I am very proud that this blog is influential. Very proud and very pleased. To all of you guys who have implicit trust and confidence in what you read on this blog, and are appreciative of the effort and hard work, I say thank you. It is from you guys that being proud of my blog comes from. Even if something is already out there, if it goes up on Dooney’s Kitchen, it becomes the bog standard, and it is all down to you guys in your thousands scattered all over the world, who give it that validation. Not me, you guys. Pride in your handiwork is what I was raised with. “If you are good at what you do, hold your head proud, because you have earned it. Let that pride be attached to something visible, otherwise you would just be an empty barrel nuisance” – Big Oladunni’s words.
Let me share a brief story. Funmi and I were shopping at our local fishmongers and we came across a woman (roughly 48+) she hasn’t seen in over 6 years. Amidst the hugs and excited voices, she introduced me and said that’s my friend Dunni, she’s a food blogger. This woman screamed you are Dunni of Dooney’s Kitchen, I have been praying to meet you, and she said do you know that the day you posted how to make pounded yam in a blender, I was at a Nigerian food store and all the women there were buying yam. She had to stop and take notice because more women were trooping in and everybody was buying yam. She shops there regularly, but this was an unusual experience, so she asked one of them casually, why she was buying yam and the woman said ha Aunty, I read it on one blog oh, that you can make pounded yam in a blender, I want to try it. She asked the next woman, and the next woman and got the same answer. She said she knew it had to be Dooney’s Kitchen and she trusts what I write, so she too bought yam that day to try it, and it worked. She excitedly called her friends and they called their friends and everyone she told now makes pounded yam either in a blender or food processor (click HERE). Now, that’s influence. She joked that the store should pay me a commission for all the yam they sold that day. Lots of women all over the world have bought food processors, still waiting on the cheque from Kenwood. Hahahahaha. Seriously, who in their marketing department can I email. Hehehehehehe.
Here is another trend setter, thanks to Bola Coker. I asked to try it, and she said, please do. I tried it, and had to share. I am not even going to go into any traditional vs modern cooking argument. I am proud to be the poster child for 2014 Nigerian Cooking. End of.
You will need
Elubo – amala flour
Water
Pot
Hand Mixer
How To
I made this in the exact same process, I make a mean pot of Amala, using a wooden spoon. I learnt the hard way because Big Oladunni doesn’t play. To prevent lumps she taught me the trick of making it soft at first, be sure no lumps, then add more flour, to thicken it, add a little water to steam it, turn again, bring down on the flour and mix, mix, mix with the omorogun. Now, do this with a hand mixer in half the time and zero effort. Further uses of a Hand Mixer – use the dough hook to make Pounded yam. For amala, I am using the whisk rods. These whisk rods will also work to make wheat flour, the urhobo starch and semovita. Go to town people, the omorogun (wooden spoon) should be made ancient in our generation. Anyone who says otherwise i.e. it is all you need to cook anything, is a dinosaur. Mischief hat firmly on. Tee hehehehehehe.
Let’s Cook.
1. Heat up water in a pot.
Have your hand mixer with the whisk rods attached on standby. See, water is boiling away nicely. I set the timer
2. Add the Elubo to the pot and stir. This took me less than a minute.
3. Take out the spoon, replace with the hand mixer and whisk away. The pot is still on heat
engine running. I had a huge smile on my face.
Look closely, can you see any lumps? Come on, look. As smooth as it can be, with no arm cardio
4. All this happened in 1 minute.
5. As Mama taught me, I added more flour. As this was my first time, I went through the exact same method I make amala traditionally. Next time, I will try it again, adding all the flour I need from scratch and then finishing off with a hand mixer. That is sure to be even mega fast. In scientific terms, this is called Experiment 1.
6. Back to the hand blender
Whizz away
7. Ta dah!!!!! Amala. See how stretchy it is?
but you are not done yet
8. Still keep the engine running
See, it even looks better. See, how glistening it is. Mind you, my timer is still running, and I am looking at it with a mixture of disbelief and pleasure, because of how quick this is.
9. Then I added water to let it steam. Look closely, to the left, you can see water in the pot.
here is proof that the pot has been on heat, the entire time.
10. The amala slid back into the pot easily to steam
you can see it coming down from the whisk rods.
11. I let it steam and I whizzed again. I was skipping this time, playing with the hand mixer at low-speed, medium-speed, high-speed, I was having a blast. It just kept going, and going, and going, all the time, I was giving my omorogun (traditional wooden spoon) major side eye.
12. Amala, done and dusted. Stare at it very well. This amala is light, and fluffy, the kind Dbanj described “mo gbona feli feli bi amala to jina gan gan”.
See, it is stretchy…….
13. Faultless amala. Stare at it as much as you can, you won’t find any faults with it.
I made enough amala for 2 people, but only photographed the one portion. As for stretchy, it is stretchy, stretchy, stretchy.
Hey, a food processor makes stretchy pounded yam doesn’t it, so why won’t a mixer make stretchy amala?
You will also see how cleanly the amala goes off the whisk rods, so as for having any extra wash up, you will be pleasantly surprised that this is not extra work for you. Thanks to Deola, whose mixer this is.
Now, you want to know the time it took to do this? You want to know? Okay, okay, okay, 3 mins 28 seconds. BOOM!!!!!!!!! Now imagine how much faster this will be when I try it again and add all the flour at once. I am eating amala everyday until the weekend. Tee Hee
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