So, yes, New Yam is here… And if you’re patient, it will age ever so gracefully and someday soon, in weeks and months, sitting at your table, you’ll feast on old yam – yam whose waters have left, and left behind flavours concentrated. Yam with textures not crumbly meaty, delightful. Someday, if you are patient. The truth though is you shouldn’t wait to enjoy yam. Don’t deny yourself the pleasure of good living. And if you think new yam has no virtue, this 8 recipes will change your mind. They play on the soft texture and mild flavour of new yam –...
Event: Propak West Africa 2015
Over the weekend, I decided to investigate food packaging. I did a few things – email a friend who I thought would have leads and asked on Twitter. Both sources of enquiry led me to Propak. @Kitchnbutterfly There is an event called propak going on at Landmark event centre from 1st to 3rd of Sept you might find a supplier there. — Apsalar (@_Thalia_M) August 31, 2015 If you’re interested in food packaging and processing and are in Lagos, you’ll want to attend Propak West Africa 2015 – The Largest Packaging, Food Processing, Plastics, Labelling And Print Exhibition In West...
Nigerian ‘Road Trip Snacks’
There are some things that are confined to the highways and express ways of Nigerian roads. Certain delicacies you’ll find at Junction towns – a special kind of fried yam and chicken at Saminaka, Bush meat (game to you) and Pounded yam at Ore, Kpokpogari and groundnut at Ughelli. We wait for them with excitement. We are aware of our journey to indulgence and maybe decadence. We still ourselves for these moments of deep pleasure and remembrance. Of road trips of old. With parents, with family, on our way to school and back home. We want to relive the ‘then’, now....
Apple-Cucumber-Lime Mojito, Two Ways
This is a version of a non-alcoholic drink that we were first introduced to in Dubai – an Apple Mojito. I’ve tried several times to recreate it and it’s only in the last few weeks that I’ve come close to experiencing the delight we enjoyed in December. My first attempts used muddled mint leaves and lime juice. I had to use lots of leaves to get any measure of flavour and then it was somewhat annoying ‘bumping’ into the leaves when drinking. Eat? Drink? Which? The second trials involved making a smoothie aka blending the cucumbers and mint with a touch of...
Garden Egg – Ugba Sauce with New Yam
This is a simple but beautiful sauce – one simply takes pureed garden eggs (raw, roasted, fired, smoked) and combines them with shreds of Ugba – fermented oil bean. Ugba has such a beautiful, chewy but crunchy somewhat resistant-to-being-eaten-quickly quality that’s perfect for the slight bitterness and earthiness of the garden eggs. One that makes a beautifully rich sauce for new yam. [wpurp-searchable-recipe]Garden Egg – Ugba Sauce with New Yam – – – [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]
Quiz: New Yam or Old Yam?
This is the season when one hears ‘I hate new yam’ with such disdain…and I smile. There is no old yam without new yam. One must thank not only the divine provider(s) of the yam, one must give ultimate thanks to those who get it out of the ground and to our plates – the farmers, harvesters, transporters, sellers. More than anything else, they should be adored and praised and thanked. Because have you ever tried to harvest a single tuber of yam? Well I have and it is up there next to having babies by normal, V delivery – damn...
Celebrating New Yam
The New Yam festival is a harvest festival celebrated across Nigeria and many parts of Africa. When I made Ofe Nsala, my Igbo friends mentioned that this was the perfect soup to feast on in the village square during iwaji/ irijiohuru, which celebrates the start of the harvest season. I think one should praise God, the gods, the farmers and the sellers who bring sweet yam to our tables. The New Yam festival is a sign of new beginnings, one that is widely celebrated across Nigeria and indeed many parts of Africa. In my village, Igarra, where you are woken...
Passion Fruit-Cucumber-Sugarcane-Lime Cocktail
Passion Fruit – beauty and fragrance invoked here. And long overdue this is. I must confess it has all my favourite juices in a glass: the floral acidity of passion fruit the clean refreshment of cucumber juice the sweet of sugar cane and the citrus burst from lime juice. Did I mention the lightness of head from the colourless, tasteless vodka? Since forever, since Mango season, I’ve wanted to make a passion fruit cocktail and I’m glad I finally did. This drink is one you’ll need to make up to your taste. Some help? {On Passion Fruit} {Juicing sugar cane}...
Grits @ Mrs. K’s Diner, Philadelphia
No, I’m not in Philly. No, the memory of grits isn’t what has shocked me into silence these last few months. Yes, I’ve finally been to a Diner. Yes, my curiosity has been deeply aroused by Guy Fieri and his ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’. No, I haven’t done the other two but you bet I’m gonna. Soon. When we walked in Mrs. K’s, carefully selected from one of the many guide books and articles I read, there wasn’t a lot of room. I had to stand around the bar stools – where we’d opted to sit, for a little while....