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!

Brekkie Time!!!

Sardine Omelet 

Breakfast - the most important meal of the day! Whether it’s, have a bowl of cereal, a pot of yogurt, continental option or full English, it’s important to grab this essential meal daily.

Growing up in Freetown, sardines were one of my favourite breakfast options especially, as a sandwich filler. They also go well with omelet which happens to be another breakfast favourite of mine. Omelets give you the option to be creative and add fillings of your choice. A sardine omelet, tastes divine with a slice of bloomer washed down with a cup of earl grey tea with soya milk. I hope you enjoy reading and hopefully try out this recipe. Aprons on!!!

Ingredient

             1.  One tinned Sardine

             2.  Scotch bonnet pepper

             3.  Onions

             4.  2 large eggs

             5.  Olive oil

             6.  Ground black pepper

              

              

Cooking instructions

1. Beat eggs in a bowl
2. Add four to five slice of onions and pepper to the beaten egg
3. Add a pinch of salt
4. Heat a table spoon of olive or vegetable oil in a frying pan and pour the beaten egg into the frying pan.
5. The add sardines cutting them into chunky pieces (makes sure you drain the oil or brine from the tin before adding sardines to the eggs).
6. Fry the eggs in very low heat. In doing so you wouldn't to fold or flip your omelette over.
7. Sprinkle black pepper the frying egg.

Voilà your omelette is ready for serving.

Breakfast is served

Tropical Heaven

West African Tropical Heaven

Cocktails! Who would say no to one? Whether it’s virgin or laced with your favourite rum, tequila, vodka, gin etc your taste buds tingle at the sound and description of one. If you're feeling nostalgic about home, this cocktail is filled with vibrant tropical fruits that would tantalise your taste buds.

I am picky when it comes to eating fruits. Tropical fruits however, give me a natural high. This could either be the result of the natural sugars or juice from the flesh of the fruit. Sierra Leone being in a tropical region is blessed with a range of fruits mango, guava, papaya, coconut, star fruit, variety of plums, the list goes on. Growing up in Freetown, access to fresh, organic tropical fruit was easy. They either grow in your back yard, your neighbours or you can find a variety at Kroo Town Road Market one of the major markets in the city.

Tropical goodness

For this post I decided to make a cocktail from my three favourite tropical fruits, mango, pineapple and pawpaw (papaya). You can prepare this with or with alcohol and it would taste just as heavenly. I opted to do without however; it goes well with either tequila or vodka. The fruits a naturally sweet therefore you can do without adding extra sugar however, if you prefer extra sweetness, 2 table spoonful would be enough for the serving below.

Aprons on!!!

Ingredients

1.                     3 medium sized ripe mango

2.                     1 medium sized pineapple

3.                     1 medium sized pawpaw  

4.                     3 fresh lime

5.                     4 table spoon coarse brown sugar

6.                     Glass of crushed ice

Coarse sugar to decorate glass rim

 Preparation

1. Peel and cut all three fruits into sizeable chunky cubes
2. Put each fruit into a freezer bag and let the fruits freeze a day or at least couple of hours before preparation.
3. Once the fruits have been frozen, put equal amount of the frozen fruits into the blender.
4. Add 2 table spoon of sugar and squeeze in 2 fresh limes.
5. Add crush ice and blend everything together. 

frozen fruits ready to be blended

Serving

Zesting the rim of the glass

1.                     Zest the three limes on a plate. This should be done at least 10 min before serving to let the zest dry out.

2.                     You have the option to pour some coarse sugar over the zest and mix together, or you can have each on separate plates.

3.                     Cut a small wedge from one of the juiced and zested limes and rub it around the rim of the glasses.

4.                     Dip the rim of the glass into the sugar and move it around in a circle. Repeat this with the lime zest until you have a pretty lime sugary rim.

5.                     Then pour the Tropical Heaven until it reaches the level of the sugar.

Voila! Drink is ready to take you to heaven! 

Nina's Tropical Heaven