Meat Stew

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef
2 1/2 Onions
12 small Tomatoes
2 cups Brown rice
1 cup of Cooking oil
1 large Potato
Handful String beans (12 -15)
3 small Carrots
8 hot green peppers (the larger type)
2 teaspoons of Curry
2 Bay leaves
4 clovesof Garlic
1" piece of Ginger
5 Cloves
a pinch of Anise
a pinch of dried Rosemary

Wash the meat, then cut it up into 2" cubes. Try and make them as even as possible, so that they cook evenly.

Blend the half onion, garlic, ginger, anise, rosemary and cloves until very smooth.

Pour over the meat. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, the 2 bay leaves and 1 maggi cube. Toss and make sure all pieces are covered well. Leave to marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. (you could alternatively leave in the fridge overnight).

Place the meat in a pot and steam until it is tender. Add water when it runs low in the pot.

Heat the cooking oil in a pan and fry the meat.

When it turns dark brown it is ready. Remove quickly so it doesn't burn. Fry in batches if necessary.

Pick and wash the rice. Cook as you would regular rice. If you are not sure, better err on the side of caution and use less water than you normally would and only add more, as you need it.

Blend the tomatoes and peppers.

Peel the Potato, scrape the carrots and remove strings from the beans.

Cut the string beans on a slant, about 1" long pieces. Cut the carrots to match the shape of the beans. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then add the carrots and boil for about 3 minutes then add the string beans and boil for and additional 1 minute. Pour off the Hot water, then run under cold water and drain in a colander.

Cube the potato into half inch cubes. If the are too small, the tend to break up in the stew. You want to still have chunks you can bite on.

Slice the 2 onions.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the cooking oil and fry the onions.

When they turn translucent, add the curry and fry until the edges begin to brown.

Add the blended tomatoes.

Fry until almost sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Add the stock from the meat and simmer.

Add the pieces of fried meat,

and the cubed potatoes, plus 2 cups of water,  cover and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer down until the stew thickens and the potatoes are cooked.

Serve with the brown rice and steamed vegetable.

Veggie Eggs

Veggie Eggs

I have been trying to incoporate more vegetables in my meals, so when I fried some eggs a few days ago, I got all the vegetables I had and added them.  I didn't even think of adding it to the blog so I have no pictures of the process. The end result looked so good I just had to take a picture.

 
Ingredients:
4 Eggs
1 Onion
2 Tomatoes
1/4 Squash
5 cloves of Garlic
1 Green pepper
Cooking oil
Salt
Black pepper


Dice the vegetables into 1/2" cubes.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and then transfer to a bigger bowl, one at a time. I learnt this the hard way.

One time I was about to fry some eggs and had cracked  5 of my six eggs all staright into my bowl and the six egg was bad, I had to throw out the whole mixture and then go out to buy some more eggs.

Heat a pan with 2 teaspoonfuls of oil. while the oil heats, add a pinch of salt and black pepper, and beat the eggs very well, till they are frothy. Rotate the pan to make sure the oil coats every part of it. Pour in the egg mixture and turn down the heat slightly. Flip the egg with a spatula when the underside begins to brown. Turn out onto a plate.

Add a teaspoon of oil to the still hot pan and toss in the vegetables. Stir-fry for a minute or two. Add a pinch of salt  and black pepper to taste.

Pour it out onto the eggs and enjoy!!!!



Dandelion Stew

 Dandelion Stew

Ingredients:

Dandelion (about 2 cups full when boiled and mashed)
1 pound ckicken (already steamed)
6 - 8 large tomatoes
2 onions
2 tablespoons cooking oil
10 -12 Kpakpo shito (hot green peppers)
1 cup chicken stock
1 Maggi cube
Salt

Start off by plucking the dandelion leaves off the main stalk, then washing them. Then boil them in about 2 cups of water until the leaves turn darker and are soft. I know it might be tricky to guage how much raw dandelion you will need .... but you can never have too much. If it is way more, just freeze the rest for another time.

 

Drain off the water and then in an Asanka (or mortar) mash the leaves into a pulp. Do not use the blender, it will make it too smooth. You want to have a bit of texture in your stew. Mash half the peppers into it.

Chop the tomatoes ...

... and the onions.

Heat up the cooking oil and start frying the onions. Fry them until they turn translucent.

 

Add the diced tomatoes and fry until dry and the tomatoes are soft. Dont let it burn, you do not want that bitter aftertaste in your stew.



 

 

 If your chicken/stock is already steamed but frozen like mine was, you might want to defrost and heat it before you use it, just so it doesn't affect your cooking time and speed.

 

Add the ckicken stock and let it simmer down a little.

Now add the dandelion ...

... as well as the rest of the peppers.

Put in the chicken, lower the heat. Check yoursalt and add the maggi cube and some salt if necessary. Simmer for about 5 - 7 minutes until it thickens

Enjoy this with Rice, Yam, Plantain etc

Meatballs



Ingredients:

1/2 kg mincemeat
2 1/2 Onions
8-10 Tomatoes
3 Eggs
Cooking oil
15 kpakpo shito (hot green peppers)
4 cloves of Garlic
Green pepper
Black pepper
Salt

Grind the garlic, 5 of the kpakpo shito and half an onion. If you are using the Asanka, add about half a teaspoonful of salt. It help with the grinding.

Place the mincemeat in the ground spices and crack the three eggs into it, seperately, you dont want to accidentally add a bad egg to your food. Add a pinch of black pepper. Leave it to marinate for about 15 minutes.

Heat enough oil for frying, then roll the mincemeat into balls and drop them gently into the oil, one at a time. (I intended to use all the meatballs in my sauce so I fried them straight. If you plan on eating them straight or as some sort of finger food, drop them in boiling water for about five minutes each before draining and frying). Turn them when they start browning around the edges. An easier way would be to use more oil for frying so that the balls are floating in the oil and brown evenly on all sides.

In the meantime, chop the Green pepper and 2 onions, then blend the tomatoes and remaining kpakpo shito.

Heat up two tablespoons of the oil used for frying the meatballs and start frying the onions. Fry until they start to brown on the edges.

Add the blended tomatoes and allow to simmer down.

When the water is almost all finished, it will begin to fry. Stir it continuously until it is almost sticking, then add a cup of water and salt to taste. Repeat the process, this makes sure that the tomatoes are well cooked.

Now add the meatballs and 2 cups of water. Reduce the heat and allow the meatballs to simmer and soak up the flavour of the sauce. 

When it thickens down to your liking, add the green pepper and it is ready.

Serve with rice or pasta of your choice.

Potato Salad

This is one of the easiest salads to make, yet most people tend to shy away from it. Hopefully by showing how simple it is, I can get more people making and enjoying it.

Ingredients:
4 Medium Potatoes
4 Eggs
2 small spring onions
1 tablespoon Salad Cream
2 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
Salt
Black Pepper

Peel wash and cube the potatoes. I prefer half inch cubes, but you can make them a little bigger if you like. Some people like to boil the potatoes whole and then cut them into cubes. I find that this makes them too crumbly and in the end you have something close to mash potatoes, which is not how we want it turning out.

Place them in a pot and cover with a litre of water, add a teaspoonful of salt, cover and
bring to a boil. When the potatoes are cooked (spearing with a fork breaks it apart) drain and cool.

Very finely chop your spring onions. The green part adds a lovely colour to the finished salad.

Boil and shell the eggs.

Cut the eggs up into sizes tha roughly match the sizes of your potato cubes.

In a small bowl, mix the salad cream and mayonnaise ...

... and in a big bowl mix everything together. Do this gently so you don't mash them, but make sure everything is evenly coated. Sprinkle on a pinch of black pepper and you are set. You can eat it right away, but I would suggest you refrigerate it for about 2 hours.

Serve it with fried chicken and Jollof or plain rice.