In season – custard apple. This was a gift from my oldest daughter who has a best friend who has a grandmother with a custard apple tree in Lagos, Nigeria. Convoluted, this source? 🙂 They went on a visit and this was what they brought this back for me. This cousin to soursop. Oh my heart. That my children know...
Because I can, could, did. This soup combines the nuttiness of Asala with the silken, softness of Wòròwó. The first question people ask is, isn’t it bitter? Isn’t the Asala bitter? I assure them that it is nothing but crunch and cream, Egusiesque in most of its ways. Nothing astringent, nothing offputting about using it to...
Yesterday, my friend, @Shutupkecy asked me why New Yam was so expensive – a fact I had noted but rather silently. So, here we are? @Kitchnbutterfly oz why is yam now so expensive ?? can you make a blogpost about that? — Mr Dalloway (@ShutUpKecy) September 6, 2015 And then when I posted this on twitter,...
‘In season’ again… Ginger All year round, ginger is available but right now, the rhizomes – the name given to the small tubers – of ginger in market stalls are amazingly fresh. Thin-skinned, fresh flavoured and relatively big. Limes Big, juicy and cheaper than they’ve been – limes are ‘back in season’. Yes, like ginger...
One of the benefits of proclaiming my love for food o’er all is people share with me their deepest, darkests :). Well, not entirely true, but people share with me their faves – their thoughts, family recipes, best places to eat and so much more. I do not take any of these lightly. Food is...
So, yes, New Yam is here… And if you’re patient, it will age ever so gracefully and someday soon, in weeks and months, sitting at your table, you’ll feast on old yam – yam whose waters have left, and left behind flavours concentrated. Yam with textures not crumbly meaty, delightful. Someday, if you are patient. The...
This is a simple but beautiful sauce – one simply takes pureed garden eggs (raw, roasted, fired, smoked) and combines them with shreds of Ugba – fermented oil bean. Ugba has such a beautiful, chewy but crunchy somewhat resistant-to-being-eaten-quickly quality that’s perfect for the slight bitterness and earthiness of the garden eggs. One that makes...
This is the season when one hears ‘I hate new yam’ with such disdain…and I smile. There is no old yam without new yam. One must thank not only the divine provider(s) of the yam, one must give ultimate thanks to those who get it out of the ground and to our plates – the farmers,...
The New Yam festival is a harvest festival celebrated across Nigeria and many parts of Africa. When I made Ofe Nsala, my Igbo friends mentioned that this was the perfect soup to feast on in the village square during iwaji/ irijiohuru, which celebrates the start of the harvest season. I think one should praise God,...