Snacks – Ounje

Ube Hummus

June 20, 2017June 20, 2017OunjeLeave a comment

I’ve been quite obsessed with Ube the last couple of days. After making a Corn on Cob rubbed with Ube a few days back, I realised Ube can be a great Dip, pretty much like Hummus. Hummus is originally made with chickpeas, it’s of middle eastern origin.

Since Ube already pairs well with Corn, I tried it with some of my favourite things and it paired really well.

Cooked Ube’s is like mashed Sweet+Irish potatoes with a tang.

RECIPE

Makes about 2 250ml Mason jars.

50 medium sized Ube
1/2 Cup Olive Oil

* Optional Ingredients (didn’t use any)

Chill pepper

Garlic paste.
Procedure

Wash Ube gently but thoroughly to get rid of sand.

Bring about 1.5 litres of water to a boil.

Once boiled, dunk the Ube in it for not longer than 3 minutes and strain. (You can salt the water if you like but it’s unnecessary.

Allow it to cool a bit so you don’t burn your fingers before using a small knife to open the skin and peel the flesh off the seed of the Ube.

Blend in the Ube with Olive oil two batches a blender.

PhotoGrid_1497983723483 — Procedure in pictures. Wash, Blanche, Peel

Store in an air tight container and refrigerate. (I haven’t tested the shelf life inside the fridge yet, with do, I’d update this post)

Isn’t this platter gorgeous? (Carrots, Cucumber, Celery sticks, Corn, Potato chips, plantain chips)

20170620_183547_1497980236031_wm — Cucumber Stick with Ube

20170620_184502_wm — Ube Hummus with Carrots sticks, Cucumber sticks, Celery sticks, Corn, Potato chips, plantain chips

Corn on Cob with mashed Ube

June 18, 2017June 18, 2017Ounje1 Comment

This is just a simple twist to the Corn and Ube you love. CORN on COB in a Skewer rubbed with mashed Ube

It’s Corn season and with corn comes Ube. Ube is an oval shaped, purple berry with a large seed in the centre. It’s in season at about the same time as corn. As a street food, corn is either boiled or roasted and usually paired with Coconut or Ube.

Top-Bottom; Corn , Ube. Picture credit: Google.

Recipe

Corn
Ube
*Salted Butter (or Herb and Garlic butter)
*Pepper flakes

*optional items are marked with asterisk
Procedure

Dehusk the corn of it comes in a husk and cook the corn till done. Cook it in a pot with lid on

Ube is very easy to cook, just steam till the pod is soft and it would peel off easily. You can cook it by placing the Ube on the lid of the pot while the corn cooks.

Mash the Ube with salted butter ( Salted Butter is optional, I used garlic butter). Add some pepper flakes if you want some kick of heat.

Spread it on your cooked corn.

This is so comfort food!

French Toast

November 28, 2016OunjeLeave a comment

On the world food calendar, today is French Toast Day.
So here is some bite sized French Toast with Banana&Avocado slices, dried currants, toasted coconut flakes and drizzled with honey.

French Toast is super easy to make.

You need
• 4 Slices of Bread
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
• *1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
• * I used a pinch of powdered cloves
• 1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp confectionery sugar
1 tbsp oil (coconut or sunflower oil)

Procedure

– Combine all the ingredients but the Bread, Butter and oil.
– Dip the Bread in the mixture
– Place a pan on medium heat, glaze pan with butter and oil and place the bread in, let it cook till it browns on the side then flip and repeat with the other side.

– Serve as you like with your favourite syrup, honey, yogurt or fruits.

Peppered Meats.

September 9, 2015September 9, 2015Ounje1 Comment

Hello blogsville, it has been a while since I put up a new post. Please blame on the vacation months and the back to school scurry. I also took a bit of time to get by my kitchen mojo, life as a wife/mom/entrepreneur/ foodie.

For some reason I’ve been reliving some memories of secondary school. I think it started when Le hubs called, that he was craving fried turkey. He was only less than 10 minutes from home and I’m not one to stock frozen turkey at home. So I sent an assistant to dash to a store nearby and get me a kilo.

I attended “The International School, University of Ibadan, Ibadan. ” (Set of 2002) It’s called ISI for short.
You see in ISI , break time was a bit of a funfair. We had the stalls, close to the basketball court and we would all troop out of our classes to observe the rituals of break time. The girls would sashay in groups pretending not to see the guys stealing glances at them. At each stall it was sometimes a bit of an “unconscious” show of spending prowess. My favorite stall was Iyawo’s stall, she was the wife to the school Tanker driver, the woman seemed to pop an new baby every year. She was pleasant and had most of the sweet treats I used to buy. Now there was the Meat Pie Stall, all they sold I think was meat pies and doughnuts, and there was the Fan Ice Vendor under the Almond tree by the Basketball court who sold all the Fan Ice products; yoghurt, fan orange, ice cream. … now there was this woman who was there only through my early JSS days who used to sell peppered bite – sized meats. That meat was to die for , deep fried, with the right amount if hot habernero pepper and onions.
Below is my attempt to react her peppered meats. (See Recipe below the turkey pictures)

Then they was Mrs Alabi, who was the biology teacher’s wife, she didn’t have a stand at the stalls but she ran business from their apartment which was above the boys dormitory. Her husband was the House Master for the boys dormitory. Mrs Alabi sold fried turkey and Zobo drink. Her fried turkey was quite high end, so if your parents were not rich or your break money was not above 100 naira a day, you can’t afford to buy Mrs Alabi’s turkey.
There was something that gave Mrs Alabi’s peppered turkey a different taste . I tried severally then to re – create it back at home then using only a mixture of salt and Cayenne Pepper. It just didn’t taste right.

So you can imagine how lucky I felt two days ago when I struck the proverbial gold. A little bit of Yaji and I had my own version of Mrs Alabi’s turkey.

Below is the recipe for the two.

Mrs Alabi’s Turkey

Recipe.

• 1 Kg of Turkey

• 2 wraps of double Knorr Chicken Cubes (or any chicken bouillon cubes you prefer)

• 1 tsp of Cayenne pepper (ground dried pepper/ata gigun)

• 1/2 tsp Salt

• 1 medium sized onion.

• *optional curry powder and dried thyme

• Vegetable oil for frying

• 1 tbsp Yaji (aka Suya Spice) for sprinkling

Procedure

– Marinate the turkey in salt, pepper, onions and all the other spices for at least 30 minutes.

– Parboil the turkey in the marinate for a few minutes ensuring not to over cook the turkey as turkey tends to cook very quickly.

– Once the turkey is cooked , fry the turkey till golden brown.

– Take out of the oil and strain on a paper towel .

– Healthier option would be to grill the turkey after marinating.

– Then sprinkle the Yaji all over the turkey.

Enjoy with a chilled drink.

Recipe for Peppered Meats.

• 250 grams bite sized beef bits

• 1 cup blitzed pepper mix (tomatoes, red bell pepper, red habernero ) depending on your heat tolerance, you can decide to either use more or less habernero)

• 1 medium onion. (Chopped )

• 2 (beef)Bouillon Cubes

• Salt to taste.

• * Cayenne pepper.

• *optional , Curry powder, dried thyme less than a teaspoon of each.

• Vegetable oil to fry

Procedure

– Cook your meat with chopped onions, salt, bouillon cubes, a bit of Cayenne pepper, curry and thyme of you choose.

– When the meat is cooked and tender, strain it from the meat stock and fry.

– In the meat stock, add the pepper mix and taste if it requires additional seasoning.

– Set your fried meat aside until the pepper is properly cooked, add a tsp of the oil used in frying the meat, add the fried beef and stir it in completely.
Garnish with chopped onions and pepper.

– Enjoy with a chilled drink.

Jam filled Puff – Puff

May 26, 2015May 26, 2015Ounje2 Comments

Move over Doughnuts, Puff – Puff filled with Jam is in the building.

This is what happens when me and my only brother ChocBoy enter into the kitchen. He wanted Chocolate filled Puff – Puff, I didn’t have chocolate syrup so I pulled out Mango jam and injected into the puff. My days! This is the shiznit.

You guys should give it a try.
See recipe for making Puff-Puff here .

Procedure

When your puff puff is fried, take a clean sterile syringe without the needle , fill it with jam. *If your jam is too thick, add a little juice or hot water to make it a little light.

Pierce a side of your puff puff and inject some jam. See picture above.

Surprise your guests, they wouldn’t believe it!

Fried Yam and Fish Rolls

May 16, 2015Ounje9 Comments

I just played a “guess the dish” game, on two facebook groups. The only clue was that it is not made with flour. I laughed and nearly peed my pants when two of my Facebook buds answered Fried Eba and Okra! Jeez I must have a reputation for far fetched food experiments.
People this is just yam and fish served with pepper sauce by the side.

Recipe

Ingredients

• Yam

• Fish

• Salt

• Bouillon Cubes

• Pepper

• Flour for dusting the board

• Oil for frying.

Procedure

– Cut yam and boil till well cooked and tender.

– Season fish with salt, bouillon cubes and pepper, cook, debone and flake the fish and set aside.

– When yam is done, mash till smooth in a bowl or in the pot.

– Lightly flour a board, roll out the yam mold, trim out the edges. Spread some fish flakes along the edges and roll it over. Apply some water to the edges to seal it.
Sorry I don’t have a pictorial yet but you can see the procedure used here in making sausages

– Heat up some oil. Not extremely hot and fry the yam till slighly crisp and a warm golden brown. Don’t let it burn as the yam would start to taste bitter.

– Serve with pepper sauce, it tastes great together

Coconut Milk Biscuits

May 3, 2015May 3, 2015Ounje3 Comments

It’s funny how I file all my baking therapies in the “Not Really A Baker” category. Well I love to cook and sometimes it involves baking and I’m game, but so that people won’t start asking me questions I have no real answer I have to make the a disclaimer. I spent 3 days dreaming up this recipe and when I was done, four happy little feet were ready to devour it almost without giving me the chance to take pictures. Very milky, coconutty and yummy.
Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Self Raising Flour

• 1/2 Dessicated Coconut

• 1 Cup Coconut Milk

• 1/2 Cup Caster Sugar

• 1/4 tsp Salt

• 2 Eggs

Procedure

– In a bowl mix flour, dessicated coconut, salt and ser aside.

– Break eggs and separate egg yolks from whites.

– Using the whisk attachment of your mixer, whisk the egg white till stiff peaks and set aside.

– At high speed, whisk egg yolk with caster sugar till it is pale yellow and it and nearly double in size.

– Using a spatula, mix gently the egg yolks into the flour mix, then add coconut milk , mix well but gently and then fold in egg white.

– Line a baking tray with parchment paper or spray non stick cooking spray on the pan or light grease the pan with oil.

– Pick your preferred icing tip, fill a piping bag and pipe you desired shape on the pan. (I used the 6B open star nozzle )

– Bake in an oven preheated to 250°c for about 20 mins or it till it is mellow golden brown.

Doughnuts

April 19, 2015April 20, 2015Ounje3 Comments

I’ve been making snacks all weekend, let me quickly share my Doughnuts recipe with you. This is a very basic recipe. Recipe (Yeilds 16 – 20) All Purpose Flour 500g Margarine 50 – 100g Sugar 75g 1 Egg 1 1/2 tbsp Dry Active Yeast 1 cup warm Milk 2 tablespoons water Procedure – Sieve flour into bowl, add yeast and stir, then add sugar, margarine and rub in. – In another bowl, measure 1 cup warm water, add milk, beaten egg and mix. – Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in liquid mixture the mix with your hands. Knead until elastic or place on a mixer and knead using the dough hook until elastic or smooth. – Leave to rise. Once risen, knock out the air. – Roll out with a rolling pin, use a cookie cutter or any round object to cut rounds, scoop jam into the middle of rounds , using a pastry brush or the tip of your finger wet outer edges of rounds with water, liquid milk or egg, cover with another round of same size and seal edges allow to rise or double in size, then fry in hot oil until golden brown. Alternatively instead of filling the middle of the round with jam first, fry till golden brown first then use a syringe to insert jam into the doughnut. For doughnut with a hole in the middle, skip adding jam and use a small cookie cutter or any small round cutter, press it in to cut the hole in the middle. – When cool roll in granulated or caster sugar if you want.

Scotch Eggs

April 19, 2015July 2, 2017Ounje5 Comments

Scotch Egg is hard-boiled egg enclosed in sausage meat, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried. It is a very tasty snack and it’s easy to make.

Recipe

• 6 Peeled Hard Boiled Eggs

• 300 grams Beef Sausage Meat (You can make your own Sausage Meat, find the recipe HERE

• 2 cups Bread Crumbs

• 1 Egg

• 1/4 cup flour

Procedure

– Roll Eggs in flour,

– Cover the eggs with beef sausage
* taste your beef sausage, if it is bland and unseasoned, season lightly with salt and pepper. I used the Chi brand and it comes seasoned.

– Dip in beaten egg

– Roll in bread crumbs and Fry till golden brown

– Serve warm or cold. You can eat it alone or with dipping sauce or some salad like I did for dinner. Still enjoying my romance with mangoes

Baking with the boys (Part 2); Rainbow Cookies

April 11, 2015April 11, 2015Ounje2 Comments

Remember how I told you the boys wanted rainbow cookies and a rainbow cake? After our successful outing with our Rainbow Cake, they were quite excited to get on with the cookies.
I was very busy the next day and got home rather late but they were not relenting. This time, the boys came with a friend .
I had saved a recipe I wanted to try out with and we did. The kids were quite enthusiastic about it and they eagerly got to work

I forgot to buy M&M s but I found Skittles instead and used them.
This is what we were going for

But instead, this is what we got because the skittles melted in the oven (I should have known that) and the kids scooped the cookie batter too close to each other.

It might look like an epic fail, but taste wise, it was bloody good.

Well I wanted to make it up to the boys because of the look and used another recipe.

Recipe

• 2 1/2 cups Self Raising Flour (alternative 2 1/2 cups plain flour + 4 tsp Baking powder)

• 1 Cup Sugar

• 100g Butter

• 1 Egg

Procedure

– Using the rubbing in method, rub the flour, sugar and butter together to form breadcrumbs, handle the flour lightly.

– Add the egg so the dough can bind.

– If you want to add colours , divide into equal parts, using gel colours, lightly add the colours into each part. What I did was, I let the dough remind in bread crumbs form and i used a skewer to work the colours.

– Wrap individually in cling film and leave it to rest in a fridge for a few hours or over night.

– Divide all into equal parts. Roll out on a flour dusted board, using a rolling pin, flatten out and cut out shapes with a cookies cutter.

You can make whatever shapes you want. Your just bake them in round shapes. For the cookies with M&M s on top I rolled the dough lightly in my palm and pressed the M&M s on top. Be gentle with your dough, overworking it would turn out hard cookies .

– Lay them in baking tray covered in parchment paper and bake for 30 mins in the middle layer of the oven heated to 350°C.

Well our cookies snap like biscuits and taste like cookies. And we loved them. Try it too.