My mum has a policy when it comes to stews. You don’t add old stew to freshly prepared stew, for no reason. Neither are you allowed to start on freshly prepared stew, when there were still leftovers in the fridge or freezer. This policy applied to all, even guests. She had a zero tolerance for wasting food, and always reminded us that somewhere in the world, a child will go to bed hungry and we should be grateful for what we have. This is a policy that has stayed with me, even though I have a slight tendency to throw away food, especially when I forget it in the fridge for longer than necessary.

One of the interesting ways to breathe new life to old stew is to mix it up with a flavour packed ingredient. Options are Instant noodles, Corned beef, Sardines and freshly beaten eggs. In our household many a breakfast or quick Lunch was made from leftover stews. Today, I am utilising noodles for my leftover Buka Stew. Who knew palm oil goes so well with Indomie. Here’s how

You will need

2 packets of Instant noodles

1/2 small red onion

teaspoon of dry pepper

Leftover stew and meat

Water

How To

1. Place enough water to cook the noodles in a pot, add chopped onions, a teaspoon of dry pepper, the 2 packets of instant noodles and their seasoning. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: i prefer to season and cook instant noodles from cold, rather than dunking them into hot boiling water. I just believe it tastes better. 

2. Allow the instant noodles to cook until it has softened enough to eat, but not cooked thoroughly. At this stage, there should also still be some liquid in the pot.

3. Add the stew, about 3 – 4 tablespoonful with the meat and stir carefully. Lower the heat, to allow the noodles cook slowly in the stew, and let it cook till the noodles have absorbed the stew, and taken on the colour of Jollof rice. Serve immediately.

5 minutes tops, and voila, that’s a quick Lunch. I just had mine now and it was deeeeeelicious. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures while i was cooking. It all happened so fast.

Garnish with chopped chilli and spring onions

practising my eating with Chopsticks skills. Not much success yet. Lol

When I started getting creative ideas with Zobo (sorrel, roselle, hibiscus), this was definitely in my head, waiting to be unleashed. After my success with working Zobo with alcohol and creating fun cocktails named Zobotini, Zobogarita and my signature Zobo Cocktail, a Dooney’s Kitchen original – Zobo CC2. I finished off with another Dooney’s Kitchen original, Zobo and Pineapple Ice Cream. I must have had so much fun with those babies, I totally forgot that I also made a mental note to make Zobo jam. Not until 2 weeks ago when I walked into the supermarket to pick up a few last minute things, as I was hosting the ladies from SYTYCC that weekend. By some chance, I strolled past the aisle where Jam was displayed and and I stopped so suddenly, if anyone was directly behind me, they would have bumped straight into me and it would have hurt like crazy. Lol

Zobo Jam, of course. I said I was going to make Zobo Jam, I hit my hand on my forehead and quickly raced back to the self check out. I am sure, I didn’t get everything on my list, but suddenly, I didn’t care. Now, I wasn’t sure if I would use a combination of the leaves and the juice, or the leaves alone, but thanks to Google, I got the answers that I needed. You would think, I would make zobo immediately, but I decided to wait until Friday to prepare it, to allow it steep for 24 hours and serve my guests the following day.

People, I forgot I was to prepare Zobo. I woke up at stupid o’clock to go to the bathroom and on my way back to my nice warm bed, I remembered Zobo. Some little devil somewhere must have been sniggering at me, because I am known as the sleep champion. I am a chronic insomniac, but when I do get to sleep, it is truly lights out. With my warm comfy bed staring at me, I was arguing with myself in my head. “Gosh, I need to make that zobo“ vs “Do you really need to go to the kitchen at this time of the day“. “But really, the leaves need to steep for a while to get that intense taste“ vs “Really Dunni, just go back to sleep, who will know or care that the leaves did not steep overnight“. “But I will know” vs “Come on girl, go back to sleep“. “Making Zobo shouldn’t take that long” vs “Come on, oooh, that bed is nice and warm, just a few more steps and you are back to it“.

The ping pong match going on in my head must have lasted for a few seconds, a minute at most, but it sure felt longer. In the warm bed vs kitchen battle, team kitchen won and I dragged myself to prepare Zobo. I used all my 7 ingredients (recipe for my Zobo drink HERE), but the goddess of sleep was going to get back at me somehow and she did in a mean way. I must have been sleep cooking because I added way too much dried chilli flakes. I found out by mid morning and I was pissed. I make my Zobo with a little kick from the heat of dried chilli flakes, but this was just too much. I couldn’t serve the Zobo to my guests, so I just kept it in the fridge, knowing fully well that the cold air will temper the heat after a few days. Using that analogy, I also placed the zobo leaves in the freezer for a week, after which I was ready to make Zobo Jam. This baby turned out sooooooooooo good, I am sticking one up to the sleep goddess. Hehehehehe. Here’s how.

You will need

Already steeped zobo leaves

1/2 – 3/4 cup of granulated sugar - depending on how much leaves you have 

Brandy or Rum - optional

Water

How To

1. You will need the leaves you sieve out when making Zobo drink. If you have always been throwing them away, stop now. It is such a huge shame to waste them. They still have a lot of life in them.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: mind you, if you have the intention of making zobo jam, you can only run plain water through the leaves after the first extraction once. If you run plain water over the leaves, in a bid to extract more juice, you will be left with chaff, and your jam won’t taste nice. 

2. Take out whatever else you made the zobo drink with, because the leaves have absorbed all the flavour. In my case, I took out the cinnamon stick, the orange rind, clementine rind, lemon rind etc. If you don’t they will introduce bitterness into the jam which you don’t want. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: remember, you only need the leaves. nothing more. I had forgotten to take out those two orange rind bits before I took the picture. Remember to take all non Zobo leaf elements out.

3. Blend the leaves till smooth and transfer to a pot. You can decide to make it slightly rough, but I chose to go with smooth.

3. Add the sugar, stir and turn the heat on

You can also choose to use brown sugar, for a healthier option

4. While the zobo puree is boiling, sterilise your glass jar(s). This step is essential to prevent food poisoning. It is very easy to sterilise glass jars. You can either put them in a pot filled with water deep enough to cover the jars and boil on medium heat for 10minutes. You could also boil water in a kettle, fill the jars and leave the water in, till it gets cold. Likewise, you can place the jars in the oven on medium heat for 10minutes.

5. Keep the Zobo boiling until it begins to reduce and get thicker and glob by. Then you turn the heat down to medium to prevent it from burning.

6. Keep it reducing over medium heat, until it really starts to take on the consistency of Jam, but not quite there yet.

7. See what you should be aiming for

but you are not quite there yet. It should start to feel a little syrupy to touch like jam. You can make it a little more adult by adding a dash of Brandy. We all know Brandy and sugar are a beautiful match, think Cakes, think sweet desserts. The jam still has a little way to go to completion, so the alcohol will burn off, leaving just the flavour.

8. Most, if not all jam recipes say just keep continue boiling, and the jam will set, but I got tired of waiting and wanted to rush the process up along, so I added a little extra sugar, about a 1/4 cup and a little water, just to make the jam slightly more fluid. Take note, just a little extra water, not to make it watery, just less thick. In a very short while, the jam will thicken again, and the extra sugar that has melted, now creates a rush of syrup which completes your jam making process.

You know it is ready, when bubbles of syrup begin to pop out on top, and you can see the rich syrup, easing out from the sides.

Once that happens, leave it to cool. Jar and seal. It is best you also add a label to it, especially with the date you made it. This jam can keep in a chilled fridge for months. I doubt it will last even weeks, because it tastes soooooooo good.

You could also seal, with these traditional cloth jam covers. Pretty cute and with a tied bow too.

The best thing about this jam is, it tastes better with each day, and I know this has to be partly due to the brandy. Every time I open the jar, I am always amazed at how lovely it is.

Zobo Jam and Crackers. Double Yum

Crimson coloured, delicious goodness

Recipes for the aforementioned Zobo Creations can be found here

Zobotini – HERE

Zobogarita -  HERE

Zobo CC2 -  HERE

Zobo and Pineapple Ice Cream -  HERE

Why the term Agege style, well it truly is Agege style, because calling it Agege bread will open me up to too much tongue wagging, or people typing faster than their reasoning can process, so I will take the safer route and use the term “style” which purports that, though not the same or claiming to be the same, it is similar and people, this is very similar. The story behind this is quite funny, and oh so typical of my experience with baking. After successfully making Homemade Baguette (recipe HERE), which my senior colleague loved so much, she was on her way to buy a sandwich and she came back saying, I would rather have more of Dunni’s bread. Yaaaaay for me. I thought to take on another bread making challenge, this time Dinner rolls, as I was taking slow cooker made goat meat peppersoup to a friend’s house, to spend half term with her and the children. Dinner rolls and peppersoup is just gorgeous. If you have always eaten peppersoup with rice, plantain or yam, you need to try eating it with dinner rolls. Anyways, I went back to the same site. The recipe makes 36 dinner rolls, and I thought nah, I would halve it and make 18 instead.

Armed with my ingredients and confident in my bread making skills, I started on the dinner rolls. Again people, I misread the recipe and went over the stated measurements. The yeast should have been 3g, I added 4g. The recipe called for butter, I forgot to buy so I used margarine. The full recipe stated 2 and a half cups of flour, Lord knows, I don’t know how I saw 3 cups, which I translated to 1 and a half cups of flour, since I was halving the recipe. Three strikes against Dunni. Even at that, the dough was way too sticky, and I kept sprinkling in more flour to make it hold, also being mindful of the recipe stating, the dough should feel elastic and silky but not dry. The beauty of this is that, I did not even measure how much extra flour I was sprinkling. I was just sprinkling blindly until the dough held its shape without sticking to my fingers. Strike 4.

Of course, after the stipulated time, the dough had not risen as it should. It had more flour than the yeast could probably handle. I was pissed. Deciding not to give up, I took the entire container to Kemi’s house hoping it would continue rising. Arriving at her house, I said sorry, no posh Lunch for us today, we will have just peppersoup and she laughed, replying, trust me Dunni, the peppersoup is more than enough, you shouldn’t have bothered. We had Lunch, had a good ol’ chat, talked shop for hours, till it got dark. Shortly before I was to set off back home, I suddenly remembered my dough, which I had kept on her kitchen worktop. The poor abandoned dough had been rising for waaaaaaaaay longer than the recipe stipulated, but it had risen well enough, all the same. Oh well, lets form it into the dinner rolls shape, and leave it to rise again as per the recipe. At this point,Kemi laughed and said Dunni, which recipe, recipe you have thrown out of the window since. This dough has been left for hours, I don’t think it has any more rise left in it. Noooo, lets see, you never know. People, it behaved as it should. It rose again, and we baked at 180 for 20minutes. What came out of the oven was shocking to say the least. You know that gluey, stretchy nature of Agege bread. Eeeeeeexactly, that stretchy, pull apart texture, yeeeeees, that one. Whoop, whoop, I got it. I repeated the process, this time making sure I measured to an extent at least. Here’s how

You will need

4g yeast

6 tsp warm water

2 levelled cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup milk

2 levelled tbs margarine

1tbs honey

1/2 levelled tsp salt

Olive oil

How To

Measure, measure, measure

1. Measure your yeast and mix with the measured warm water.

Leave the yeast to activate for roughly 10minutes till it becomes thick and frothy/foamy

2. While you are waiting for the yeast to froth, measure the milk and margarine. On very low heat, melt the margarine in the milk. You don’t want the solution to get hot, just warm enough to melt the margarine. If the solution gets hot, it will kill the yeast.

3. Add the frothy yeast and honey to the food processor bowl, with the dough blade attached. You should also be able to do this manually without a mixer or food processor. Just pour the yeast mixture in a big bowl.

4. Add the warmed up milk with the melted margarine, the salt and 1 cup of the flour

5. Turn the dial to minimum until the ingredients combine. If you were doing this without a machine, use a spatula to gently combine the ingredients. The mixture will have the look and feel of thick batter.

6. Then add half a cup of flour, and turn the machine back on for a few minutes, till the flour combines.

The dough will still feel too wet and sticky. This was the point I got angry and confused with the original recipe. I kept saying yo myself, are you kidding me? 1 and a half cups later, what kind of dough is this, and of course, all reason flew out of the window, and i started sprinkling in flour, and more sprinkling of flour till the dough formed. Lol

7. Then add the final half cup. Mind you, add this last half cup in bits with the machine still on. You may find that you may need the entire half cup, or you will need slightly more or slightly less. If you need more, use your fingers to sprinkle in more and leave the machine to knead for a few more minutes, till the dough forms and begins to pull away cleanly or almost cleanly, from the side of the bowl. This is what your dough should look like.

Looks are not even as important here, as what the dough should feel like. It should feel very soft, elastic and silky.

Silky enough to slide off your fingers easily without sticking to your finger or palm

this is vital. It must NOT be so soft and wet that it sticks to your fingers. If it does, just sprinkle a little flour, and I mean a little and knead. Form the dough into a ball, and as I wrote above, the dough should still feel quite soft, elastic and silky. It shouldn’t feel dry or floury.

most of all, your palms should be clean after forming the dough into a ball

8. Put the dough ball into a bowl, drizzle with olive oil to coat the dough and the sides of the bowl. Leave to rise in a turned off oven for 5 hours. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: i was only repeating my first experience of the duration of forgetting errrr, more like abandoning the dough on Kemi’s kitchen work top. Lol

9. 5 hours later, this is what the dough looked like. Well risen, but still looks and feels elastic.

When I made this the first time, as we 4 adults in the kitchen were waiting for the second rise, Kemi’s friend Tayo pulled up a Youtube video of an exposé about the conditions Agege bread is made in. While the video was showing the deplorable conditions of the bakery, Kemi mentioned something which caught my attention. The dough which was being shown in the video had the same consistency as mine. She said Dunni, look at that, your dough looks like that, very elastic and soft. Hmmmmmn, I said. At that time, to me, the recipe had gone all wrong, and I didn’t have much faith in my dough. Doubting Thomas me. Lol.

10. Pour the dough out onto a plastic sheet. See, the dough should still feel, soft and elastic and not sticky. It still has enough olive oil on it, so it should feel smooth to touch, again not sticky. While it is on the plastic sheet, knock the air out of the dough.

11. Flatten it form it into a rectangular, log shape, and then tuck in around the edges and form into a loaf shape that can fit into your bread pan.

12. Leave to rise a second time for 1 and a half hours. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the original recipe I used said the second rise should be for about 20 – 25 minutes, but I wanted to be extra lucky, and I left it to rise for 1hour 30minutes. You can leave to rise until it doubles in size. It could take less time for that to happen.

13. Break an egg, whisk with a little dash of milk.

use a pastry brush, to give the dough a good egg wash. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: carefully apply the egg wash. Don’t put pressure at all, so as not to deflate the dough. Carefully and gently apply the egg wash.

14. Bake at 170 degree centigrade for 25minutes, or till the dough is brown on the outside and cooked on the outside.

Ta daaaaaa. Sure does look Agege ish, doesn’t it.

Even the under side of the bread, has that look and texture. The extra brown lines, are from the egg wash seeping down.

I just had to take lots of pictures from afferent angles

to showcase my Agege style bread

In the clear light of day, you can see how elastic the bread is

In daylight, tearing into it, I broke out into a big smile and victory dance. The gluey, stretchy, texture we love about Agege bread is right there. No cake texture at all

Even the taste and aroma was quite close. The other adults agreed. Of course, it will taste slightly richer because of the milk, but not way off that it tastes like ‘foreign bread’, for want of a better phrase to use. It will still smell and taste quite familiar. More like a refined version of Agege bread.

Who would have thought, that a disaster baking bread attempt could finally crack the Agege bread code. Most, if not all the other bread we buy or bake has a cake like texture, with lots of fine grainy holes in it. This clearly doesn’t. You can see the stretchiness.

One thing we all know with agege bread is that chemcials are involved in its production. If you did not know, sorry to be the one to tell you, but it does and lots of it too. These chemicals have been banned, but it doesn’t stop them from using it, neither does it stop us from eating it. My post is not about bashing Agege bread, far be it for me to do so. I would only like to point out that you can replicate the taste and effect food additives provide using natural ingredients. Of course you may not get it 100% but when you think of what you are saving yourself from, and if you live abroad and you have missed the taste and texture of agege bread, then this is for you. The honey could also have contributed to the silky and elastic dough, who knows. I made a mistake and came away with a genius recipe. I sure aint complaining. Hehehehehe. Enjoy

Stay tuned for the herby version of this bread, using Efinrin (scent leaf) and Basil for aromatic dinner rolls. The dinner rolls that sarted this whole journey. They are sure to wow with Peppersoup.

Yes, I am going to call this ’the 9ja Dinner roll’, because as posh and as prissy as dinner rolls are, this is the 9ja version. Why the 9ja version? Well, these dinner rolls were made with a taste of Nigeria in mind. If you read my Agege style bread post HERE, you would have seen me mention dinner rolls. By some stoke of luck, with my fairy baking godmother (i am beginning to think I have one) smiling down on me, what started as Nigerian Dinner rolls, ended up being even more authentically Nigerian, because I got that elusive elastic, stretchy Agege bread texture.

The original recipe was for romsemary pull apart dinner rollls from Food Wishes, but in classic Dooney’s Kitchen style, I was going to mess with it a little. We also have strong, powerful fragrant herbs found in Nigerian Cuisine, so using rosemary, was a no no for me. Of course, was came to mind immediately, was Efinrin. The Yoruba term for Scent Leaf, the Efik term, Ntong, the Igbo term, Nchawu. I had dried Efinrin at home, so it was a no brainer for me. Since the recipe called for fresh herb, I decided to obey a little by using freshly chopped Basil. Efinrin is in the Basil family, or is it Basil is in the Efinrin family, I don’t know which sentence is correct. Hehehehe. As I had used both Efinrin and Basil in Assorted meat peppersoup before (recipe HERE), and the result was so good, the person I made it for called and left a very beautiful voicemail, I couldn’t stop smiling for hours. I knew I was going to repeat that combo again.

The herby, aromatic scent of these dinner rolls as they are baking is sublime. When you tear into the rolls, the smell that hits you, is a delight to your senses, now finish off with a bite, and take it all in. Pair it with peppersoup and wowzer, Houston we have an announcement. We have so many options to introduce the taste of 9ja to dinner rolls. They include using uziza leaves, uziza seeds, even Ehuru or Uda would work. I will be so bold as to sprinkle in a little ground crayfish. Remember, all you need is just a hint of the flavour. So, be inspired to try anything aromatic that you enjoy the flavour of. Here’s how

You will need

4g yeast

6 tsp warm water

2 levelled cups all-purpose flour – you may need an extra 1/4 to make the dough firm enough. firm but stretchy. remember, I wrote MAY

1/2 cup milk

2 levelled tbs margarine

1tbs honey

1/2 levelled tsp salt

Olive oil

1 egg for egg wash

1 teaspoon of Efinrin or 1/2 teaspoon of basil and 1/2 teaspoon of dry efinrin – if you are using only one aromatic ingredient, 1 teaspoon of whatever you are using is just fine

How To

1. Mix the yeast with warm water and let it rest for 10minutes until it becomes frothy and foamy. After which you add it to your mixer, food processor (with the dough tool attached), and add the honey.

2. Add the efinrin and basil or your choice of aromatic ingredient

3. Followed by the warmed milk in which you melted margarine in. Emphasis on warm, so as not to kill the yeast. Plus 1 cup of flour. Mix, till well combined. Add 1/2 a cup of flour, mix again, and then add the final 1/2 cup of flour, and mix again, till the dough ball forms.

you may need extra sprinkling of flour (roughly 1/4 cup) with your hands to make sure the dough is smooth. Emphasis on ‘may’. If your dough has formed, don’t weigh it down with more flour. The dough should feel very soft, smooth and stretchy. Sprinkle on olive oil, about a tablespoon worth to coat the dough and the sides of the bowl

4. Leave to rise for about 5 hours, or under. Just ensure, it has risen till it doubles well enough in size. It should still feel elastic and not dry. Don’t sprinkle any additional flour at this stage.

5. Pour the dough onto your work surface and then proceed to flatten it out with your hands into a square. Ensure that it is flat. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: don’t use a rolling-pin, it will over flatten the dough. Use your hands

6. Cut rectangular strips from your flattened dough. See picture below

7. Then cut into square strips roughly about your index finger long, and little finger wide

8. Take two pieces, place on top of each other in your hand, and press down slightly till they become one piece, then stretch at the edges and keep stretching and rolling till you form a ball. See picture below. Hey, it doesn’t have to be perfect, just try to get a ball shape and place on a baking tray. Repeat for the other pieces, till you exaust them all. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: one thing you have to definitely have to do is place the balls close enough to each other. Remember, these are pull apart dinner rolls. So, they have to be close enough, so that when they rise and bake, they will attach to each other. Once you have all the pieces into a ball shape, give a light coating of egg wash and leave to rest for 20 – 25 minutes.

9. After 20 – 25minutes, you will see that the balls have increased in size, and also attached to each other. Give it another egg wash and bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes. Dooneys Kitchen Tip: it is essential that you turn on your oven at least halfway into the second rise time, so it is hot enough to kick start the baking process.

Take the pan out of the oven and you have these beauties.

Don’t you just one to pick one and tear into it? Imagine making this for kids. How excited and pleased they would be.

See the golden brown round peaks? Yeeeeeeeeah, this is exactly what you want

Go get that bowl of freshly made peppersoup. Pull one dinner roll apart, and tear it open. The aroma of the herbs that will hit you, will kick your appetite straight into gear. The other gorgeous part of this recipe is the Agege style stretchy, gluey effect.

A closer shot, will convince you, that you have the real McCoy Agege bread effect going on

……………….and that’s how to take your regular peppersoup, and make it extra special. Enjoy!!

You read that correctly. Read it first before you knock it. I promise you, you will be pleasantly surprised, and possibly shocked. Believe me, I was shocked too. Many of you probably already know that you can make Pounded Yam in a Food Processor. Click HERE for instructions. I would like to take a little credit for re-discovering that and bringing it back to people’s consciousness. Just a little credit. Hahahahahaha. Well, there has been some progress to that effect. I used to believe only a dough blade could produce smooth, stretchy pounded yam, But I have been proven wrong. I have even tested it myself countless times, and yes people, the knife blade produces gorgeous pounded yam.

Another tool you can use to make stress free and hot made in a flash pounded yam is to use a Stand Mixer. Yes, the type for making cakes, dough etc. You only need two attachments. The dough hook and the flat beater. Some say use the beater to mash the yam and then finish off with the dough hook to form it into a ball, others reverse the process. I have seen living proof of both, so choose whichever method works for you. I will soon be in possession of a stand mixer, and I will make pounded yam and post pictures.

Do, you know that you can also use a Hand Mixer to make pound yam? Yes you can. If your hand mixer comes with the long thin dough hook, it will also make very stretchy pounded yam in minutes. I have even experimented with my Hand Blender. Not the blender itself mind you, but the chopper bowl. Most hand blenders come with 2 extra attachments. The whisk and the chopper bowl. I have a picture of the chopper bowl HERE. It is quick and handy kitchen tool to cut down chopping time to seconds. You can also use it to make pounded yam.

the long bit on top is the hand blender motor. It has removable attachments. In this picture, I attached the big chopper bowl. See the knife blade in the bowl? Yes, it makes pounded yam. Will put up pictures in my Afia Efere (white soup) post.

Today though, I am going totally off-board. You have to praise the ingenuity of Nigerian women. A member of SYTCC, Titi posted a picture of pounded yam made in her blender, but not just an ordinary blender but a Ninja blender. A Ninja blender is a little special because the blade is not flat, like traditional blenders. Its own blade is really long and thin. See picture below. When I saw the picture, I said of course, this can make pounded yam easy peasy. This is not a traditional blender.

image courtesy: www.ninjakitchen.com

A few weeks later, someone came with a claim that she made pounded yam using a traditional blender, and I was really quite skeptical. Unfortunately the pictures attached weren’t clear and I shrugged it off, but recently other women have been making claims, but with no pictures attached and I thought hmmmmn, this one I have to try to believe. Not many things challenge me like food does. To say I was astounded is probably an understatement. I had to use the Motion Capture mode of my camera to shoot live pictures, so you would believe it.

I can confidently tell you that it works, and I will point at how, with extra tips and what to look out for. If you feel you have been marginalised, because you don’t have any of the devices I stated above, well you are in luck now. Welcome to the Club of Real Pounded Yam eaters. I have to insist though that by watching how it makes this, your blender has to have a powerful motor, because it will struggle at the beginning and possibly burn out. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone having to buy a new blender. I will go so far as to recommend from 300W upwards. I stand corrected, I had initially written 600W. I always thought my blender was 600W. I just checked the Philips Website, and it is 300W.  If you have a low wattage blender, like mine, unless you have been using it for ages and trust it, be careful. Caveat Emptor i.e. be warned. Oh, one more big ups for my blender. I have been using it since 2007 and it has done everything. It can also be used to peel the skin off beans. Yes it can, Yes it ca. Click HERE for instructions

How To 

1. Cut the yam into pieces and boil. When it has cooked through, cut into smaller pieces, using a table knife, while the yams are still in the pot. This is essential. You want to make sure they are hot, so at no time should you take the yams out and cut on a plate. Turn the heat down to low, to ensure the yams remain hot and go get your blender.

2. Add 2 – 3 pieces of yam to the blender, cover it and turn it on for a few seconds and stop. DO NOT add water. Repeat it again for a few seconds and stop. This is to protect the engine. With each session of the engine being on, you will see the blades crush the yam and start to form a ball.

Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: i will recommend that you experiment first with this, to see how it works. Don’t get too excited. Start with a few pieces from start to finish, then you can get bolder. See pictures below. The yams have been crushed and are forming into a ball. Give yourself a few seconds to be amazed. Hehehehehehe. Keep at it for a few seconds and that ball will turn smooth and proper like pounded yam. I was too amazed to take the picture of the complete product.

3. Scoop out the ball, and start again. This time, with 3 pieces, repeat step two, but this time, after the first few seconds of blending, when you can see that the yams have crushed, open the blender and leave it open. See picture below. Once you have this, you know you are good to go. Stop the blender, add a few more pieces of yam and repeat the dance again, until you have quite enough crushed yams in the blender, then you keep the engine running and let it pull together.

4. The crushed yam pieces will go from the picture you can see above, to the one below. Here is where my Motion Capture component comes in. See people, how shocking is that? As the engine is rotating the blades, the crushed yam will be pulled together to form a ball, and that ball will be rolling around, and rolling around, and stretching to form pounded yam. The flipping thing works.

Still in shock? Enlarge the picture if you want. Loooool.

See it rolling and stretching, and rolling and stretching, and rolling and stretching. All this is happening in a very short space of time.

…………….and there you have it. Pounded Yam. Do you believe now?

Because you are going to have to scoop out with your hands, it will be a little messy on the plate, so I advice you scoop it out unto a plastic sheet, you know the types we wrap starchy solids in, or even a rinsed supermarket bag. Once you have all the pounded yam done, cover it in the plastic wrap, and mould in your hands to look pretty, and that’s all.

Yes, it is probably a little fiddly than the other devices, because you have to start slow first before it kicks into a ball, but who cares really. You get your hot pounded yam, without spending extra money on another kitchen device. The beauty of this is that, I not only used old leftover yam which had been sitting on my kitchen cart for days in this cold weather, making it even more tough, it was also the bottom part of the yam, which traditionally is quite difficult to make pounded yam with because it tends to be much tougher and more fibrous. So, even with tough yam, it works. Well, this isn’t manual pounding, an engine is involved. BOOM!!!!

We now have a list of devices, pick which ever you want

Food Processor

Stand Mixer

Hand Mixer

Hand Blender Chopper Bowl

Ninja Blender

Traditional blender

I can already imagine many of you rushing out to buy yam this weekend. Well good, it’s about time. Throw away your packet of Poundo Flour while you are at it. Please try it and send me pictures. Welcome to the club of The Real Pounded Yam Eaters.

Dooney’s Kitchen is 1. Phew, I can’t believe I just wrote those words. It does feel like forever and I am truly grateful for the experience. What I started with so much trepidation has brought me so much joy, I can’t believe that little old me has accomplished this. Seeing the news that Lupita Nyong’o won the Oscar this morning is so poignant, especially as this time last year, on this very date Dooney’s Kitchen was born. The part of her speech that resonated with me was, “no matter where you are from, your dreams are valid”. A young girl from Kenya, born the same year as I was, had a dream worked towards that dream and today she has achieved International success and recognition. When fate smiles on you, when He blesses you in the way Only He can, when it is your turn to shine, there is no stopping it. Her story is so inspiring, I have found myself repeating so many times today, Dunni your dreams are valid. It doesn’t matter if at the moment Nigerian food is not seen as anything to be reckoned with, you are putting in the work and He will reward you in the way only He can. Your dreams are valid. You are going to be the next Lupita, making waves, inspiring a generation through food and letting people in Nigeria and the African continent realise that there is greatness within what we can produce, that no one else can produce - our food. Today Kenya is on the map in such an amazing way, I pray that the special brand of Lupita magic, the Lupita fairy dust sprinkles my way.

It just so happens that Nigerian makes up the MINT countries. If you haven’t heard of the MINT countries yet, you need to read up on it. We represent that N. Growth is coming, the world is watching and waiting. Food is an integral part of us as a people, and we have to be ready to showcase that. Investors are coming, some are already there, we should not elevate Western food over ours. It is already happening and it makes me angry, to be honest. You see pictures of food served at events in Lagos, menus in “fancy” restaurants in capital cities and you wonder. You can’t beat an “oyinbo” man at his own game. Lose your identity, and no one will find it for you. Lupita is a shining example of how being yourself, makes you stand out. 

No more lumping all we produce as African food. No such thing exists. I read a comment on Bella Naija by some ‘Jane Public’ and it was so profound, I have to copy and paste it here because it is what a lot of us are guilty of.

You hear words like African food. That term gets my blood boiling. Even food bloggers use that word. There is nothing like “African food”. Be specific. Afro-politan, Afro-centric, Afro, this, Afro that. Why won’t they think we are all the same thing? Have you heard the term European food before? You hear British food, French Food, Italian Food, Spanish food, Mexican food, Indian food, Thai food, Chinese food, Mediterranean cuisine, hardly do you hear the term European food, Asian food, because IT DOESN’T EXIST. Europeans and Asians differentiate themselves and woe betide you tar them with the same brush, but we, nooooooo, we loves it. African food. What does that mean? Mschew. Is Nigerian food the same as Ethiopian food? Or Ugandan food?

Thankfully, I have always referred to our food with its proper label, Nigerian food. Afro nothing, has never had a place on this blog, and I implore all of us to do the same. We are so migratory as a people, it is time we distinguish ourselves and our food for what it is. We should speak well of our food and properly tag it for what it is, Nigerian food. Our food is not healthy, yeah right. I tell people, in many ways than one, I should be the poster child for Nigerian food because it constitutes probably 95% of my diet. Moderation, changing cooking styles, methods, use of ingredients and our food is organic to boot, what else do we need?

One of such gloriousness that truly showcases our local produce is Banga soup. This is a powerhouse across the Niger Delta, it should be an institution of its own. The last Banga Soup recipe is more the Efik version called Abak Atama (recipe HERE) due to the ingredients used. I wasn’t feeling too well this past weekend and missing my father so much to boot, because he always knew what to say or do to make me feel better. With my body not co-operating with me, I dragged myself to the kitchen to cook his favourite meal. Starch and Banga soup, and it really did help me feel better. The energy and zeal I got from making it, kicked up a cooking super storm, like I have never seen before. I cooked a total of 9 soups this weekend spanning across the Niger Delta region, so be ready for a bumper season this March. Yes, I have been baking more and posting some not so 9ja centric recipes, but I am back people. Like seriously back. My kitchen is buzzing, and buzzing, today I am bringing you Banga Soup as it is called in Delta State.

You will need

Palm fruit or Palm nut extract

Ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

Oburunbebe stick

Dried bitter leaves

Dry red shrimps

Fresh shrimps

Periwnkles

Tilapia – any fresh fish will do

Powdered Banga spices

Stockfish or smoked fish

Traditionally Banga soup is made with fresh in several varieties. Fresh, smoked, shell fish etc. Yes, you can make it with meat, but it truly is not the same. The flavour of fish is so tender and delicate, matching the delicate taste of the palm fruit. If you will use Meat, Bush meat is best. I remember the joints, shortly off the express way my father stopped at in Ugheli, Delta State. Those women would serve hot steaming bowls of Starch and banga soup with fresh fish. I still remember till this day, how amazing that food was. I hope, I did it justice.

How To

1. You need the palm fruit extract. Now, you can do this one of tw ways. From scratch which invovles boiling the palm fruits, till they soften, and then pounding in a mortar, to extract the juice. After which you add hot water, squeeze the chaff to extract more liquid and then discard. Or you can simply cheat and buy the extract in a can.

2. If you are using the canned version, it comes quite thick, so you need to dilute it with hot water, to make it more fluid, and more like the consistency you would acheive if you were making it from scratch. Dooney’s Kitchen tip: you need it to be fluid, but not so fluid it becomes transluscent

3. Then you add the smoked fish varieties, and let them boil till they soften, and you can taste their flavour in the palm fruit extract. I used stockfish and dry red prawns. Notice, that I did not use crayfish. I don’t use crayfish when I cook with fresh fish or fresh shell food. Its flavour, though amazing is way too strong, it dominates the flavour profile.

4. Add fresh pepper. As much as you can tolerate. Also let this boil. Ata rodo, particularly has its own flavour. Many of us don’t realise that it does. In soups like Banga, you notice that flavour

5. Add the banga spices in tablespoonfulls until you get the intensity that you want. I used 3 tablespoonfulls for this deep saucepan. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: i started with 2, and then proceeded to adding one more, to get a kick. Mind you, you really don’t want to use too much or it will taste bitter. Don’t just pour in the spices at once. Start with one or two tablespoons and work your way from there. I also added the oburunbebe stick for added flavour. This is something I observed my grandma do. Just the way the Efik people would add the Uyaya pod. If you don’t have the obunrunbebe stick, that’s fine. It has been blended with the powdery banga spices, so you are covered.

6. Stir and let it boil, till you can smell and also taste the spices in the palm fruit extract.

7. At this point, add the seasoning cubes and salt. Season to the point you will not need to anymore, because once the fish and shelled fish go in, it is not advisable to re-season again.

8. One thing you will notice is that after the banga spices go in, the palm fruit extract thickens. This always happens. If it doesn’t in a few minutes, it means you added too much hot water from the start. One signature thing with the spices is also that they introduces black fleckles into the soup. This is the signature of those spices, just as using vanilla pod add black fleckes to whatever it is added to. See the black fleckles in the picture below

9. Once it has thickened a bit, then you add the fresh fish, the fresh prawns and unshelled periwinkles

immediately they go in, lower the heat and cover the pot. Dooney’s Kitchen tip: it is essential that you lower the heat, because high heat destroys the flavour of fresh fish and seafood, especially when you are cooking them in a large broth. If you’ve always been cooking your fish on igh heat, try my method and taste the difference. 

10. Once the fish has cooked, the last ingredient to be added is dried bitter leaf. The urhobos use the Obeletientien leaf, but other parts of Delta use dried bitter leaf. My grandma definitely did. Blend the dried leaves in a mill till it becomes powdery.

sprinkle the powder unto the soup. Roughly about a tablespoon or slighlty more. You just want a slightly bitter twinge, so don’t over load it.

11. Still with the heat on low, simply let the soup cook until oil starts to float to the surface. This is essential. If you serve my grandma Banga without her seeing the oil, she would send you right back to the kitchen, with stern words and that woman had a mouth on her. Lol

Once this happens, your Banga Soup is done, and ready to be served. How beautiful does that look. How much does 9ja food really rock?

Dish and serve hot

Deltans will tell you that, there is no better pairing with Banga Soup than Starch and I so agree

I will be posting a tutorial on how to make Starch, so be on the lookout for that

One more thing. To celebrate one year of you being on the journey with me, I am going to be giving away a Kitchen Gadget. Think Pounded Yam, that is all I am going to say for now. I’m afraid, it won’t be a game of luck, some effort on your part will be involved, and the most worthy contributor will win. So, get ready.

As you may have read in my Banga Soup Post, I am having a giveaway to celebrate 1 year of being a food blogger. By His Grace, I hope to make this an annual thing, so there’s no time like the present to start this. Not like I have loads of money at my disposal at the moment or anything, but I am willing to make the sacrifice to show you guys that I truly appreciate your support.

Well enough of the suspense, okay not suspense because you must have guessed it when I said in the Baga Soup post, think Pounded Yam. I have 3 Food Processors to giveaway and I am going to have to group it somehow to make it fair and open. I am also making it into a competition of some sorts, with a panel of judges to make it fair, and not a game of luck.

Group 1 - You MUST be a member of So You Think You Can Cook to be considered. If you are already a member of this group, it automatically disqualifies you from the opportunity to win in the other groups, because I am going to select challenges for each group. I can verify your membership on the group, so no funny business here. Lol

For SYTCC Members, here is your task.

• Round 1 - Tell me the most creative dish you can whip up using a food processor, and tell me how much owning a food processor will improve your cooking. Answers should be posted on the Group wall – I have already taken permission from the Admins. The most creative answers will be shortlisted for Round 2.
• Round 2 - Take a cue from one of my recipes, turn it over on its head, and create something that is modern, and oh so Nigerian. It has to be from one of my recipes, because as part of your submission, you will say which recipe you used. I will also check the recipe post to see if it is not something I have mentioned that I can do with the recipe. Your submission has to be totally you. Express yourself, think outside the box, let your creativity take flight and produce a fabulous dish that is worthy of being posted on the blog, with all credit given to you. You will submit your creation (plus your recipe) on the SYTCC Group and tag me, so I can view it, and so will the panel of judges.

Group 2 - Well this is easy peasy. You MUST be an email subscriber to the blog AND you also have LIKE the Dooney’s Kitchen Facebook Page. Two actions, not either or. I know many of you read this blog, but to confirm some sort of identity for a start, I will need an email address and your Facebook account, to confirm that it is one and the same person. No funny business of creating multiple Email and Facebook accounts, because this is not a game of luck, where the higher your number of entries, the higher your chances of winning. So, if you have just been reading, or even commenting with your email address, I’m afraid you will have to subscribe to be considered eligible, because part of the competition to win this would involve sending me emails and pictures of your creations on Facebook. So, get to subscribing and liking.

The challenge for Group 2 is……………………….. I will hold it right there for now. To sweeten the pot and to check if truly you guys are interested in participating, I will be watching closely, how much increase in Likes the Facebook page and increase in email subscriptions I will get. When I notice some serious action, I will post the challenge for Group 2 on the Facebook page, so be on the lookout for that. If you Like the Dooney’s Kitchen Facebook page, you will know on your Facebook News Feed immediately when the details have been posted.

Group 3 - I am yet to confirm from the website administrators the details of this giveaway. Until I get the go ahead from them, it will not be proper to announce this yet. Of course, if you have entered in the competition for Group 1 and 2, you are automatically disqualified from participating in this group.

If you live in the UK, US, Canada or Nigeria, the competition is open to you. If you live outside of these countries, and you do win, you are going to have to send me a link to online stores in your location and I will see about purchasing something from them which will be paid for and you pick up from the store. Again, I would like to make it clear, that location is not part of the selection criteria for winning, so please do not be discouraged from participating. You win, and you would get a food processor somehow, even if it means we would have to get creative to organise something, or shipping will be involved, and I do mean that.

So get ready to be creative people. It is 1year since Dooney’s Kitchen started, and I hope I have truly inspired you in this past 12 months. Now, it is time to show me what you have learned.

Today is pancake Tuesday, and I suddenly remembered that I made this ages ago and forgot to post it. What better time than Shrove Tuesday, the day pancakes are celebrated. Crêpes Suzette are simply thin pancakes drenched in an orange caramel sauce. One thing truly special about Crêpes Suzette is that you flambé the sauce. So, if your guests are adults, you can put on a show for them, by flambéing the sauce right in their presence.

For me, Crêpes Suzette will always hold a special memory. Very special indeed. My birthday month is smack in the middle of winter, so it has become a tradition I have started, to up sticks and go somewhere warm for a few days. 2012 was an especially difficult and challenging year, so I decided to pick a gorgeous location to de-stress and look forward to starting another year with many things to reminisce and be grateful for. That location was Malta, and it is a gorgeous hidden jewel in the Mediterranean. A tiny island, well two, brimming with so much energy, great weather, good food and beautiful beaches. The Blue Lagoon is one place not to be missed, with its gorgeous clear blue waters, you would think for a second you are somewhere in the Caribbean.

A short hop away is the gorgeous island of Gozo filled with culture and interesting architecture. Malta is a melting pot of different cultures, because in its history, it had been conquered many times by different countries. So, travelling through its streets and villages you can see the Arabic influence, Italian – (Sicily is just a few hours away by boat, so the Italian influence is very present in their cuisine), French and British, which to me is the best part because English is the 2nd official language and they drive on the left hand side. The Maltese are such friendly and warm people. Tourism brings in most of their revenue, so they are very inviting, and because they all speak English, I felt very much at home.

I did some gastronomy research for my birthday dinner because I wanted to treat myself to a fancy meal. Barracuda restaurant in St Julian’s bay ranked very high on the list of reviews, so I booked a table. Walking in, I realised it was a great choice. It is a fabulous restaurant and apparently a popular celebrity hangout in Malta, with pictures of celebrities who had eaten there plastered all over the walls, including Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, Supermodels and Music stars. I don’t know how I got so lucky, birthday magic I guess because I got one of the best tables in the house. The building the restaurant is located overhangs slightly into the bay, so my table was at that strategic corner and with windows starting from the floor, and huge lights at the base of the building, I could see the bay and waves lapping at the shore right beneath my feet. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. So, as not disgrace myself, being a fancy restaurant. I left my camera in the hotel. I will not make that mistake next time. Here is the link to the restaurant’s website. http://barracudarestaurant.com/the-restaurant/

The starter and main course were fabulous, but I will not be talking about that today. The desert was the bees knees. I ordered Crêpes Suzette because the reviews I read said they make it extra special by putting a show for you right at your table. So, I thought why not, it’s my birthday, and boy was I glad I did. As soon as the plates for the main course were cleared, a waiter strolled in with a trolley, and I thought okay, wow me. He started with making the crêpes, then the show really began when he started to flambé the sauce. It was so riveting, even other diners stopped to watch. Flames rising from the pan almost as high as the waiter himself. It was quite a show. Luckily, I recorded it on my phone and I will be uploading it once I figure out how. When the crêpeswere served, I told the waiter the experience was a really good birthday present, and he said out loud, ah it is your birthday, Miss. Okay we will sing for you. I said thanks, but no need. He said no way, then he got his colleagues to sing Happy Birthday in their loud Italian-esque voice, and the other guests in the restaurant joined in. My eyes were brimming with tears by the end. It was so touching and nice, coming from total strangers. I also got a free complimentary glass of dessert wine. Best birthday experience ever. All because of Crêpes Suzette. As I made this in my kitchen, I was experiencing nostalgia in waves. If you are stuck for options for dessert, I mean, we’ve all had cake and ice cream a gazillion times, or to celebrate Shrove Tuesday today, you want to do something a bit adult, make Crêpes Suzette.

You will need

Pancake batter to make pancakes - my pancake batter is one of the best I’ve ever had. It is my mum’s recipe and has had great feedback from readers. Click HERE for the recipe.

For the Sauce

1/2 cup Orange juice

zest of 1 Orange

60g butter

1/3rd cup of granulated sugar

1/4 cup Grand Marnier or Cointreau - orange liqueur, you can also use brandy

How To

1. Zest an Orange

2. Add the sugar into a pan, and heat it up until a light brown caramel starts to form and lightly bubble up

3. Turn down the heat, add the butter and stir until it dissolves.

4. Add the orange juice and orange zest and stir. Keep the pan on low heat, to allow the sauce to thicken. This should take 5 – 7 minutes.

5. At the end, you have a rich orange caramel sauce, which tastes absolutely wicked.

allow it to cool down, it will thicken slightly

6. Fold the pancakes into triangles and lay across a cold shallow or deep sauce pan.

7. Pour over the golden orange caramel sauce, and allow the pancakes to soak through with the sauce.

8. Pour the grand marnier or brandy into a pot and heat up for a few minutes. The show is about to begin, professional chef style. hehehehehe. Once the liqueur has warmed up, pour into the pan containing the Crepes and get out your lighter. Hold over a lit lighter just close to the layer of alcohol over the pancakes to flambé the sauce. This is truly a show for your guests, friends, family or even other half. 

As soon as the flame hits the alcohol it will flambé.

Very delightful to watch, just ensure that you are not peering into the pan i.e. leaning forward and looking into the pan. This was my very first time, and it turned out brilliantly.

The flame will die out in about 30 – 45 seconds. Remember, to achieve a successful flambé, the pancakes have to be cool, same with the orange sauce. The only warmth you need is from the alcohol and it will ignite.

After which you plate the Crepes and serve. You can drizzle over any extra orange caramel sauce that you have.

this is yummy sinful goodness. The tangy orange, plus sweet caramel and then flavour from the Grand Marnier is amazing.

Golden delicious pancakes. Not to worry, any alcohol content is burned off from the flambé, leaving you with just the flavour.

 depending on the number of guests you are expecting, you can make the crepes in advance and store in the fridge. You can also use high-end store-bought or bakery bought pancakes.

Fabulous idea for a romantic Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast too.

see the orange caramel sauce oozing and glistening.

Enjoy!!!!

I have 2* Kenwood and/or Phillips Food Processors (with Blender Jug) to give away and I am going to have changed the grouping format for ease of collating entries, and to also make it more open and fair. For Group 1, if there is a tie, or the runner up truly impresses me, then I will make it a total of 3 Food Processors to give out. Again, I would like to make it clear, that location is not part of the selection criteria for winning, so please do not be discouraged from participating. By hook or by crook, wherever you live, if you are selected as a winner or winners in Group 1, I will get a Food Processor across to you somehow. The brands I have listed are by no means exhaustive, as location of the winner, will determine what is appropriate to be used, based on things like sockets, voltages etc.

Get ready to be creative people. It is 1 year since Dooney’s Kitchen was born, and I hope I have truly inspired you in this past 12 months. Now, it is time to show me what you have learned.

Here are the new changes for the Grouping.

Group 1 - Well this is easy peasy. You MUST be an email subscriber to the blog AND you also have to LIKE the Dooney’s Kitchen Facebook Page. Two actions, not either or. I know many of you read this blog, but to establish your identity, I will need an email address and your Facebook account. This is to confirm that it is one and the same person. No funny business of creating multiple Email and Facebook accounts, because this is not a game of luck, where the higher your number of entries, the higher your chances of winning. So, if you have just been reading, or even commenting with your email address, I’m afraid you will have to subscribe to be considered eligible, because part of the competition to win this would involve sending me an email(s) for Round 1 and pictures of your creations on Facebook for Round 2. So, get to subscribing to the blog and liking the Dooney’s Kitchen Facebook Page.

Entries are open as from today March 4th, and they will run until April 4th. The winners will be announced shortly before Easter. Imagine yourself with a brand new food processor as an Easter gift. How cool will that be?

Here is your task

• Round 1 - Tell me the most creative dish you can whip up using a food processor AND tell me how much owning a food processor will improve your cooking. Let me clarify, no cooking is involved in Round 1. Just tell me what creative dish or dishes you can whip up using a food processor and by whip up, I don’t necessarily mean the food processor will be doing the “cooking”. I mean, what creative dish can a food processor help you prepare i.e. how will the food processor aid you in cooking that creative dish, what role will it play etc. The most creative answers will be shortlisted for Round 2.

All entries for Round 1 MUST be sent to my email address. the_experience@dooneyskitchen.com.

• Round 2 - Take a cue from one of my recipes, turn it over on its head, and create something that is modern, and oh so Nigerian. It has to be from one of my recipes, because as part of your submission, you will say which recipe of mine you modified. I will also check the recipe post to see if it is not something I have mentioned that I can do with the recipe. Your submission has to be totally you. Express yourself, think outside the box, let your creativity take flight and produce a fabulous dish that is worthy of being posted on the blog, with all credit given to you.

Your creation plus your recipe MUST be posted on the Dooney’s Kitchen Facebook Page for all to see. Don’t send me an Inbox message, post on the Facebook Page.

Group 2 - I am yet to confirm from the website administrators the details of this giveaway. Until I get the go ahead from them, it will not be proper to announce this yet, so if you are reading this now, it will be best if you participate in Group 1. You already know the website I write for, but lets leave out their name for now. Of course, if you have entered in the competition for Group 1 you are automatically disqualified from participating in this group.

Good Luck……………………..Tick tock, a Food Processor awaits you

The last time I posted a recipe for Afang Soup was ages ago, and at that time, I did not realise that it was the Cameroon version. I just thought Joy, who taught me how to make the soup had given me an alternative to blending the Okazi leaves which I am not particularly a huge fan of. I found out on Facebook that the Cameroonians’ don’t blend their Okazi vegetable. They soak it in hot water till it softens. Whoop, whoop. Further increase in food knowledge.

With the Cameroon version on lockdown, I decided to just make the Efik version to complete it. Especially after seeing Mrs Iquoh’s Editan soup last week, which brought back a flood of memories. If I see Editan leaves anywhere in London, I am probably going to scream. I do that a lot in African stores, when I find something totally surprising, after which I break into this weird dance, I forget for a few seconds that I have an audience. Then I compose myself. One of my fears is that one day, someone is going to record me and post on YouTube. So, if you see a video of one skinny black girl dancing like a white person (i have been told, my dancing is awful) in an African store, chances are that it would be me. The store owners are already used to my squeals of delight. So, the next time you hear someone let out a huge guffaw, check very well, it just might be me. Don’t be shy, or embarrassed, just come over and introduce yourself. I will be really chuffed to meet one of you. Hehehehehehe.

Anyways, back to Afang Soup. This is the sister version of Edikang Ikong (recipe HERE), save for the difference with one vegetable, Okazi instead of Ugu. Due to the texture of Okazi, you would have to pound or blend it. Now, this is where my disagreements with the soup start, so I usually go the Cameroon way, but for this post, I decided to let go of my personal preference for the benefit of you the readers, so you can replicate in your homes a truly Efik dish. I am kinda a little into “if i have to eat something, I sure as hell (oops potty mouth, or is it potty fingers, hehehe) must enjoy it”, so I gave the okazi a slightly rough blend. It is up to you to decide if you want a smooth blend or a rough blend. Anyways, enough of the talking, let’s get down the recipe of one of the delights of Efik cooking.

You will need

4 bunches of Water leaves

2 – 3 cups of blended Okazi leaves

Assorted meats

Stockfish

Smoked fish

Palm oil

Ground fresh pepper – preferably yellow pepper

Periwinkles

Ground Crayfish

Smoked red prawns

Fresh Prawns

Beef Stock

Salt – optional

Seasoning cubes – optional

How To

Prep all your ingredients i.e. boil the meats with stockfish and smoked red prawns, wash and chop the water leaves, soak the Okazi leaves in hot water for a few minutes to soften and then pulverize (blend) in a blender to your tolerance level of smoothness.

boiled assorted meats and rich well seasoned beef stock

washed and chopped water leaves

Okazi leaves soaking in hot water

Okazi leaves after a rough blend

Now, it’s time to start cooking.

1. Add palm oil and ground fresh pepper to the pot containing the meats and stock. 2 cooking spoons should be fine. Allow the palm oil to dissolve into the stock

2. Add the periwinkles if you have any

3. Add the water leaves and stir

4. Allow the water leaves to wilt into the stock. This should happen in about 2 – 3 minutes.

5. While the water leaves are wilting and dissolving into the palm oil stock, add fresh crayfish and fresh prawns, if you are using any fresh prawns.

6. Add the blended Okazi leaves. here is a close shot of the texture after blending. Also notice that the okazi leaves are not swimming in water. This is because, only a little water is needed to blend it. Remember, the leaves have soaked in hot water, and thereby softened.

add all the okazi leaves to the pot and stir. Lower the heat at this point, to prevent the water leaves from over cooking.

7. In a few minutes, you will notice a lot of dark coloured watery stock bubbling up. Not to worry, the blended okazi leaves, will soon absorb most of it. Still keep the heat on low and allow the contents of the pot to simmer. If it is looking slightly dry, just add a little palm oil to top up. Taste for salt and seasoning and readjust if necessary.

8. In a few minutes time, this is what you should have staring back at you. The okazi leaves have meshed well with the rest of the ingredients, it has also absorbed most of the watery stock, leaving you with Afang Soup that feels well moistened and squishy to touch.

I’m sorry, that’s how best I can explain it. Squishy is the word, because of the blended Okazi leaves. This distinctively denotes Efik Afang from Edikang Ikong.

……………………….and that’s your pot of Afang Soup ready to be enjoyed.

Serve hot, with your choice of starchy solids.

Yellow garri is especially amazing with Afang Soup

Of course, you can serve it with Pounded Yam too

If you have a slow cooker and it has been lounging in your store, without being used, well, now is the time to get it out. If you have been considering getting one, I hope this post gives you the push that you need. You can either get an electric slow cooker, or get a crock pot to be used on the stove. The amazing thing about slow cookers is that they do all the work for you, while you just sit back and wait for the magic to happen. Slow cooking is also great because it intensifies the flavour of whatever you cook in it. Meats are especially great slow cooked. They come of tender, pulling apart from the bone and the taste is intense. It soaks in the spices and herbs, of whatever you slow cook with and the result is this gorgeous plate of food, you won’t believe you did not “actually cook” it.

If you are worrying about the cost, slow cookers are actually very energy-efficient. A 7 hour cook for example uses as much electricity if not less than that of a light bulb. The next worry for you would probably be leaving something plugged in while you are out of the house. If you are not comfortable with this, then use your slow cooker overnight while you are at home. I have not yet come across one fire incident that started because of a slow cooker, but at the end of the day, you have to decide if you want to use it. I got mine as a Christmas gift from my cousin, with the red colour and all, and I have used it twice now. Once for my Jerk Chicken (recipe HERE), which was so amazing, it disappeared within minutes for the people I cooked it for. On Facebook, someone called Hariat asked if I could try making Peppersoup with it, as she had heard claims that it can be done. There are also claims that you can make our regular red stew using a slow cooker. This would be my next challenge. As for this goat meat Peppersoup, I can gladly tell you that it works, the peppersoup was delicious, but there was one teeeny tiny problem I had with it. The goat meat was too soft, and that was just because I let it cook overnight. With a shorter cooking time, this will be perfect, so don’t knock it just yet. Here’s how.

You will need

Goat meat – preferably frozen

Chopped onion

dry or fresh pepper

Peppersoup spice powder

Cameroon pepper – optional

2 Ehuru seeds (calabash nutmeg) – optional

Enough Water

Salt

Seasoning cubes

Whole ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper) – optional

Efinrin – scent leaf, nchawu, ntong, basil

How To

1. Add all the ingredients into the slow cooker. In the pictures below, you can see goat meat, dry pepper, salt, chopped onions, ehuru seeds, whole pepper (ata rodo), Cameroon pepper.

2. Add enough water to cover the meats and then some. This is peppersoup after all. Add seasoning cubes, and taste for salt. be sure you are satisfied, because once you switch it on, it is not advisable to go back in to re-season.

3. Switch on the device, and turn the dial to Low. Set the timer for roughly 3 – 4 hours and you would have gorgeous, well cooked, intensely flavoured goat meat peppersoup. Finish off by adding the chopped Efinrin or Basil.

This weekend, I had a Food Order, and Buka Stew was on the list. There will always be something Iconic about Buka Stew and Dooney’s Kitchen. It was the very first recipe I posted, and by some coincidence that still surprises me, it has been the most successful recipe of this blog, next to Party Jollof rice (recipe HERE). The most tried, the most shared, the most viewed, the most comments, it took off from this blog and developed a life of its own. I have had hundreds of positive comments and emails, pictures, in fact at some point, it was all people were cooking on Facebook. I had people sending me emails from far-flung places in the world regaling the tales of Buka Stew. One common thread was the fact that women couldn’t believe that no extra spices beyond salt and seasoning cubes was needed for the stew to taste amazing. No curry, no thyme, no ginger, no garlic, nada. It throws away everything you know about stew, and brings you back down to the basics. Buka Science I call it.

I have had wives giving me glorious feedback from their husbands and family after trying the stew out, I have had single women come back virtually screaming. One person actually said her mother is now sure she is ready for marriage. I have even gotten comments from lots of men. The love of Buka stew knows no gender. I got comments which made me laugh, one of which was from Yinka who said, “she ate her fill of Buka Stew and Rice, slept off on the sofa and woke up to the smell of buka stew from an empty plate, she thought she was dreaming about being in a Buka in Lagos. She couldn’t believe an empty plate of food could still smell that good. Hahahahahahaha. Another particularly funny one was when someone wrote to me and said, “if he puts a ring on it, I swear I am naming my first daughter after you“. Some feedback almost made me cry. There was a particular email which said “I believe you have just repaired the relationship between my mother in law and I”. She has never complimented me on anything, the entire time I have been married to her son and when I made your Buka Stew, she could not stop praising me. It was as if someone else took over her body”. Another very touching email was someone who wrote to me and said “you may have saved my marriage. I cooked this stew and my husband who barely speaks to me anymore kept telling me how the stew reminded him of his Buka days at University. That was the first real conversation we have had in ages. All because of this stew”. I think I actually smiled and cried when I read that email. That is the power of Buka Stew people. The fact that you can re-create that universally loved Buka stew experience in your home is sheer magic.

What still amazes me till date is that, this recipe did not come with any pictures. None at all, just my explanation. It doesn’t even technically come with a recipe, just ratios of how much pepper to use, and you guys took the little I gave and ran with it. Like growing a single grain of corn and ending up with an entire forest, not a field, but a forest of corn springs up. I would like to give a huge shout out to Aunty Beebee. My partner in crime of Buka haunts. Her telling me how to cook this over a decade ago, I am sure she did not know then how powerful and revolutionary it would turn out. So here’s to you guys, the thousands of people who have tried the recipe. Here is our favourite Buka Stew in Pictures. Pardon the pepper spills around the pot. This was me cooking for a Meal Drop off Service and not for the blog at all. I listen to Rock Music when I have a big cookout, it helps me get all zen and in the zone. Home by Daughtry was playing, and there is something very nostalgic and reminiscent about that song. I suddenly remembered that I have cooked tons of pots of Buka Stew since I wrote that recipe and I still don’t have pictures. Quickly I went to get the camera and took some shots.

The recipe for Buka Stew can be found HERE. The ratios of how to mix your pepper which is actually what helps start the Buka magic can be found HERE

How To

Start by frying chopped onions in veg oil till they soften. You can do this in the same pot you will fry the pepper in, or get a small pot and decant later. I was going through pots faster than I could wash them, so I opted for a smaller pot to fry the onions.

Ensure that you have your pepper all ready to go. You must have boiled it until it becomes very thick and has absorbed almost all the water it was blended with. This is essential, because you want the pepper to start frying within minutes of adding the oil.

Keep frying until the stew starts to become really thick, especially at the edges of the pot. See how thick it is, even though water and oil are still bubbling in the middle of the pot. You can save yourself splashes of pepper everywhere by covering the pot.

a closer shot of the pepper that had bubbled up to the cover of the pot. See how it is already taken on a stewed look.

Once it is well fried, add in lots of beef stock and water. You add enough water and stock to basically turn your previously fried stew to a watery level. Remember those buka madams are all about profit, so volume must come into play. Don’t fret. Just believe in Buka Science. The magic has started.

allow the water and stock to heat up and bubble vigorously. You are probably going to be wondering where your vegetable oil disappeared to. Not to worry, it is still there. Just allow it to keep bubbling and boiling.

Remember in the original recipe I mentioned boiling the meat, frying (or grilling) it and then boiling again. Well now you can see a picture of what I mean. Add your fried or grilled assorted meat to this bubbling watery pepper and water stock, leave it for another few minutes to continue boiling and then add the palm oil, stir and the palm oil will dissolve totally into the pepper.

Leave it and let it continue boiling. With Buka Stew, a lot of patience is involved, but the results are so worth it. You will know you are on to something when the first batch of Palm oil starts to float to the surface. This is also where you taste for salt and seasoning and readjust.

leave it to continue boiling, and you will notice that patch of palm oil getting spreading and forming river like patterns on the pepper. If you forgot to readjust for salt and seasoning, do so while little bits of palm oil are still floating to the surface.

See, the patch is spreading, and spreading. You will also notice that your previous watery stew is now getting thicker. The aroma wafting from the pot will start to evoke Buka memories, but it is not ready yet, don’t get too excited and stop now.

Just watch as that palm oil patch becomes to get increasingly wider, but bubbles of the liquid stew is peeking out amongst the patches. The meats that were totally buried by the watery stew are now making an appearance. You are almost there, but not done.

When the Palm oil patch has covered the majority of the pot, then you know you are done. Look at that, and tell me it doesn’t remind you of the huge steaming pots at the Buka. One thing I want you to notice is the fact that this stew is still not “thick” like regular home cooked stew. That is exactly what you want.

See bits of the stew below peeking out, that is the consistency you are aiming for. Buka Stew is not thick, the Buka Madams can’t afford to have that happen. It is light and fluid and still very delicious.

Of course, one of the best ways to enjoy Buka Stew is the ultimate pairing. Amala and Ewedu. In some parts of The South West, Gbegiri would make it a complete trifecta. Looking at that plate, doesn’t it remind you of eating at a Buka. See that fluid, flowing watery stew that is so signature Buka. This is what you should be aiming for. You can leave the leftovers to become thick, which is best enjoyed with fried yam, friend plantain, fried sweet potatoes etc

I will be posting my recipe for Buka Ewedu. I already have an Ewedu recipe on the blog. I named it Ewedu special (recipe HERE), because it is packed full of ingredients, but with Buka Ewedu, it is much simpler due to Buka Economics, which is tied to profits of course. The Buka madams can’t jam it full of ingredients, because ewedu comes complimentary with your stew, so it is quite cheap to make but fantastic at the same time.

This starchy solid is revered and well-respected across the Niger Delta. The Urhobos call it Usi, not sure what the Edo people and other parts of Delta call it, but I have always known it as Starch. It is best enjoyed with Banga Soup (recipe HERE). Deltans will tell you that there is no better meal. Well, many of you must know by now that I have Delta roots. 50% to be precise, so Starch is something I am very familiar with. Watching grandma prepare it was always fascinating. I stood there in the kitchen and watched in amusement how the block of Starch was dissolved in water, added to the pot, a splash of plan oil and Mama started turning and turning, and solid lumps were forming int he white solution, and then it turned from white with oily flecks to pale yellow and then the yellow got darker and darker, and the starch turned translucent. It always fascinated me, but sadly, she never let me do it. If I begged and begged, she would say Uche (or sometimes Amma), okay start stirring it, and I would be really pleased, but as soon as the lumps started to form, she would take the wooden spoon from me and finish off, which disappointed me to say the least, because that is when the fun had begun. Little did I know that making starch was so not fun.

I got brave one day and decided to prepare it on my own, after all I had seen it made hundreds of times by Mama and my big Aunties. Oh dear, they were correct in not letting me near it. What looks like fun when you are watching someone else do it, is definitely not the same experience when you are holding the wooden spoon. Starch seems to have a life of its own. As soon as those lumps start to form, it is as if the Starch has become the concert instructor and you are just one of the violinists. That thing can turn on you so fast, you will not see it coming. Once it solidifies, goodness me, you can turn and turn it round and round, but if you don’t have the upper arm strength backed with experience, it will be a disaster. This is not to scare you, but to prepare you, especially for first timers. Follow my steps clearly and pay attention. This is nothing like making Amala, Semo, even Pounded Yam, not even close. Even if you are a pro at making those starchy solids I just mentioned, Starch will humble you. Needless to say I quickly emptied the pot in a plastic wrap and dumped in the bin outside, so Mama would not notice. I washed the pot so fast, I could have won the Gold Medal in Pot washing. My grandma was quite stern and had a zero tolerance policy with wasting food, and I sure did not want to be at the receiving end of her tongue.

As I got older, she let me practice more and more but towards the final stages, she always took over and sadly I did not get to show her that I could make Starch from start to finish by myself. My mum being a Yoruba woman was definitely not amused with the process (don’t blame her), so it wasn’t even something she could teach me. I learnt how to make starch on my own. Years of watching it made, plus plenty of practice, half of which were disasters, fine tuned my skills and I can make it successfully now, but with a little Caveat. For not more than 2 adults. The arm cardio involved to feed a group of people is way more than my tiny arms can produce. What I would advise for anyone reading this who truly wants to make it is to be prepared to turn out not so great batches, but once you get it, you get it. Your first trial may be a mess, I must confess the first pot I made when I wanted to blog about this went straight to the bin. I hadn’t made starch since I cooked The Edo Black soup (recipe HERE), plus I wasn’t paying attention, so I binned it. The next batch of which you will see the pictures below, turn out perfect. Here’s how

You will need

Starch

Water Palm Oil

Now, for the starch, if you live in Nigeria, yay for you. You can buy the edible starch in local markets. If you live abroad, a close alternatives are Farina (potato starch) and Cassava Starch. They both come under different brand names. You can find them sold in Asian and African Stores.

How To

1. Pour out the starch into a bowl

ignore the garri in the bowl, that is for another Urhobo dish

2. Add water to the starch until it forms a liquid solution. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: now, the volume of water you add will be based on experience. My grandma always made the solution thick, but that has never worked for me. The lumps develop too fast for me and it spirals out of control, and starch is one solid that is not salvageable. I make my solution quite watery and it gives me better control. It may take slightly longer, but that is nothing compared to how frustrated you will be, plus annoyed when you have to bin it. 

3. Add the liquid solution to a pot, and splash in some palm oil and start with the heat on low to medium. Just a little. The palm oil is what gives it its signature light orange/yellow colour. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you only need a little. About a tablespoon or even less, depending on how much you are making. About the heat being on low to medium, as I mentioned earlier, after going through so many unsuccessful attempts, I had to tweak the process to find what suited me better i.e. gave me more control. With the heat on low to medium, the starch doesn’t solidify too fast for you to handle.

4. Once the heat has been turned on, keep stirring. Not for a second should you stop, because even though you have this volume of liquid squishing around, in a few minutes, the starch will start to solidify at the bottom, so don’t be deceived by the volume of liquid you can see. It is from the bottom that it starts to solidify and pop up. Once it starts to solidify, you will feel it. I have taken a shot of the first “cooked” lumps of starch. Once that happens, it is time to put your back into it, and stir vigorously, to bring the cooked lumps together and basically mesh into one, otherwise, the lumps will harden individually and you are basically screwed (pardon my French), because once that happens, you can’t bring them together again.

5. Keep stirring and stirring, that action will melt the lumps into a smooth thick custard like solution. This is what you want. See how thick and smooth it is, like custard. Don’t get too excited, more work is on the way. Heheheheh

6. From that custard consistency, more cooked lumps begin to form as the solution gets hotter. Just think of it like making Semovita or Poundo flour. Keep going, keep stirring.

7. And just like with other starchy solids, it begins to come together into one big mass. The colour will also deepen and it would probably become quite stiff and difficult for you to manoeuvre, so I invented the add hot water technique. Make sure you already have hot water in the kettle or a pot beside you. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the hot water is to help soften the starch, to the consistency that makes it easier to keep stirring in circular motions. This was something I developed after many frustrating trials. 

8. The addition of hot water also creates an almost instant result. The colour not just deepens, but it starts to take on the characteristic almost translucent look to it. This is what minutes and minutes of stirring would achieve (hurting your arms in the process), but hot water helps you to cheat, and quickens the process.

Keep stirring till the hot water is absorbed, the starch takes on an elastic spring to it, and the colour is deep and translucent. If it gets too bought to stir, add hot water again and repeat the dance, until it becomes stretchy, elastic, and translucent.

9. You know it is ready, when it begins to pull away cleanly or at least almost cleanly from the sides and bottom of the pot. I moved it to the right, so you can see how it lifts off from the left hand side of the pot, and doesn’t stick as much to the wooden spoon.

………and that’s your Starch done. Now heave a sigh of relief and pat yourself on the back. From me to you, Well done.

Serve hot. You can make it more presentable by scooping out lumps into a plastic wrap, hold the starch ball in your hand and keep twisting and twisting like you are trying to screw a light bulb, till a long rope starts to form on top, and tighten at end. This will give the starch ridges, making it look like a tangerine. Of course, for presentation purposes, I had to go at it with a knife to define some ridges, but for you, you don’t need all that aggro. Lol. The next time I make a starchy solid, I will repeat the process and take pictures.

I believe I heard about the term Banga Rice a couple of years ago. I remember thinking huh? Banga what. I have always known Banga Soup, which one is Banga rice. I was told oh, it is a form of local Jollof rice, which also puzzled me a little more because the only local Jollof rice I know of is Iwuk Edesi, which is an Efik dish made like Jollof rice but with Palm oil, crayfish and lots of smoked fish. So, think of this as the Delta Jollof rice, or the Delta version of Iwuk Edesi. Apparently it is a Warri delicacy.

I always like hearing about new dishes, food intrigues me like no other. I figured it would be made from Palm fruit extract. The phrase “it is like local jollof rice”, was all I needed to know. After seeing Iwuk Edesi cooked a few times, I knew, I could apply the same principles. Luckily, I had leftover Palm fruit extract from making Banga Soup (recipe HERE). This is so easy peasy and a refreshing change to your palate. This is indigenous Jollof rice, with our own local flavours, which makes it extra special. I gave it a little extra kick by adding a teaspoon of Banga spices, and the aroma was very inviting. it is the kind of dish that is a cross between eating local soup and eating rice. A tantalising teaser for your tastebuds. Banga rice was such a delight to make, glad I joined the gravy train.

Think of it like a one pot Jollof rice. It is definitely easier to make than Party Jollof rice. I will definitely be making this many more times.

You will need

Palm fruit extract - either made from scratch or in a can

1 tsp Banga Spices

Crayfish - optional

Smoked fish

Oburunbebe stick - optional

Beef Stock

Salt

Seasoning cubes

Rice

Chopped red onions

Dry or fresh pepper

How To

1. Dissolve the Palm fruit extract in enough water to cook the amount of rice you need. Add beef stock if you have, chopped onions, dry pepper, the banga spices, the obunrubebe stick, the smoked fish, crayfish, salt and seasoning cubes. Bring this to a boil until you see patches of oil float to the top. Taste to be sure you are pleased with the flavour, turn down the heat and go wash the rice.

2. Unlike Party Jollof rice (recipe HERE), where you boil the rice separately at first, with banga rice, the rice is cooked in the palm oil broth, so you need to ensure that you wash out some of the starch, to prevent the rice grains rom sticking together before they have completely cooked.

3. Add the washed rice to the palm oil broth, and leave the heat lowered for a bit. This is just to allow the rice simmer in the leftover heat of the Palm fruit broth i.e. give it a chance to soften a little in residual heat, so it doesn’t start to burn.

4. Crank up the heat, and let it boil

5. The rice grains will cook and absorb the Palm fruit broth

6. It will continue cooking and absorbing liquid, depending on how much water intent is left, at some stage, you would see large Palm oil patches inside the rice, this is what you want. At this stage, the rice should have almost cooked. if it is still hard, it means you didn’t use with enough water at the start.

7. When it has absorbed most of the liquid, give it a quick stir with a wooden spoon ad lower the heat. At this point, the rice wasn’t completely cooked and it tasted so delicious, adding water to dilute that powerful flavour would have been such a shame

So, I used my Party Jollof rice trick of sealing with foil or a plastic bag, which is to allow the rice cook in its own steam i.e. it wouldn’t burn, but steam will finish off the cooking for you. Place the foil paper or plastic bag over the rice, and tuck it in nicely, to seal the rice in. Foil paper is obviously the healthier alternative, but I didn’t have any at home, so plastic bag to the rescue. Remember to cover the pot

Voila! a few minutes later, the rice had completely cooked, with extra smokey flavour from the burnt bits. Wonderful.

Banga rice is ready to be consumed. It looks exactly like Jollof rice, but tastes oh so different. No curry or thyme here, no ginger, no garlic, just true, local Nigerian flavours.

When I was going to plate this, I had this picture in my head, so I did the first step

and then I thought, okay how do I build this plate up? I spied my bowl of Banga soup and I just knew it would be a perfect pairing. I sprinkled a little of the Banga Soup on the rice and it was AMAZING.

It still wasn’t complete, so I decided to bring out a tiger prawn from my Banga soup and a piece of Tilapia, then I was done. This is the Pride of Delta State on a plate. Maybe I should write to the governor and ask him to use this picture on the tourism brochure for Delta State.

What is the Governor’s name again? Off to check Google. Hehehehehehehehe.

Happy Cooking

Well, we have all heard of Buka Stew (recipe HERE), what better pairing than Buka Ewedu. I have put up a post for Ewedu (recipe HERE), but I called it Ewedu Special, because it truly is special because of the bumper ingredients added to it, you can almost call it a soup on its own. Buka Ewedu like Buka stew is made with profits in mind. Like Buka stew, the beauty is in its simplicity. No fuss, just gorgeous green ewedu with white flecks in it.

You may have wondered what the white flecks are, or you may already know. The white flecks are Ground Egusi powder, plain and simple. If you have wondered why Egusi is added to ewedu, let me tell you now, it is to add volume and not necessarily flavour. Egusi in Ewedu bulks it up some more, so it can go further. You know those Buka madams are very sensible. If you read my Buka stew post, you will understand why tomatoes play a minor role in Buka stew. Good ol’ Buka economics. Now, the matter of Iru for Buka Ewedu can be contested, it adds flavour to Ewedu, lots of potent flavour. Some Buka’s add it to their Ewedu, some don’t, but you will find that in Buka that sell only Amala, or where Ewedu plays a major accompaniment to their stew, Iru is added for extra flavour. Especially Buka’s in Ibadan and parts of Ogun state, seeing iru in your ewedu or at least tasting it, is what customers expect. You can use Iru in its whole form or the mashed form called ‘iru pete’. Whichever you have is fine. The odd place here and there adds ground crayfish but it is not common, remember, running a Buka is all about profits and crayfish is quite expensive.

Also, the Buka cooks tend to use something called an Ijabe to pulverise the Ewedu leaves to an almost rough texture. An Ijabe is simply a small broom with very sharp tips and I mean very sharp, but as with all things progressive, we have moved on to blenders now. I even used my hand blender to make this, no difference really. The only people who will complain about using a blender instead of an ijabe, are the same people who complain about using a food processor to pound yam, we know by now that their opinions don’t count, if they want to still be stuck in the past, more grease to their elbows. To help replicate the circular motion of the Ijabe, you can use a manual whisk. An electric whisk will also do the trick, as long because it will be whipping in air to create and expand the bubbles, making the ewedu will be sticky and elastic.

Now to the characteristic stickiness and elasticity of Ewedu. I would like to tell you that it is mainly due to the leaves. Just like with some ogbono seeds, some Ewedu leaves do not produce that sticky elasticity you expect. The same also applies to okro, so don’t beat yourself too much about it. One thing that helps to create that desired effect is Potash (kaun in Yoruba, Akawun in Ibo, Kanwa in hausa). You only need a little of it, to prevent the ewedu from ending up as a flat green soup. Another thing that affects the elastic consistency are the extra ingredients that you add, so be mindful of that. My grandma always added her extra’s after the ewedu had boiled, so as to give it a chance for its natural stickiness to come out, before it is tainted by the extra ingredients. Things like seasoning cubes, truly affects its sticky consistency, so if you will use it at all, make sure it is at the very end once it is off the heat. I use ground crayfish to season and it does a better job than seasoning cubes.

One more thing. If you live abroad, I have been told that the equivalent of our local Ewedu leaves are Jute Leaves or Molokhia. They can be found in Asian stores, and they mostly come frozen. Here’s how I make my Buka ewedu.

You will need

Ewedu leaves – or jute or molokhia

Potash

Ground Egusi powder

Iru

Crayfish

How To

1. Pick the ewedu leaves off their stalk. This is essential. I was brought up with picking the leaves this way, because the stalk interferes with the apearance and texture. Unlike other Nigerian vegetables, when making Ewedu, you don’t need any stalk, just the leaves. I am working with two bunches here, bought for me by my lovely neighbour Funmi A.

2. Add enough water to cook the ewedu into a wide saucepan. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: i prefer you use a wide saucepan to allow you have enough room to use the whisk. Add in the potash rocks and allow the water to boil to dissolve the potash. You need the potash to completely dissolve. Don’t add too much potash otherwise it will affect the taste, and also give the ewedu a yucky shade of brown.

3. While the water is boiling or even before, blend the ewedu leaves with a little water. You only need a little water. You need a rough blend. You can use a traditional blender jug or a hand blender. Look closely, notice how it is just the leaves and no stalks.

4. Blend to a rough paste.

5. Pour the blended ewedu into the saucepan boiling with potash and water. Leave the ewedu leaves to boil until it becomes slightly darker and with bubbles popping up. As soon as foamy bubbles start to appear, use your whisk vigorously in small/tight circular motions, this is to work out the elastic nature of the ewedu giving it its signature consistency.

6. Add the ground egusi powder. This is important to use dry powder and not wet. Wet ewedu clogs the ewedu particles and also reduces its stickiness. Trust me. You only need to add a little egusi. About 1 – 2 tablespoons or more, depending on how much ewedu you are making. Also add the Iru and give the entire contents of the saucepan a good whisk.

7. If the Egusi has thickened your ewedu more than you like, just add hot water to dilute. Once you get the consistency that you wish, take it off the heat and season. I used ground crayfish, you can use salt or half a seasoning cube. My grandma always allowed the residual heat to allow the ground crayfish cook with the ewedu. You don’t need to cook ewedu for too long, prolonged heat affects its stickiness ad colour, just as with Okro. You want your ewedu bright green, so cook as quickly as you can.

………………………..and that’s your Buka Ewedu.

                          Serve with Buka Stew. Yum

Make Ewedu this weekend. Enjoy!!!!!

This recipe was due to be uploaded. I had totally forgotten about it, and I apologise to you guys. I was looking through iPhoto yesterday to find what to post for Saturday and I saw pictures of making Pineapple Jam. It actually sparked my interest to bake my Agege style bread again (recipe HERE), just so I can finish what’s left of my Pineapple and Zobo Jam and also my homemade cream cheese. You want to be in my apartment this morning because the place smells gloriously of freshly baked bread and I am just about to chow down with jam and cream cheese, but before I get lost in all those flavours, I had to quickly come blog about home-made Pineapple Jam.

This was my favourite jam as a child, second to Apricot Jam. Many a time my mother caught me simply tucking in with a spoon and licking away. Oooooooh, Mama got angry, ooooooh, she was quite upset with me. At times, my gluttony got so bad, I could go through half of a recently opened jar. I got spanked a few times for it, hey, when you have a Nigerian mum, it is a rite of passage. Hehehehehehe. I can’t remember the brand of that Jam. I keep trying to remember, and each time the image flashes across my memory and when I try to focus on the picture, off it goes. Drives me crazy. Oooooh, that Jam was good. My siblings with the weird taste buds, (or maybe I was the one who had weird taste buds), loved orange jam (yuck), blueberry jam (double yuck), strawberry jam, shoot me now. My mother just used to shake her head at me and wonder why I was this strange child who stuck to pineapple and apricot and refused to let go. When the thought came over me to make Zobo Jam (recipe HERE), I knew by default, the next thing I was going to make would be Pineapple jam.

I haven’t had Pineapple jam in years, and that’s just because the ones I have been coming across don’t evoke any childhood memories at all. They are not as good as that brand (which still annoys me that I can’t remember). I have tasted so many and almost asked myself if I truly liked Pineapple jam so much or it is one of those mishmash memories your brain creates, and maybe, just maybe I liked something else and by brain transposed the memory to Pineapples. When in doubt, ask the woman who raised you and she said yup, you are not making it up, you could eat pineapple jam for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I let you. Lol.

Making Jam is so easy, I wonder why my mum never even tried it. Yes it can be a little time-consuming (all that stirring), but the results are better tried than imagined. Homemade jam trumps supermarket bands and that’s a fact. This Jam is soooooooooooooooo good, little wonder when you see the picture of the finished product it did not fill the jar completely. Errrrrrr, I apologise now in advance. That was me getting at it with a spoon. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, dipping my spoon in and licking away with such relish. I can say with a whisper that this was better than the Jam I remember eating as a child. My love for jam has been reawakened and when summer comes I am going to go all fruit crazy and make different types of jam, you just wait and see. Jam, Ice cream, Jellos and Lollies are on my to-do list. For today, let me show you how to make Pineapple jam. You can substitute this process with any kind of fruit you enjoy.

You will need

1 – 2 pineapples

1/2 a lemon

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 – 3/4 cup of sugar

How To

1. Blend the pineapple to a rough pulp. Leave some behind, which you will chop roughly and add to the jam. This helps to create chewy chunks in the jam.

2. Pour into a deep saucepan, squeeze in 1/2 a lemon, or less if you don’t have that much pineapple pulp and complete with the sugar. Start on medium heat. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: the cinnamon and lemon play two roles. Flavour and anti bacterial. Flavour wise, oooooh, the aroma alone and the enhanced taste both of them provide to the pineapple is scrumptious. Cinnamon and lemon also have very good anti bacterial properties. They are natural preservatives. If you don’t have cinnamon, at least use the lemon. You start with medium heat, because you don’t want the sugar to burn. it should caramelise slowly with the pineapple, allowing the flavours to develop.

3. Keep stirring and you will notice the pulp getting thicker, with water easing out at the sides of the pan.

4. Keep stirring, and you will also notice the pulp also getting darker and syrupy like. This is what you want, it shows that the sugar is caramelising. I only added more sugar at this point because I felt it wasn’t sweet enough and that’s just because my pineapple wasn’t sweet to start with. About 2 tablespoons.

5. When the syrupy nature of the pulp gets really thick and almost slimy looking, add the chopped pineapple. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: you want to add the chunks early enough so that they cook in time.

because of the water content of the freshly introduced pineapple chunks, it would dilute the jam a little, but not to worry, this is natural water and not from the tap, so it is all good. If you feel it is too thick though, you can add a little water.

6. Later, all that water will evaporate, and the pulp all really look like a thick mustard coloured glob.

7. Lower the heat, so as not to let it burn. At this point, all you have left is time to let the jam truly set. You can cheat a little by adding a little extra sugar, about a tablespoon or more just to hurry the process along. I did. You will notice that after a few minutes, the jam you could see in the picture above which was quite dry, has now started leaching out syrupy juice at the sides and it has a moist look to it. The colour has also darkened considerably to the characteristic store-bought pineapple jam colour.

this is what you want.

This is when you know your jam is set, when it feels slippery to touch

……….and that’s your Homemade Pineapple jam right there.

Pour into a sterilised jar and seal. To learn how to sterilise a glass jar for jam, click HERE. It is very very important to make sure you sterilise your glass jar before you pour in your jam to prevent food poisoning.

see the syrupy goodness on top, just like store-bought Jam?

See the pineapple chunks peeking out in the jam. One bite, and you’ll be hooked. Trust me

To make it all pretty, I covered with a yellow cloth Jam cover with a pretty bow to boot. As you can see the evidence of my spoon right there. I had eaten the jam half way before I remembered I was going to cover it and take pictures. Hehehehehehehe

If you have kids at home, they are so going to love this. Take the time out one weekend and make Jam with them. Those are memories that would last a lifetime, and they would probably pass it on to their own children.

Glistening in the sun. My home-made Pineapple Jam. I felt so proud of myself, like you won’t believe. Hehehehehe

I just took these shots now. That’s my breakfast right there. Served with Moroccan Mint tea. Life is good. Looool

Lady of Leisure, that’s me. Freshly baked and lightly toasted with butter Agege style bread with Pineapple and Zobo Jam

I am also finishing off leftover home-made cream cheese (recipe HERE). Saturday breakfast of Champions.

Off to enjoy my breakfast. Byeeeeeee. I hope you try it

You must have noticed that there is a Delta vibe going on on the blog at the moment. Well I promised you a bumper season of fantastic Nigerian recipes this March, and what better way to be inspired, than dishes from Delta. Today, I am bringing you Ogwo soup. I hope I spelt it correctly. It is pronounced Oh-W-Oh soup, a culinary delight of the Urhobo people. As with some other languages, in Urhobo, although the ‘g’ is spelled, some times, it is not pronounced. This is a truly simple dish. In fact, if despite looking at many of my recipes, you have not been pushed to go out of your comfort zone i.e. to try dishes from another culture, I hope this finally gives you the kick that you need because it is not complicated at all. Besides, the ingredients are so readily available, you don’t need to trouble yourself to make some at all. You probably have all the ingredients at home as you read this. So, I hope I have challenged you and I will be reading great feedback from you guys very soon.

The Urhobo’s are very proud of this dish. So proud, in fact it is considered one of their celebratory dishes. What prompted me to make this dish was a semi recent discovery that Oh-W-Oh soup is not only native to the people of Bini Kingdom. My paternal great-grandmother was from Benin, and by virtue of that, my grandmother knew how to prepare a wicked pot of Owo soup. The only downside associated with Owo soup was the fact that she served it with boiled green plantains which I positively hate. Still do. Hate is not a word I like using with food, but please allow me the largesse to use it with green plantains. I kept seeing pictures of Ogwo soup on Facebook and just assumed it was the Benin version, but I was especially intrigued by the dark brown colour, which was different from what my grandma made, which was yellowish in colour. When I looked through the recipes the women shared I thought huh? This is so not the Owo soup I grew up eating, especially the part that read, thicken the soup with starch or garri or use both. Then one day, I read the words Urhobo Wadoo, and I knew instantly, this was a Delta dish.

I love, love, love it when I find that a dish I know so well, can also be found in another culture. This is one of the best things about Nigerian food, the fact that for some dishes, not one group of people can solely lay claim to it. I have been having such happy discoveries with Efik and Camaeroon food. I know how to prepare the Bini Owo soup, but being half Delta, for sure, I had to try this out. I mean, why not? I am still considering writing to Governor Udaghan’s because of my plate of Banga Rice. Who knows, after seeing this, he could just agree to use my work for the tourism brochure of Delta State. Don’t laugh at humble beginnings. Hahahahahahahahaha.

Anyway, if you are from Benin, or if like me, you only know about the Bini Owo soup, well, welcome on my journey to learning something else. The similarities are numerous, so are the differences, mainly the choice of pepper, and the use of thickeners, and also what it is eaten with. I would have you know too that the Bini Owo soup also has its twin in the Urhobo Culture. It is called Ogwo’ ottorh or something along those lines (please feel free to correct me) It is also served with yam or plantain. This post is saying thank you to the numerous Urhobo ladies who provided the recipe for Ogwo soup on So You Think You Can Cook. You have expanded the cooking repertoire of your fellow Deltan.

You will need

Potash

Dry Pepper - cayenne pepper

Assorted meat

Crayfish

Smoked fish

Stockfish - optional

Smoked red prawns

Palm Oil

Starch or garri - you can choose to use both

Salt

Seasoning cubes

How To

1. Boil your assorted meats with stockfish. Once cooked, with enough stock, add dry pepper and crayfish.

2. Add a little extra water, so you have this bubbly crayfish and pepper stock. Once the stock has started boiling, add palm oil and allow it to dissolve.

3. Pound potash to a powdery form and mix with water. A special type of Potash/native salt called ugwerue is used traditionally, but if you can’t source that, your friendly old potash will serve. You only need a small quantity of potash. I did not use all the potash you can see in the picture below. I only took about half a teaspoon.

4. Slowly add the potash solution to the stock.

After adding the potash solution to the water, you will notice the contents of the pot foaming up. Allow this to foam up and for the heat to also cook the potash. Be careful not to add too much of the potash solution, otherwise the soup will have a nasty metallic taste. At no point should you cover the pot, otherwise it will boil over.

Whilst the potash is cooking in the stock, soak garri in water. You need to soak garri in water, to allow it soften to a thick paste, otherwise, the ogwo soup will have a grainy feel to it. You don’t want that. With Ogwo soup, you have 2 choices of thickeners. Starch or Garri. You can also use both. I tried to use both, using Farina which I used to make Starch for Banga soup (recipe HERE). I ended up with this glob of soup, which just had a yucky look and texture to it. I was pissed to say the least. I could have added hot water to make the soup more fluid, and it would have been okay, but I couldn’t get the image of the glob out of my mind, so I binned it. If I was using the local edible starch, I know I wouldn’t have had any problems. I binned that pot, tried again and this time using only garri. It turned out perrrrrrfect.

5. Add the soaked garri to the pot and stir. In a few minutes, the soup will thicken as it should. Let it continue cooking.

6. I decided to finish off with a little extra water, to make it more fluid, shredded smoked fish, and I readjusted for salt. You will know the soup is ready, when patches of palm oil begins to float to the surface. At this point too, the garri had dissolved completely, leaving a creamy soup.

you may wish to leave it on low heat to thicken a little longer.

Dish you Ogwo soup. It is better enjoyed very hot.

Serve with Starch or Yellow Garri

anyone with the contacts of the Delta State Governor? Hahahahahahaha

This is my comfort zone, this is the owo soup I grew up eating. My grandmother was half Bini, half Ghana, so this was something she cooked often and cooked well. She also lived in Benin. She had her stack of very big smoked fish which she brought out anytime she made Owo soup. I remember the fish being huge and very black. I am guessing now that it was probably smoked catfish. Once in a while, when she truly had special visitors, she used bush meat and smaller pieces of Eja sawa. Oh Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, we looooooved those times. Bush meat just rocks something awesome. As much as I enjoyed owo soup, it is also linked to a memory of eating something I hate – green plantains. In fact, someone left a comment on my Owgho soup post (the urhobo version) about eternally hating green plantains. Yes, I agree with her. Ugh!

Whose genius idea was it to eat green plantains? Couldn’t they wait for it to ripen? Was hunger really that bad at that time, and they thought oh, let’s just pluck the plantains off the tree and eat it. Ugh. I would like to find the person or at least a descendant or descendants of that person and have a good word with them. That thing was the bane of my existence. Still hate it. Gosh my mother tried serving it with garden egg sauce. Imagine my pain. Two things I hate. Oh we had a good battle of wills over that one, she gave up. My grandma on the other hand, naaaaaah, no child could try her. She would give you a look that is enough to melt steel. As tiny as that woman was, she was quite formidable and feared for good reason.

After serving owo soup and boiled green plantains, I would eye the green plantains, descend on the soup and then find a sneaky way to bin the green plantains. Nothing got past that woman, she had eyes like a hawk and probably at the back of her head too. As I am tiptoeing to the kitchen, trying to avoid being noticed, she would call out Uche!!!!!, let me see your plates. I would stop, frozen in my tracks, carefully turn around with trepidation and walk slowly towards her, hoping by some miracle, the green plantains would have evaporated. Those are the times you wish you had some sort of super power. Alas, no such luck. She would look at the green plantains lonely on my plate and say, ‘what did you think you were going to do with those’? I would look down to the floor and say nothing. With my grandma, I tell you silence is golden, because anything you say would DEFINITELY be misconstrued, and you would be in more trouble.

She had her own special dictionary of interpretation and your words would come out of her mouth sounding like you were insolent, and she would look at you daring you to correct her. After a few minutes of staring me down, with me avoiding her gaze of course, I would go back to the table with my tail between my legs fuming. I would chop the plantains into little bits and swallow like a pill with water. Mama didn’t care how it went down, as long as your plate was empty. If my Aunties were around, they would say ‘Iyenekere’ not fair o, at least give her some extra soup to finish it, and she would grudgingly agree. Phew. Still hate green plantains.

Oh, I would like to tell you the time I dared to tell her to add sugar to the green plantains while she was boiling it. I told her with so much confidence, even mentioning that my mum added sugar to yams, and that was the only way she could get me to eat yams. Ooooooh, I definitely shouldn’t have, definitely, definitely shouldn’t have, considering she and my mother did not get along well at all. Oh dear. She froze a little, turned around, and the look she gave me was EPIC. She said slowly, soooooooo, your ‘alakowe’ (sarcastic way of saying educated in Yoruba) mother adds sugar to yam. Ehn ehn, tutun niyen o (that is new o). Did I mention that she spoke Yoruba fluently? Abajo naaaa (no wonder) whatever the heck she meant by saying abajo na, I didn’t dare ask. She then musically sighed Uhmmmm hmmmn, and shook her head. I would have paid top dollar to find out what was going on in her head, but I knew it wasn’t good and I had just unwittingly given her more arsenal against my mum. hahahahahahaha. I was too terrified to tell her that it was never my mother’s idea, but that of the maid who used to sneak in sugar into our yam. My mother discovered by accident one day and thought what the heck, if that will get Ola to eat yams and stop frustrating my life at mealtimes, so be it. I doubt it would have mattered even if I did, they had the proverbial acidic mother-in law – daughter-in-law relationship. My mother and I laugh about it now, even though sometimes she shudders a little at the memories and she prays I don’t experience such. That woman was difficult and unreasonable most times, but hey that could be said of many Nigerian mothers with sons. I hope I get lucky in that department. I had to let someone go for that particular reason cos I wasn’t interested in repeating my mother’s experience. Mumsie approved. Or I probably should just marry ‘oyinbo’ as some friends have advised. Loooooool. Anyway, back to food. I hope you enjoyed the stories.

You will need

Goat meat or assorted meats

Palm Oil

Potash

Tomatoes

Chilli pepper - ata rodo

Lots of dense smoked fish - i used Eja Sawa

For the Grilled Green Plantain

Green Plantain

Salt

Dry Pepper

Vegetable oil

Owo soup is more like a palm oil sauce, why it is called a soup, I am still scratching my head about it.

How To

1. Boil and season your meat. Once they have sufficiently cooked with some stock left, add your blended tomatoes and pepper. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Bini Owo soup has a characteristic sweetness to it, the tomatoes bring that to the dish.

2. Add the crayfish and smoked fish. I used Eja sawa, as that was all I had at home.

Bring the contents of the pot to a gentle simmer.

3. Dissolve potash about the size of half – 3 quarters of a seasoning cube in water and add to the pot and bring to the boil. The presence of the tomatoes, will mean it wouldn’t bubble up as much.

4. Leave it to cook and in a few minutes, you will notice that the addition of the potash has caused the prior watery stock to thicken a little. Take it off the heat and let it cool down a little.

Now, this is where things got veeeeeeeeery interesting. I know I have typed a lot so far, but you want to read this. Up until this stage, I followed Mama’s recipe but, and a very big but, I have encountered some problems with this soup in the past, and before I had the courage to post it, I knew I had to fix that problem. One thing I pride myself with my recipes, is that they work. Whether you are a beginner cook, mid level or a pro, my recipes work. Even better, if you are preparing a dish for the very first time using my recipe, you can be rest assured it will work. So when it got to this Owo soup, I knew I had to do something.

The traditional way of making Bini Owo soup is what I have just listed, the next stage was quite fascinating to me as a child. Mama would slowly pour in palm oil with one hand and stir with the other hand, and slowly but surely, the red stock will start to change colour to orange, then it will get paler and paler till it gets to yellow, but the kind of yellow with a slight orange hue. It was like watching magic. She said it was because of the potash. Now, when I made it this way, this would happen like clockwork, but a few times it didn’t. I would stir in the palm oil and the flipping thing will even get redder and redder, annoying the heck out of me. By then the soup would have had so much palm oil in it, it tasted gross and off to the bin it went. A solution I now believe would work would be dissolving extra potash in water and adding to the pot, continue stirring and the colour should change, but mostly at that point when I am cooking, the thought would not even occur to me, as I am already irritated.

I was going to use that as my back up when I made this just in case, until my brain had an ah-ha moment. What ah-ha moment you are wondering? It occurred to me to go the Igbo way, still wondering what, what Dunni, say it. Okay, okay. Ngo sauce used to make Nkwobi (recipe HERE) and Isi – Ewu. The beauty of Nigerian food is the inter-linkagesit has across cultures. Bini’s and Deltans are not the only ones to use the Potash-Palm Oil combination. Igbos do it too for Ngo sauce, and the colour is pretty close. So, while the contents of the pot were cooling down, I proceeded to make the Ngo sauce.

Dooney’s Kitchen Caveat: note, this is not the traditional way of making the soup, I have made that very clear, but this is your back door cheat way to do it that guarantees that on your first try, you will nail the soup right. The beauty of being a cook (and not a baker) is that you can switch things around, reverse the order, to get the same result. You need potash and palm oil to interact to change colour right? It shouldn’t matter in what order, as long as you get both of them to react. I have been told Owo soup can be quite tricky (i didn’t get the colour right for the Urhobo version), and you need a pro to teach you with several trials to get it. Well, not with my newly devised method. You don’t need to be a pro, it will work 10 out of 10 times. Open your mind to the possibilities. I made this soup on the same day I made the Urhobo version, because I wanted to compare the taste of both.

5. Make the ‘ngo’ sauce by pouring palm oil in a bowl and slowly dripping potash solution into the palm oil giving it a stir with your other hand. In a few seconds, the palm oil will change from red to yellow and also thicken. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: You only need a little of the potash solution to make this happen, so don’t go overboard otherwise you would have a potash overload and the soup will taste metallic. Because I wanted to still stay a little on the side of tradition of adding palm oil to the pot, I didn’t fully go all the way, hence the palm oil blotches you can see in the sauce, but it gets interesting at the next step.

6. Add the ‘ngo’ sauce to the pot which has now cooled down a bit and stir. The presence of potash in the stock already, would even further assist the soup.

The ‘ngo’ sauce added would further thicken the stock and the Pièce de résistance, the colour would change to yellow. The next two shots were taken under two different lighting conditions, but you can see the yellow.

Put the pot back on the heat, to warm it up a little and then serve with Yams or Boiled Green Plantains.

You have read how much I hate green plantains right? I still went ahead and bought one, just so that I could jazz it up a bit, and jazz it up I did. If you hate green plantains like me, this makes it tolerable.

Take the green plantain and peel off the skin.

Sprinkle with dry pepper, and salt

rub with vegetable oil

Make slashes along the length of the plantain to allow heat to seep through

place under the grill and turn when each side has browned. Ta daaaaa. Even the dreaded green plantains can be sexy.

Now, the soup made a looooooot of sense with this green plantain. I can now see why Owo soup is served as such. The green plantain definitely works with it. You would see in the pictures below that I really couldn’t wait to taste, I chopped off the tail bit of the plantain, and dipped in the soup. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. My Grandma, would not have believed this. Me, eating green plantain with so much relish. See what happens when you inspire yourself to deviate from the traditional way of cooking? You surprise yourself.

Here is my bowl of Owo soup and Green plantains, which inspired the choice of my colour of bowl.

Since I had already taken inspiration from the Igbo culture, I decided to throw in a little Asia, and serve with chopsticks. Think about it, you can slice the plantain into rounds, pick with chopsticks and dip in the soup. No?

How extremely chic and sexy is that green plantain?

Another cheat I just picked up from Facebook from Evbuomwan Osarogie Esimi-Usiahon. She said, instead of making the ngo sauce and adding to your pot, I am going to give you an expo(less stressful). As soon as the contents of the pot thicken in Step 4 (see above) turn off your the cooker and remove the pot from the burner. Then add your palm oil and DO NOT STIR immediately. Allow to cool down while you prepare your plantain. When the plantain is ready, then you stir and tadaaaaa….. it is ready. She also attached a picture and the signature Yellow Owo colour was present.

Isn’t that just amazing how we foodies always find a way round difficult dishes. Bless you Osarogie. For anyone who wants to try this soup, you now have two cheat options. Funny how I knew I couldn’t have been the only one struggling with this soup. Someone left a comment on Facebook saying she is a Bini girl and Owo soup is somethings eh can’t make despite several lessons from her mum. Hers always turns out looking like stew. The colour never changes to yellow. Now, problem solved.

It is called Afia Efere in the Efik culture. You probably also know it as Ofe Nsala, the Igbo name for it. The Efik version is a little more aromatic because of the addition of Uyayak, the aidan fruit. What uyayak does to the soup is better tried than imagine. It is called white soup because no oil is involved, even though I don’t agree because the soup is anything but white. The first time I tasted this soup was at a restaurant in Abuja. I saw it on the menu and kept wondering how anything cooked with Nigerian ingredients could be white. When the bowl arrived, I thought huh, the waiter must have gotten my order wrong. This soup is anything but white. She then explained why it is called white soup. My first impression was, it smelled and tasted like peppersoup. I am that customer who bombards waiters with questions, and the poor lady had to explain how it is made, ending with it is eaten by the Igbo and Efiks.

I kept that in mind when next I was seeing Joy my Chief Efik food tutor, and she showed me how it was done. I still insist that I should have been named Oilless something something or brown soup something else but White soup would have sufficed me thinks. Hehehehehe. Anyways, one thing I am sure we would agree on is the fact that it is deeeeeeeeelicious. Commonly prepared for mothers who have just given birth, you would wish you had a baby too, then you think of the 9months and the labour pains, and go naaaah, I will still enjoy the soup, baby or not.

The shortcut to making this is to simply use already ground peppersoup spices. Yes, it will taste great, and smell amazing but make White soup 2.0 today by grinding your own spices and taste the difference. I wrote a long list for my mum when she vas visiting last year, and I made sure those spices in their whole form were on the list. The difference is so  much better, I am never going the peppersoup spice powder route again. Funny thing is, I just eyeballed it and prayed seriously that it wouldn’t be bitter or overpowering. Especially as I was preparing it for my neighbour on her birthday, the pressure was on. My cooking fairy angels were working in full force that day and I can proudly say this was the best pot of Afia Efere that I have ever made. As for the spice combination, as I mentioned before, I only eyeballed it, therefore what I will recommend as my recipe worked for the volume I wanted to cook. I did not even use all the ground spices, because after 2 and a half tablespoons or thereabout, was just right.

A very simply dish that is guaranteed to wow. What I don’t get though is why it is served with pounded yam. Hey, you thickened the soup with pounded yam. I always deliberately eat Afia Efere with anything else but pounded yam, until hunger dictated that I pinched out of the pounded yam to be used for thickening and mopped up a bit of the soup. Ooooooooh, so this is what I had been missing. Okay now, from henceforth, Afia Efere will be served with Pounded yam in my household. You can share with me, what you serve your own Afia Efere with. Let’s get to cooking

You will need

2 pieces of Ehuru - ehu or Calabash nutmeg

3 pieces of Uda

1 piece of Cameroon pepper

1 teaspoon of Uziza seeds

Uziza leaves

Uyayak – aidan fruit

Crayfish

Dry Pepper - cayenne pepper

Goat meat

Assorted meat

Smoked fish

How to

Select your spices. Below, you can see the long black pod called Uyayak. Naming from left to right are Uziza seeds, Ehuru, and Uda. I forgot to take a picture of Cameroon pepper.

It is essential to rinse the uyayak pod because its ridges can harbour dirt. I also remembered this time to break it into two as Joy taught me. You would need some arm cardio to break it though. This thing is very tough.

1. Add the spices to a mill and blend. You don’t want it entirely as smooth as the texture of peppersoup spice mix.

2. To your boiled goat meat and assorted meat, which you have given extra flavour by boiling with smoked fish, add extra water, crayfish, dry pepper and uyayak. Bring the contents of the pot to a boil.

The oil you are seeing floating on top is from the dissolved fat beneath the skin of the goat meat. I intentionally used smoked goat meat with the skin on for this soup. It gives it that true local Nigerian flavour. Taste for salt and season and re-adjust if necessary. By now, you will be able to smell and taste the flavour from the Uyayak

3. Add the ground spices. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: it is better to add the spices in tablespoon increments and taste shortly afterwards, just so you don’t go overboard. I added roughly 2 and a half tablespoons to this pot. Once the spices go in, turn down the heat to simmer, this is to allow the spices to permeate the meats.

4. By step 2, you should have peeled your yam and placed on the burner to cook. You should be ready to make pounded yam now. As you know, I am allergic to manual labour where food is concerned. hehehehehehe. I brought out my kitchen helpers. Today, I am using my Chef Tony Hand Blender with the chopper bowl attachment. Nifty little gadget I got from Ebay. You can make pounded yam with a mixer, food processor, hand mixer and even traditional blender, used at home for blending pepper.

add the boiled yam cubes to the bowl

and cover

this happens in seconds

ta daaaa. Pounded yam. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: I must stress though, that when using pounded yam as a thickener for white soup, you only need to mix till it gets smooth. You don’t need to keep the machine on till it becomes stretchy and elastic. This is just a waste of time, and it will take much longer for it to dissolve in the soup, so be mindful of that. The pictures below is what you want to achieve. Smooth and no lumps

see the texture, like mashed potatoes. This is what you want.

this stretchy texture is NOT what you want. This is the texture for eating

5. Now that you have your pounded yam, turn the heat back up and scoop the pounded yam into the pot in small to medium-sized balls

watch as the pounded yam starts to melt into the soup

6. You have the option of scooping out some of the pounded yam, before it melts completely if you want a more fluid or watery soup. I enjoy Afia Efere a little thick, so I allowed all the pounded yam to melt. It is your choice which option you go for.

some little dots of pounded yam will probably still be floating around, simply use the cooking spoon to press them along the sides of the pot, and they would dissolve.

7. Now the lumps have disappeared, your soup is almost ready. You can add hot water to dilute if you feel it is too thick. Taste for salt and seasoning, and re-adjust if necessary.

8. Finish off my adding freshly chopped uziza leaves, for extra flavour. You just need about a handful or less. Just as you would add efinrin (scent leaf), to peppersoup.

Serve hot……………..Enjoy

This is my Sunday Lunch. Off to make some Pounded Yam. Have a nice week y’all. Mine is going to be packed, and I am also expecting a special visitor.

I believe I have Mary Eze to thank for this. Mary where are you ooooooooooo, you have been called out. Please read this and testify. She was the very first person who told me you can make Jollof rice in an oven. Never heard of it before, prior to that day. She explained the process, which I found quite intriguing and I promised to try it out. Somehow, when the thought to make Jollof rice pops up, out of habit I go my Party Jollof rice route (recipe HERE), which has always worked. Once or twice I think Mary left a comment reminding me to try her method and again I would forget. My apologies for that Mary. I hope you didn’t think I was discounting the efficacy of your method. A few days ago someone posted her success with the Oven method and it finally clicked within me. I was going to try it out. I got back from work yesterday tired like nothing else, but because I am going to be off work till Wednesday (amen somebody), I ignored the fatigue and got to cooking. I even devised something quite interesting in the process of making this jollof rice, which I am going to share in another post.

Making this was quite interesting. I had to go back to the original party jollof rice post to dig out Mary’s comment. That post has almost 200 comments but I was not deterred. I found it, it was a brief summary and I thought crap, I need more details. Now, if this was a baking recipe, I would not even try it, but with cooking, my mind always fills in the blank spaces, and I make up the steps in my head. The one thing I have against this process (you know you can count on me to tell you the whole picture), was the fact that the finished product though delicious, tasted like the rice did not entirely absorb the flavour of the fried stew. I have quite a very discerning palate. My taste buds are very acute and in the background I could taste a hint of plain boiled rice, which as very strange because the rice was cooked in the sauce from scratch. It just felt as if, someone mixed in plain boil rice into it. Now, I don’t know if this is a characteristic of oven baked jollof rice, because the heat is not as intense as cooking on a stove. I was watching the rice closely and it did not bubble like you would expect with cooking jollof rice on a stove. The beauty of it is, my dear neighbour Funmi came over last night to takeaway the Jollof rice and she said the same thing to me this morning. Honestly she did. In fact, I deliberately did not talk at first, just so I wouldn’t put words in her mouth. She echoed my thoughts perfectly. Did I mention that Funmi is a fantastic cook too? Don’t try her Jollof rice or Ewa Aganyin stew o, or her white Okro soup. Don’t even try her cheesecake. She has converted me and she is making it for me tomorrow. Yaaaaaay.

With my Project Managers hat on, I think the reason I got this result was because I used baking paper to cover and not foil, so therefore, the oven dish was not properly sealed to lock in the steam as well as the flavour. I had run out of foil paper. Steam is very useful to lock in and help absorb flavour, when cooking foods that are originally hard and need to soften while cooked in a rich pepper stock. Which is why you cover the pot when cooking jollof rice, beans, yam porridge and the likes. The pot cover is not just for decoration. Lol. I would try it again, this time with foil, properly seal the edges and invite my neighbour over for a rematch. Who knows, there may come a time in my life where I would need to use an oven because that is the only thing I have access to, I never give up when it gets to trying out new things with food, so stay tuned. You try it out and use the foil and tell me your results. Here’s how

You will need

3 cups easy cook rice - standard measuring cup of 250ml

3 cups fried pepper stock

3 cups of water

Seasoning cubes

Salt

Dried Thyme

Curry powder

1 Red Onion

2 Bay leaves

1 small can of tomato puree - i used Derica

2 pieces of Ata rodo - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper

1 piece of Tatashe

3 pieces of Tomatoes or 1 can of Plum Tomato

Vegetable oil - i used sunflower oil

Beef Stock

How To

1. Blend the tomatoes, with the onion, tatashe and chilli. Set aside.

2. Chop a little more onions, heat up a saucepan and add the onions. Let it fry for a bit, then sprinkle in the curry and thyme. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: it is best to fry spices in oil, this helps to release their flavour making their effect more intense.

3. Add the previously blended pepper and tomato puree. Fry for a few minutes and then add beef stock and continue frying. According to Mary’s recipe, I don’t need to fry for as long as I would with the traditional party jollof rice method. Maybe I would fry the same as if I was using a pot, the next time I make this. Don’t think it contributed to the end result though. 

4. While the pepper is frying, wash the rice thoroughly until the water runs clear. This took me 3 trials. Place the washed rice into the heat proof oven dish. You can also use a square foil dish.

5. Pour in the fried pepper. This time I also measured out 3 cups. I finished off with adding bay leaves.

6. Add water. I measured 2 and 1/4 cups of water. Re-season again with salt and Knorr. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: i used one cube of knorr chicken and sprinkled in a some salt.

7. Cover with foil paper and seal the edges tightly. Place in the oven and bake at 250 (480 in Fahrenheit) for 45 minutes.

8. At the 15 – 20minute mark, take it out of the oven and stir.

Chances are that you would see a thick film of pepper sauce on top. My observation: see how the rice beneath looks like plain boiled rice? For the volume of fried pepper I used in relation to the volume of water, I wasn’t expecting that result. This is why I am suspecting the lack of steam could be the culprit. 

Or it could be that the volume of water I added (2 and 1/4cup) was not enough to match the 3 cups of fried pepper, so the pepper floated to the top giving off that hint of boiled rice. I used less water because when making Party Jollof rice, that is what works. Next time wi would use equal volumes of water and fried pepper or even more water and re-season. I am mentioning my pitfalls, just so you avoid it. Stir to combine and place back in the oven.

9. After 35minutes, take it out again and stir.

Slice onion rings and tomatoes if you have (i didn’t) place on top. Put it back in the oven for  the final 10minutes.

10. By the final 10 minutes, this is what you should have

a closer shot of the oven dish

see what I meant by the hint of plain boiled rice flavour? The colour is fab, the classic Jollof rice flavour, but you can still see some flecks of white rice.

Again, I have to stress that the rice was delicious. I am not knocking down this method at all. My taste buds are just really very astute. I will definitely want to try it again, next time using equal quantities of water and fried pepper and also using foil paper to seal the edges in and prevent steam from escaping. If you are a Pro at using this method, and you have more tips, please share your wisdom gotten from experience.

Ooooooh, I have been blessed with more tips. Thanks ladies. I have taken it all on board, and will try it again. Let us consider this as How to Cook Jollof rice in an Oven Part 1 – the cooking the rice in the oven from scratch method and then I will be posting a Part 2, the starting half way on the stove and then finishing off in the oven. Thanks again ladies. I appreciate the help.