Acha – Fonio is one of my favourite things ever. One way to enjoy it is by way of ‘Jollof’, that cooking, stewing, simmering in a rich, red tomato sauce. It is easy. Ingredients You’ll need equal amounts of: Acha/ Fonio (clean) Stock/ water Tomato sauce (tomatoes, onions, chilies, blended together then reduced, cooked down)...
So, Christmas and Jollof are red on Jollof rice, like actually. I mean, there’s no Nigerian Christmas without Jollof, party or not. But…it doesn’t have to be all about rice. You can go down the Acha/Fonio or Pasta route. If you go for rice, you could do brown too. You might want to try Bulgur –...
Travel. Broadens the mind. Teaches you so much that you might not have known. That’s the story of my learning to make good and proper passion fruit juice, all thanks to Nairobi. Read: Favourite Drinks in Nai I’ve been a passion fruit lover since forever. It grows in Nigeria, is nutritious and delicious. At the...
It’s really my peanutty red amaranth saute blitzed. Read: Peanutty red amaranth saute No more, no less. I saw a beetroot sauce on Masterchef Australia and essentially triggered this – this sauce that has the hue of beetroot and its earthiness but is a snap to prep. Sautee the Nigerian trinity – tomatoes, onions and chilies –...
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...
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....
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...
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...
The Concept The concept here is of ‘truffles’. Like Chocolate truffles but not… A chocolate truffle is a type of chocolate confectionery, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache centre coated in chocolate, cocoa powder or chopped toasted nuts (typically hazelnuts,almonds or coconut), usually in a spherical, conical, or curved shape. Their name derives from their traditional...