My fascination for the Northern Nigerian Kitchen – The Arewa Kitchen is growing more and more and more. This week, I’d love to share snippets of what I’ve learnt about the cuisine. I will share drinks, meats and more but first up, breads! I love the ‘breads’ and pancakes. My first introduction was Masa, then Sinasir and recently, Gurasa. I haven’t tried Pankasau but I’m sure Al-kubus is the flat bread I’m familiar with for Sharwama. Masa A yeasted rice pancake that is similar to the Indian idli. Made from short grain rice, cooked rice and yeast, it is left...
Spiced: Vanilla
Did you know that vanilla pods start out (plump and) green? Or does that come as a surprise to you? Like it did me. Walking around the Tata farm in Zanzibar, I was stunned to see a cluster of pods, green. To be honest, I hadn’t ever even thought of what vanilla was beyond orchids and brown, fragrant beans. I’ve never considered the intermediate, it’s in-between life as plump and green, then apparently yellow…so on that day, already taken with the wonders of spices as seen on trees and plants, my mind opened up further still to take in the...
Passion Fruit: The Fruit, The Whole Fruit & Nothing But The Fruit
I love passion fruit with all my heart and soul and was thrilled to discover a few years ago that it grew in Nigeria. Seasonal, I get mine from Vegetable Express who work with farms and farmers in the north of Nigeria. Nigerian Seasonal Produce Calendar – fruits and vegetables in season Because I order my passion fruit by the kilo and from the north, I tend to make bulk orders, between 8 and 10 kilograms. Because the seeds keeps very well frozen, I’ve never been worried about ordering too much. The first few times I got batches, I would...
In Season Pickles: Carrots, Agbalumo, Orange
One way to enjoy fruits and veg in season – carrots, agbalumo, oranges – is to explore a variety of uses – fresh, cooked, preserved. I especially like pickles – they add bright flavour to dishes – a bit sour, tart, sharp even, not to mention the burst of colour. Pickling isn’t an oft-used preservation technique in Nigerian cuisine – drying is more common. When I thought of pickling, I decided to go the vinegar route in creating that acidity for the chosen fruits and vegetables. Vinegar – compared with citrus juice is easier to work with for not-so-quick pickles. When...
Nigerian ‘Concept’ Dish: Dry Fish Skin & Yam Cannelloni with Peppersoup Consomme
The Concept This concept is all about reinventing peppersoup – taking it from warm and comforting to refined and clean. It’s about combining the popular sides of yam in this spicy broth with flaked fish and using the skin of the dried fish as a vehicle for flavour and texture in a cannelloni. How to make Nigerian peppersoup Lessons on Fish peppersoup Dry fish & groundnut peppersoup I’ve transformed the dark, cloudy peppersoup broth into a golden, almost-clear consomme that has all of the flavour and none of the sediment. This is my second attempt at a consomme and I’m learning....
Nigerian Seasonal Produce: Carrots, #1
‘Nigerian Seasonal Produce’ is a monthly column which will be published on the last Saturday of every month. In this column, a writer explores a specific seasonal fruit, vegetable or leafy green assigned by the editors of Kitchen Butterfly and based on the Nigerian Seasonal Produce Calendar. Our author this month is Osemhen of Eureka Naija – welcome and thank you! I am a girl who knows many useless things. It is a side effect of all those books I read, all those hours spent filling my head with the thoughts of dead people. So for instance, I know that orange carrots...
Spiced Carrot Cake
Carrot cake…because carrots are in season and they are ‘healthyish’, aren’t they? Well, I think so. I discovered a gorgeous recipe on food52 which I continue to make with a few tweaks – namely upping the spices. I made this for a party, frosted it with lemony cream cheese and decorated it with glazed carrot ribbons and mint that were part carrot, part candle. Sooooooooo so delicious, and a great way to use seasonal produce. Nigeria’s 1st Seasonal Produce Calendar Begin with some cake. Frost. Slather lemony cream cheese over the top, palette knife and all. I like to frost...
The First Mangoes & Nigeria’s 1st Seasonal Produce Calendar, V1.1
Mangoes. My favourites and this variety from Ogbomosho has me so stoked. It is pretty early though for these mangoes to be out. I mean, agbalumo is barely here and Nigerian mangoes, especially this variety normally show up in the first few weeks of February. Global warming? Climate change? For a fact, this harmattan season was the warmest and shortest I’ve experienced in a while and I’ve frozen and drank tea through a fair number. My assumption is warmer weather, faster ripening of fruit and vegetables and voila, Mangoes in January. Mangoes!!!! And my favourite variety from Ogbomosho. So stoked. Pretty early...
#Starapple, HashtagStarapple & Lessons in Processing Agbalumo
There are many reasons I love technology and social media – hashtags are one of them. Hashtags are the strongest indication that we are similar in all the ways we are different. A few months ago, I hashtagged a photo on instagram, #starapple and then I clicked on it and discovered a whole world out there – of different star apples – white, green, purple. A hashtag is a type of label or metadata tag used on social network and microblogging services which makes it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. Users create and...