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.
