Prawn Salad

I am not a great fan of cold food especially cold prawns but when my sister made this salad to compliment a dinner dish I was preparing, I fell in love. I always have it with something hot though.

My sister is a lawyer and as with most lawyers I know, she hates Mathematics, anything scientific and everyone knows and forgives her for this. Even after she failed Mathematics in high school, my parents laughed and made a joke of it. Imagine if I had failed math like that! Trouble! I would not have heard the last of it.  Can you imagine the speech I would have been given? “As the first born in this family you have to set good example….” Oh the curse of first-born. Argh! Anyway she always turns to me for help with things like computers, the Internet or any form of technology so when ever I turn to her for help in this particular area she makes a big show of it. I once asked her how she loaded videos on Facebook, oh gosh how I regretted it! She called everyone to tell then how the student had become the master. Joker. So you can imagine how smug she felt when she showed me how to make the prawn salad, I didn’t hear the last of it! I know it's all love though.

Layered Prawn Salad

Ingredients:

½ cup of cooked and peeled small prawns

½ cup of shredded crab sticks

½ cup of sweetcorn

2 hard-boiled eggs.

4 tablespoons of Mayonnaise

1 Knorr cube

To get a layered look take an empty can that used to contain plum tomatoes and open both ends, wash thoroughly. I usually rinse the prawns with very hot water and then mix the cube of Knorr in. Add 1 tablespoon of Mayonnaise in each of the cups that contain the prawns, crab-sticks, sweet corn and eggs. You don’t have to use a 1-tablespoon, use as much or as little as you want.

Place the hollow can in the centre of a large plate and place a tablespoon of the crab-sticks mixture in the can. Using the spoon to smooth over the mixture in the can. Do this for all mixtures until you have placed all the ingredients through the can.  Cross your fingers and say a silent prayer as you remove the can slowly off the plate.

P.S. I didn’t mix the ingredients with Mayonnaise separately. What I tried to do was include the Mayonnaise as a layer as well but alas the arrangement collapsed. That’s why I suggested adding Mayonnaise to the ingredients to sort of glue them together and that’s why my picture doesn’t look like what I have described!

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.

#OccupyNigeria... With Smelly Mackerel

I miss home terribly! Despite what's going on in Nigeria right now. I wish I was there giving my own two kobos on the matter at hand, doing what I can to help bring about the change we need for a better Nigeria. I am proud of everyone that's standing up for the good change we deserve. There's that saying that if you don't stand up for something you would fall for anything! Anyway I hope people protest peacefully. Please stay safe those of you at home.

It's so funny that the memory that keeps playing in my head is that of Balogun market on Lagos Island where I used to get dragged by my mum to buy stuff for school. Why the market I don't know maybe it is because the removal of fuel subsidy is affecting the price of everything in the market. Watching my mum negotiate with the sellers, I learnt how to haggle. And I think I am pretty good. I have practised this skill every chance I got. I even tried it at TK Maxx and it worked. The market sellers in Morocco didn't like me much!

 Another memory I have of Balogun market, is the smell. It always smelt of smoked mackerel. You could spend five minutes there and come out reeking of smoked mackerel. To remove the forces that are resisting change, good change in Nigeria, I would hide smoked mackerel in the houses. Eventually their houses would stink so bad they would have to leave the country!

I remember every corner we turned to there was always women selling smoked fish. My mum would always buy some and make some local stew we ate with boiled rice after our hard day at the market. You can guess this part what was I always looked forward to. I know I know, I am obsessed.

So to remind myself of a little bit of home, for brunch today I made mackerel on toast. I got the recipe from Nigel Slater and tweaked a bit:

Before toasting

Ingredients:

4 medium sliced bread

black pepper

2 mackerel fillets

5 tbsp double cream

60g Parmesan

1 tbsp chopped parsley

Have four slices of your favourite bread ready toasting under the grill. Peel the skin off the mackerel and flake into a bowl. Add four tablespoons of double cream, grate in 50g of Parmesan, add a pinch of black pepper and mix with a fork. Add a spoonful of chopped parsley and mix again.

Pile the mixture onto the toast. Add a final drizzle of cream and a scattering of grated Parmesan and put them under the grill for 3-4 minutes. Serve when they start to bubble and brown.

Mackerel on Toast
 

Counting Sheep

I have got a very terrible case of insomnia. I have lost count of the number of sheep I was counting earlier. They are now dancing and laughing at me. If I only I could catch one to make some nice spicy stew! Tomorrow (or rather later on today) will be my first day back in the New Year and I had planned to be refreshed and anew for my first day back. Alas!

What is really getting on my nerves is that at 10pm I was falling asleep in the living room and as if by magic the desire to sleep evaporated as soon as my head touched the pillow. Now it's 2.45am! Which means I have 4 hours and 15 minutes before it's time to get ready for work. Damn!

I have tried everything I could think of to fall asleep: a hot shower, hot milk, counted sheep backwards, read an MBA book and even started day-dreaming about my future. I checked but couldn't find any Night Nurse. Nada! Nothing worked. Naturally my thoughts turned to food. I could bake some scones or make some lamb stew. Nah, that's time and energy consuming. I think of the fried rice in the fridge I had prepared earlier. No! My plan is to fall asleep not to put on weight! I settled for Kellogg's Crunchie nut and warm milk (again!) instead.

I am going to try one more time and I pray I fall asleep before Fajr (morning prayers).

Wish me luck!