HOME MADE BURGERS

Hello and welcome to Friday! #TGIF!!! right? Yea so let's get it started. These days, a lot of people try to it healthy (trying to do so too myself, but it's not an easy feat. Thumbs up to those who can pull it off). However, whether you are eating healthy or not, I believe we should be able to have a day off for good behaviour, and I believe that today is that day.Besides, burgers are just enhanced sandwiches right? And you can choose what to add or remove if you make it yourself.

Fried meat and cabbage/carrots

INGREDIENTS:

Burger bread (it really doesn’t feel like a burger without one of those)

Beef, Chicken or Ham

Fresh Tomatoes

Cabbage

Carrot

Eggs 

Red Onions

Green Bell Peppers

Cucumber

Lettuce

Olive Oil

Cheese (optional)

Spices (grinded pepper, salt, curry, thyme, seasoning cube)

Garlic

Butter/ Mayonnaise/ Mustard (you can pick more than one)

RECIPE:

First of all, I’m pretty sure you are wondering, what kind of hamburgers are these that we have to add spices. Well, it’s my special kind of burgers, I call it the “Kay’s spicy burger”. Something about the Nigerian palate and spices; again, there is something about Nigerians cooking every food, (which is why it was difficult to introduce vegetable salads to the diet of many Nigerians). Sometimes, we still cook some of the elements we use in our salads, unbelievable right?

Cook the meat (beef or chicken – don’t forget to season it properly) and shred it with a blender. Most of the time, Ham comes already prepared so you could just buy it off the shelf.

In a bowl, break and whisk one egg, (you can use just egg white if you are eating healthy). Mix the shredded meat with a bit of the egg, you don’t want to pasty mixture. Mould the shredded meat/egg mixture into tight circles.

Grate the carrots, slice the cabbage into tiny long strips (usually the same length as the grated carrots).

Wash and cut the fresh tomatoes, cucumber, green bell peppers and red onions into circles. 

Wash the lettuce and separate the leaves.

In a sauce pan, add a tincy wincy bit of olive oil (or vegetable oil) and fry the cabbage and carrots with garlic and minimal spice. Then fry the minced/shredded meat and then the eggs

Time to assemble; there really is no particular format for me. I just add everything in a way that I get to taste almost every ingredient in a single bite.

Cut the bread in two, spread the cream of your choice on either side of it. I like to spread butter on one side and mayo on the other.

On one half, place the lettuce, carrot and cabbage mixture and fried egg, next comes the meat and cheese. Then add the vegetables (tomatoes, onions, green peppers, cucumber). Cover with the other half, and you are ready to rock and roll!

Until next time, watch this space for the last week of the blogging challenge, my theme? – Medical drama.

By the way, how much do you love burgers?

Cheers 

CASSEROLE SAUCE

Hello! And TGIS. It's time for our food Friday and I'm dropping it like it's hot! I know, I know, this is a little late for my recipe post, but I figured it could come in handy for Saturday shopping against Sunday lunch. Today, we are making casserole sauce. So, without further ado, here we go:

INGREDIENTS:

• Vegetable oil
• Red onions (regular onions)
• Garlic
• Spring onions
• Protein (Chicken, Beef, Snail e.t.c.)
• Fresh red pepper
• Crayfish
• Fresh Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Green beans
• Cabbage
• Cucumber
• Sweet corn
• Hot dog
• Spices (curry, thyme, seasoning cube) and salt.
• Green bell peppers

RECIPE:

• Prepare all the ingredients, that is, wash the washables, peel the peelables, grind the groundables and scrape the scrapables, lol. But you know what I mean though.
• Chop up all the ingredients into very tiny cubes, to the size of the sweet corn or close to it. (As shown in the photos).
• In a pot placed over medium heat and allowed to dry, add two spoons of vegetable oil and allow to heat up a bit.
• Add the red onions, allow to simmer for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then add the chopped garlic. Stir for 1-2 minutes then add the spring onions.
• Next, add the meat (already cooked, I used smoked chicken in this case)
• Stir in the fresh red pepper (either chopped or grounded) and 2tablespoons of grounded crayfish.
• Keep stirring the mixture gently, you could turn up the heat, but not full blast.
• Next, add the fresh tomatoes, and allow to simmer for a few minutes, just to allow the excess water from the tomatoes dry up a bit.
• Add the carrots and green beans and stir continuously.
• When the carrots and green beans become a bit soft, add the cucumber, cabbage, sweet corn and hot dog. These are added late so it doesn't become soggy by the time the sauce is ready.
• Spice it up to taste.
• Finally, add the Green bell peppers, stir for 30 seconds and turn off your cooking stove because food is ready.

*PS** if you are trying to eat healthy, there's a way for you around it too. Use very small amount of water in place of vegetable oil and boil everything. This is the method I employ when making it for my parents and they absolutely love it.

So, there you have it. Recipe for Sunday lunch. I'd love to hear from you, let me know if you tried it and how it turned out.

OFADA STEW /SAUCE

Yayy!!! It’s Friday and guess what? Yes, you guessed it. It’s another delicious recipe coming right up. A little problem though, it’s purely Nigerian, with its roots in the western part of the country. Ofada is actually the name of the locally produced rice used to eat the sauce and somehow, the sauce got stock with the name. Now since this is purely a Nigerian recipe, we are almost certain that it isn’t going to be as healthy. Trust me though to upturn ofada on its head as I usually do with most recipes and get the best out of it. Like I always say, tasty food is in the mouth of the beholder. What if I follow all the rules of the original recipe and hate the outcome?

The very first time I ate ofada was at my aunt’s house and I don’t know if it was the leaves used to serve it, or the local rice that got me thrill. Tried it out with my family and they haven’t stopped asking for more since then.

INGREDIENTS:

To prepare the ofada sauce, you are going to need the following ingredients;

• Protein: usually meat (commonly the assorted type – the organs), cow leg and even beef. I also don’t mind fish especially if it is smoked. 
• Red palm oil

• Fresh tomatoes

• Fresh red pepper

• Chili pepper (locally called Tatashe)

• Locust beans (Ogiri, Iru or Dawadawa). I prefer the seeded not the already grinded type, because the seeded ones seem fresher to me.

• Crayfish

• Onions

• Salt and spices

• Rice (ofada rice or regular rice)

• Uma leaves (shaped like banana leaves), same type used for wrapping moi-moi or agidi.

RECIPE:

This is a little more complicated because you have a bit more preparations to make.

• First, wash the Uma leaves (they can be dirty sometimes) and put out to dry.

• Cut the meat into small cubes, bigger than a seasoning cube though, (maybe the size of a grape); seasoning properly with garlic, onions, curry, thyme, seasoning cube, ground red pepper, ginger if you like and cook with almost no water, on low heat. The meat most times has a lot of water in it and it comes out when cooking. Check the meat regular to know when its own water is drying up and if it’s done. You don’t want to eat charred food. This is the time to also boil your fish n a different pot of course.
• Next, time to chopped things up; unlike the traditional ofada stew when the pepper and onions are blended and then drained, I prefer to chop mine up. I’m not so much into spicy foods. Pepper to taste is just okay for me. Also, I like the sauce red and traditional, so no green pepper from the original version for me either. Somehow I associate green pepper with western foods, (fried rice you are to be blamed).
• Dice the fresh red pepper, chili peppers, fresh tomatoes and onions into very tiny, tiny bits (the size of a bean or corn seed). Don’t forget to remove the seeds from the chilly pepper.
• Grind the crayfish but not to an entirely powdery form.
• Crush the fresh “Iru” slightly so it’s not a paste. I don’t grind it. I don’t know why I feel I should see a bit of it in the sauce.

I’m sure by now you’d be wondering why not blend everything into a paste or powder? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret; Chopping things up and crushing or blending half way, gives the sauce a little more texture. You can savor the taste better.

• In a clean pot, place over medium heat to dry, add your red palm oil (not palm kernel oil) 1 or 2 cooking spoonful. I don’t bleach my oil either; I still hold the bleached oil is unhealthy. 
• Allow the oil to heat up for a minute or two, then add the chopped onions, stir continuously, don’t allow it to get burnt.
• Add the fresh pepper and chilly after 30 seconds – 1 minute of stirring the onions.
• Next add the crayfish and iru. Iru, just like garlic smells, so I usually add them in the early stages of preparing a meal when they can still add their flavours but won’t stink as much when food is done.
• Next up, fresh tomatoes, this has some juices in it and you have to fry it till the water is almost dried up.
• Add the meat and/or smoked fish and the very little stock. (Nothing goes to waste). And stir. Add spices and salt if need be to taste, don’t forget that the meat stock you added contains its own spices.

Voila! Your stew is ready.

• On another burner meanwhile, wash the rice and start to boil. All you need to add to the rice of course is salt to taste. Most people parboil the rice, then, wrap it in the Uma leaves (shaped like a cone), then steam it till it’s ready. Well, I’m probably too clumsy for that style. I just cook my rice till it’s done, wrap it in the leaves still and keep in a cooler for about 10mins. It achieves the same aim to me. It adds its aroma to the rice.

To serve, open the wrapped leaves with the rice in it, don’t discard the leaves, place on the plate and add the stew beside it.

Enjoy.

MACARONI EXTRAORDINAIRE!

Hello everyone, 

I had earlier to have this article out by yesterday for my food friday series, but somehow, I ran out of time. Last week or was it 2 weeks ago, (doesn't really matter) I made a random dish and it came out nice. I promised a few people who asked, that the recipe would be out by this week. It is also a healthy meal to some extent. Here is how it was made.

INGREDIENTS:

• Macaroni
• Water
• Onions 
• Fresh tomatoes
• Fresh pepper
• Carrot
• Green beans
• Green pepper 
• Cabbage
• Salt
• Spices (curry, thyme, maggi)
• Garlic
• Sweet corn

RECIPE:

• In a pot or pan, heat up water to boiling point. Add the macaroni,  making sure that the water just covers it.
• Add some salt to taste, cover it up and allow to simmer.
• While the macaroni is cooking, it's time to get busy with chopping up the ingredients.
• However, unlike most times that the vegetables are chopped into cubes, these are cut into longer strips like we did for skillet potatoes. It gives it a sophisticated appearance.
• The sweet corn can't be chopped or sliced though, just wash and drain it. 
• In a pan, add a very small amount of water and allow to heat to boiling point. 
• Add the onions and garlic and allow to simmer for about 2 minutes. 
• Then, add the fresh pepper, carrots and green beans. Allow these to boil till it starts to soften up.
• Then, add the fresh tomatoes and cabbage.
• Also, add your spices to taste,  but no salt yet. Don't forget thatyour macaroni is still cooking and it's got some salt in it.
• Keep checking on the macaroni,  if it is ready before you are done with making the sauce, put out the fire and drain out any excess water.
• Finally, to the sauce, add the sweet corn.
• Next, pour in the macaroni into the sauce, mix vety well and add the green pepper. Allow it to heat up for about 30 seconds then bring doen your food.

**p.s. You can add extra salt to taste just before you add the green pepper. Also, make sure that there is no fluid in the sauce before you add your macaroni.

If you do not like this healthy verison, you can fry the sauce with vegetable oil instead of boiling it. So annoying but fried foods taste better. 

Have a pleasant day, post for "D" in the a-z blogging challenge coming right up. Need to add some finishing touches.

Cheers......