One of the best French Toasts I ever had was made by Joel – Food lover, Photographer. He whipped up a delicious version with yaji and oranges that totally blew me away. Arguably, the best French Toast I’ve ever had! Thank you, Joel. He writes: My journey to the New Nigerian Kitchen began after Kitchen Butterfly, held me up to the promise to make her French toast as I had confidently said that it was and might probably still be, the only dessert I could make in my sleep and that right well. So in the days leading up to “The...
Part 3: Food Pairing in Nigerian Cuisine and The Rest of The World
Food pairing – combining ingredients with others that are really similar (positive) or really different (negative). Cuisines are defined by ingredients, shaped by influences – what grows around you, your climate, who has been in your space. Legacies of colonisation, of slave trade make it to the plate today – from Lagos to Bahia and every place in between. My primary fascination with food is the discovery of the similarities and differences which might not be immediately obvious. Like how different cuisines handle monotony in the texture of cooked fish. In African, SE Asian, Indian and more tropical cuisines, chilies and spice are...
Part 2: The Balance of Tastes & Flavours in Nigerian Cuisine
Dishes are all about balance, all about a ‘perfect’ combination and complementing of the elements – flavours, tastes, colours and aromas should work together in delivering a dish – that awakes every sense. Sometimes balance is in the seasoning, other times, it is in the cooking of it and sometimes it’s in the service of it. Here are 5 examples of Nigerian dishes and their flavours Read: My guide to the Tastes & Flavours of Nigerian Cuisine Suya Take Suya, a happy union of heat and spice, of smoky and umami, sour and bitter in an altogether delicious beef skewer, coated...
Part 1: The Tastes & Flavours of Nigerian Cuisine
Nigerian cuisine is aromatic and pungent, full of umami, smoky, spicy, bitter and sour flavours which produce complex tasting dishes. In many dishes, the depth of flavour is provided by smoked, fishy and fermented elements. In many ways, the predominant flavours in our dishes – umami, smoky, spicy – are different from those in other cuisines. To begin to understand ‘Tastes & Flavours’, it is necessary to look at a number of definitions of taste – which for me includes aroma – and flavour: Taste, gustatory perception, or gustation is one of the five traditional senses that belongs to the gustatory system. Taste is...
Stirfried Periwinkles
It all began with a Facebook conversation about stirfried periwinkles…And it ended well – friends wondered if periwinkles could be stirfried and I thought, why not try. But first, blue foods. I’ve always been intrigued by the coplour of periwinkles – that vibrant almost-turquoise that isn’t common at the table. I remember once, a few years ago when I decided to make some rose petal essence. The first steep in vodka produced the most vibrant blue which promptly disappeared and never to be recreated, in spite of numerous tries. Blue foods aren’t that common in nature. Yes, there are blueberries...
All in – Zucchini Mixed Salad
Kitchen sink meals can be the best – those dishes you pull together with leftovers. The ones where you don’t have enough of any one thing to make a meal of it, but a collection of other things that sometimes when put together end up deeply revealing. I began with leftover grilled zucchini. I chopped up all the ingredients in similar sizes – zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, apples, cucumber, avocado I added some cilantro because I love it and I think herbs bring such dimension to dishes. Then I topped up with chopped up leftover, cold chicken. I’m one of those...
Grilled Zucchini with Chicken & Plantains
In honour of World Diabetes day 2016, on the 14th of November, I’ve decided to share recipes with my current favourite veg – courgettes, zucchini. Cooking courgettes is relatively easy – season, saute, grill, or whatever you like. It doesn’t take very long to cook and works well with a variety of seasoning. For dinner, I decided to pan-grill some zucchini. Here’s how Get as many zucchinis as you’d like to cook – I cook more than I need, refrigerate the left overs and add that to salads Wash, then top and tail Slice each zucchini lengthways into 3 or...
Zucchini: For World Diabetes Day
14th November, World Diabetes Day The theme of World Diabetes Day 2016 is ‘Eyes on Diabetes‘…activities and materials will focus on promoting the importance of screening to ensure early diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and treatment to reduce the risk of serious complications. —–00000—– Diabetes is on the rise in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. At work ‘Know your numbers’ is our mantra. Know your health numbers – your blood sugar levels, your blood pressure, your cholesterol (both high density and low density) and your body mass index because you can only act on that which you know. Diabetes is a...
The Language & Lexicon of Nigerian Cuisine
My mission in The New Nigerian Kitchen has many dimensions. It encompasses the totality, the entirety of Nigerian cuisine – from language to preservation of culinary history and heritage, and everything in between. We have to put words to our food, understand them for that’s one of the key ways we’ll be able to explain to others what they are and what they mean. Like Nigerian pepper soup is chicken soup to the rest of the world, that healing, renewing broth that is Tom Yum in Thai cuisine and Pho in Vietnamese and Chicken soup in America and other parts. About Nigerian...