‘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,...
Because everyday is World Jollof Rice Day. And so I present you one of two recipes – Asun Jollof- I concocted during the run-up to August 22nd – the other? A smoky prawn version. Step 1 Get goat meat and season it with salt, ground onions and chilies. Step 2 Coal-smoke for the most intense, smoky flavour....
Road trips. Just like our mothers. Just like our fathers. I can’t count how many times I’ve been on the receiving end of a parent’s travels. How we’ve heard honking horns and have welcomed them back with some measure of joy, thanking them ever so kindly for not ruining Saturday night fever by returning halfway...
Thanks Nigerian Twitterverse for the contributions. Here is what we have – 5 approved sides for Jollof Rice: Meat, Dodo, Coleslaw, Moinmoin and Eggs. Per plate? Two or more of these seem like the right amount. For example – dodo and meat; meat and moinmoin; dodo and eggs. Get the drift? Minimum allowable accompaniments if...