Food Minia

One of my readers wrote to me drawing my attention to the fact that our very popular pastry snack called Chin-chin, could jolly well be an "offspring" of an Italian classic deep fried pastry dough called Cenci... So off I went to do my own research, and it did not take me a long time at all to come to the realization that there could be a lot of truth in this.....actually I am now convinced there is truth in this and there is a strong link between both of them; Nigerian Chin Chin and Italian Cenci...! I have often wondered the origins of Chin Chin, how we were introduced to it, and how it became so popular and above all, I did wonder how the name came about.... So I trawled the web again to find out how to pronounced the Italian word Cenci, and I was shocked by how so similar it sounds to Chin chin...! Again, I went through numerous Cenci recipes to compare with Chin Chin recipes, and again they are closely similar with only some small variations in particular, amount of suga

So now I have quite a lot of meatballs in my freezer, after having made some previously ( check post here ). I particularly made them so that my daughter can readily have some whenever she wants....cause she loves meatballs. The idea of eating meat off the bone does not wash with her, and she wants little effort possible to chew her meat...! Meatballs are great with pasta, and also with rice. And as a new discovery for me, they are excellent in traditional Nigerian soups. So my daughter was the one who suggested that I should add some meatballs to my traditional vegetable soup, so I did, and the result is fantastic. The meat balls cooked so quickly and they soaked up so much flavour from the soup base. It is delicious, very simple to make, with very little effort. What you need Home made meat balls (check recipe here) Base sauce to make the soup Stock Some palm oil (or other vegetable oil of choice) Amaranth greens (blanched and shredded) Locust beans Whole smoked prawns (remove the he

Sincerely, its worth making meatballs at home, for so many reasons. Foremost, making your meatballs gives you all the power to do or add whatever you fancy. You know precisely what has gone into it and you are assured of what you are eating.....quite frankly, you do not want to begin to investigate into what actually makes up commercially produced meatballs..... Anyway, I was left with no choice but to make some meatballs at home, because I could not readily find any at all, in the local supermarkets,,, and in the one place I found some, I was not keen at all to put it in my mouth. So what's a girl to do. I had to make some. Making meatballs is one of the simplest things to do, especially if you have the right equipment. The best thing to use is a grinder, but if you do not have access to a grinder, then a good food processor will suffice. So very easy, all you have to do is purchase some nice cut beef with no fat or tendons. You would also need some seasoning to help enhance taste

So, am really excited about this recipe....the tastes and flavours and textures I experienced from this dish, I cannot describe, you just have to find out for yourself....! First I have to say that the minced beef we get in the UK and the one I made myself (here in Lagos) with the local beef in Nigeria, are like chalk and cheese....miles apart in taste and texture and juiciness...omg! Already, Nigerians are known to favor beef with a firm texture, which is able to retain and soak up lots of flavours... This is because Nigerian cows are largely organic, fed on natural grass and vegetation, and put through a lot of "exercise" because they are reared by the a Nomadic Nigerian tribe known as the Fulanis. Everywhere they go, they take their cows and allow them to graze on natural vegetation as they move from one place to the other....actually they move in search of vegetation...! Anyway, I am totally in love with this beef, and when I decided to make some home-made mince out of th

So, something new has happened again on the Nigerian food scene. A first of it kind. Nigerian Food transformed into art...! I love things like these and I get so excited by the totally new concept/prospect. I have been in the forefront of promoting Nigerian cuisine, now for over 6 years, and I have to say, Nigerian cuisine is evolving and so is Nigerian food vocation(s). There are so many possibilities we can achieve with Nigerian cuisine and I am so glad that big corporations are beginning to see some value with it. So over the weekend, the very first food art exhibition took place in Lagos, and this was sponsored by Samsung Nigeria under the theme TechMeetsArt Nigeria. I love creativity in all the manner or forms it comes, and creativity with food is my passion. I love food and love even better Art in Food. I believe this event will be an annual event, where opportunities would be given to food enthusiasts to express themselves creatively with food, either for eating, or for somethin

A truffle is a soft sweet, made with a chocolate mixture, and added flavours, often served as dessert; (not to be confused of course, with the expensive fungus delicacy, of the same name which is used in cooking.) Chin-chin is a popular snack in Nigeria, made by deep frying a sweetened dough mixture. As part of my journey discovering new ways of serving Nigerian food, I have done a few things with chin-chin such as adding to desserts as a base or just to add  some texture crunch... Chin chin could be quite versatile depending on how imaginative you are in the kitchen. ( Check out all of my chin chin recipes here .) So my newest creation, Chin Chin Truffles are so easy to make and are delicious to eat. They come in handy to serve to guests in combination with other sweets like coconut candy. Check out how to make some below. What you need Good quality chin chin extra crunchy. You can buy some in the store or make some (recipe here) Condensed milk White milk chocolate What to do Place th

Plantains are so versatile, they can be used in whatever stage of ripeness they are...! I love that about them, and the interesting thing again is that they have a distinctive different taste at these different stages. Another interesting thing is that, their taste is further developed or enhanced by the method used to cook them and also the other ingredients paired with them...and I do have a craving for some of these distinct tastes from time to time, depending on my mood. Today's recipe works best with over ripe plantains....and because plantains do tend to ripen quickly, I do not tend to panic if I have an over ripe one in my larder. I just deep fry it first for a few minutes then transfer it into an oven to bake until it attains this "dryish" but not burnt texture, which is excellent to serve with some spicy salsa style sauce. And because the plantain is at its ripe state, it tastes really sweet, which also combines well with the saltiness and spiciness of the dip. T

What is Ahi Poke?  It's a raw (sushi grade) tuna salad served as an appetizer.   I ordered this appetizer at Tommy Bahama Restaurant in Florida, it was so good!  I wanted to try and make it at home and was so excited to find the recipe on Tommy Bahama's website.  Check it out  here ,   and I also came across a youtube video,  here .  So now that I had the recipe, I went shopping for the ahi tuna.  I tried Whole Foods first.  The seafood guy was so nice and helpful.  I didn't really know what I was looking for but told him what I was making.  He let me know that I needed sushi grade tuna and where I could get it ( Seafood Center ) as they didn't have any at the moment.  He did say that he can always get it in if he had a couple days notice.     We went to the  Seafood Center and they had a beautiful piece of ahi tuna.  It's pricey, $34.99 per lb but you only need 1/2 lbs for 8 servings.  I got 1/4 lb and made two generous portions but for an appetizer size, it would