The ‘Around the World’ series is my way of showing and sharing all the ways we are similar even in all the ways we’re different. Rice tables, Rice buffets are some of my favourite things, ever. I am very much a ‘buffet’ person but the idea of this focus – a central dish around which multiple options exist – is thrilling to me for many reasons – colours, textures, new flavour combinations. Rice tables are amazing. One of the first rice tables I experiences was the Indonesian Rijstafel in the Netherlands. I’ve experienced two others in Nigeria and at a...
Friday Cocktails: On Pepper Fruit Gin & Simple Syrup
I’ve been thinking about a way to create a non-alcoholic infusion of pepper fruit without losing flavour and fragrance and then two things happened: Ramon shared that cooking killed the flavour [baking them in scones worked well though – flavour remained] And I watched Mary Berry make an Elderflower infusion. So I knew there’d be no direct cooking of the pepper fruit in any liquid. And I knew how to go about trying this syrup out.. I wanted a non-alcoholic version because I’ve already succeeded in creating a gin infusion with pepper fruit, a few ways – green/ unripe, red...
AsunDodo – What Comes After GizDodo
When hot and smoky asun (goat meat) meets sweet, soft, ripe fried plantains, sauce and onions in a quick, delicious mix. A bit like the diasporan gizdodo – a delightful combination of cooked gizzards and dodo – fried plantain. Here’s how to score major points: One: Buy ready-made asun – because who has time to cut the buy and prep goat et al? Not me most days. I love the asun from Naija Butcher – a very recent discovery so I use theirs. I prep this a bit further though – I cut the already small pieces into smaller bits and separate...
Stockfish: The Nigerian – Nordic Connection
Stockfish – pungent, fishy and a strong fave in Nigerian cuisine comes from Norway, a Nordic country in the north of Europe where cold water loving-cod surface in the winter, and birth their babies on the coast, putting them within easy reach of fishermen. To be very honest, in Nigeria, we call all dried cod stockfish, salted or not. However in Norwegian classification, stockfish refers to unsalted, fresh dried fish and clipfish, salted dried fish. Apparently, this salting method for clipfish was developed by the Portuguese who are also fond of it. Stockfish has remained hugely popular in Nigeria because of its ability to stay...
Nigerian Seasonal Produce: Pepper Fruit, #5
‘Nigerian Seasonal Produce’ is a monthly column published on the last Saturday of each month. In this column, a writer explores a specific seasonal fruit, vegetable or leafy green assigned by the editors of Kitchen Butterfly and based on the Nigerian Seasonal Produce Calendar. Our author this month is Ramon – serial experimenter, documenter, eater with a le cordon bleu too. We bonded a few years ago over our mutual love (and exploration) of agbalumo and we haven’t looked back since. Dancing with the Pepper Fruit I have come to discover that when the Kitchen Butterfly (KB) starts a sentence with “Have you heard...
Nigerian ‘Concept’ Dish: Dry Fish Skin-Local Jollof ‘Sushi’
The Concept This concept is about sushi, Japanese rice rolls. Years ago, I attended a sushi workshop in the Netherlands and fell in love with the perfect bites of rice wrapped in seaweed sheets. Here, I’ve combined ‘traditional’, palm-oil based flavours using gorgeous dry fish skin instead of the nori sheets, smoky rice and fresh herbs to create delicious rolls. Local Jollof Using dry fish skin as a vehicle for more The Elements We’re talking crisp and crunchy, soft and chewy, smoky. Here’s what went into mine: Dry Fish skin, washed, trimmed and set aside which became the ‘seaweed sheets’....
Version 1.2: Nigerian Seasonal Produce Calendar
Becoming comfortable with progression is one of the best things to happen to me as an adult. Starting a thing and then making periodic changes to improve it. Often, we are loathe to begin because we don’t have it fully fleshed out and we believe the world might not be as accommodating of our step-wise growth but I beg to differ. I think it’s important to lay claim, plant roots, begin that thing today and then slowly craft it and watch it blossom. This is certainly not true for all endeavours, but it is for my seasonal produce calendar and...
The Anatomy of The African Walnut
I’ve always associated these walnuts with road trips since I was a child. Now, I see them on trays, little bags tied in cones, part black, part glistening. While in traffic a few weeks ago, I purchased a bag, tore it open and cracked a shell after ‘cleaning” it. It split in half, and I discovered for the first time a leaf at the centre. I call it a leaf for want of a better name… It tastes no different from the whole nut – maybe a tad more delicate. I imagined dressing small bites with it. So, the anatomy...
The Nigerian Mother Sauce
Tomato. ‘Stew’. The mother. If ever there was a mother sauce to define Nigerian cuisine, this is it – this blend of tomatoes, red onions and peppers. It is the base of a lot of things to come out of the Nigerian kitchen. You’d be hard-pressed to find a sauce of more importance to the Nigerian Kitchen. One doesn’t despair here if you have ‘stew’ – the ‘red’ aromatic outcome of pureed – normally fresh not canned tomatoes, red onions, and chilli pepper, fried in some oil. Tomatoes, red onions and peppers, be they chili or some form of bell – all...