Its Friday…and the weekend’s here after all. Raise your glass with a wine mixer :). Cheers. This started off so well. I took a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc off the rack. A fine bottle of Chilean wine. And I stuffed the seeds and skin of my dearest Agbalumo into the bottle. Miraculously, the cork slid right back it. I left it to brew for a week and then I invited Eghosa over. My pal with the discerning palate (or sharp mouth of truth). By then, the wine had spent a week getting to know the nuanced flavours of Agbalumo, and had...
Four (4) ideas for Poached Chicken
Remember that easy to make poached chicken? Here are a few ways you should be using it. Thank me later 🙂 Just think Soup it! Sauce it! Bake it!…or something along those lines. There are a million other ideas, but here are just four of them. Tip: To warm up a pack of cold/ frozen chicken, I like to place in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of stock or water. Adjust seasoning and add liquid by the tablespoon till heated through as you like Soup It Add to a simmering stock with chopped up vegetables. Top up with herbs. If...
J’s Yogurt & Granola Parfait
She made it up, inspired by ‘Sweet Kiwi‘. We got home from ‘shopping’ on Saturday and J, Daughter #1 made up a glass, showing off our recently acquired glassware. It turns out (via Google) that these glasses are actually parfait glasses. Who knew 🙂 Anyway, it’s a simple 3 ‘ingredient’ dessert or breakfast and in-between. All you need? Fruit, Yogurt, Granola/bars. Here are a few suggestions, as per ‘The Art of the Fruit Bowl’ Fruit You could use a variety of fruit, or stick with one. – tropical fruit mix. Think a combination of pineapple, pawpaw, bananas and passionfruit, maybe?...
Seafood Okro
‘Mehn, soup get level’…and this is up there with the best. A pot, choc-full of the freshest seafood – crabs, lobster and fish. I like to cook it in a shallow pan so the fish doesn’t ‘scatter’ :). I start off with making a quick stock – a combination of fried lobster shells in palm oil and salt, with the strained liquid from pureeing prawn heads (if available). After a few minutes, the crab chunks and fresh fish go in – Tilapia in this case. As many hands make light work, the okro is being sliced into rings by the very...
Naija meets France: Agbalumo & Mango Tarte Tatin
On an eternal quest for Nigerian desserts and a love for all things French, this was birthed. I have always wanted to bake with Agbalumo, and I’ve succeeded – I’ve made pancake puffs and leather, and now this. This isn’t the first Tarte Tatin, I’ve made – I’ve done a few with pears and ginger, both plain and red wine-poached (gorgeous), and apples but this is the first that leaned towards Naija and its peculiar fruit. This is an upside-down bake. Fruits in-lay caramel and butter, which gets capped by puff pastry. Then it bakes and is flipped to reveal beautiful, shiny...
Juicing, with Sugarcane
Genius, I thought as soon as my eyes fell upon the juicer. Still in its box after 6 months, the time was now. If you know me, you’ll know I’m crazy about sugarcane, even when it involves physical labour. So the idea of juicing it was sooooooooo welcome. Well, it took me a few minutes to get the hand of the machine, and then it was a breeze. In no time, the stalks of the cane were spit in two – a pile of shredded sugarcane and a glass of juice. I was shocked at how efficient the machine was/is, to shred...
Best-ever, Timi’s Fried Rice
If you ever move house, ask me to loan my friend, Timi to you. She’s the business. And not only because she made the most amazing Nigerian fried rice for me when I first moved to Lagos…nope, not only because of that. First up, just for being there/ here. Going at my own pace and then some. She came armed with suggestion, things I hadn’t considered about where what should go where and when. Second of all – the food. She made sure I was well fed with pizza and Kilishi and garri. But the best of all? Nigerian Fried rice. It...
Unpacking a House to Home
The first few days are the hardest. The transplanted mind, body and soul aren’t exactly sure where to begin this new life, in this place, which you might grow to love in the end; but right now?… No love. I have this overwhelming sense of newness and it doesn’t matter who I’m with, I’m trapped in this bubble of loneliness, feasting on inertia. Read review. Sometimes, I sit and smile, boxes towering all around. What’s a girl to do? Inertia, from the Latin, iners: to be idle, sluggish. A principle of classical physics used to describe the motion of objects...
Packed with Care & Baked: Apple & Chia Seed Cake
Six months ago, I moved cities. It was hard, hard to leave what I knew and loved and had become used to. Here is Part 1 of many…I wrote back in October. —–00000—– How do you pack up memories Happy and sad How do you box up thoughts Ferry them across tar and concrete ‘Cause them to take root Become planted in another place How do you How do you remember the warmth The angst, The excitement And put that in a brown cardboard box How do you Birthdays, First dates, Graduation, Masterchef Australia finals The orange couch That throw...