Crunch. Refreshing. Clean. Really, that’s all you need to know. All there is. Well, not all but most of what there is. This is the season for cucumbers, Cucumis sativus. Originally from Southern Asia, they now grow in most climes and regions of the world where they sliced, picked, eaten, juiced and more. I like cucumbers...
Your foremost primer to making the best starch ever :). Starch. Usi to my Isoko heritage. Of cassava, like corn starch. Smooth, almost satiny on the fingers. And yes, this is the self same starch for stiffening clothes. Combined with palm oil, heated till a stretchy mass is formed, this is one of my favourite things...
This is how you first eat starch, with your grandmother’s fresh fish pepper soup, thick with Tilapia and the noon day Isoko sun. Usi, she calls it – softly, slightly hissing the s . You are in your Sunday best – every mothers dream of a princess child – frilled hems and checked belts tied...
The mind wanders, not in defiance of boundaries but in search of meaning and truth. An exploration, not confined to history and culture and societal constructs. After all, the mind isn’t community, it is per person, per head, per brain to think and create and share. I’ve had Banga with ‘starches’ – pounded yam, garri, ‘starch’...
Soursop is in season and I’ve finally made the frozen dessert I’ve longed to since forever. These days, for creamy fruit, I tend to go with condensed milk as the ‘dairy’ of choice. Why? Well, condensed milk is rich and thick and the tiniest amount seems to work wonders. In Mangoes, With Mangoes & Passion Fruit and...
I’ve been serving up lots of devilled eggs lately. While halving them for stuffing, many casualties result. And so it was that I resolved to make an egg salad – the perfect one. I wanted to bring some texture into the creamy, chewy mix and since I like the crunch of Asala, black walnuts when...
Here, fresh dates edify the palate in a chicken stew. Thankfully. So one evening, I was making a stew in my best cast iron pot from South Africa – my Bush Baby. As I often do, I looked through the fridge to see what could go in, in a kitchen-sink kind of way…and saw the...
My first taste of fresh dates left the taste of disappointment heavy on my tongue, my lips. It was the first time I’d tried them. Seen them close-up, so when I saw them on an enamel tray in Lagos traffic, I ‘dived’ for a bag. At N200. These fresh dates were yellow with light brown freckles,...
Kuka, the green powder ground from dried baobab leaves reminds me of Japanese Matcha. Bright and earthy, it commonly features as an ingredient in Dan Wake where it is combined with bean flour and shaped into dumplings. Served with a pepper sauce, I can imagine the texture of chewy cut by the spice, so monotony...