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

Chinese Inspired Fried Rice

Hey lovelies,

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend. My weekend has been great so far and I am really enjoying this perfect spring weather! This post is all about being prudent,I can't even begin to explain how guilty I feel when tossing out food at the end of the week. So here's my question for you, have you ever finished your stew or sauce and you still have some cooked rice leftover? If you answered yes, then this recipe is for you. This happens to me a lot and while sharing my dilemma with one of my Asian friends she gave me this recipe. It is so easy to prepare and yummy, and above all you don't ever have to feel guilty throwing out leftover rice again:)! 

Ingredients

2 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tbsp. garlic (minced)

1 1/2 cups shrimp (peeled and deveined)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

2 1/2 tbsp. oyster sauce

3 cups cooked white rice 

1/2 green bell pepper (diced)

Directions

1. In a frying pan, heat oil on medium heat till hot

2. Add garlic to hot oil and brown (approximately 1-2 minutes)

3. Add shrimp, salt, ground ginger, oyster sauce and sauté for 3-5 minutes or till the shrimp is cooked

4. Stir in rice and allow to cook for 5 minutes

5. Reduce heat to medium-low

6. Stir in green bell pepper and cover

7. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes or till green bell pepper becomes tender

8. Add additional salt to taste

The best thing about the recipe is that you can always use your choice of meat and whatever vegetable you have at home, so here my lovelies is my good deed for the day:). Have a blessed week!

Ajike...Xx

Efo Riro

Hello lovelies,

I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday. Happy Mother's Day to the lovely mums out there,wishing you many more wonderful and fulfilling mothering years ahead! So to today's post, efo-riro is one of my favorite dishes and it is also one thing I can prepare with my eyes closed. After a week of eating sweet potato, pasta, honey chicken, etc. I started craving some proper Nigerian food so I decided to make efo-riro today. As some of you might have noticed this post is a little late and that's because I had some pounded yam along with it and that put me to bed before I could make it to my laptop..lol. In as much as this recipe is very easy to prepare and delicious, only pair it with pounded yam if you have absolutely no plans after afterwards. You have been warned!

Ingredients

3 cups smoked turkey drumsticks

1 yellow small onion (chopped)

1 tbsp. ginger powder

1 tbsp. garlic powder

4 red bell peppers (remove seeds)

1 small red onion

3 small habanero peppers

1 cup palm oil

1/3 cup locust beans (optional)

2 bouillon cubes (knorr)

1/4 tsp. salt

1 lb chopped spinach

Preparation

1. Rinse smoked turkey and cut into small pieces

2. In a medium size pot, combine turkey, yellow onion, ginger, garlic powder, and 6 cups of water

3. Boil on medium-high heat for 20 minutes

4. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F

5. Grease baking pan

6. Remove turkey from broth and discard broth

7. Place turkey on baking pan

8. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes turning once halfway through baking period 

9. Rinse and drain the spinach getting as much water out as possible

10. Rinse and drain locust beans

Directions

1. In a blender, combine red bell pepper, red onions, habanero peppers, 2 tbsp. of water and chop (For ease, blend half the ingredient at a time) 

2. In a medium size pot, add 1/2 cup palm oil heat till its very hot which takes approximately 5 minutes on medium-high heat (cover the pot to avoid smoke and setting off the fire alarm)

3. Add tomato blend to the hot oil

4. Boil for 30-40 minutes or till the tomato blend becomes dry

5. Reduce heat to medium-low

6. Add 1/2 cup palm oil, bouillon cubes, turkey, locust beans, and salt

7. Mix gently but thoroughly and simmer for 5 minutes

8. Add chopped spinach and simmer for another 5 minutes

9. Make some white rice or pounded yam

10. Enjoy!

Have a lovely weekend lovelies!

Ajike...Xx

Cookies and Ice cream

Hello lovelies,

Thank God for letting us see the end of another week. I am so pumped for this weekend, I plan to eat, sleep, rinse and repeat. This is not a recipe post by any means, just thought I'd say a little hello before catching up on my favorite blogs and TV shows. Here's to a great weekend ahead *holding up glass of ice cream*...lol.

Ajike...Xx