Thou shall NOT eat grass!

As I sat waiting for my appointment at the beauty salon, I leafed through some magazines looking for recipes. All the recipes in the magazines  featured weight loss programs and fat free diets. As it's after Christmas and after all the face stuffing I am sure it's needed but how boring!

The influx of weight loss programmes that arise at the start of a new year make me laugh. People that feel guilty about over indulging a bit too much over the holidays (me included) suddenly rush to register at gyms and eat what my African male friends would call grass for lunch. Marks and Spencer have this new range of ready meals called Simply Full for Longer on sale now. It's supposed to be packed with delicious food with low calories. Today I had a salad that contained only wheat and nuts to support a friend who was on a "loose weight or starve trying" diet. I felt depressed eating it. All I could think about was meat. I love food too much. I just pray I never get fat if not I would be in big trouble. Dieting would equal depression for me. Afraid of this, I have bought an exercise DVD to practise everyday and I also play "Just Dance" on Wii. I pray this new attitude lasts!

To reward myself for being so good at lunch (yeah right!) I decided to prepare one of my favourite Nigerian dishes. The soup is made out of beans and it has different Nigerian tribal names. The Yoruba's call it Gbegiri and the Nupe's call Sansani. I eat this soup with something that resembles mashed rice called Tuwo Shinkafa in Hausa and Jekafa Biboci in Nupe. I have included links to the tribes for more description.

Gbegiri (Bean Stew)
Ingredients:
2 cups of white beans (washed and peeled)
2 teaspoon of dried chillies
1/2 medium onion
100g of dried smoked fish (shredded)
2 tablespoon palm-oil
2 Knorr cubes
Water

To peel the beans: Soak beans for 20 minutes. Rub and squeeze together with both hands to peel the skin off the beans. Continue rubbing and rinsing until all the skin is removed. You can get already peeled beans from an African store. Boil the skinned beans until really soft and mushy. Add the rest of the ingredients and more water depending on how thick you want. Simmer until that the beans has turned into a smooth paste and that the ingredients are well blended into it. Season to taste.

Tuwo Shinkafa (Mashed Rice)

Ingredients:

2 cups of white rice (preferable Basmati rice)

Water

Wash the rice with cold water and then boil until really soft and mushy. You will need to keep adding water as it is boiling. When it's really mushy use a thick wooden spatula to pound and mix the rice until it all sticks together.


Serve Tuwo Shinkafa and Gbegiri with red stew and grilled chicken.