Ogbono soup

Ingredients 

Meat - 200g

Dry fish - 3 small

Onion - 1 small

Pepper - 2

Ground crayfish - 2tbsp

Ground ogbono seeds - 1/3 cup

Sliced pumpkin leaves/ugu - 1/2 cup

Red oil - 1/4 cup

Garlic - a few pieces

Curry powder - 1tsp

Stock cubes - 3

Salt - a pinch

Method 

Put the meat to boil. Season with salt stock cubes, and curry powder. 

Grind the onions, pepper and garlic together and fry them with little oil before incorporating them into the meat (you can put them directly without frying but I personally prefer this method) 

Allow to cook until tender, wash the dry fish and add along with the crayfish, let it cook for about 3 minutes. 

Empty the content into a clean bowl, using the same pot, pour in the red oil, add the ground ogbono seeds,  stir and allow to melt. 

Slowly start pouring the stock from your soup into the red oil and ogbono mixture, while stirring until it is completely incorporated. You'll notice it starting to get thicker. 

Add the ugu/pumpkin leaves, stir and allow to simmer for about a minute. Turn off the heat and serve. It can be eaten with semo, amala or any swallow of your choice. 

Spaghetti bolognese

Ingredients 

500g minced beef

1 small onions

2 tbsp olive oil

3 carrots (finely diced) 

25g of tomatoe puree

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp chili pepper

4 stock cubes

A pinch of salt

Parmesan cheese (for garnishing) 

Method

Season the meat with garlic powder, chilli pepper, Maggi, salt and curry powder, add the onions. 

Put 2 tbsp of oil in a pot and stir fry the meat lightly until it is brown. Add the tomatoe puree and 2 cups of water.  

Allow to cook until just a little water is left, finally add the carrot and leave to cook for a few minutes. Correct the seasoning and serve. Garnish with grated parmesan cheese. 

Chicken curry

 

Ingredients 

300g chicken
3 medium sized potatoes (chopped) 

1 medium onion (finely chopped) 

2 carrots (chopped) 

1/4 cups peas

2 tbsp curry powder
2 small pepper

2 tbsp cornflour 

2 tbsp veg oil

3 stock cubes

1 tsp ginger powder

Salt to taste

Method

Put the chicken and potatoes in a pot with about 3 cups of water, add ginger, stock cubes, salt and allow to cook until tender. 

Remove the chicken, fry and keep aside (this step is optional, but I personally prefer fried chicken)

Transfer the stock and potatoes to a clean bowl. Heat oil in the pot, add the onions and cook until soft.

Add the stock with the potatoes, carrot, peas and the fried chicken, add the curry powder. Grind or chop the pepper, add and allow to simmer. Dissolve the cornflour in water and slowly stir into the soup until thickened.

Serve with rice. Bon Appétit! 

Healthy eating

In our climes, eating healthy is usually associated with boring, dull, tasteless foods. This is not entirely surprising as the term health food conjures in our subconscious images of unimaginative salads and bland grains for diabetics. Personally, I feel there is no reason we cannot eat healthy and delicious foods at the same time. The trick, as always, is in striking the right balance between flavor and the amount of empty calories in your dish.

A little imagination and courage you will find can go a long way in spicing up your healthy dishes and make your meals interesting and something the whole family can enjoy. There are therefore numerous ways to improve the nutrients in your meal without introducing drastic changes.

To demonstrate my point, I will use as an example the popular Nigerian delicacy rice and stew. Ordinarily, this dish only contains a lot of white rice with some oily beefy or 'lamby' (most times fried) tomato sauce. As you rightly guessed, this will hardly receive laurels for its nutritious value. Thankfully, it is easy to reduce the calorific and cholesteric characteristic of this dish while increasing its useful nutrients without compromising taste and beauty.


The most obvious first step in 'nutrifying' your rice and stew is in the choice of the main components. As in any dish, it is always advisable to go for the freshest and most nutritious ingredients. For example, there are numerous varieties of rice and the best you can use is always the most wholesome. Personally, I prefer the low-carb brown basmati rice as I find its unique flavor appealing. As this rice variety still contains it's germ and bran layers, it provides B vitamins, magnesium as well as phosphorus and because it is high in fibre, greatly reduces hunger pangs - the precursor to junk food binging.

Burabusko/Biski and Miyan kuka

           
              

Miyan kuka is a soup  popular in all parts of Northern Nigeria. It is eaten mainly with burabisko ( Rice, corn, wheat, millet ground into fine particles - like couscous) but it can also be eaten with semo.

Ingredients :

Beef/mutton - 1 kg

Stock cubes (I prefer Maggi) - 6 cubes

Baobab leaf (kuka), finely ground

Onions - 1 small size

Daddawa / iru (fermented locust beans) - 1tbsp

Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp

Pepper - 6 small

Proceedure :

Grind the onions, fry with a little oil until brownish in colour. Then add the meat, Maggi cubes, daddawa, cinnamon. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 10 - 15 minutes until the meat gives off its juice.

                 

Add water and allow to cook until tender, take out the meat, pound in a mortar and return to pot and add ground pepper.

Using a spoon, pour in the kuka little by little while stirring with a laddle to ensure it doesn't form lumps.

Keep on adding and stirring until it reaches the desired consistency.

 Remove from heat and serve.

Burabusko / Biski

What you need: White rice, a little oil and a pinch of salt. The quantity of the rice depends on how many people you are cooking for, you can measure it a cup per person.

To grind, use a food processor or grinding machine, but be careful it is not too fine, just break into small pieces ( example, one grain of rice should be broken into 3 pieces

            

Using a sieve with very tiny holes, sieve it to remove the powdery form and discard.
Put a pot of water to boil, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of oil and a pinch of salt. Using a wooden stick, stir in the ground rice a cup at a time.

Keep on adding it and stirring it with the stick until only a little water is left.

Cover and let it cook for 15 to 20 mimutes, then serve.

Banga Soup

             
                       

Banga soup is a soup native to the south eastern part of Nigeria. It is a very tasty dish that is easy to make and can be eaten with semo, eba, pounded yam, rice.

Ingredients 

Palm kernel / Banga - 1.2kg

Mutton / Beef - 1 kg

Stock fish - 300g

Dry fish - 300g

Onion - 2 medium sizes

Garlic - Add to your taste 

Pepper - Add to your taste 

Ginger powder - 1 tablespoon

Maggi cubes - Add to your taste 

Curry powder - 1 tablespoon 

Beletete - 3tablespoons ( you can use ugu leaves, waterleaf or spinach as substitute)

Oburunbebe stick - this is a brown stick used for Banda soup, but I prefer using cinnamon stick because of its unique aroma

          

 Preparation 

Boil the palm kernel fruit for 30minutes or until the skin is soft.Pound lightly in a mortar until the nut is seperated from the skin.Transfer everything into a bowl, add water, mix thoroughly and strain into a clean pot. Place on a stove to boil until it starts to thicken, and oil appears at the top. Remove from heat and keep aside.

 

        

Grind the onions into a smooth paste. Season the meat with Maggi cubes, ginger, curry and add the ground onions. Add a little water, wash the oburunbebe stick and drop into the soup and cook for 15 minutes.

     

Add the stock fish, pepper and garlic and cook for another 15minutes.

Then add the dry fish, pour in the banga puree, sprinkle the Beletete and leave to simmer for 5 minutes. 

Take off from heat and serve.

Sinasir

Sinasir is a delicacy popular in Borno. It is a very soft and slender dish that takes time, patience and a little skill to make, but once you get the hang of it, it is very easy to make; and yet it tastes delightful. Traditionally eaten with okro, it can also be accompanied by stew or vegetable soup. One advantage of Sinasir is it is light enough for a starter, and you can make it sweet for a dessert, with chocolate or any other sweet sauce for added comfort.

Ingredients:

White rice - 1kg

Sugar - half a cup

Onion - 1 medium size
Yeast - 1 teaspoon 

Potash - Any size will do

Direction:

Soak the rice for 30minutes, grind together with the onion to a smooth paste. Then cook half a cup of white rice and combine with the paste. Sprinkle a teaspoon of yeast and let it sit overnight to ferment. 

It should look like this after the fermentation process.

Soak potash in water, leave to sit for 20 to 30minutes, then add to the paste and mix. Pour half a cup of water into it and mix (you can reduce or increase the sugar quantity, just add to your taste). 

Put a non-stick frying pan on the stove, add about a teaspoon of oil and leave until hot.

Pour a ladle full of the paste, cover and leave to cook for 3 to 5minutes.

Open the lid and remove your cooked Sinasir.

Continue until desired amount reached. Enjoy!