Sweet, Sour & Earthy, tamarind is common across India, Thailand, West Africa and other parts of the world in various forms. Taking its English name from the Arabic, tamar-hindi, meaning “Indian date,” tamarind is typically used in equatorial cuisines, such as Indian, Mexican, and Thai. Also known as imli, tamarind is used as a souring agent in many cuisines, especially those of South and Southeast Asia; Fine Cooking Pre-2012 I know only tamarind of the velvet sort – Icheku, the Igbo name is what I grew up calling it. The Yorubas say Awin. I buy it in huge bunches and snatch seeds...
How to Chiffonade Scent leaves & Other Herbs
Soft herbs with wide leaves like scent leaves, basil, mint make great chiffonade. Chiffonade, French for ‘made of rags’ is an easy technique with beautiful results, like in the scent leaf bits which garnished my Tuwon Shinkafa in pepper soup. Here’s how to chiffonade soft herbs Wash leaves. Arrange in a pile. Roll length ways into a tight ‘cigar’ Using a sharp knife, slice 1 – 2 mm rings across the ‘cigar’ from one end to the other. When you’re done, fluff up the cut ends with your fingertips to separate the shreds. Use immediately as the edges will darken. Sprinkle over soups,...
Salted Agbalumo Caramels
If at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again. Whether that be in love or toffee. No, I don’t give up that easily. Where powdered milk and glucose wouldn’t do the trick to form a delightful Agbalumo toffee, cream, maple syrup and light corn syrup did. While I applaud my genius and daring at exploring the combination of toasted egusi seeds, dried agbalumo and caramel, I have to say I found it vile. All I could taste was sweet egusi and that friends was plain wrong. Just wrong. Moving on swiftly, the other half, sans egusi seeds was...
The Best In-flight Entertainment for Food Lovers
I love travelling yet there are many aspects that I would gladly do without – the entire visa application process (I just emerged from a traumatic experience) which is tedious and can go awry, packing, traffic to the airport, checking in…almost everything up to the minute I sit in my (often economy) seat. All’s well till we fly high and hit turbulence and then my mouth gushes with prayer, my heart pounds with fear. One of the few things I enjoy is in-flight entertainment. It is often my chance to catch up on new series – Downtown Abbey a case...
Agbalumo at Border Control
I’m amazed when they both know what it is. They aren’t familiar with African Cherry but when I mention star apple they say yes. They can’t remember agbalumo but the White American gentleman says Udara as does the South American. The dried one has them stunned. ‘I know it …but I’ve never seen it dried’. I want to delve into my whole Kitchen Butterfly exploration with Udara this season but I’m not sure US customs is particularly interested in it. He breaks off a bit, goes to another desk to enquire. I want to say ‘it’s a new thing for us, preserving...
Did You Know? On Storing Bread
I can’t count the number of times I’ve begged family and friends not to keep bread in the fridge. I can tell you that the resistance I’ve faced is something else. I don’t know when I learnt about bread and the best storage mechanism. Did you know that bread is best stored at room temperature? Did you know that the next storage method for consideration after room temperature is the deep freezer? Yes, frozen bread restircts the growth of mold which lengthens the ‘shelf life’ – up to 3 months. Did you know that storing bread in a refrigerator encourages bread to...
The Art of The Sandwich
A good sandwich is a gift from God. Period. I like how a simple combination can be transformed with the addition of one ingredient which elevates it to ‘awesome’ heights. Sometimes, that’s a few leaves of basil strewn over cheese or chicken. At other times, it’s the hot, green tabasco sauce stirred into creamy, salted avocado. What is a Sandwich? A sandwich is a bread – commonly 2 slices, filled with fruit, vegetables, meats, cheeses and more. What are the essentials for a good sandwich? The end result of a sandwich should be a good-looking :), tasty, great-textured ‘eat’ that...
Ginger: Fresh, Dried, Pickled & Powdered
I love and use ginger in a variety of ways. Fresh I always have fresh ginger at home. It is perfect for both sweet and savoury preparations. For sweet, I’ve explored a number of recipes – Confit, Jam, Candy. For savoury, all you need is a bit grated in stirfries and sauces, some pounded whole and popped into syrups for poaching fruit and the like. Quite often, I make a huge batch of ginger and garlic paste and freeze. For use in fresh preparations, here are some tips: Use fresh young ginger – it will be easier to peel and...
Yam ‘Hashbrowns’
Because they aren’t quite matchsticks. If you’ve ever had and loved Potato matchsticks, this will be up your street. My original plan was to have this topping a beef suya salad with iru a few weeks ago. Courage failed me on adding iru to the salad but the yam was delicious. I started off with slices of yam which were peeled and washed. Then grated. The result is a sticky mass of yam shreds. This gets seasoned while the oil heats up. It is deep-fried for a few minutes, till golden on one side and then the shreds are flipped over for the other...