This recipe takes me back to where it all began – Nigeria. Where garden eggs are eaten as a snack, with a spicy peanut butter dip. In this recipe, the garden egg is sliced and garnished with grilled spring onions and red chilies, for colour. It is sprinkled with a dry peanut ‘crunch’ and drizzled...
In this recipe, the spongy character of garden eggs is extolled. Its interesting that garden eggs take very well to pickling. The vinegar and spices add another dimension to a fruit that makes it suitable for a myriad of things – eating on its own, layered in a sandwich or chopped up into a salad....
This recipe makes the bitterness of garden eggs shine through. The green garden eggs are more bitter than their white counterparts. Either way, the sugar and spice work extremely well to create a balanced ‘condiment’ that tastes Africa, smells Indian, and eats well. In the manner of Thakkali Chutney. Weeks ago, my friend Deepa of...
I love the very idea of combining fruit and savoury flavours, especially in the way Asian cuisine knows how. I’ve watched Luke Nguyen cook with ingredients that are tropical and easy to find in Nigeria. But cook with them in a way so different, so foreign and appealing in that way ‘exotic’ cuisine is.
Nose to tail isn’t a passing fad in Nigeria, or a new culinary trend – it has and always will be a part of our food culture, of our heritage. It isn’t the offspring of one parent – poverty, but it was born of necessity, of sustainability, of wasting not and thus wanting not. It...
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...