I had such a good day yesterday, which started from sharing a childhood story of my brother, and all the comments that ensued. I was laughing till 12am, I tell you. You guys make Instagram so much fun. You see, I sold my mixer a few weeks ago, because I had a new one in mind. Me and Kenwood, our love is too strong. I bought a mixer last year with baking in mind, but I never baked with it, because the need to, didn’t really awaken in me until one day, a light bulb came on in my head, or should i call it a small still voice that said, you need to get your baking game on strong if you are ever going to make a lasting impact in the food business. Think of your food heroes and heroines, they all bake and cook really well. For some, cooking may be stronger, but they bake too, so you can’t ignore an entire sphere of cooking, just because you haven’t been successful at it. So, I traded up, and sold my Kenwood Chef and bought a Kenwood Chef Titanium which is the top of the range of Kenwood mixers. Taking it a step further, I made sure i got one that has a timer. My problem with baking is sticking to recipes, especially timing. Baking is an exact science. if the recipe says don’t overwork the dough, trust me, it isn’t just fancy English. So now with my mixer that has a timer, if the recipe says whisk for 5 mins, I just set the time and walk away.
Bowl of Gorgeousness
Why the introductory story about a mixer and baking, for a recipe that involves neither, well ever since I bought that mixer, i am now obsessed with attachments, like OMG!!!!, I check Kenwood every day looking for how I can finally utilise this mixer. The previous mixer, the ONLY thing I did with it was use the blender attachment, so basically I was working with an over priced blender. My logic is, the more I use the mixer, the more I can justify the purchase, and the more I will want to use the mixing bowl, to actually bake, or at least make dough related stuff like pasta. I may as well tell you now, that i bought 3 kenwood pasta making attachments, so be prepared to see pasta made with Nigerian flours. Yes, why not, Bean flour pasta for example is a thing, I have seen it. :). So, back to attachments. Anyways, during my search I came across the Kenwood Dicing attachment. I looked at the promotional video and thought OMG!!!!!!, This is a life saver in the Nigerian Kitchen. WHAT!!!!! Fried rice, salads, giz dodo and all the myriad dishes that we include that involve chopping. Next best thing to having a food processor. I bought it from Amazon, stat and tried it out for the first time yesterday. Before I did though, I shared a story from my brother’s childhood antics with plantain. Read about his story, trust me you want to, it is very funny, the comments too, hilarious. Just click on the picture or check it out on my Instagram page. Don’t forget to follow @dooneyskitchen
So, where was I, this nifty little thing almost gave me a heart attack yesterday. I attached it to the mixer and it refused to come on. I watched the video so many times, and I kept wondering what I was doing wrong. I called Kenwood, they had closed, I wanted to call Amazon to lambaste them for selling me a defective gadget, and by some stroke of intuition, to be honest when i think back, it wasn’t me that pushed the knobby base further inward, i swear, it was as if something else was holding my hands, because i had turned that attached section almost 20 times and it didn’t work, suddenly pushed it in further and BOOM!!! it came on. I wanted to scream.
Then I tried the Almighty dodo, and would you believe it, perfect dices.
I love, love, love Salsa, but cripes, the preparation makes me run in the other direction. It is something I order a lot when I go to Mexican restaurants, because i don’t like preparing it myself. Now, I can have Salsa any day of the week I want, even after a long day at work. This time, I decided to make a Naij-Mex, see what I did there, taking a leaf from Tex-Mex. I swapped the avocado for plantain, as they have similar sweetness and softness,and I also decided to add Yaji (suya pepper), to season it. It was so delicious, even my Irish flatmate had a generous portion for dinner. If you are #Team Fitfam, Salsa’s are good for you, and very filling too, no cooking involved, well for this one, you have to grill or fry the plantains. I grilled. To even switch things up a little, the idea was to Redefine the classic “rice and dodo”, so I served the salsa on a bed of rice cakes.
- Plantains - 2 at least
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 large cucumber
- 2 pieces of red bell pepper
- 2 pieces of green bell pepper
- 1 piece of Ata rodo (optional) - scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
- 1 piece of onion
- 1 piece of Lime
- ½ a lemon
- Salt
- Yaji (suya pepper)
- If you have the dicing kit, just slice the bulbous ingredients in half, to allow it pass through the chute easily. If you don't have the dicing kit, see the body of the post for a manual option, otherwise get to chopping with a chopping board.
- Start with the plantain first, so you can grill it in the oven while you are chopping the rest of the ingredients. Dust the diced plantains with a generous helping of Suya Pepper
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- Once the plantains have grilled to brown yumminess, combine with the rest of the ingredients, give it a good sprinkling of suya pepper, and the lemon and lime juice
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- Toss around and taste. If it needs a little more salt, add some salt, and finish off with a sprinkling of chopped parsely.
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