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 

Potato Leaves "Petehteh Leaf"

Hello NCC readers! Hope you’re having a fab August bank holiday weekend and enjoying whatever activities you have lined up. Once again, thank you all for continuously checking out my blog and Facebook page your support is really appreciated.

Mouth watering Sweet Potato Leaves

In Sierra Leone our staple food is rice and we have this with a variety of greens we call “plasas”. “Plasas” are green leaf sauces cooked with assorted meat and smoked fish. Most of the green leaf dishes have a similar style of preparation however, I must add different indigenous tribes have their own style of cooking but all result to a delicious mouth watering end product. In this post, I decided to cook and blog about one of Sierra Leone’s hearty green dish sweet potato leaves “petehteh leaf" as it is known across Sierra Leone. This dish is a very delicious sauce full vitamins and iron that helps with the flow of oxgen in your blood. I hope you enjoy reading and hopefully get to try my own version of this recipe. Aprons on!!!

Serving for 4

part ingredients

Ingredients 

3 packs of already chopped sweet potato Leaves

200ml of Palm oil

Pack of Ogiri

Tin of Butter beans

4 table spoons Peanut butter (smooth)

Assorted meat of your choice

Smoked fish

Scotch bonnet pepper (to your taste)

2 medium sized Onions

Maggie seasoning (2 cubes)

Salt (to your taste)

3 okra

Directions

Chopped and washed potato leaves

Pot ready  to boil with meats and onion, pepper ogiri paste

1.       Start with washing then bringing your meat to boil until tender for approximately 30-40 minutes.

2.       Next wash the chopped potato leaves and leave it in a colander to drain any excess water.

3.       Next blend onions and scotch pepper with ogiri. This should look like a thick smooth paste.

4.       After the meat has boiled, add the above paste mixture and your meat in a medium sized cooking pot, add 2 pints of water and bring to boil for about 20 minutes.

5.       Whilst the pot boils, mix the peanut better with 50ml of water so it is slightly watery.

6.       Add peanut butter mixture, palm oil, maggie seasoning, and salt after the 20 minutes or until you have a thick soupy consistence.

7.       Then add the washed potato leaves with the smoked fish. Mix the pot and leave pot to boil for a further 15min in medium heat.

8.       Finally chop and crush okra and add to the boiling pot. Turn the heat low and let the sauce simmer for a further 5 min or until the palm oil is floating.

Voila! Dish is done! 

Tongue smiling dish

Akara Waffles (Valentine Treat)

Scrumptious Akara Waffle 

Happy Valentine’s day! So this week I decided to experiment on West Africa’s favourite dumpling “Akara” I tweaked the recipe by adding fresh milk and vanilla extract to make it into a dessert option. Topped with juicy strawberries and blueberries and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, the result was heavenly. Who would have thought aye?

Hope you get to try this recipe as it’s well scrumptious and yummy.

Aprons on!

Ingredients 

Makes 10-12 waffles

Ingredients

1. 2 cups of rice flour
2. 6  of extra ripe bananas
3. ½ cup whole or semi skimmed milk
4. 1Nutmeg
5. 1 extracted vanilla pod
6. ½ cup Sugar
7. 1 teaspoon baking powder
8. 30ml olive oil

Dry ingredients in mixing bowl

Cooking Instructions

1.      Peel bananas and blend until smooth and runny

2.      Add dry ingredients into mixing bowl and mix together.

3.      Then add wet ingredients into the same bowl and whisk vigorously together until smooth.

mixture in waffle maker

4.      Switch your waffle maker on and follow its instructions on how to use. Once it is hot pour the mixture into each section and let it cook until it ready (approximately 2 minutes for each batch)  

Yummy dessert

Shepherd’s Pie Sunday

Shepherd's Pie "Hachis Paramentier version"

Good evening Reader’s! Happy New Month! Comfort foods are guilty pleasure we can’t resist. The good old British Shepherd’s Pie is one hearty comfort food that I happily indulge in with no shame. With an African twist of seasoning (maggie cube, steak seasoning, black & white pepper and blended garlic and scotch bonnet pepper) and very hot spice, I used the French version “Hachis Paramentier” to prepare this tasty dish. This dish goes well with a glass of red wine. Hope you get to try out this recipe Aprons on!

Ingredients 

Ingredients

1. Pack of lean diced beef 450g
2. 4 medium potatoes
3. 2 carrots medium carrots
4. Handful of cherry tomato
5. 1 medium size onions
6. 4 cloves of garlic
7. 3 scotch peppers
8. Seasoning (maggie cube, steak seasoning, black & white pepper and blended garlic and scotch bonnet pepper) 
9. Olive Oil
10. Tomato puree
11. Tin of Evaporated
12. Block of mature cheddar cheese  
13. Chive for garnish

Serving for 4

Cooking Instructions

Carrots and potatoes about to be mashed

Mash

1. Peel potatoes and carrots
2. Chop into large sizes.
3. Boil carrots for 40 minutes and potatoes for 30 minutes
4. Once boiled put in a large bowl
5. Add 2 table spoons of evaporated milk (this will give the mash creamy fluffy consistency) and a pinch of salt. 

Sauté Beef

Stew

1.      Wash and season beef with seasoning mentioned above

2.      Slice onions sideways and cut cherry tomatoes in two

3.      Pour 30 ml olive oil into hot frying pan and heat to cooking temperature.

4.      Once oil is heated, add beef, onions and tomatoes and sauté for 10 minutes

5.      Added 2 squeezes of tomato puree, mix then leave to cook for a further 10 minutes in medium heat.

6.      Preheat oven at 180C degrees gas mark 4.

7.      Before serving sprinkle some grated cheese over the mash and put in the oven for 10 minutes or until slightly golden. 

Shepherd's Pie "Hachis Paramentier version"

Voila! Dish is done!