Author Archives: Afrolems

Afrolems Met Chef Fregz : Hausa Inspired

For many people that live in Nigeria, you must have heard of Chef Fregz or seen him on TV( Knorr Taste Quest Show..ring a bell?). This dude has amazingggggg culinary skills and is super friendly. I always heard about this guy that went to Olashore (High school in Nigeria) that did amazing things with food and I was like okkk let’s see first. Usually when people shout about chefs i’m a bit wary because I never trust their judgements. Then one fateful day, I saw a picture of Chef Fregz eba and Okro on Instagram. I didn’t even need to be told that this guy had awesome skills and I wanted to meet him. Fast forward a few months and here we are, cooking together and playing with Nigerian ingredients. It was definitely a fun day. Here is what we made;

Masa

Kunun Aya

Spicy Curried Goat with Tuwo Rice

Masa (Serves 5)

Ingredients

2 Cups of Tuwo rice (Substitute – jasmine rice)

tuwo rice

1 tablespoon of yeast

1 tablespoon sugar (optional)

1 tablespoon of honey or syrup (optional)

1 cooking spoon of oil

1/2 teaspoon of grated ginger

Method

Soak one cup of the Tuwo rice in water and add 1/2 the tablespoon of yeast. Allow it sit for 4- 5 hours

soak rice for masa rice cake

Boil the other cup of rice and mash it and set aside.

In a blender, pour in the soaked rice and the mashed rice and blend till smooth. Some people use the rice flour to avoid all these steps but I like to go the authentic route.

In the blended rice mixture, pour in your grated ginger and sugar and the other tablespoon of yeast and leave to rise for about 30 minutes or less.

blended masa mixture

In a pancake puff pan, grease the pan a little and add the masa mixture to fry and flip as well to brown on the other side. Serve with honey or maple syrup if you didn’t add sugar or the sugar wasn’t enough.

masa frying in pancake puffs

Some people eat Masa with a pepper sauce. It is completely a preferential choice.

masa with syrup and chocolate sprinkles

Kunun Aya (Serves 2)

Ingredients

1 cup of Tiger nuts

1/2 cup of coconut milk (optional)

1 teaspoon of grated ginger

Pineapples to garnish

Method

Soak the tiger nuts in water for 2 hours

tiger nut ofio

Blend the tiger nuts with 1/2 cup of water

Squeeze out the milk from the nuts.

tiger nut milk kunun aya

Mix it with your coconut milk and ginger and serve with pineapple.

We were going to go the route of the pina colada by blending the pineapples and adding them but we decided not to :)

kunun aya hausa drink

Spicy Curried Goat with Tuwo Rice (Serves 2)

Ingredients

1/4 Pound of Goat Meat

1.5 Tablespoons of Curry

1/2 cup of Coconut Milk

3 cherry tomatoes

5 scotch bonnet peppers or ata rodo (Reduce if you do not like spicy food)

1 cube of seasoning

1/4 bulb of onion

1 cooking spoon of Vegetable Oil

Fresh Thyme

Tuwo Rice (Substitute – Jasmine Rice)

Method

Season and Boil your goat meat and set aside. (I stole some goat meat from Chef Fregz Asun dish )

Wash and Boil your Rice and set aside.

boiled tuwo rice

Chop your onions and pepper and set aside.

Heat up the oil and fry the onions and pepper.

Add the cherry tomatoes whole. (These are those really tiny tomatoes)

Pour in your coconut milk and allow to simmer on medium heat.

Add your seasoning, fresh thyme and curry.

base sauce for curried goat

Pour in your goat meat and allow to simmer for low heat for another 3 minutes.

Serve with your Tuwo Rice.

food styling with chef fregz

Chef Fregz helping me Style the food

spicy curried goat

spicy curried goat and tuwo rice hausa nigerian food

chef fregz and afrolems

Sneak Preview of Chef Fregz Asun and Puff Puff  Details on Bella Naija. Click Here

puff puff and asun chef fregz

 

 

To Find Tiger nuts in the UK, Canada or US, Follow the links below; Found them online :)

UK: http://www.realfoods.co.uk/product/586/real-foods-tiger-nuts-bulk-wholesale

Canada: http://well.ca/products/ecoideas-organic-whole-tigernuts_64925.html 

US:http://www.tigernutsusa.com/

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Ghanian Yam Balls or Yele Kakro

Yesterday, I tweeted about this Yam ball recipe I discovered from this Ghanian site Waakye. I couldn’t wait to try it because I had recently been thinking of something different to do with yam. I did not follow the recipe exactly as I like to add my twist to things but I did do most of what was suggested. I also researched some other recipes of the Yam balls or Yele Kakro as the Ghanians call it and found some people added blended tomatoes to the mix. I wanted to be safe on my first trial. Trust me, I would be experimenting with this more. Hope you enjoy the recipe and if you know any different way to make this, Be sure to leave a comment and let us know.

Ingredients

1 chunky slice of yam

1 cup of seasoned breadcrumbs (You can season this with maggi)

1 egg

1 small piece of fish

1/2 teaspoon of dry pepper

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of butter

Oil for deep frying

 

Method

Peel and boil the yam till very soft

Whisk the egg in a bowl and set aside

Mash the fish as well and set aside

Mash(Pound) the yam with the butter, salt and pepper.

Grab a little yam and place a bit of the mashed fish in the middle and roll into a ball.

Dip in the egg and coat with breadcrumbs and set aside.

Yam balls before frying

In hot oil, Deep fry the yam balls till golden brown.

Serve with a pepper sauce mix, peri peri sauce or as a stand alone appetizer.

Yam balls with peri peri sauce

yele kakro yam balls ghanian food

How to Clean Shrimps and Prawns

Recently, I have started monitoring how people arrive at my blog through their Google Searches and that has been really helpful in crafting a few of my posts. This post is one of such post. Someone recently searched how to clean shrimps so this post is for you whoever you are.

Steps to Cleaning Shrimps and Prawn

There are several methods to dressing shrimps and prawn as different people like to eat them differently. For example my mum and I like to leave half the shell on so we can chew on the shells later especially for the jumbo shrimps. Some people cannot stand the shells and that’s ok. Some people like completely bare shrimps and some others like everything plus the head on the prawn or shrimp. It’s really a preferential thing.

For the Full Shrimp with everything on, You may want to take off the extra hangers on with a pair of kitchen scissors. That’s all the antennas and the legs of the shrimp. For the leg of the shrimps, you can easily break them off. For the antennas, if they don’t come off easily by you pulling them out, then use a pair of Kitchen scissors.

how to dress shrimps

For the Half-dressed Shrimp, Take off the head by pinching it towards the bottom part of the head of the shrimp or prawn. You would also need to pinch towards the bottom of the tail of the shrimp so you can pull out the tail without breaking the shrimp.

Dressing jumbo shrimps

For the full dressing, You need to completely peel off the shell on the body of the shrimp; head and tail inclusive. You would turn the shrimp over and devein it by using a small knife to cut across the back of the shrimp or prawn and pull out the black thread-like substance. Do the same for the front of the shrimp and rinse it.

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Brunch at Southern Sun Ikoyi Lagos

Sunday Morning brunch after church wasn’t exactly something I grew up with. It was more a case of church is over, head on to Mr Biggs or Tastee fried chicken to pick up something quick or my mum was going to cook up a storm. That was what I was used to.

Fast forward a few years and we are having brunch at Southern Sun in Ikoyi. The ambiance was lovely and the waiters were very courteous. Not something you would typically find at a Nigerian restaurant. They smiled as they served us and made small but funny conversation while serving the drinks. Everything from the plates to the utensils were all clean. Trust me, I’ve been to some supposedly high class restaurants and was appalled by what I saw but that is talk for another day.

The people that walked into the restaurant were your typical Lagos people who like to form (lol) Couldn’t help but chuckle at some of them. My mum and I went around looking at what was available and we were surprised to find Asun on the menu. “Who has Asun so early on in the day? ” After our amazing meal, My mum and I decided to speak to the Sous Chef at Southern Sun, Mr Stanley Mwangi. He was telling us that Nigerians loooove their food. In his words; “Nigerians can eat the same thing in the morning, afternoon and come to Southern Sun and eat the same thing.” He is Kenyan by the way and makes amazing Nigerian food. If you haven’t been to Southern Sun, I’d say wear your really nice clothes (So you don’t feel like a lesser relative) and get ready to have an amazing dining experience.

southern sun ikoyi lagos

southern sun ikoyi

dining in lagos island

brunch at southern sun ikoyi lagos

Why Eating Okro is good for you?

Okro soup is a soup I feel only a few people get right. If you miss the taste mark with okro, you are stuck with this slimy soup that no one wants to eat. It is very important to cook okro well and make it really tasty. Apart from the taste benefit, Okro also known as Okra or lady fingers has many health benefits. Some of them are listed below;

Okro is a dietary fiber that contains several minerals and vitamins. It does not contain saturated fats and is recommended for people on a weight loss journey and cholesterol control journey.

Okro has healthy amounts of Vitamin A. Vitamin A also has many functions in our body. Okro also has anti-oxidants that help protect against lung cancer.

Okro cleanses the liver: The slimy substance in okra contains substances that bind bile acid and cholesterol to detoxify the liver.

Okro helps maintain the elasticity of the skin making it smooth and young looking. It also helps in preventing acne.

You can indulge in some Okro Soup this weekend. Afrolems has a recipe for you of Ila Alasepo 

Enjoy xoxo

okro soup and pounded yam

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May Food Holidays

Everyday I see food blogs posting national food holidays. Last month or 2 months ago was National pancake day. Boy did I have a lot of pancakes that day. Sigh! Oh the guilt of all these holidays lol. This month of May brings to you more holidays. Not sure if you are familiar with them or not. I know most of the holidays on this list I will not be partaking in. The calorie count will be so high but if you do make any of these things, please share the picture with us and we would publish it. We would also be trying some of the things on some days but some of them are very oyibo-ish(Foreign) Without further ado, I bring to you the national Food Holidays for May.

  • May 1: National Chocolate Parfait Day
  • May 2: National Truffles Day
  • May 3: National Raspberry Tart Day
  • May 4: National Homebrew Day
  • May 4: National Orange Juice Day
  • May 4: National Candied Orange Peel Day
  • May 5: National Chocolate Custard Day
  • May 5: Cinco de Mayo
  • May 5: National Hoagie Day
  • May 6: National Crêpes Suzette Day
  • May 6: International No Diet Day
  • May 7: National Roast Leg of Lamb Day
  • May 8 National Coconut Cream Pie Day
  • May 8: National Empanada Day
  • May 8: Have A Coke Day
  • May 9: National Butterscotch Brownie Day
  • May 9: National Moscato Day
  • May 10: National Shrimp Day
  • May 11: Eat What You Want
  • May 12: National Nutty Fudge
  • May 13 National Apple Pie Day
  • May 13: National Fruit Cocktail Day
  • May 14: National Buttermilk Biscuit Day
  • May 15: National Chocolate Chip Day
  • May 16: National Coquilles St. Jacques Day
  • May 17: National Cherry Cobbler Day
  • May 18: National Cheese Soufflé Day
  • May 19: National Devil’s Food Cake Day
  • May 19: World Baking Day
  • May 20: National Quiche Lorraine Day
  • May 20: Pick Strawberries Day
  • May 21: National Strawberries and Cream Day
  • May 22: National Vanilla Pudding Day
  • May 23: National Taffy Day
  • May 24: National Escargot Day
  • May 25: National Brown-Bag-It Day
  • May 25: National Wine Day
  • May 26: National Blueberry Cheesecake Day
  • May 26: National Cherry Dessert Day
  • May 27: National Grape Popsicle Day
  • May 28: National Brisket Day
  • May 28: National Hamburger Day
  • May 29: National Coq Au Vin Day
  • May 30: National Mint Julep Day
  • May 31: National Macaroon Day
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