Akara recipe

Hello lovelies,

I hope you all had a great weekend. Today's post came about as a result of my best friend calling me at 7 in the morning *side eye* to find out if I could come up with a recipe for akara for one of her coworkers. Her coworker in question is a Caribbean lady who had tried akara once and has fallen in love with it ever since. After giving my best friend a hard time for waking me up so early, I tried going back to bed but couldn't...lol. For starters, I was very excited about my first official recipe request since starting the blog. Secondly, I began craving akara myself! 

Ingredients

2 cups black-eyed peas (beans)

1 red bell pepper (seeded)

1 small red onion

2 habanero peppers (optional)

1 small yellow onion (diced)

4 knorr cubes (crushed)

¼ tsp salt

2 cups vegetable oil

Preparation

1. In a blender, combine beans and enough water to cover the beans

2. Crush for about 15 - 30 seconds, to loosen the husks from the beans

3. In a medium sized bowl, pour the crushed mixture

4. Drain off floating husks and excess water

5. Add more water, and rub beans between palms to remove the husks

6. Continue steps 4 and 5 until all the husks are removed

Directions

1. In a blender, add ½ cup water and half the amount of; beans, red onions, red bell pepper and habanero pepper and puree

2. Pour half of the blended mixture into a clean bowl

3. To the remaining mixture in the blender, add ¼ cup water and the rest of the; beans, red onions, red bell peppers and puree

4. Combine the blended mixture with the mixture in the bowl

5. Add knorr cubes, salt and diced yellow onion to the blended mixture in the bowl and stir

6. In a frying pan, add vegetable oil and heat on medium heat till hot

7. Scoop blended mixture using a spoon or small scoop and carefully drop into hot oil

8. Fry akara on each side until golden brown

9. Remove from hot oil and drain on paper towel

10. Enjoy with bread, cereal or pudding of choice

I am such a pushover when it comes to recipe requests, so if there is anything you would like to see on here feel free to let me know. Have a blessed week lovelies!

Ajike..Xx

Cooking Themed Engagement Pictures

Hello lovelies,

I hope you are all having a great week so far, I am having a fabulously chilled week and loving it. Planning for my wedding has been on hold because of the crazy workload that comes with being a pharmacy student. Now that I'm all done with school I need to get back on top of things as the wedding is just a few months away. I have a long to-do list including deciding on an engagement shoot theme. Mr.B and I have so much in common but I will have to say next to our love for God, our families and friends is our love for FOOD! I love to cook and he loves my cooking which works out well for us, so we've decided to have a cooking themed engagement shoot. I got online to find some inspiration and I found these adorable pictures. What do you guys think? Feel free to drop a comment below.

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Ajike...Xx

Peppered Gizzard

Hello lovelies,

I hope you are having a great day so far. It feels so good not to have anywhere to go or anything to do for a change. I’m sitting pretty counting down to graduation and moving closer to Mr.B. As promised in my last post, here is the recipe for the peppered gizzard. Trust me, it is not as intimidating as it looks and the end result so worth it!

                                  

Ingredients

2 lb gizzard

2 bouillon cubes

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp curry

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp ground pepper

1 small yellow onion (peeled and diced)

5 tbsp vegetable oil

2 roma tomatoes

1 red bell pepper

1 habanero pepper

1/2 small yellow onion

1 tbsp ground pepper

Directions

1. Rinse gizzard under cold water

2. In a medium-size bowl, combine gizzard, bouillon cubes, salt, ground pepper, curry, and diced onions and mix

3. Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 1 hour

4. In a medium-size pot, pour gizzard and marinade

5. Add 6 cups of water and boil on med-high for 1 hour or till tender

6. Remove gizzard from broth

7. Discard broth

8. In a frying pan, heat 3 tbsp vegetable oil till hot

9. Add gizzard to frying pan

10. Fry gizzard till golden (Picture 1)

11. Drain gizzard on paper towel

12. In a blender, combine tomatoes, red bell pepper, yellow onion, and habanero peppers, 2 tbsp. of water and blend (half the ingredient at a time)

13. In another frying pan, add 2 tbsp. oil and heat till oil

14. Add tomato blend to the hot oil and fry for 10 minutes or until it becomes dry and puree-like in consistency

15. Add gizzard to the tomato sauce in the frying pan

16. Sauté for 5 minutes, turn off heat

17. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

18. Cover baking pan and with aluminum foil

19. Transfer gizzard unto baking pan

20. Bake for 15-20 minutes

You can enjoy it with some rice as seen in my last post or with some garri as pictured above.

Ajike...Xx

Nigerian Fried Rice

Hello lovelies,

I hope you are all having a great week so far. I am so excited that tomorrow is officially  the last day of my college career. God has been too faithful to me even when I am undeserving, to Him be all the glory! So to today's post, I am a jollof rice person on any given day, however, once in a while I get this craving for fried rice. Fried rice is somewhat easy to prepare, the most time is spent prepping and once this is done everything else is smooth sailing. Nigerian fried rice can be prepared in so many ways you just need to find out what works for you. I believe everyone should have a foolproof way of making jollof rice, fried rice and stew, so today I will be sharing with you my way of preparing fried rice.

Ingredients

2 cups parboiled rice

4 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 cup chicken liver

2 boneless chicken breast

1 cup cooked shrimp

1 cup carrot (diced)

1 cup whole kernel sweet corn

1/2 cup green peas

1/2 green bell pepper (seeded and diced)

4 bouillon cubes

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp thyme

2 1/2 tsp curry

Preparation

1. Rinse liver under cold water

2. In a small pot, add liver, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1 cup of water

3. Boil on medium heat for 15 minutes or till cooked

4. Dice cooked liver

5. Remove chicken skin and excess fat

6. Rinse chicken under cold water and dice

7. In another small pot, add chicken, 2 bouillon cubes, 1/2 tsp. curry and 1 1/2 cup of water

8. Boil for 15 minutes or till cooked

9. Remove chicken from broth and save broth for later use

10. In a medium sized pot, add 2 cups of rice and 6 cups of water

11. Boil on medium heat for 15 minutes or till rice is white but not tender enough to eat

12. Drain excess water, rinse rice under cold water and drain excess water again

Directions

1. In a frying pan, add 2 tbsp vegetable oil and heat on medium-high heat till hot

2. To the hot oil add half the amount of; shrimp, chicken, liver, and carrot

3. Add 1 tbsp curry, 1/4 tsp thyme, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 bouillon cube and saute for approximately 5 minutes

4. Add 1/4 cup of chicken broth and stir in half the amount of cooked white rice

5. Mix rice in gently

6. Transfer frying pan content to a clean medium size pot

7. Repeat steps 1-6 with the remaining half of the ingredients

8. Add sweet corn, green peas, and green pepper to the rice

9. Mix veggies in gently and salt to taste

10. Cover pot and allow to simmer for 10 minutes or till the rice is tender (turning halfway through the simmering process)

I made some plantains and peppered gizzard to go with the fried rice and it was oh so yummy! I will be uploading the recipe for the peppered gizzard in my next post. Good night my lovelies and don't forget to always live on purpose!

Ajike...Xx

Happy Easter

Hello lovelies,

Happy Easter and may God's blessings be with you always. I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday. I made some sugar cookies for the kids at church today which they totally loved! I got the recipe from Bridget's blog, Bake at 350. These cookies are to die for! She did a great job on the recipe so I did not make any changes to it.

PS: You are not allowed to laugh at my rabbits, this was my first attempt at baking and decorating sugar cookies..LOL.

Have a blessed week my lovelies!

Ajike...Xx

Fish, Chips and Mango Salsa

Hey lovelies,

I hope you are all having a great weekend. Mine was spent chilling and watching loads of movies which I don't think now was such a great idea. I need to start preparing for a very busy week ahead and so I'm going to be leaving you guys with a quick and easy fish and chips recipe. Did I hear some say...YUM?! *insert smiley face*

Mango Salsa

1 mango (peeled and diced)

1/2 cucumber (rinsed and diced)

1/2 red onion (peeled and diced)

1/2 tbsp crushed pepper (optional)

2 tbsp. cilantro (chopped)

2 tbsp. lime juice

1. In a medium size bowl, combine ingredients

2. Cover and refrigerate

Baked Fish

3 white fish fillets (halved)

1 1/2 tsp. lemon and pepper seasoning

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. ginger powder

1 tsp. ground pepper

1 tbsp. melted butter

1 tbsp. olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

2. Rinse fish and pat dry with paper towel

3. In a small bowl, combine lemon and pepper seasoning, garlic powder, ginger powder and ground pepper

4. Sprinkle seasoning mixture on both sides of each fillet

5. Grease baking pan with olive oil

6. Place fish on baking pan

7. Brush fish with melted butter

8. Bake in oven for 20 minutes turning once halfway through the baking period

Chips

1 large russet potato

4 cups vegetable oil

1/4 tsp. salt

1. Peel potato and cut into large strips (chips)

2. Rinse and drain off excess water

3. In a frying pan, heat vegetable oil on medium-high heat till hot

4. Add chips to the hot oil and fry till golden

5. Remove chips from oil and drain on paper towel in a large bowl

6. Season with salt to taste

Hope you have a lovely week ahead!


Ajike...Xx