FOODIE 101

I am going to be joking a lot in this post but that doesn’t mean it’s not a serious post, it’s a very serious issue, food makes the world go round so I’m jokingly serious you should see my straight face now. 

The definition of a foodie according to most dictionary is a person who is particular about food. (you should see the big smile on my face). I’m a proud foodie! My love for food knows no bound. My brother says I need deliverance(lol). Asides the fact that I went to a catering school (I still intend to attend more culinary schools in the future, maybe I would even be a big time chef you know cook in aso rock or white house *big-grin)  I know some haters would do the “yimu” y”all should gerarahere!! 

There are foodies and there are foodies. I’m just going to talk about foodies as I have seen them.

1) There are the fit fam foodies which sadly I’m not part of because I’m on a sea-food diet, I see food, I smell food, I imagine food and I eat! Fitfam foodies are people who cook healthy food that contains no or low numbers of calories they eat things like leaf and the rest (*rolling my eyes).

2) There are the hipstar foodies:  these are people who often upload their meals on social media they learn how to cook these food on social media! They won’t touch that food until they have braged about how long they spent in the kitchen preparing the delicious colorful meal. Thanks to darling google. 

3) The DIY Foodies : why should we waste so much money on chinese food when I can make it at home? Their conversation always goes like that. They have little gardens they believe they don’t need to eat out paying so much when they can conveniently cook the meal themselves. I can be in this category sometimes but not all the time. 

4) The sensitive stomach foodie ; they can’t just eat anything anywhere, they love food but they are picky! I also fall in this  Category yes I do! I fall in all category Infact. I love ketchup but no way I’m letting the food attendant put it on my hotdog or add cheese or mayonnaise laye! Laye! Ko jo! I love my hotdog plain. 

5) The TV foodie: Don’t get jealous o but I also fall in this category!  I love to watch hell’s kitchen! Oh how I love how the head chef yells and yells! One day he will probably have his lungs replaced because they would fly out from so much yelling (LMAO). This category of foodie won’t even make that meal if it’s not cooked by a chef or shown on TV( maagi moments, knor shows and the rest). 

The list goes on and on but I will stop here. I am deeply sorry I can’t put up pictures for now (sad face), even my smileys ain’t working, but I am working on it, I have  food pictures on my phone, the ones I made of course plus the ones I stole from social media. I would let you come over and  see them if you send me a mail not less than 300 words convincing me you’re not a stalker or serial killer. 
None of my friends in school who reads this should come to my room for food please! I barely cook in school it’s zero  Percent convenient. The not so clean kitchennet  is far from my room and most times no water! Plus market is too far! That’s why home is truly where the heart is, especially my brother’s house, very comfy kitchen AC, TV and all the things that makes cooking fun! I better gerarahere before his wife catches me. 

Any foodie in the house should please send me a mail or drop a comment and let’s see how to make this Food court session bigger and better! Other comments are welcome too.

Have a blessed week ahead, keep smiling and stay thankful. 

Fresh Orange Juice

Hello Everyone! Happy weekend 🙂
Today I would be sharing two different recipes you can make with fresh orange juice. I haven’t come across anyone who doesn’t love Orange, Oranges are sweet and contribute to a healthy life in various ways, you can read my article about orange here

WHY YOU NEED TO FALL IN LOVE WITH ORANGE

ORANGE SQUASH
19 oranges
3cups of water
One-eight cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of Citric Acid

Method
Extract juice from oranges
Boil water and sugar(this forms a syrup) and leave to cool
Pour over citric acid
Pour syrup solution into the extracted orange juice, mix well
Chill and serve

FRESH ORANGEADE
19 oranges
4-6 Lemon or lime
One-eight cup of sugar
Lemon or limering(skin of lemon or lime grated)

Method
Extract juice from orange
Make a syrup of sugar and water
Grate rind from lemon or lime and add to the boiling syrup
Cool and set aside
Add extracted orange juice to the cooled syrup, mix well and chill.

There you go! Simple, short but really refreshing! Some people are really good at recognising sweet oranges, but I always buy my oranges from mallams and their oranges are always sweet. If you have any questions, ask in the comment box, thanks.

How to Make Nigerian Cat Fish Pepper Soup

There are different recipes in Nigeria that are made with different kinds of meat and fishes. Pepper soup is one of the most delicious deserts or even main dish in Nigeria. Ranging from goat meat pepper soup, to assorted cow meat pepper soup, to catfish popularly called point and kill, turkey pepper soup, dry or smoked fish pepper soup and so on!

Yesterday, I made catfish pepper soup. The recipe for all pepper soup are the same the only difference is just the taste and the time it takes to be ready. For catfish, you have to marinate your fish for 45 minutes to an hour, I marinated mine yesterday for over an hour because at some point I slept off. The reason why I have to marinate my fish is because I want the seasoning to come out when I’m eating the fish. Sometimes the soup itself would be so delicious and tasty but the stock would not, that’s because you either didn’t season well or marinate.

RECIPE
-Cat fish
-5 seeds of Ehu
-Uziza Leaf
-Scent Leaf
-Utazi Leaf
-Grounded Uziza seeds
-Knorr cubes
-Grounded crayfish
-Onions (finely chopped)
-Salt and pepper to taste

Note: Don’t get confused if you don’t know what Uziza, Utazi, and the rest are. For those of you who wouldn’t want to go through the stress of making the ingredient yourselves, when you get to the market, ask the women selling pepper soup ingredient for grinded pepper soup spice and they would give you. It has all been grinded. As for me, I buy the ingredients one after the other in large quantity and grind so I can use and keep and use another time.

METHOD

-Wash catfish with moderately hot water(Not too hot else the fish’s skin would peel off) Wash off all dirt and make sure its clean. Marinate using salt, grated ginger& garlic and knorr cubes. Cover to let the seasoning sink.

– Ehu seed is very important, Yoruba’s call it Posa, Heat in fire or put in a hot dry pot until the back turns black or when you begin to perceive the aroma(it has a very sweet smell). Remove from fire and peel off the back, grind in a mortal.

-Grind Uziza seeds, slice Uziza, Utazi and scent leaves, wash well and set aside.

-Pour a large amount of water in a hot dry pot, and allow to boil, add the grounded Ehu and Uziza seeds, add grounded crayfish, Salt,pepper and knorr to your taste. Allow to boil for 5-10minutes

-Add already marinated catfish and cover to cook for 20-25minutes.

-Add sliced scent leaf, onions, Uziza and Utazi leaves and cover to boil.

-Make sure you don’t over cook else the fish will scatter inside the soup, if you still want your fish in one piece boil on moderate heat.

-Ready to be served!

Some people have not discovered the various staple food to eat their pepper soup with, you’re missing a whole lot if you don’t eat it with boiled yam, boiled plantain, or white rice. My new obsession with pepper soup is eating it with white rice, sometimes I fry plantain and eat along, try this and your taste buds would never remain the same. And for those who don’t like dry pepper, you can use fresh pepper.

NOTE: For assorted goat meat pepper soup, wash meat and season well, add sliced onions and add a lot of water and allow to boil. Depending on the parts of meat you are using, always cook the hard ones first(like Saki, cow leg etc). Make sure you add a lot of water and season well. When meat is soft enough, add pepper soup spice and allow to boil for 5-10minutes. Add sliced Uziza, Utazi and scent leaf and allow to boil for another 5-10minutes. And your assorted goat meat pepper soup is ready!!

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ROCK BUNS & SCONES (fruits or plain)

Good morning! So its Few days to christmas, what exactly would you be doing differently to dazzle your family and friends? Well I’m going to be baking and cooking a whole lot so I just thought why not share these delicious but not so common snacks with everyone?
Very often we eat meat pie, egg rolls, scotch eggs, donut, ever heard of Scones and Rock buns? Well if you have good 😀 but if you haven’t well you can learn now 😉
So here’s the Recipe for Rock buns and Scones(Fruit or Plain), learn and dazzle your loved ones this holiday!

ROCK BUNS
RECIPE
-Flour (500g)
-Fat (100g)
-Egg (2large)
-Baking powder (1 tablespoon)
-Mix fruits (100g)
-Salt (1teaspoon)
-Milk and Water (1cup)

METHOD
-Sieve flour, salt, baking powder into a clean bowl
-Rub in fat and add sugar
-Add in beaten egg and mix
-Add Milk+Water
-Add mix fruit and mix well again( the mixture must not be watery, must be thick)
-Grease baking pan with fat
-use a fork, to pick the mixture (any quantity you want) and put inside the pan.
-put in the oven and bring out after ten minutes to glaze with egg.

NB: you use a fork because it must come out rough, remember its rock buns, its not meant to be smooth.
Glazing simply gives shinning effect, and this is done for other snacks too such as meat pie, fish roll.
Make sure you set your oven to its appropriate temperature to avoid your snacks getting burnt and not being well baked.

SCONES(Fruits or Plain)
RECIPE
-Flour (500g)
-Fat (150g)
-Sugar (100g)
-Baking powder (3 teaspoon)
-Salt (half teaspoon)
-Mixed fruit(100g) for plain no Mixed fruit is needed.
-Milk+Water (1cup)

METHOD
-Sieve flour, salt , baking powder into a clean bowl
-Rub in Fat
-Add sugar and mixed fruit
-Add milk+water and mix well
-Roll out thick( with a rolling pin on a floured board) and cut into shapes with 101 cooking cutter.
-Grease baking pan and put in scones, put in oven and remove after ten minutes, glaze with egg.

NB: Floured board simply means you add flour on the board/table you using to roll
Rolling pin is used for rolling out pastry
101 cooking cutter is used to cut snacks such as scones into different shapes, characters and sizes. You can always get this in a shop where baking ingredients/equipment are sold.

HOW TO MAKE LOVELY PANCAKES

The only difference between Pancakes and Crepes is that the mixture in crepes is lighter than that of pancakes.
Today we would be learning a new exciting way of eating pancakes, asides eating with honey, Jam or just plain, you can also make Vegetable fillings! Now let’s learn.

PANCAKE

RECIPE
-Flour(250g)
-Margarine(50g)
-Milk+Water(1cup)
-Salt(to taste)
-Dry pepper(1 teaspoon)
-Sugar(to taste)
-Egg(2large)
Vegetable oil/butter(just to wet the pan)
-Grated onions(optional, 1teaspoon)

METHOD
-Sieve flour, sugar and salt into a bowl
-Add dry pepper
-Melt the margarine and add to the bowl
-Beat your eggs till fluffy then add to the bowl and mix well.(The mixture must not be too light)
-Add Milk and water and mix again
-Wet your non stick pan with little vegetable oil or pat of butter(so pancakes won’t stick)
-If by now the mixture is too thick, add little water and mix again.
-With the tip of a large spoon,pour the mixture(depends on the size of pancake you want)
-Allow to cook for a while, Turn over when the edges begin to rise (if you’re good at doing the flip you can flip over,if not turn gently with your spatula)
-Repeat same process till the mixture is finished
-Pancake is ready!
Why don’t you try this vegetable fillings out?

VEGETABLE FILLINGS FOR PANCAKES
-Carrot(grated)
-Cabbage(Tiny Sliced)
-Curry(to taste)
-Salt, Stock cube (to taste)
-Onions (Chopped)
-Vegetable oil/Margarine

METHOD
-Stir fry the onions in hot oil(little oil), add chopped cabbage and grated Carrot
-Add curry, stock cube to taste
-keep Stir frying on low heat, taste to check if its cooked a little.
-Pour in a plate to cool off a bit(not cold, best eaten when hot/warm)
-Put Vegetable fillings at the tip of the pancake and roll over to the end, hold with a tooth pick.
-Ready to be served!

Note that you don’t need to keep wetting the frying pan with oil, once you wet at the beginning, that oil/butter is enough for the whole mixture. But in case Pancake begins to burn, wet again.

CORNED BEEF STEW

photo credit knorr Nigeria

Corned beef stew is a Nigerian delicacy made specially from corned beef or minced beef

RECIPE
-Tomata stew
-Corned beef/Minced beef (500grams)
-Onion (1 large) (finely chopped)
-Thyme&Curry (to taste)
-Stock cube (to taste)
-Pepper&salt (to taste)
-Vegetable oil

METHOD
-Start cooking the staple food; yam,rice, potatoes,pasta
-Pour oil into a dry hot pot/pan add onions and stir fry
-Add corned beef/minced meat and stir fry till beef turns pale.
-Add seasoning(if you’re using corned beef add little seasoning as corned beef is salty)
-Add water to the same level of the content of the pot and cook till beef is done
-Add pepper,tomato stew and salt to taste.
-stir well and leave to simmer for 10-15mins
-Ready to be served

This delicious meal is best served hot,don’t forget to ask your questions, drop your comment and feel free to also share your own special corned beef recipe.

BASIC TERMS IN COOKING

photo credit knorr Nigeria

Below are few basic terms in cooking you need to know.

PARBOIL
This simply means to boil until party cooked. Most times,we have to parboil Rice, especially if it is for Jollof Rice, Fried Rice, Coconut Rice and so on.

MARINATE
This is the process of soaking your stock(Meat, fish, Chicken)in a spicy sauce/seasoning before cooking or frying.

PEPPER PUREE
This is a blend of Red bell pepper(Tatashe), Fresh pepper(Rodo), Chili pepper(Shombo), 1 medium sized Onion(optional). Make sure you remove the seeds of each pepper and blend to a smooth paste, then boil till the water is dry(to a paste). You can store in your refrigerator,you can also fry in Vegetable oil if you like before storing.

TOMATO PUREE
This is a blend of fresh plum tomatoes(remove the seeds). Then boil to remove the water(to a paste),add vegetable oil and finely chopped onions. You can also use your tinned tomatoes, ensure you mix well. You can as well boil both(fresh tomatoes and tinned tomatoes)to a paste. Store in the refrigerator.

STIR FRY
This means frying on low heat,it means you don’t take your hands off you keep stirring in hot oil on low heat.

SIMMER
This means to cook steadily,near boiling point.

SURPRISE DE SPAG

Hi Everyone! Today marks the first day of this Yummy category on Areurmikun’s Blog. Well I have been able to put these procedures together,no o! I’m no mama put, but I posses great culinary skills 😉

I’m sure you are wondering which one is Surprise De Spag again,well not to worry its simply one of the plenty ways to make your delicious spaghetti meal. Some people call it Spaghetti Surprise or Surprise Spaghetti. Its called “surprise Spag”because I believe this is a new way asides the normal way of making your Spaghetti.
Aside this Spaghetti dish, we have Fish spaghetti, Plain Spaghetti with pepper Sauce/Vegetable sauce, Jollof Spaghetti. But today we would be learning how to make Surprise De Spag.

RECIPE
-Spaghetti(2packs for 3-4 servings)
-Beef(6-7 normal cuts)
-Carrot(scraped& thinly chopped)
-Green Pea
-Green Beans
-Green pepper(1-2 large size)
-Tomato Puree/Tomato Stew
-Dry Pepper and Salt (to taste)
-Stock cube, curry (to taste)
Note that your Tomato Puree(Tomato Stew) is a blend of Plum tomatoes,boil to remove the water(to a paste),add Vegetable oil and chopped onions. You can also use your tinned tomato,ensure you mix well. You can as well boil both(plum tomatoes and tinned tomatoes)to a paste.

METHOD
-Break your spaghetti into tiny pieces,its best you break into three pieces.
-Make sure you have your tomato puree/tomato stew
-prepare your Vegetables as stated above in the Recipe,to your green pepper,cut into two halves and remove the seeds then dice.
-Cut your beef into small pieces or any size of your choice(but into pieces)
-cook the beef with onions,stock cube(I love to use knorr beef),add your curry and salt
-while this is cooking, start cooking your spaghetti in a large amount of water.
-when the beef is done,add tomato puree,vegetables,and a little salt and pepper to taste,cook for another five minutes.
-when the spaghetti is soft(not too soft), drain out the water and add the sauce(mixture of beef,tomato puree and vegetables)
-Stir and Taste, add seasoning if necessary and allow to simmer on low heat.
-Ready to be served. A chilled glass of cold Juice would be just perfect.

This meal can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

WHY YOU NEED TO FALL IN LOVE WITH ORANGE

We all know orange is a delicious fruit,who doesn’t like orange??
I’m not sure anyone doesn’t. Orange(CITIRUS SINENSIS) is rich in Vitamin C.
Orange is a Citrus fruit with seeds,oranges can be eaten after peeling off its back(which has its own medicinal use too)or it can be extracted and processed.

-Infusion of the leaves can be used to cure nervous disorder. The back of Orange can be used to cure Cough.

-Oranges are good for you because it contains Vitamin C,Potassium,Vitamin B1(thiamin)this plays a major role in the conversion of blood sugar into energy. Vitamin C helps in protecting the body against sickness such as Stroke,Cancer. It also aids in healing wounds,Oranges promote the human immune system generally.

-Oranges also helps in stabilising blood sugar level,they prevent constipation and allow proper digestion of food,by softening the bowels. Oranges prevent kidney stones,research from the “Journal of the American college of nutrition” says Oranges prevent stomach cancer and ulcer.

-Orange juice helps in reducing craving for alcohol. Oranges also lowers cholesterol(they are full of soluble fibre). Oranges also protects the skin,they contain beta-carotene which is a strong antioxidant protecting the cells from damage and prevents signs of ageing.

You know they say too much of everything isn’t good so excess intake of orange can drain out Calcium from the body and we all know Calcium is for strong and healthy bones. You should also know that Orange is the third favourite flavour after chocolate and vanilla. You can also make fresh orange juice by extracting the juice,sieve out the seeds add a little lime or lemon(add ice if you want)and drink.

So as you go about your daily activities today,don’t forget to buy oranges and live a healthy life!

Thanks Ayodele Sanni for your contribution(Ayodele is a final year student of Ethno Botany,University of Lagos).