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...
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...
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...
I had a good plan to pair this with a Guinness – Palm wine concoction but I spread shards of glass and malted black liquid on some cream tiles this evening instead. A bag delicately held, mindlessly dropped and dreams and thoughts are dashed. Oh well, one less thing to make 🙁 and on to...
I know Agbalumo will be out of season soon…and so I’m extracting it’s essence in a variety of ways to enjoy long after. Though Preservation isn’t a common practice in Nigeria, I think it should be for various reasons. For one, we need to test the boundaries of our fruits and vegetables and one way...
My picky second daughter, R insists this should be the name, and so it is. Agbalu’lade. I had Agbalumo’ade pencilled but…*shrugs*. As this is her new favourite drink, I have no complaints. Believe me, this is like Lemonade but not exactly. If you macerate Agbalumo – add sugar and leave to stand for a few hours, you’ll...
I grew up eating yam and pepper soup, or plantain and pepper soup. That was and is one of my mom’s favourite meals ever. Well, that and my peanut butter chicken sauce with Chinese fried rice or noodles. Then in 2001, I went to Youth Service camp in Bayelsa. One afternoon, my friend took me...
The first time I fainted, I was thirteen and I passed out halfway between the kitchen and living room of 4 Ihuo Street, Port Harcourt. It was a Sunday and Daddy had just come back from Igarra. The second time I fainted, I was thirty-seven and at a dental surgery in Port Harcourt. Back to...
It was one day last June, July when I discovered Glover Court suya in Ikoyi – Lagos, Nigeria. I missed suya. I missed the flame-grilled, peanut-spiced sticks of meat that are perfect for 5pm on a Friday. I wish I could say 4pm but that’s one hour when I’m still at my desk. I can’t...