you have crossed Akara off your list because of dietary concerns or weight issues, now you can enjoy your childhood favourite with relish without feeling guilty. I fried 10 pancakes with less than 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil.

To think this method has been in use in a lot of homes for years and I am just finding out about it. When I posted my Moin Moin recipe (HERE), to be fair, some readers actually left comments saying I can pee beans in a blender but it didn’t register well at the time because I had no plans to make any dish that required peeling beans. because of the tedious nature, subconsciously I only make any dish requiring peeled beans only a handful of times a year.

Due to my obsession with making Akara healthier and to also make Ekuru, I decided to finally give this method a try and to say I was stunned is an understatement. Oh, 2014 is going to be filled with lots of Moin Moin, Ekuru, Akara (recipe HERE) and Gbegiri (recipe HERE). I can’t wait till my mother visits next year and show it to her. All those long suffering she put me through to peel beans was for nothing. You needed to have seen the look on her face when I made pounded yam in a food processor. hehehehehe. I told her that my daughters and of course sons if I am blessed to have both sexes are going to have such a stress free life in the kitchen, cooking will come second nature to them.

I find it absolutely hilarious and strange that many Nigerians have this guilt complex with cooking, in terms of the effort expended. i.e. we have this notion of food must be slaved over to great a great dish and to be seen as a “good wife”. Attempt to take a short cut and you are sneered at. Well, it is their loss. if they want to remain in the 1900′s more power to them. A 2013 cook should take advantage of technology. After all it has made life easier for us in other areas. If like me, peeling beans has made you shy away from those dishes I mentioned, well get your tummy’s ready because you are going to be eating lots of it.

1. Measure how much beans you want and add cold water. Let it soak for up to 5 minutes maximum. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the reason for this is that, you only need the beans to soak for a bit to soften the skin only and not the beans itself, otherwise it will be badly crushed in the blender. I made the mistake of soaking for longer, and now I know better. Some even say they don’t soak at all but add straight to the blender, and it works but not everyone has a powerful blender, and I don’t want to be responsible for your blender going kaput. Please soak. 5 minutes or under.

in 5 minutes or less, strain out the water to prevent the beans from soaking further.

2. Scoop handfuls of beans into a blender. For your first time, one handful is enough till you get the hang of thing. Once you understand the process, then you can scoop more and peel in bigger batches.

see below, only one handful

3. Cover the bender and use the pulse button, as the beans are pushed up and moved around by the rotating blades, you will see that the skin is peeling off nicely. Pulse a few times until you see that the majority of the skins have peeled of. If you don’t have a pulse button (i don’t), but a on and off button, just put the blender on for a few seconds at a time. This will mimic the pule button. Just for a few seconds and switch it off. if you have numbers on your blender use number 1 or 2 for a few seconds. Same result.

This is what I got after a few pulses. See, the skins have peeled off

4. Pour the beans out into a bowl and repeat the process until you have exhausted the soaked beans. Here, the process is now back to the same as peeling with your hands but you have saved a massive amount of time and stress. Simply our water over the peeled beans and let the skins float to the top, decant the water and repeat the process again.

see below, after several additions of water. You can also see the crushed bits of beans. Not to worry, you are going to be blending the whole lot anyway, so the crushed bits are no problem

after several rinsing, a tad OCD I know, here is my peeled beans. No skin in sight. Honestly, this method is just amazing. The majority of the time was spent rinsing out the skins

If you area wondering if all the beans will have their skins pulled off, no, but the number is so negligible, it is nothing to worry about. In the picture below, i deliberately picked out the unpeeled beans and took a shot, just to show you how small the quantity is. I was tempted to also peel this in blender, but I thought nah Dunni, just peel with your hands, it is too small an amount.

………….and that’s a wrap people. Don’t you just love technology eh. If you don;t know how to make Pounded Yam in a Food Processor, click HERE. Say no to Poundo Flour and eat the real thing with no stress. Just peel your yams and put on the fire. Way easier than turning a pot of flour with Lord knows what in it.

This is one of the easiest recipes to make, and also great for using leftovers. There are loads of stir fry recipes around, I even wrote about one using Calamari and Prawns (recipe HERE). I was watching Jamie Oliver’s 30minute meals one evening, and I thought okay I want to try this. He used beef, but I wanted to try smoked turkey just for its amazing flavour. I loved, loved, loved it. It was so simple, and I had the best cheat of all, already chopped Chinese Stir Fry Vegetables.

This recipe took me all of 20minutes, and I was done.

You will need

2 pieces of Smoked Turkey

2 packets of Indomie noodles

1 packet of stir fry vegetables - if you can’t find already packed vegetables, just shred cabbage, onions, flat green beans

1/4 red onion

Red chilli

Green chilli

Curry Powder

Dried thyme

Dry pepper - cayenne pepper or paprika

Garlic salt

Onion powder

pinch of seasoning cube

Soy Sauce

Sunflower oil

How To

1. Pick out 2 pieces of smoked turkey

get ready your packet of stir fry veggies

3. On a baking tray, sprinkle over all the seasoning I listed above, add a little olive oil to bind all the seasoning powders together and whack in the oven for 8 – 10 minutes.

The turkey is already smoked, so it has been cooked, you only need to put it in the oven to grill for a bit, just for the seasoning to permeate the flesh and to toughen up the meat a little bit.

4. After grilling, it should look like this.Once grilled, use your hands to the smoked turkey into shreds. While this is grilling, proceed to chopping the onions and chilli, and possibly the rest of the veggies, if you are not using a pre cut pack. If you have a food processor, save yourself the stress and just use it.

5. After the grilling is done, put the noodles on medium heat, add the seasoning powder that comes with the noodles. You only need to add water that would get to about half of the level of the noodles, see picture below. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you need medium heat, so the noodles cook slowly while you stir fry the veggies. You don’t want the noodles to be thoroughly cooked and just sitting in the pot getting cold, before the veggies are done.

6. While the noodles are boiling, heat up oil in a pan, fry the chopped onions with the red and green chilli till it softens. Let it fry on high heat. This is a stir fry, so flash cooking is the method.

then add the chinese stir fry veggies, the smoked turkey a dash or two of soy sauce and stir. It is a stir fry, so stir with a frying spoon or toss the wok around.

keep stirring till you see the vegetables wilting a little bit. Just a little bit. A stir fry is supposed to be crunchy. This whole process should take you all of 2 minutes, or less depending on the quantity of vegetables you have.

7. Then you add the boiled Indomie noodles and mix with two forks to properly incorporate the vegetables with the noodles. Taste for seasoning, if you need more, add the soy sauce instead. Don’t be tempted to use a seasoning cube or even salt. The seasoning that came in the noodles sachet, plus the soy sauce is just about all you need

toss around the noodles for about 1 minute, to let it absorb flavour from the veggies, and to also allow the veggies absorb flavour from the seasoned noodles.

…………and that’s it. You are done. Easy dinner in under 20 minutes. In the time it will take you to order chinese, wait for it to be delivered, which it will be cooked under probably questionable hygienic conditions, you can make this at home.

Serve in a bowl with Chopsticks for effect, if you can use them, otherwise, get out your fork, plonk on the sofa and watch tv while you enjoy your dinner. If you have a family, just make a big batch and watch their plates empty in minutes.

If you’ve tried the Chinese Shredded beef served at parties in Nigeria, or sold at your local Chinese restaurant/takeaway, you can make it at home, and it tastes much nicer. Click on the recipe HERE.

I accidentally stumbled on a recipe for Chicken Teriyaki yesterday, and the presentation was sooooo good, it got me hunting for more recipes. I have settled on 3, which I intend to tweak to make it my own. I bought all the ingredients at the supermarket today, so be on the look out for another Dooney’s Kitchen Asian dish

Most of us know what Moin Moin is. Whether you grew up in Nigeria or not, you would know what Moin Moin is, but many of us may not know about its sister Ekuru. I am not sure where the origins of Ekuru are from, but I think it is Kwara, although some people from Ondo claim it is their dish. I have always wondered why they came up with the recipe. The only thing I can think of is that it was likely an accidental recipe that caught on. Someone was probably told to make Moin Moin and the person forgot to blend the peppers, onions, crayfish etc, with the beans. We know these happy accidents happen in the kitchen, and many, many recipes have come about from unlikely kitchen mishaps.

Think about it, Ekuru is a funny dish. I mean, it is made exactly like Moin Moin, but rather than blend the peppers, onion, crayfish etc with the beans, the beans are blended on its own, while the rest of ingredients are made into a sauce and eaten with it. Tell me, that this probably wasn’t someone’s mistake and the person thought, what the heck, I will make a sauce out of the ingredients that I forgot to add when blending the beans, and voila, problem solved. Ekuru is Moin Moin’s fraternal twin sister, fraternal because, while Ekuru is closely related to Moin Moin, it has its own identity as it is very fluffy and porous. A lot of air is whipped into it (more than Moin Moin), plus the potash which makes it very porous and crumbly. My grandma used to make Ekuru when we were little and medical science says muscles have memory, well my arms definitely remember the pains from whipping air into Ekuru and anytime the thought came up to make it, something within me resisted. I haven’t eaten Ekuru in almost a decade. Then I was reminded about its delight by a member of So You Think You Can Cook, who posted a gorgeous picture of Ekuru and Eko (agidi). The Ekuru was just perfect, the way Mama used to make it. I looked at the picture, liked it and shuddered, then Labake typed magical words that set me dancing. She whipped air into the bean paste using a food processor. I thought, WHAT!!!!!, very, very clever. Geez, that will save my tiny arms from work. If I wanted toned arms, I’ll rather lift weights. Hehehehe.

With my new found volition to attempt peeling beans using a blender which was successful (process HERE), plus Labake’s food processor tip, Ekuru was suddenly within my reach. It just happened that while picking the container of beans from the store, my hands brushed against my muffin tray, and a wicked smile came on to my face. I looked up and saw my muffin containers and an idea was born. Since the process of making Ekuru is defying tradition (blender + food processor), I may as well take it further, and try something not expected. I present you my Ekuru Muffin.

You will need

2 cups of beans - this should feed roughly 3 adults

Potash - kaun or akawun

chopped onions

smoked red crayfish

Sunflower oil

Tomatoes

Tatashe - red bell peppers

Ata rodo - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

ground crayfish

How To

1. Peel the beans and blend with water to form a smooth paste. The paste should not be runny, nor thick. Try to find a happy balance. If peeling beans with your hands will scare you off this recipe, don’t worry, you can peel it in a blender in minutes. Click HERE for instructions

2. The next process is to add the bean paste to a food processor or a mixer, attach the whisks and power away.

you will need to whisk for at least 10 minutes at highs peed to properly incorporate air into the paste. Remember to stop at intervals so you don’t burn out the engine.

then you sprinkle in the potash. I used a quantity that is about half a seasoning cube

once the potash is in, keep whisking again for roughly another 10 – 15 minutes until you see lots of bubbles in the paste and it has increased in volume.

3. If you are going to be using a muffin tip, you can follow the steps below. If you have the leaves to steam it, and you need instructions on how to do that, click HERE. Alternatively, you can bake this in foil pans, silicone moulds etc. If you never knew you could bake Moin Moin, now you know.

So, line your muffin tray with paper muffin containers, i only had white ones at home, but next time I make this I will be using those colourful ones, just for effect. Scoop in the bean paste mixture into the muffin containers, till the level shown in the picture. At no point should you be tempted to add any salt, seasoning or oil. Ekuru is made just like that

then place in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for 15 – 18 minutes.

Something quite impressive happened while it was baking. The Ekuru was rising in the oven, just like a Muffin. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. I was just grinning sheepishly. My idea worked and it rocks. hehehehehehe.

see, just like a Muffin. I think it has to do with all that air whipped into the bean paste and the potash too which acted like a rising agent.

While the Ekuru muffins are baking, crack on with your sauce. What I noticed is that the muffins ann a little bit after I took it out of the oven, so don’t let yours be sitting while you make the sauce, prepare both at the same time, so you can serve your gorgeous muffin with the sauce at once.

4. To make your sauce, which is basically a simply rich friend stew. Ata din din as the Yoruba’s call it. Heat a little sunflower oil or palm oil in a pot or pan, add the chopped onions, and let it soften a bit

then add the smoked red crayfish and allow it to fry with the onions, releasing its smokey flavour.

5. Then you add the blended pepper and allow it to fry, till it thickens

then you add a little water or beef stock, crayfish, salt and seasoning to taste, and allow it to fry till it releases the oil to the side, then take it off the heat.

6. Right about this time, the muffins should be done. Stick a toothpick into it, and it should come out clean.

Take one out and open one just to be sure it has cooked through. The Ekuru even has the texture of a muffin. Also very porous and fluffy. I think to recreate the steaming effect, I am going to cover the muffins with another muffin pan, just to seal in the moisture, which will keep the top from getting dry.

Now, you can serve the ekuru muffin side by side with the sauce in a plate, but you can get all creative, by coring the centre of the muffin with a serrated knife and filling it with the sauce, just as you would for a cupcake filling.

Ta daaaa!!!. Beautiful isn’t it

Lay it across a rectangular platter and serve.

Ekuru goes Chic

Do this for your new year’s party and no one, I mean no one will be expecting it.

Or you could just treat yourself on a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning with Ekuru muffins and a hot cup of tea, hot chocolate or coffee.

The truly Nigerian Breakfast

Last year, I love saying that already, even though last year was only 1 hour 10minutes ago. I  thoroughly enjoyed being part of your lives and your kitchens. I thoroughly enjoyed the feedback, the comments, the questions, pictures of your food, your triumphs, your challenges, everything food related. I could feel your excitement leaping off the words on the screen. Some made me cry, some made me laugh some made me feel so overwhelmed because I never thought I could make such an impact in people’s lives doing what I love to do. It is not as if I am curing cancer or eradicating world poverty, but you guys have made me feel like I am making a difference and I thank you for letting me into your homes.

2014 is finally here, and with what we have achieved in the past year, be prepared for the roller coaster that is Dooney’s Kitchen. 2013 was the year of birth, and I have grown so much as a cook, a writer and a food photographer thanks to you guys. I have now taking to baking, which has been such a delight, so much easier than I thought thanks to So You Think You Can Cook, so be on the look out for many more baking recipes. One of the things I said goodbye to in 2013 was being a disaster baker.

I welcome you on this journey of mine, with you in the front row seat. I wish and pray all your wishes and dreams come true this year, with many more Kitchen Triumphs and Marvels. Have a Blessed 2014

Best Wishes

Dunni Obata

If you grew up in Nigeria, your teeth and jaws probably have memories of crunching up Chin Chin. It is one snack that you can eat bucket loads, without realising it. Children and Adults alike, love Chin Chin. There are two types, the soft crumbly and slightly crunchy one and the hard really crunchy and snappy type. Irrespective of which type it is Chin Chin is agreeable with everybody. Making chin chin is so tedious. It basically took a whole day and my mum always made sure we helped out. Can’t blame the woman. The speed in which the chin chin disappeared was not proportionate to the hours and hours it took to make, so my mum never made it often. If we cried about making it, she just said you know you will be helping out right? That stopped us from whining about it. Nevertheless, the process was fun and typing this right now, brings back memories of flour everywhere and I mean everywhere. From our clothes, to our hair, faces, arms, the kitchen floor, the kitchen counter, cupboards. It was as if a flour bomb went off. We needed proper scrubbing to get everything out. While we were younger, frying was the only part of the process she never allowed us do, but as I got older I was allowed to. In fact, I had a terribly traumatic experience from frying chin chin and the scars remained for years.

While I was dropping the chopped up dough into the hot oil, I wasn’t paying attention and I lowered my fingers straight into the hot oil. I screamed so loudly, gosh the pain, I can never forget. Till date, I shudder when I remember. The inexperience of the maid at home made it even worse. She applied butter immediately and that is a NO-NO for scalds. I was taken straight to the hospital and I remember the Doctor saying I had something similar to 2nd degree burns. People it was bad, and I mean bad. I cried and cried for hours, I had to be sedated. My four fingers from nail to knuckle got scalded and I had serious blisters afterwards. For days, I was miserable as hell. This was in my early teens and the next time we made chin chin at home, my mother took over the frying and said never again should anyone pour the dough into hot oil using their hands. Use a frying spoon. If you are making chin chin with your kids, never use your hands when frying, because they will repeat it when they make it by themselves. Heaven forbid, an accident occurs.

I haven’t made chin chin in close to 10 years, and the thought of frying in oil, which you mostly throw away afterwards didn’t sit right with me, plus all the stress. I have a bakery I buy it from. I take it to work sometimes and my boss absolutely loves it. She found the name hilarious at first, and couldn’t stop giggling. I pack in a Ziploc bag which she carries everywhere with her, crunching away. The next day she’ll ask “Dooney, do you still have more of that Chin Chin” (just imagine that in an English accent. Hehehehe). She has asked for the recipe, and has said she will try it out sometime because her boys and husband really like it. My other colleagues also love it, and because of chin chin, I have made them try out more Nigerian food. I was once asked why Nigerian food had lots of repeated words. Chin Chin, Dodo, Puff Puff. I have no answer. Hehehehe.

Why is this Chin Chin 2.0? I told myself, the next time I bring myself to make Chin Chin at home, it has to be totally out of the box, to make it worth the trouble. One of my Cooking Class students Deola asked me once if Cocoa powder would work, and I said I don’t know. Today, I decided to try it out, and I went further by adding Coffee and Coffee liquor just for added flavour. I also have a Coconut variety which I am yet to finish off.

You will need

1 1/2 cups of self raising flour

1/2 cup of cocoa powder - if you want a more chocolatey flavour use 1 cup of cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

75g of Margarine or Baking fat

1/2 cup of sugar - more or less, depending on your preference

a pinch of salt

3/4 cups of cold milk

1 shot of Tia Maria - coffee liqueur

A splash of vanilla

If you don’t want alcohol in this but you want the coffee flavour, add 1/4 teaspoon of coffee to 1/4 cup of hot water, and then reduce the milk to 1/2 cup. Let the coffee get warm before you add to the dough.

How To

1. Measure your self raising flour, cocoa powder and the rest of the dry ingredients. Don’t forget the baking powder. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: I used self raising flour because I wanted this to be my own recipe, and with my success with my meat pie crust which has gotten great reviews from many people, self raising flour is good for experimentation. Besides, I was trying Cocoa powder for the first time, and using a recipe which I can pick online won’t have worked, hence self raising flour and a teeny bit of baking powder just for luck. If you have plain flour at home, click HERE for how to make your own Self raising flour. 

2. Once you have all the dry ingredients measured, add the margarine and work it through the flour until you have the consistency of bread crumbs.

Unfortunately I was on the phone with my mum at this point I forgot to take pictures. For the Coconut flavoured version I have step by step pictures of that.

3. Once the margarine has worked through the flour, add the wet ingredients in stages. Start with the egg and combine. The dough will form huge clumps, then add the milk slowly and work the dough gently between your hands until it all comes together, then you add the coffee liqueur (or coffee if you don’t want to use alcohol). You can also do this in a mixer or food processor with the dough blade attached.

When you are done, the dough should look like this.

4. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes. It should come out looking smoother and less shiny.

Think Amala. hehehehehe.

5. Tear out a chunk of the dough and place onto a floured work surface. With your floured rolling pin, roll out the dough till it is thin. Map of Africa or South America, I can’t decide yet which one. Hehehehe.

6. Once it is thin, using a pizza cutter ( a tip I picked up from someone on So You Think You Can Cook) or a knife to make lines horizontally and vertically. You can have fun with your dough by using fun shaped mini cookie cutters. It doesn’t have to be the traditional shape. Unfortunately, I don’t have cookie cutters at home, but I have ordered it.

7. Pick out the square pieces and lay on a baking tray lined with baking paper. I was given a tip on Facebook about baking chin chin instead of frying. Genius idea.

8. Place the baking tray in the oven and set the temperature to 180 degree Celsius or 350 degree Fahrenheit and let it bake for 15 minutes. The aroma of the Cocoa and Coffee while it is baking is truly something special, especially if you use coffee liqueur.

When it is out of the oven, it should have risen a teeny bit, from the flat pieces you initially cut. Because this is baked and not fried, it would be a little dull in appearance.

7. To combat this, get out a pastry brush and brush the surface with a little oil. Put it back in the oven for another 3 – 5 minutes and you are done. If you think brushing it with oil is a little tedious, skip this step and leave in the oven for 18 minutes.

A little note of caution, when it is freshly out of the oven, the chin chin will be a little soft. Don’t panic. On exposure to air in a few minutes, it will harden and be crunchy and crumbly like the deep fried version. If after a few minutes, it is still soft, put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so. Some ovens are not as hot, but this baking method works with great results.

Here’s the end result after the oiling. I think it looks better than the un-oiled version.

………..and that’s your Choco Chin Chin or Choffee Chin Chin. Lol

WARNING!!! This is seriously addictive.

If we can have Chocolate cookies, I guess no harm in having Chocolatey Chin Chin

Stay tuned for my Coconut flavoured version. It has a little something extra you would not be expecting.

Like the MIddle East, another part of the world that captivates me is Latin America. Their culture is colourful, care free, centred on outlandish celebrations, music, dance, the languages, their accents, the insanely hot people, drool alert. Supermodels both male and female, actors, actresses, musicians, geez there must be something in the water down there. You have Latin blood in you, you are the closest to winning the genetic lottery. On my travel list this year, Asia or Latin America is high on the list. Hopefully I’ll find a travel buddy who will be ready to pack bags with me. I’m thinking Argentina, Brazil or Puerto Rico. All those hot guys with jet black hair and olive skin gleaming in the sunlight on the beach, okay Dunni, stop drooling and go back to food.

This year, I promised to explore more of food from other cultures, and when I saw pictures of Tostones on SYTYCC, I knew I was going to try it. Tostones are in essence our plantain chips, but made slightly differently. How cool is it that we share the love of plantains in common with Latin America. If I would have you know, some parts of Brazil speak Yoruba. Hehehehehe. Tostones are made with green plantains, you all know where I stand on green plantains. The pictures I saw members of SYTCC put up, they used slightly ripe plantains. Somehow, I forgot to make this and the plantains I bought just for this purpose went slightly over ripe. Nevertheless, I am not one to give up, so I decided to attempt it. The process is the same if you use green plantains or regular ripened plantains, the type you would use for frying dodo for example.

Tostones can be served to guests, just layer anything you want on top of it, think of it like chips, or nachos, make it into a canapé or serve with dips. I had plans to eat Adalu for dinner and it was a beautiful match. Think beans and dodo 2.0.

You will need

Plantains

Salt

Cayenne pepper - dry pepper

the number of plantains you use, depends on how many to stones you want to make

How To

1. Peel the plantain. As you can see, this plantain is already getting over ripe. It will work, but for more crispy results use yellow plantains at least, especially if you are not a fan of green plantain

2. Once you have peeled the plantain, cut it into cylindrical shapes like this

3. Sprinkle over salt and dry pepper

4. Then fry for 1 minute on each side, both eh circular part of the cylindrical shape and the sides. Not more than 1 minute. As you can see, I wasn’t concentrating, I ended up with burnt bits. If this happens to you, once all sides have fried, just use a knife to trim off the burnt part.

see, I trimmed the brunt bits off. Because the plantain was already overripe, just a little hit made it too soft. You will not have this problem if the skin of your plantain is yellow

5. After the first fry, smash the cylindrical shapes till it is flat. You can flatten with a plate, frying pan, bottle, anything with enough weight to make it flat. Mine didn’t come out so pretty, because it was too soft but this is the general idea. I will definitely be doing a rematch

once they are flat, carefully lift it off and drop into hot oil. Let it fry till golden brown, or slightly dark brown. The result is a very crispy and sweet to stone. You would have eaten dodo a gazillion times, but the experience of tostones is different.

I served with Adalu (beans and sweetcorn). Recipe for Adalu HERE

A very happy food fusion. Latin America meets 9ja

If you live in London and have already started bemoaning the lack of social gatherings, well start your 2014 with a Gala Night. Seize the opportunity to get dressed, hang out with fellow Nigerians and for a good cause too. If you grew up watching Abike Dabiri on Tv, now you get to chance to see her in person and hear her give a speech at this event.

Tickets from £75. Click HERE to buy your ticket

Think of it as a social event with the right crowd. For details of the event, the poster below provides all the details that you will need.

I hope to meet some of you there.

The British have their mash which they are very proud of, a true National Treasure. Well we can have our own too using a true National ingredient, Yam. Wherever you go in Nigeria, Yam is widely consumed. East, North, South, West, everybody eats Yam. When I was much younger, I always thought yam was only native to Nigeria and neighbouring West African Countries. I know better now as another root tuber is called Yam in North America but it looks different and the colour is orange. A dish originating from The South in the US called Candied yams, they also have mashed yam. In Latin America and parts of Asia, our local yam is also consumed but called succa yam I think. I just looooooove how food is Universal and I hope these similarities amongst our food will help gain Nigerian food global recognition and acceptance.

A few days ago I came up with the idea to make Steak au poivre, Nigerian. This steak is a French dish which simply means Steak served with peppercorns. Ooooooooh people, I SUCCEEDED. It was beyond amazing, and very, very, very, familiar. It ranked top of the best steaks I have ever eaten. While I was ruminating the idea for that steak in my head, I wanted to make it more authentically Nigerian by serving it with Yam chips instead of Potato chips, then a bell rang in my head, why not make Yam mash? After all, steak is commonly served with mash. People, another Dooney’s Kitchen Original was born. There are lots of similarities between potato and yam in cooking. In fact, two of my readers have made Potarita using my Yamarita recipe. They substituted Yam with Potato. Making this was very interesting. I failed on the first try as I ended up with something close to the texture of Pounded Yam. It occurred to me to throw away the traditional method of making mashed potatoes and amend it to suit the unique characteristics of yam. The recipe for mashed potatoes calls for a sprinkling of ground pepper, I used ground Uziza seeds, as Uziza seeds are a close relative to black peppercorns. Houston we have an announcement. It was successful. Creamy, smooth, delicious and oh so tasty. Move over mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes, there is a new kid on the block. Yam is here to say and it deserves its place of honour amongst the centuries old greats.

You will need

boiled yam chunks

butter – softened/room temperature

milk – slightly warmed

salt

ground uziza seeds

P.S - To make it more rich and creamy, add double cream or creme fraiche, but for the benefit of my readers who may not have access to sourcing cream, I decided to make this recipe with ingredients that are universal.

How To

Get your tools ready. You will need either a fork, a potato masher or a potato ricer. In the picture below, the metallic object is a potato tier, while the black plastic one is a potato masher. I tried both

I preferred the potato masher, although if you were making mashed potatoes, it is recommended that you use the potato ricer as it gives better results. For yam, I don’t think so

1. Boil your yam in cubes till it is soft. Once it is almost soft, warm your milk slightly. Just slightly. if your butter is not soft i.e. room temperature, heat it lightly in a microwave for 5 seconds. You just want to soften it, you don’t necessarily want it to melt.

2. Drain the yam cubes

Now to the mashing. If you are using a potato ricer, this is how it will work

this is why i ditched it and went back to the potato masher. See the end result below? I did not like the texture and on adding milk and butter, the texture became gluey and it started to resemble pounded yam.

3. Once the yam cubes have been drained, add butter, milk and  a pinch of salt, then you proceed to mashing. You must do this gently. i.e. do not over beat the yam or it will get gluey and change into the texture of pounded yam. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the addition of milk, butter and salt will help halt the pounded yam forming process, so don’t counter act their work by applying so much pressure, as if you are pounding yam by hand. Hehehe. Gently does it. 

Even with the mashing, you can decide to mash till it is totally creamy, or leave a little chunks of yam in it. Some like creamy mash, others, like chunky mash, it depends on you. I like it in between, so i mashed it well but left little chunky bits about the size of pebbles and beans.

If you use cold milk or butter you will mess this up. If your butter is straight from the fridge, soften it slightly in a microwave and slightly warm the milk while the yam is boiling. Anything you add to the boiled yams must not be cold, and not flaming hot either.

As you are mashing, you will notice that the yams would be absorbing the milk and butter very fast, keep mashing gently and top up with milk and butter.

Once mashed, and it is smooth, top up a little with more milk and butter. What you are aiming for is the consistency of mashed potatoes and not pounded yam. If you have eaten mash before, you will know what I mean. If you haven’t, the best way I can describe the consistency you are aiming for is thick pap, or very very soft pounded yam, as if someone dunked in a lot of water while pounding. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the mash should compress when pressed with a fork, that is when you know you have gotten it right. 

sprinkle in about 1/2 a teaspoon of uziza for flavour and heat. Taste and decide if you want to add more or not. Also taste for salt and add more if necessary.

……………..and that’s it. Your creamy Yam Mash all done. Serve with grilled chicken or Steak.

For extra kick you can sprinkle on dry pepper, tiny chopped bits of ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper) or simply use chilli oil. I used chilli oil.

Now, tell me what you think about yam mash. You may say oh it is Western food, think again, this is a good example of food fusion that works, and I mean works. No, it doesn’t taste like pounded yam, because of the butter, milk, salt and uziza.

If you add double/heavy cream, it will even taste more rich and creamy. I can bet that if you serve this your friends from other cultures, no one will tell you to take it back. It tastes really lovely. I hope you try it, and be as excited as I was, when I made it. I will be expecting your feedback.

If you have babies you are weaning, or toddlers, they will so loooooooove this.

Here is my Yam mash with my Steak au Uziza. Totally breathtaking. A Western meal, cooked Nigerian.

See you at the next post. Happy Coooking

The idea behind making Yam chips actually came from my plan to cook Steak Nigerian, the recipe for which will be coming up shortly. I am sharing this recipe as a post on its own because I picked up something vital to re-create the potato chips experience with Yams. Many of us would have eaten fried yam in various ways. Some say boil first, then fry, a good one is to boil and fry at the same time. What do I mean by that? SImple. Cut the yam into thick rectangular chunks, add to a bowl of salted water. Place your pan or pot of oil deep enough to fry the yams on heat, before it gets warm, add the yam chunks, and a little of the salty water the yam was sitting in previously.

This was a tip I picked up from the road side sellers of fried yam. Their yams were undeniably soft inside and crunchy outside. If you boiled it first before frying, it was never as good as that. I believe I have to do my duty to make this clear. Permit me to type it in capital letters. DO NOT TRY THIS WITH HOT OIL. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE. I don’t want to be held responsible for any kitchen accidents. You only need the pan to sit on the heat for about a minute or two, then you add the yams and water. At first you would see a water oil separation, not to worry, with time, all the water will evaporate, and you will be left with oil and lovely fried yam. To see how I did it, click on my Yam and Garden Egg Stew post HERE.

Now, the topic of today’s post is not about regular fried yam but Yam chips, and I mean chips that look exactly like potato chips, slim, sexy, crunchy and light coloured. Chips that you would never guess it is made from Yam until you taste it. Chips that are surprisingly so crunchy, it would give McDonalds a run for their money. I have been making chips like this for some time, but never truly got the chips eating experience, until I decided to try something different. You know supermarket pre cut frozen chips always turn out perfect. Even better than you making your own chips from scratch. I decided to apply that same principle to yams. I placed it in the fridge overnight to chill. The result was spectacular. Crunchy, and I mean crunchy, you would hear in the next room if someone is eating it. Here’s how

You will need

Yam

Salt

Water

How To

1. Cut the yam into circles, and then cut into wide rectangles, after which you cut it into thin rectangles in the shape of potato chips.

2. Have a bowl of salt water ready, and drop the yam chips into the bowl as soon as you cut them. Place that bowl in the fridge for a few hours, preferably overnight, which I did

3. The next day, heat up oil deep enough to fry the yams, sieve the yam chips out of the salty water and then fry. Don’t worry, the oil will foam and bubble up a bit, keep checking the chips every few minutes, and once it is golden, sieve it out of the oil. Voila.

See the colour and texture

they literally snap and crunch

no one is going to believe they are yams until they taste it

Try it with your kids, and serve with ketchup or any rich stew or sauce of your choice

I haven’t made Steaks at home in quite sometime now. If memory serves me right, it has been over a year. On SYTYCC, our resident baker extraordinaire, Terry put up a good eats alert about a falafel restaurant in Paris. This got me thinking about the best Sirloin Steak and Peppercorn Sauce that I have ever had in my life, which also happens to be in Paris. The French are great at all things food, but surprisingly this restaurant is owned by a Middle Eastern, and it is a hidden jewel in Paris that you just have to try if you ever find yourself in Paris. Sadly, I couldn’t remember the name, but I tried my best to describe it to him and after an exhaustive and funny 1 hour search, he found it. I was really psyched. His review of the Steak and the sauce was that it was exceptional and worthy of the long and tiring walk to find it. SCORE!!!!! People, it is called Le Chateau Landon, located close to the Chateau Landon Metro stop about 1 minute walk away. To find it, just stop at The Gare du Nord station, and walk for roughly 5 – 7 minutes walk. This bistro is right opposite the Ibis Paris Gare du Nord Chateau Landon Hotel.

Finding this restaurant was quite a happy accident that made me shake my head about the way fate works. You see, my very first time in Paris I stayed at the Ibis hotel right opposite it for 7 nights and not once did I eat at this place. I must have walked past it tens of times and not once did I give it a passing glance. It was even quite funny because right opposite it on the other side of the road, was a kebab shop where I also ate the best kebab in my life. My girlfriends and I ate kebab at this shop at least 3 times, and we nicely walked across this lovely restaurant back to our hotel, without looking in, a huge loss for the girls. Paris is my favourite city and I always find myself going back. On another trip, I booked a hotel close to Gare du Nord as I was only using Paris as a short stop for 3 nights before my main destination, Verona in Italy.

On my the first night, I quickly changed into jeans, a tee and slippers and happily skipped to the kebab place. Imagine my shock and despair when I got there and found it closed. I was really upset and hungry to boot. It was already getting late and I was in no mood to take the train to the another area in Paris where I know they serve good food. I crossed the road to go ask at the reception of The Ibis hotel where else I could eat in the area and suddenly my eyes spied this small restaurant right opposite. I thought okay, I’ll eat here and boyyyyyyy, life changing experience. Till date every steak I have ever had (until today), I compare to this one and nothing so far has come close.

Imagine having that placed right in front of you, for a price that will make you widen your eyes in shock, 16 Euros. I remember telling the waiter to take the sauce away because I hated Peppercorn sauce (i detest black pepper). In his cute french-arab accent he said try it, if you still don’t like it, I will take it away. I took a tiny bit with chips and was stunned at how good it was. People, I asked for 3 refills before my meal was done. I used chips to wipe the bowl clean. It was that good. Terry said the sauce was exceptional. Like the steak, this sauce too hasn’t been beaten yet anywhere else. This was Terry’s plate

Despite asking for the recipe, they politely smiled and declined, but thinking back now, because of their Middle Eastern heritage, I can bet that there is something else in that sauce. Something found in their culture, which made the sauce unique. This prompted me to making my own the Nigerian way, using Uziza seeds as they are the closest relative to black peppercorn.

Uziza seeds

black peppercorns

This was soooooooooooo good, and what a way to rekindle my love for steaks again. The French call it Steak au Poivre (peppercorn steak), this is Steak au Uziza with cream of Uziza sauce. This is so simple to make, you need only 2 ingredients. I am going to start a conversation on Facebook because of my experience with making this. We now have to consider that we probably over season our meats, so much so that we lose the real taste of meat. I only made this with Uziza seeds and salt. I was astounded by how delicious it was. I could actually taste meat, and not just overpowering spices. This wasn’t even butchers high-grade Sirloin Steak, but something I quickly picked up in a Tesco store. Imagine if I made this with high quality organic meat?

For the Steak, You will need

1 tsp of Uziza seeds per steak

Salt

Sirloin Steak - or any other steak you can find that cooks fast (steak which is for braising and slow cooking may not work)

Sunflower oil

For The Sauce, You will need

1 tablespoon of Cream

1 tablespoon of Water

1/4 cup of brandy/Cognac

1/4 cup of beef stock

see the close relationship between those 2, even by looking at them side by side. The English name for Uziza seeds is Piper Guinesse

How To

1. Measure your 1 teaspoon of uziza seeds. Don’t use too much as it will turn bitter

2. Proceed to crush the uziza seeds slightly in a spice grinder

you can either use a wooden spice grinder or use an electric mill. If using a mill, do NOT grind the seeds to a fine powder. You need some roughness and even some seeds to be partially crushed

this is what you should be aiming for

3. On your kitchen work top, add a sprinkling of salt and spread it out.

I feel I have to write this for the benefit of people who steak may not be easily accessible to pick up in a supermarket or a butcher in the market. I have added this picture as a guide. I am sure if you show this picture to a butcher in your local market, you can have him cut out Steak for you to take home. Even butchers in markets in Nigeria for example will be able to do this, because they know which parts of the cow they have on their table.

image credit: HubPages

what I have in the picture below are Sirloin Steaks. From the picture above, you can see what part of the cow gives us Sirloin Steaks

4. Lightly rub the steak with oil, just lightly, to allow the ground uziza seeds and salt to stick

 place the steak over the spread out uziza and salt and press down, until the rough seeds sink into the meat. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you need the uziza seeds to really sink into the meat, otherwise when you cook, they will fall out, defeating the purpose. For the other side, just lightly rub it against any powdery that is left on the work top.

5. Heat up a pan with about a tablespoon or less of oil. Ensure that the pan is very hot, because you are going to flash cook the steak. Once hot, add the steak to the pan with the side that has the seasoning first.

it will sizzle and crackle, this is what you want. Leave it on for about a minute or two, depending on how well done you like your steak, after which you flip it over and let the other side cook for about 1 minute. This sirloin is quite thin, and the duration I stated was just enough, if you want medium rare. If you want it properly well cooked, lay the steak on a baking tray and place in the oven at 150 degrees centigrade for another 2 – 3 minutes. No more, or it will be dry and chewy.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you may ask, why don’t i just finish it off in the pan, actually you can if you’ve got really high quality meat. I found that this one gets dry if you complete the entire cooking process in the pan.  

Whichever way you choose, either finishing off in the pan or in the oven, you will need to take the Steak out and place in the oven or microwave to keep it warm while you crack on the sauce which takes roughly 3 minutes to cook.

6. Once the steak is out of the pan, you will see bits of the juice of the steak and part of the seasoning left in the pan, this is just what you want

add the brandy to the pan while it is still hot, and it will sizzle and form a cloud. Stand well back please

because of the high temperature of the brandy, the alcohol will burn off and even most of it will evaporate, leaving a delicious smelly liquid. This was 1/4 cup of brandy, see what was left after a few seconds

7. Then add the beef stock. You can use beef stock pots lightly diluted with warm water to make 1/4 cup of beef stock. I used homemade beef stock.

Once the beef stock is in, lower the heat a little and let it simmer, till you get this

8. Then add the tablespoon of cream and stir. it will likely curdle a bit, just stir till the cream combines well to form a sauce

then you add a tablespoon of water

go check on the steak where you kept it to keep warm, and you would see that it has released more of its juice while resting.

Add it to the sauce and then leave it to simmer until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and you are done.

I didn’t need to re-season again because the juice from the meat and the beef stock made sure the sauce was perfect.

Drizzle some of the sauce over the steak and serve what is left separately in a small bowl, and you are done. There’s your Steak au Uziza with cream of Uziza Sauce. You are not going to believe how delicious this is. I was repeatedly asking myself, you mean you didn’t season this steak with the myriads of things we are used to adding, and it tastes this good. Just uziza and salt + beef stock. WOW

Serve with Yam Mash and that is a bountiful Steak Lunch, cooked Nigerian. This was served on Day 1 as Saturday dinner.

I repeated it on Day 2, for Sunday Lunch, this time served with Yam Chips

In conclusion, the French have got nothing on us. End of discussion. hehehehehe

Steak au Poivre re-invented 9ja style

I would like to hear from you guys. What do you think about us over seasoning our meats. Would you try this at home?