Healthy Eating

Cook Naija: Plantain Salad Imoyo

National  pride. Patriotism. What you might call it. There was a certain feeling of absolute ownership and total knowledge I had about my country, Nigeria – its people, its culture, its habitat…and especially its food.

Surprise, surprise..for it turns out ladies and gentlemen, that my knowledge of Naija, while authentic is not as all-encompassing as I thought.

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Indian-spiced Potato Salad with the Daring Cooks

This post is dedicated to my friend Renu, who passed away in February 2011. She taught me how to make the most delicious coriander chutney two years ago and my life has never been the same.

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March On With The Daring Cooks: Salmon Ceviche & A Wedge Salad

This month’s Daring Cooks challenge is brought to you by a very weary Traveller Jane. Weary in body but not in mind, soul or belly. So weary and a touch under the weather, that this daring cook stayed in on Saturday, fresh off a flight from the US of A, huddled on the couch watching Masterchef  Australia while the shops stayed open and all the fresh white fish sold itself.

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Steamed Plantain Pudding, Nigerian style

Don’t be deceived by the food porn you see in my regular KB posts: that’s not how I regularly serve my ‘food for eat’. Call me what you like (food pimp even) but I love everything about food – the components, the assembly and the presentation. I enjoy experimenting with colour palettes and taste palates, textures and light. I love to highlight the net skins of cantaloupes and the bum cheeks of peaches, almost as much as I enjoy sushi and (cooking with) wine. I love highlighting the beauty of a dish but that’s not always real – the pretty food you see on this blog represents a tiny portion of my food reality – please don’t take it as the entire gospel.  Many a time, I bite into a juicy peach and barely have time to notice the soft downy skin, or the patches of colour. Sometimes I ignore the pleasure of eye candy and focus on the ‘taste’, enjoying the combination of flavour makers that results in a gorgeous plate.

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One thing I’ve always wondered about Nigerian food is ‘Does it sit pretty’? My memories of food at home don’t involve elaborate/delicately styled food. Yes, plates are garnished – slices of tomatoes, onions and parsley greenery are common, as are molds of rice and sauce nested in bowls. Read more…

Ancho Strawberry Preserve, for Week 4

True confession, and I think we better get it said and out of the way. I would hate for you to hear it from someone else, after all this time we’ve spent together. So,….

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Week 3: What we ate

Fresh Corn SalsaSo life is back to normal, since I have my camera back.

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Week 2: What we ate

My guide to messy eating

The first time I wrote this piece, years ago it was a guide on how to eat huge profiteroles without covering your face in cream.This weekend, past, it translated into ‘How to eat a hamburger with all the trimmings….and no burger buns’. Don’t get me wrong, I love bread but the soft, sesame-studded buns are not on the menu just yet. And though I could very well have left the burgers alone, I wasn’t going to let my first ever celebration of Canada’s Independence pass by unmarked.
Lime-pickled onions on my hamburger
So, loving success, celebrations and the perfunctory food that must follow, here is my advice on how to eat anything especially messy things, charmingly: Read more…

Week 1: What we ate

On Blame
We look everywhere else
But at us
Pointing fingers
At her
Him, they and them
So it was
One sunny afternoon in London
Sitting in a boardroom full of women
Listening to stories of progress
And how to get ahead
Nested citrus
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