Ounje – Ounje Aladun

Edikang Ikong

May 15, 2018May 15, 2018Omolabake for #OunjeAladunLeave a comment

So i woke up to tend my vegetable garden, which i had left unattended for a about two weeks or a lil more. I wear many hat’s like many people and the month of April right to the first two weeks of May was very busy. First i got NAFDAC approval for my products FDVie Juice yaaay! Then we were vendors at the GTB Food and Drink fair , then renovation of the production facility , plus daily life!

So my garden was overgrown with Waterleaf! I remember my first attempt at planting waterleaf with seeds, i waited many months it didn’t yield until my staff told me to propagate using stems instead. Now the plant is in every pot in the garden, just dispersing its seeds. That means I’d be having a lot of waterleaf soups.

Freshly harvested waterleaf from my container garden

So after pulling out a lot of waterleaf yesterday, i made Edikang ikong

Recipe

Ingredients

800g washed and choppedWaterleaf

500g washed and chopped Ugu leaves

Assorted Meats

1 cooking spoon blended pepper mix (Scotch bonnet -ata rodo/Bawa)

3/4 cup palm oil

Stockfish

Smoked Fish

1 tbsp blended crayfish

Bouillon cubes

Salt to taste

Procedure

In a pot, season your meats with salt and bouillon cubes (to your taste) *Don’t* season with onion. Add water and cook till the meat is soft and tender. I usually cook my meats with smoked fish heads for rich flavour

When your meat is cooked and the water is properly reduced, add your blended pepper mix and palm oil.

Taste to see if it requires additional seasoning, if it does add some more. Add, stock fish, smoked fish, crayfish and cook till the water is reduced completely.

When the water is completely reduced and you can see the palmoil glistening on the meats, add chopped water leaves.

(Let your washed water leaf and Ugu leaves strain in a seive to allow all the excess water get away, your chopped leaves should be near dry)

Stir in properly , the water leaf will wilt into the pot, let it simmer for about 3 minutes

Next stir in your Ugu leaves, stir it in well till it incorporates well with the waterleaf.

Cook with lid off , on medium heat for an additional 8 – 10 minutes.

Serve hot with your preferred accompaniment.

Please don’t tell my Yoruba ancestors that i almost denounced Efo Riro in favour of this tasty pot of goodness that is native to the Efik people.

Nkwobi

March 19, 2018Omolabake for #OunjeAladunLeave a comment

Nkwobi is a happy hour meal.

Busy as Lagos is, it has an interesting night life. After the stress of the hustle and bustle of the day, people seem to find a way to unwind after. Hence you’d find a lot of out door cool/happy hour spots and night bars scattered across the metropolis of Lagos. The city is a sort of melting pot for people of different ethnicities and culture across Nigeria, thus you’d find the influence of different cultures in the cuisine.
Popular amongst them is Isi Ewu, Nkwobi, Point and Kill Pepper, Asun, Suya which feature prominently on the menus of most outdoor (indoor too) night bars and cool spots.

There seems to be a sort of marriage with alcohol and spicy food, which might be responsible for there popularity. Personally I’ve found spicy food to be my alcohol antidote, once i start to feel light headed i hit it with something extra spicy.

Recipe

Ingredients

• Cow foot (cut into sizeable pieces, I used 12)

• 50 grams Stock Fish

• 20cl (200ml) Palm Oil or Palm nut Cream.

• *1 tablespoon powdered edible potash (Akanwu/Kaun/Keun) – you won’t need this if you are using palm nut cream-

•1 teaspoon ground Ehu seeds (Calabash Nutmeg)

• 2 tablespoons ground crayfish

• Yellow Scotch Bonnet / Habanero peppers (to your taste)

• 1 medium onion

• 2 big stock cubes

• Salt (to taste)

• Ugba

To garnish

• 1 medium onion

• 10 Utazi leaves

Procedure

– Wash and season your cow foot along with stock fish, and cook.

– Add the bouillon cubes (crushed) and the chunks of onion.

– Add a small quantity of water and start cooking at medium heat till well cooked. Add just enough water to prevent burning as you cook. There should not be any stock (water) in the pot when the meat is done. If the meat is tough, I’d recommend you cook with a pressure pot or just cook for longer. I prefer to use a pressure cooker to cook the cow foot as it can be tough.

– While the meat is cooking, pour the palm oil or crean into a clean dry pot.

* If you are using palm nut cream, skip the next 3 steps.

– Mix Potash with some water to dissolve and seive. Pour in the potash mixture (sieved) into the oil.

– Stir with a wooden spatula as you pour the potash. You’ll notice the palm oil begin to curdle and turn yellow.

– Keep stiring till all the oil has turned yellow.

– If you are using Palm nut cream ensure there is no water contained in the cream. To achieve this you can either use the canned ones or, after extracting your cream from the palm nuts, set it aside for the cream to collect at the top or put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes for the cream to set.

– Heat up the cream for about 5 minutes and proceed to the next step.

– Add the ground crayfish, pepper and ehu seeds. Stir very well till they are all incorporated.

– Add the well done meat and Ugba to the palm oil paste and stir very well with the wooden spatula.

– Leave it on heat till the Soup is piping hot, stirring all the time to make sure it does not burn.

– To prepare the garnish, cut the onions into rings and cut the utazi into long thin slices.

I served it traditional style in a wooden mortar
Add the thin slices of utazi and onion rings on top for the full effects.

Normally Nkwobi is served alone accompanied with alcohol or soft drinks but for some reason I also enjoy pairing it with white rice.

Ebiripo

February 24, 2017Omolabake for #OunjeAladun2 Comments

I made Ebiripo today and I shared pictures on my Facebook wall, I had even written that I was channeling my imaginary Ijebu side, little did I know I did indeed have Ijebu Remo roots, royal roots as a matter of fact, LOL! My dad saw my post and sent me this message on WhatsApp.

Dad: “Labake you made Ebiripo. You don’t know what you’re reminding the Bolumoles of. It used to be brought for the family from Sagamu, the native home of my father’s mother.”

“Baskets of Ebiripo wrapped in banana leaves. You brought back my childhood memory”.

“That food is native to Remo people of Ogun State. Not very popular amongst the Yorubas”.

“I’m surprised that you’re eating. Who taught you to eat it?”

Me: The things I have learnt to eat in my quest for food, they are plenty

Dad: “You know my father’s mum was from the Royal family of Sagamu and her only son my Dad were treated with great respect.”

And that is how I found out I have an Ijebu side!

I’ve been meaning to try my hands on making Ebiripo, so I reach out to a friend Funmilayo Ademoye and she showed me how incredibly easy it was to make. It’s so easy.

Typically Ebiripo is eaten with Egusi soup, or pepper sauce, but it is acceptable to eat it with any soup of your choice.
I made mine with Smoked Fish Pepper Sauce and it was legit delicious!
How to make Ebiripo

Cocoyam
Salt (to taste)
Moinmoin leaves (to wrap the Cocoyam paste)

*I didn’t include the measurements as you can make work with whatever quantity works for you.

Procedure

Peel and cut the Cocoyam
Grate or blend into a paste.

Peeled and cut Cocoyam, Cocoyam paste

Add salt to taste and mix well.
Place a pot on medium heat, if you have a steaming pot you can use it or place a barrier at the base of the pot, locally the stalks on the moinmoin leaves is placed inside the pot at the base before adding a little way.
Scoop the paste into the leaves and wrap. Place the wrapped leaves in a pot and steam till it is cooked

Serve with your soup of choice.

To make the pepper sauce, I used the recipe I use for making sauce for Ekuru.I only added Smoked Cod fish (panla), Smoked Tilapia (Bonga fish), powdered crayfish.

You can learn how to make the sauce here: Sauce

Spaghetti and Meatballs

November 29, 2016March 21, 2018Omolabake for #OunjeAladunLeave a comment

I love my meatballs to be succulent and not tough and dry. This is my trusted go to recipe for meatballs. I could wake up in the middle of the night to make this.

I’m off carbs for a while so I could only relish the plate you see below with my eyes.

This is one of those posts where I just want to go straight to it and share the recipe.Its quite easy peasy.
Recipe.

Spaghetti

• 400grams Packet of Spaghetti
Meat balls

(Makes 16 )

• 350grams ground beef (You can make your own ground beef using this LINK )
• 2 or 3 slices of stale bread (for crumbs)
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 small onion
• 2 Garlic
• 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper (Ground pepper/Ata gigun )
• 1 tsp Dried parsley leaves
• 1 tsp Dried Rosemary leaves
• 1/2 Mixed Herbs
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• Seasoning to taste

For Sauce

• 1 cup tomato puree
• 3 tbsp Tomato paste
• 1 tsp Parsley
• 1 tsp Rosemary
• 1 tsp Mixed Herbs
• * Cayenne Pepper (optional)
• Salt to taste
• Seasoning to taste.

Procedure
– In a blender or food processor , blitz the bread into crumbs. If using 3 slices , this would yield about 2 cups. Separate 1 cup.
– Roughly chopped or blitz your onion and garlic.
– Mix all the dried spices, seasoning and salt together, work it gently into the meat using your hands

– Add Egg and Milk mixing it in evenly
– Add 1 cup of Breadcrumbs and mix till well incorporated
– Sprinkle some of the left over Breadcrumbs on a flat surface. Scoop some of the mixture into your palms and roll into balls, place them on your flat surface sprinkled with breadcrumbs. When you are done you can sprinkle some more bread crumbs on the meat balls.

Bread crumbs, roughly blended onions, ground beef mixed with all ingredients , rounded balls on breadcrumbs covered surface.

– You can grill or bake the balls at this point. I added 2 tbsp of vegetable oil into a pan, and placed the balls into it to cook on both sides for less than 5 minutes. Take the meatballs out of the pan and services aside.

– I used the pan I made the meatballs in for the tomato sauce. Add all your ingredients at once. Cook the Tomato sauce for at least 15 minutes before adding the meat balls. Then leave it to cook on low it till the tomato sauce is ready.

For the Spaghetti

– I took out all the meat balls from the tomato sauce, added a little water and cooked the Spaghetti in the sauce till it was done.You can taste for salt and additional seasoning if necessary.
It’s quite easy to make it can bet you, while cooking I had time to feed two kids lunch, wash dishes and bath them in between. Give it a try.

Garden Egg Sauce

July 23, 2016Omolabake for #OunjeAladun2 Comments

My sister came into the kitchen this morning as I was preparing to make garden egg sauce and she said, “Sis, isn’t this that sauce we hated as kids”. I told her, “Believe me, I now eat many of the things I hated as a child, so why not this one too”.

Today probably is the first time I would eat Garden Egg sauce in probably 16 years. My husband on the other hand likes Garden Egg Sauce and for the 6 years we have been married, he has asked me several times to make it. My memories of garden egg sauce kept me from making it, well today I did and I loved it, so going forward I’d make new delicious memories of my own and share with my children.

Recipe
● 10 Garden Eggs

● 9 Tomatoes

● 5 Jalapeño peppers ( Bawa / Sombo / long tatashe )

● 3 Scotch Bonnet ( Ata rodo )

● 1 large Onion

● De-boned , shredded mackerel fish

● 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

● 2 Bouillon Cubes

● Salt (to taste)

Procedure
– Wash and take off the stalks on the garden eggs. Then boil till the garden eggs are tender, and the skin can peel easily. Peeling the skin is optional

Douse the boiled garden egg in cold water so it is easier to peep the skin off.

– Mash up the softened garden egg

– While boiling the garden eggs, blend your tomatoes and pepper. Chop onions

– Heat up vegetable oil in a pan, and add the onions. Fry the onions lightly and add blended tomatoes and pepper.
– Add your seasonings, if you have stock, add a cup.
– When the pepper is cooked and the water has reduced completely, add the garden egg and the fish. Cook for an additional 7 – 10 minutes with the lid on.

Garden Egg Sauce is most popularly served with boiled yam, you can pair it with anything you want. Serve warm.

*the grilled garden eggs tastes good too.

Prawn Dodo

July 12, 2016Omolabake for #OunjeAladunLeave a comment

A few days ago, my Gizdodo was featured on a blog and it really cheered me up. Thing was I had been ill, drifting in and out of sleep from being heavily medicated with flu pills and antibiotics, I had initially thought it was malaria and so I self medicated (don’t be like me).

That blog post reminded me a lot of a part of my life that I had not paid attention to at all this year. Cooking!

Not just cooking, because of course I have cooked food this year, but being a mad scientist in my kitchen. Using my cooking as a therapeutic outlet and chronicling it.

Not quite sure how I would fit this back into my life right now, but I’m sure I won’t let myself go too much to the extent that I’d neglect the things I love.
I love seafood as some people would know and this here is Prawn Dodo made using Gizdodo recipe. You should try it out.

Recipe

• 500g Fresh Prawns

• 3 Ripe Plantains

• 1 Large Onion

• 4 Tomatoes

• Jalapeño peppers ( Bawa / Sombo / long tatashe ) As many as you want depending on how much heat you can handle. I used more than 10 pieces

• 3 medium sweet bell peppers (i used yellow, red, green)

• Scotch Bonnet (Ata rodo) as many as you want

• 1 cup beef Stock

• 2 Bouillon Cubes (knorr beef cubes in this instance)

• Salt to taste

• Vegetable oil ( to fry )/ Or Air fry

• 1/4 Coconut oil

Procedure

– Dice up your plantains and fry till golden brown and set aside.

– Coarsely blend your tomatoes, onion and peppers. You can use as little or as much of any of these ingredients. What we want to get is at least 1 1/2 cups of the coarsely blended pepper.

– Chop you bell peppers.

– In a pot or wok add coconut oil, blended pepper, add 1 cup of beef Stock, taste for seasoning, if necessary season a little more. Cook with lid off till the water is reduced completely, turn the heat down a notch and allow the pepper simmer, then add chopped bell peppers and prawns.

– Turn the heat down completely and cover the pot/wok for 2 minutes to allow the prawns cook, take off the lid and cook for an additional 5 minutes, then stir it in well and add the fried plantain and stir in using a wooden or plastic spoon/ladle so as not to mash up the plantain.

– Stir in well and turn off the heat. Serve warm.

Ofe Onugbu

July 12, 2016July 12, 2016Omolabake for #OunjeAladun1 Comment

In recent times I’ve done very little “cooking”, most meals have consisted of quick fixes, take outs or otherwise cooked by someone else. I had a rough start this year. Thankfully it’s been rough for the right reasons, Growth in my business Fontaine De Vie. Shortage of man power, break down of some machinery welcomed the growth, it was a gruelling time because we just had to meet up. I went from a production staff strength of 5 to 1 coupled with no domestic staff to help with the home front, I found myself borrowing more hours from the next day only to fall short. It’s amazing how my health didn’t fail in all of this. I made it through and I’m grateful for the lessons I learnt during the phase. Challenges are made to strengthen you, it won’t break you if you don’t let it.
Ofe Onugbu recipe is the same as that of Oha, only difference is the leaves, Oha and Onugbu (Bitter Leaf). I’m a yoruba girl who loves to cook eastern and south eastern soups, a little more pepper than the traditional requirement and I’m good!

Ingredients

• Onugbu leaves (Bitter Leaf) a handful

Thickeners

• Cocoyam – 8 small corms

• Achi (2 Tablespoons *powdered)

• Ofor ( 2 Tablespoons *powdered)

• Red Palm Oil – 2 cooking spoons

• Assorted Beef meats

• Assorted dry Fish

• Fresh peppers (scotch bonnet / habenero /ata rodo)

• Salt to taste

• Crayfish (powdered)

• Bouillon Cubes

• 1 teaspoon Ogiri Igbo (for the traditional taste but optional)

Procedure

– Grind pepper and set aside.

Achi on the left, Ofor the right, ground mixture of both in front. — Achi on the left, Ofor the right, ground mixture of both in front

*If using Cocoyam

– Wash and boil the cocoyam corms till soft.
Remove the peels and in a blender , blend to a smooth paste you can also use a mortar and pestle , that is the more traditional approach.

– Personally I buy, bitter leaves that have been washed in the market. However when I get home I pour boiling hot water over the bitter leaves and leave it steep for about a minute and strain, a friend advised I use salt to just wash it a little more instead of using hot water, to get rid of more of the bitterness. Now you may prefer to buy your own Bitter Leaf fresh , and wash from the scratch, I think it is tedious, but hey whatever rocks your boat. Set it aside.

– Season and boil the meats, when then are tender add stock fish and dry fish.

– Add the pepper, ogiri Igbo and ground crayfish and cook for 10 minutes. Now add either Achi/Ofor powder mix or the cocoyam paste in small lumps then the palm oil

See Pictures below.

– Cover the pot and leave to cook on high heat till all the cocoyam lumps have dissolved. You can add more water if you feel that the soup is too thick.

* Remove smoked catfish if you are using any at this point to prevent disintegration

– Add the washed Onugbu (bitter) leaves and leave to cook for about 5 minutes.

* Ever since the Igbo woman who sells me spices adviced I use a combination of Achi and Ofor instead of Cocoyam, I have come to fall in love with it. The smoothness, the consistency, the taste, is so different from what I get with cocoyam. I love it.

Serve with your favourite starchy side dish. E.g Eba, Amala, Pounded Yam, even Rice.

Banga Soup

May 14, 2015August 25, 2017Omolabake for #OunjeAladun13 Comments

Finger licking goodness, a delicacy of the Deltans of the South – South of Nigeria. Made from creamy palm nut extract and brought to life by mix of exotic spices, and fresh water fish banga soup is one King of a soup.

One of my aunts had a Nanny, Mama Onome who would make a big batch of banga soup and store in the fridge for us to eat. The woman made it look so easy to make, my first time making it especially since I was make the palm nut extract myself I realised how much work it was. You don’t have to make the palm nut extract, buy the canned ones. The rest is a breeze. See how good it looks, It tastes great too

Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 Cups Palm Nuts

• 1.5 kg Fresh Fish e.g Tilapia or Croaker (I used frozen Cod fish).

• 1 Oburunbebe Stick

• I tbsp Scotch Bonnet (less or more depending on how much heat you can take)

• 1 tsp Banga Spice (this a mixture of the exotic spices that make banga soup what it is, I won’t even attempt to spell the spices cause I would get it wrong)

• Smoked Prawns

• 1 Cup properly washed and cleaned periwinkle in shell

• Smoked Catfish

• *Fresh Prawns (optional)

• Stock Fish

• 1 tbsp dried crushed Bitterleaf or Obeletientien Leaves.

• Salt and Bouillon Cubes to taste

Procedure

To make Palm nut extract.

▪Boil Palm nuts till the skin is tender and pliable.

▪In a mortar pound till the skin falls off from the kernel.

▪Add about 3 cups of warm water and rinse the pulp, using a mesh seive, strain the liquid and collect in a pot.

To make Soup

– Place Palm nut extract on heat , add the oburunbebe stick and allow it to heat up.

– Add Blended pepper, stock fish, smoked fish, smoked prawns, banga spice, salt and seasoning. Bring it to boil.

– Add Fresh fish and let it cook till done. Don’t use a spoon to stir the pot just shake it. Turn the heat down. Add washed periwinkles, fresh prawns if you are using any. Then add the crushed dried leaves, I used Obeletientien

* I learnt a tip when Dunni was in my kitchen not to over cook Banga after all the spices have been added as it tends to taste over salted.

• You know your soup is ready when some oil starts to float at the top.

Delicious like kilode!

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Yam Pottage

April 27, 2015April 22, 2017Omolabake for #OunjeAladun7 Comments

Growing up i was not a huge yam pottage fan , most people call it yam porridge . My dad cooks the best yam pottage, he made me like it. Well maybe because the man would nearly finish all the ingredients in the pantry that was meant for four pots of soup into one pot of pottage. Before I cook yam pottage, the yam has to be right, and by right I mean it has to be the variety that crumbles when you pierce it with a fork when it’s cooked, sweet and preferably white Yam. I like my yam pottage to have some broth and chunky pieces of yam so I eat it with a spoon -squishy and chewy-. I really love to have vegetable in my pottage, le hubs doesn’t really care for vegetable so I add mine separately.

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Recipe

Ingredients

• Yam

• Blended peppers and onion

• Meat stock

• Powdered Crayfish

• Bouillon Cubes

• Palm Oil

• * bits of meats, fish

Procedure

– Peel, wash and cut yam into chunks. Add some water, salt, bouillon cubes and if you have meat stock, add the meat stock. I’ve found that yam cooked in meat stock yields great tasting yam pottage.

– When the yam is cooked (you can pass a fork through )add palm oil, blended pepper, powdered crayfish. If you need to, you can add more water but be careful not to add too much.

– Add your bits of precooked meats, fish, egg or fresh prawns .

– Stir all together and Cook on medium heat still all the ingredients are well incorporated and the broth has a slightly thick consistency.

– *If adding vegetable, add just before you turn off the heat. This is so as not to over cook, the heat would cook it through even after the heat has been turned off.

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No Fuss Steamed Vegetable

April 22, 2015Omolabake for #OunjeAladun4 Comments

This is probably the easiest vegetable dish you’d ever make. No oil, no pepper , and can be paired with any dish you like. I’ve over indulged in all the sweet and highly calorific stuffs, it’s time to come clean.

Recipe

• 1 bowl (1 litre bowl) of washed and shredded vegetable (Ugu in this instance)

• 1 Large Onion

• 2 Smoked Mackerel (deboned and shredded)

• Salt to taste

• Bouillon Cubes

• 1 tbsp Powdered Crayfish

Procedure

– In a pot or saucepan add about 1/8 cup of water, chop onions and set in medium heat.

– After about 5 mins, add the vegetable, salt, bouillon cubes, and crayfish.

– Stir well and add deboned and shredded mackerel. Stir till all is well incorporated. Don’t cook the vegetable too long, let it retain its fresh green colour.

I’ve been having a little too much fun with mine. Portion Control! *winks