Flavour prints and profiles and stamps. Ice Cream for breakfast. Anyone? I have no issues exploring them over and over and over again. Each new canvas throws up nuances, subtle differences till we ‘appropriate’ all the deliciousness. This is the case with myself, mangoes and passion fruit. My daughter had been bugging me to make meringues for a while – a whole lot of egg whites whipped to stiff peaks and sugar folded in. And when life forces you to make meringues, ice cream – a way to use up leftover yolks should never be far off. As well as...
Snail & Yam Hash
And just from the sound of it, you know this is a hit. Right? Snails, chopped up in the blender, pan fried with boiled (fresh or leftover) yam chunks turned golden from sauteeing. Add a pepper sauce ’cause snails and ‘pepper’ go great and vegetables… and let the one pot do its wonders. For some sauce, add some stew…how ever much you like but not so it’s swimming… Push it all to one side and add the tiniest bit of butter you can without your conscience taking you to task. Crack an egg and salt very lightly. Let barely set before...
The Legend of Blue Willow
The first time I saw the plates after decades was at a furniture showroom, off Rumuola road, Port Harcourt. The year was 2012. I lost no time in purchasing two sets for a princely sum of…I can’t remember. The traditional willow design always features a large beautiful Chinese home with willow tree, small bridge with 3 figures, a humble servants house at the foot of the bridge, a small Chinese boat & of course the famous love birds above the willow tree. The romantic lore of the design could have added to it’s popularity over the years; eBay The plates held...
Ten (10) Ways To Have Oats For Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Everyone can make these quick and easy recipes in a flash. Raw Enjoy like cereal with dried fruit and chopped up fresh fruit Muesli Mix your own…. Swiss Bircher / Overnight Oats With your homemade muesli mix, make the yummiest Swiss Bircher/ overnight oats with grated apple… Toasted oats One of my favourite ways ever to have oats. Great as a cereal, cooked or layered in a parfait. Oats with Peanut Butter and Fruit puree Or nutella. Or speculoos paste. Up to you really… Baked Quite the amazing thing…with a somewhat bruleed top…and soft, stewed apples. Oh deliciousness has a name,...
Mango Puff-Puff
There are ten thousand ways to eat mangoes and this is just one of them. Add chunks of mango, tossed in sugar to puff-puff batter just before you fry. How to cut mangoes into chunks Puff-puff recipe My go to would have been lime but I only had oranges, so I put some zest in the mix. And then combined just before frying and shaping the spheres into life…in hot oil. They emerged, sporting eyes of orange. And yellow. Firm mangoes gone soft and juicy and perfectly matched with the chewy puff-puff. Everyone loved them. At home and at the...
Shakshuka: Baked Eggs in a Spicy Tomato Sauce
It was only ever a matter of time before this happened. I’m glad I waited though ’cause I got to ‘launch’ my new cast iron skillet…and use my feta cheese (which had gotten lost somewhere in the treasure box that’s my deep freezer) . And flambe some of my green gin peppers. First tried in Dubai, this dish is somewhat like a deconstructed Nigerian omelette. You start with a sauté of onions and peppers – I save time by using leftover sautéed peppers. Then I add some roughly tomatoes from a tin. Virtuous tomatoes. Honestly, not all that’s fresh is...
How To Hold a Feast, of Snails
Wait till the rainy season when snails are in abundance. Don’t be tempted to pick their tiny cousins from gardens green as you did when you were this high…and call it a feast. Best find a market and prepare to shell out some dosh. I say find a market where they have snails and will do the hard, slime work for you. The picking, the cleaning and the bagging. Don’t buy from the deep freezer of a shop, supermarket except you were there when they were delivered :), fresh. Ask for extra Alum, if you like. So when you make...
Baked Snails with a Garri Crust
Snails are my latest obsession, can you tell? Well, they are in season so…yes, go for it I say to myself. Do new things. Embrace new combinations and textures. One. Slice them and place in pretty dishes. Don’t worry too much about whether or not you have enough snails. No one ever has enough snails. Ever. Move on. Don’t cry. By now, you should have the scent leaf sauce/dip in your rotation. Two, ladle spoonfuls of your gorgeous green dip over the snails. Stop. Stare. Admire some. And then, in a move not unusual, do three. Three. The topping of...
The Art, Science & Beauty of Kilishi
Work of art. Like lace. I mean just look at it. This long strip of meat, coloured brown with flecks of red and full of holes. I want this in a glass frame, hung up on my wall. I want to trace the rings and the lines, find out how and where it lay. Under what noon day sun, swimming in what bath of spices? I want to know if it likes its cousins of chicken and ram but if it considers itself king? I want to extol the virtues of this piece of meat, sun-dried then baked, loving wrapped...