This recipe takes me back to where it all began – Nigeria. Where garden eggs are eaten as a snack, with a spicy peanut butter dip. In this recipe, the garden egg is sliced and garnished with grilled spring onions and red chilies, for colour. It is sprinkled with a dry peanut ‘crunch’ and drizzled with a peanut butter sauce. To finish? Cilantro. It makes for a vibrant and tasty dish with many dimensions and complementary flavours. The very first idea I had of making a dish with garden eggs was this salad. Not in the clearly defined way it...
The Easy: Quick Pickled Garden Egg Slices
In this recipe, the spongy character of garden eggs is extolled. Its interesting that garden eggs take very well to pickling. The vinegar and spices add another dimension to a fruit that makes it suitable for a myriad of things – eating on its own, layered in a sandwich or chopped up into a salad. I like! I love pickles, especially if they don’t leave a lingering ‘scent’. Like pickled daikon. {I love surveys too. And I would love you to take one I’ve designed on a Nigerian/ African food & drink publication. I want to know what you think...
The Experimental: Nigerian Garden Egg Chutney
This recipe makes the bitterness of garden eggs shine through. The green garden eggs are more bitter than their white counterparts. Either way, the sugar and spice work extremely well to create a balanced ‘condiment’ that tastes Africa, smells Indian, and eats well. In the manner of Thakkali Chutney. Weeks ago, my friend Deepa of Paticheri explored the world of chutneys and relishes in India in ‘The Great Chutney Mystery’. After journeying round the world from Wikipedia to websites and blogs, studying various relishes and condiments, she discovered that names are names as far as they are names. That names...
Nigeria’s Rainy Season Produce: September & Garden Eggs
In season, in season, garden eggs are in season. Truth be told they’ve been in season for a month or so now. Wheel-barrowed boys and men push these out-of-hand eggs around the city. Parking at office gates, awaiting the gong of closing time for sales to peak. Or outside school gates, though I doubt this is true, for aren’t adults more accustomed to the tastes of ‘bitter’ than children? Though seasonal, you can find them all year round. The non-season sees the disappearance of the wheelbarrows. Replaced by young men and women, expertly balancing trays of garden eggs and conical...
Green White Green: Happy 53rd Independence Day, Nigeria
Another October 1st. Another day to sit back and think. This October 1st, this Independence Day, I am thinking a few things. Reinventing Hope Where it not for Timi of Lively Twist, I would be moaning about my country. Instead I’m thinking of ‘Reinventing Hope‘. She writes ‘ Little hinges swing huge doors. Change will elude us as long as we only point fingers.’ And I SCREAM in agreement. Turning my pointing finger back on myself!
Toasted Oats with Fruit & Spice
We made the transition as a family in the winter of two thousand and twelve. Shortly before our New Year’s Day brunch. It was my idea. My vision, and I wasn’t quite sure how they would take it but I was intent on trying anyway. See my children grew up eating a lot of soft, cereal-like food. Once the toddling stages were past, I couldn’t force convince them to have anything that remotely resembled mush. No mashed potatoes, no polenta, and definitely no oatmeal.
Brighton: Down By The Beach
I am considering moving countries. Cities. Towns. Brighton is currently top of my list. Don’t ask me the hard question, for I can’t choose right now between Brighton and the love of my life, New York City. For now, let’s just leave it at Brighton. The photos may explain why.
How To Eat Fried Snails
Peppered. Freshly made. Leftovers. Freshly warmed. Who cares? On a toothpick. Or by hand. Standing up. Sitting down. By the dozen. Or half-dozen, belying your generosity. Not showing your greed. A half-dozen, at the very least. But one by one. One after the other. Hard flesh, rubbery flesh, crunch. Juicy tentacles. With rice. Delicious, freshly-boiled white rice. And plantains. Simply fried. Not stuffed or peppered. Peppered and spiced. No garlic butter. Just yet. That’s France, not us. By hand. Forget cutlery. And decorum.
Marketplace: Tomatoes. By The Basket Load
They come from all over Nigeria and go by different names, speaking to their provenance, their source and origins. The tomatoes do. Names unpronounceable in some languages, where certain consonant combinations are never found. Like gb. Pronounced with force and confidence. And literally known as labial-velar consonants. Truly doubly articulated labial–velars occur as stops and nasals in the majority of languages in West and Central Africa (for example in the surname of Laurent Gbagbo, former president of Ivory Coast…. They include [k͡p, ɡ͡b, ŋ͡m]. To pronounce these, one must attempt to say the velar consonants, but then close their lips for the bilabial component, and then release the lips. Note...