Sa Lone style Butter scotch candy

Homemade Butter Scotch Candy

Good Evening guys! I hope you all had a splendid weekend. Today is one of those days I feel nostalgic and have a sweet tooth. What best way to curb this craving than whip up some homemade butter scotch. Butter scotch is a popular treat to have as a snack when that sweet tooth carving kicks in. Growing up in Sierra Leone this snack was a lunch and after school treat that I enjoyed indulging in with no guilt.

Preparing butter scotch is every simple and easy. You only need two ingredients butter and sweetened condensed milk. The only tricky bit is the moulding stage. You have to be quick at moulding the candy into mini balls before it hardens up.  You have a window of about 10 to 15 minutes.

Ingredients

1.      150 g unsalted butter

2.      379 g of sweetened condensed milk

Ingredients 

Method

Stirring butter and milk in medium heat

     1.      Before you start, have a bowl of water and about 2 table spoon of either melted butter or vegetable oil and a large plate ready and aside.

      2.      Melt 125 g of butter in a cooking pot in medium heat.

     3.      Pour sweetened condensed milk into melted butter.

     4.      Use wooden spoon to mix butter and milk together until you have soft golden brown gooey consistency.

     5.      Turn heat off and let the mixture set for at least a minute then start moulding into mini balls. BE EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS! The candy will still be piping hot.

      6.      Rub some oil or butter in your palm then using table spoon scoop tiny portions of the candy and mould into round mini balls. Use water in bowl to cool your hands as you go along. Repeat this step until you mould all the candy.

      7.      Depending on how small you mould the balls you should have about 15-20 pieces.

Homemade Butter Scotch Candy

Voila! Be prepared to satisfy your sweet tooth cravings.

Homemade Ginger Beer

Homemade Ginger Beer

Hello Readers, I hope you all had a lovely summer. I know it’s been a while since I last blogged and feel a bit guilty for this extra long break. My summer has been hectic and amazing. Amongst other things, I had another opportunity to do Nigerian style canapés for a wedding of 250 guests in Marylebone London and that was another great success to add to my achievements.

On to today’s recipe, I LOVE homemade ginger beer. The first thing I scout for when I arrive at a Sierra Leonean party. It is a refreshing beverage that goes with almost every Sierra Leonean dish. Additionally it is also a good mixer with most hard liquors especially vodka. The steps to prepare this tasty beverage are easy to follow and require no more than 20 minute prep time depending on the size of your blender. I hope you enjoy reading and hopefully try out the recipe. Aprons on!!!

Ingredients & Equipment

Ingredients

1.       1/2 kg Loose Ginger

      2.       2 cups of Sugar (white or brown)

      3.       5 litre drinking water

      4.       2 Fresh Lime

      5.       2 Fresh Lemon

      6.       Teaspoon Cloves

      7.       Blender

      8.       Clean white kitchen towel

      9.       Wooden Spoon

      10.   Large plastic bowl

      11.   5 litre pitcher

Preparation

1.       Chop loose ginger into small chunky pieces

Sieving ginger using kitchen cloth

2.      Add to blender with a cup of water to get the blender going and blend really fine.

3.      Rinse cloth to get it moist and wet.

4.      Place cloth over plastic bowl and pour blended ginger over cloth at the same time; pour small amounts water over the blended ginger whilst mixing the ginger to get the juice from the ginger. 

5.      Repeat this step until you have used up all the water. Use additional bowl if you need to.

6.      Once all the water has been sieved through, squeeze any excess water from the ginger and cloth.

7.      Squeeze lime and lemon juice through a sieve to avoid seeds to get into the ginger drink.

8.      Add sugar and cloves into the bowl then mix thoroughly using wooden spoon until the sugar particles are dissolved.

9.      Finally pour drink into pitcher and refrigerate for up to 2 hours.

Homemade Ginger Beer

Voila Ginger Beer is ready to quench your thirst!

Pepper Soup

Pepper Soup and Red Snapper

Good Evening readers, Hope you all had an amazing weekend. I spent mine nursing a cold with the versatile West African dish Pepper Soup! Pepper soup is a popular dish across West African mostly drank towards the end of parties whilst guests banter and converse about their interests. It is also an excellent remedy for cold and flu. It clears the flu in an instance, the spicier the soup the better. Across the region its cooked quite similarly with either, assorted meat (goat, beef, cow foot, broiler chicken, pig feet, etc) or fish. I opted for red snapper and added potatoes as an accompaniment. I hope you enjoy reading and hopefully try out the recipe. Aprons on!!!

Ingredients

Serving for 4

Ingredients 

1.      4 Scotch Pepper

2.      2 medium sized onions

3.      1 huge potato

4.      2 medium Red Snapper

5.      1 tea spoon tomato puree

6.      1 maggie cube

7.      Sea salt and rosemary seasoning

Cooking Instructions

Boiling soup

1.      Cut each snapper into two pieces and season with sea salt and rosemary.

2.      Peel potato and cut into sizeable cubes and place in sauce pan.

3.      Blend onions with scotch peppers and add this to the sauce pan with the chopped potatoes.

4.      Add 1 litter of water to the pot and bring to boil.

5.      Add maggie cube, half a teaspoon of sea salt tomato puree to give the soup a slight reddish colour. Mix the pot and taste. Add more maggie if you need to.

6.      Let the pot boil for a 25 minutes then, add fish plus half a cup of water and turn the heat low and let the pot boil for a further 5-10 minutes slow cooking the rest of the soup.

perfect remedy

 Voila! Dish is done! 

Coconut Oil Black-eyed Beans Stew

Beans Stew

Hello All! Hope you all had a blessed Easter and enjoyed munching and nibbling on food and Easter treats with your friends and family.

As tradition goes on Good Friday to honour the death of Jesus Christ, Sierra Leoneans refrain from eating meat. Instead meals with fish are prepared for the day. As the current health craze is coconut oil, I decided to make Black-eyed Pea stew with coconut oil and smoked catfish. Follow the steps below to recreate this delish dish. Aprons on!

Ingredients

Serving for 4

Ingredients

·         2 large red onions

·         2 cups of Black-eyed Peas

·         100ml coconut oil

·         4 cloves for garlic

·         Hand bunch of basil

·         2 scotch pepper

·         1 maggie cube

1.      Wash and bring to beans to boil until soft approximately 30-45 min

2.      Peel and slice onions lengthwise

3.      Blend half of the onions with scotch peppers, garlic and basil into a paste.

4.      Soak the catfish over night to get a soft texture.

Maggie in stew

  5.      Pour about 100ml of oil into hot sauce pan and heat to cooking temperature.

  6.      Once oil is heated, fry sliced onions and blended paste for like 5 minutes

   7.      Add fish and let the stew cook for another 10 minutes

   8.      Add maggie cube and two pinches of salt for flavour.

   9.      Add boil beans to the pot with fried stew. Mix together and turn the heat low and let the pot simmer for 10-15 minutes or until all the extra water from the stew has evaporated and you have a really dry stew.

Ready for serving

Plantain Fritters

Plantain Fritters

Happy New NCC readers! Thank you all for continuously checking out my blog, Facebook page and your emails about questions regarding my recipes your support is really appreciated and I am always delighted to answer any questions. Hope your year started well and I wish you the very best for 2016.

So I came across a recipe for “plantain mosa” a popular Nigerian street food made with over ripped plantains. With a slight twist omitting the yeast that makes the mosa puffy, I made plantain fritters instead served and with prawns smeared in hot chilli sauce . Follow the simple recipe below to try this delicious fritter. Aprons on!!!

Serving for 4

Ingredients

Ingrdients

4 over ripped plantains

3 stalk of spring onions

1 scotch bonnet pepper

2 eggs

Coconut milk powder

Flour

Baking powder

Ginger

Garlic

Salt

Cooking oil

Directions

1.      Peel and mash plantain in a mixing bowl using fork

2.      Finely chop spring onions and pepper and add to bowl  

3.      Add half a tea spoon grated garlic and ginger

4.      Beat eggs and pour into bowl

5.      Add a tea spoon of coconut milk powder, with a 4 table spoons of plain flour, a pinch of salt and baking powder

Add caption

6.      Mix all the ingredients and let it sit for 5 minutes

7.      Preheat oil in frying pan

                     

Mixture ready for frying

8.      Once the oil is heated, scoop the mixture using serving spoon and add to oil to fry fritters until brown. 

9.      Once fried, place fried fritters on paper towel to drain any excess oil.

Frying frittes

Voila! Dish is done!

Delicious Dish