All Gone!

Can I just put it out there that kuli kuli and kankuwa originated from Nupe land? thank you!

My great Aunt is the king, yes king of kulikuli and dankuwa in Lafiagi. I once took some to work and everyone was going crazy over them. I am sure there is some secret ingredients she adds to her recipe which I am must ask her for that make them taste so lovely. She also dries them as opposed to frying them.

I find it weird that people fry their kuli kuli and suya. The first time I saw suya being fried in Lagos, I almost passed out. I was like that's not how we do it. This was apparently the best suya in Lagos. I shall not mention names!

Anyway I decided to make some kuli kuli and dankuwa as I suddenly had a craving for them. the difference between the two is how you process them, the ingredients are the same.

Kuli Kuli

Ingredients:

1 cup of roasted groundnut, salted
a pinch of dry grounded pepper
one muslin cloth

Method:

Blend the groundnut and pepper until you get a very thick creamy paste. Using a tablespoon, scoop half a spoonful and place on a foil lined tray. using the back of the spoon, flatten the paste. Repeat until all the paste is done. leave in a dry area to dry. This can be placed outside to dry in the sun or in a dehydrator until it is crunchy.

Dankuwa

The only different between the method is that you blend the groundnut to a dough texture, so not as creamy as kuli kuli. This means you blend this for a short duration than when blending for kuli kuli. The next step is to place the dough is the muslin cloth and squeeze out any excess oil. Mould this dough in balls or into any shape you like.






You won't believe i have no pictures of the finished product as my dearest AF wacked everything before I could get a chance to take any. He left one dankuwa for me. Just one! Sigh! 

How Do You Like It?

Life is funny sha! Funny how we take things for granted. Masa is one of those Nigerian foods I was never crazy about. I like it, I am or was never crazy about it.  I grew up around it so it was always available. In the eighteen months I spent in Nigeria I don’t remember craving it. I probably ate it once when I went home to visit my folks. I move to Doha and all of a sudden I crave it amongst other things.

My craving was so intense that I went out to buy a cupcake maker just for masa (because I didn’t have the “kwanu” to cook it in).  I followed 9jafoodie recipe, which is so easy I must say but I baked it instead of frying. 

Here are the different ways I enjoyed my masa:

Masa served with lamb stew

Masa Added to stir fry, can be an appetiser 

Gizzard broth with masa and vegetables

All masa dishes including served with suya and served with plain honey.

An Orgasmic Experience!

For a change of scenery AF took us to the Villagio mall. City Centre mall was our go to place. By the time we got there we were so famished and ready to consume a whole horse! Our hungry step led us to a French restaurant called le Notre which felt more like a posh cafe complete with pastries and dessert at the entrance inviting you in..

As the waiter was leading us to our table I begged for some bread and tomato juice with all the spices (I wanted a come but they had only Pepsi, yuck!). When we got to our table the waiter stood there asking jamb questions! I am like dude please go and get me some bread and drink before I die. He laughed and handed us some thick menu before heading to fetch some bread.

I hate long menus. They confuse me especially when I am hungry. Luckily this one had pictures to make things easier. I ordered pasta - linguine with clams and prawns to be exact. AF ordered mushroom soup and quail. We had to beg the waiter like a million times before our meal arrived.

AF suddenly screamed after taking a spoon of his soup. I was so shocked and worried. In between mouthfuls he was oh-ing and ah-ing, trying to describe how lovely the soup was. He actually used the word "orgasmic" to describe it. How corny! I was like "is that why you want them to throw us out?"  He then shoved a spoonful into my mouth and it was indeed delicious. I abandoned my starter and helped him finish his. He wasn't too pleased about that. Lol!

Not to be outdone by some professional chef (right!) I decided to make my version for AF. As soon as he saw it he laughed. He figured that the way reacted to le Notre's soup got me a bit jealous. He wolfed the soup down and said it was even better! I beamed from ear to ear and proceeded to eat mine and almost spat it out! He lied! It was so salty my taste buds were rioting! Ah my rep!

As I didn't want the only memory of my mushroom soup AF to be a salty one, I prepared another batch the very next day but this time paying attention to the amount of salted added. AF gave it 2 thumbs up.

Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

Mushrooms (chopped)

1 medium onion (chopped)
50g of butter

3 tablespoon of cream

Black pepper

Thyme

1.5 cups of chicken stock (or 1.5 cups of water and 1 stock cube)

Salt to taste

Method:

heat the butter on medium heat in a sauce pan and fry the onions and mushrooms until the onions are translucent. add the thyme and stock. simmer for another 10 minutes. Blend the mixture in a blender to combine all the ingredients thoroughly. return the mixture to the sauce pan, add the cream and black pepper. simmer for 5 minutes. Check for salt.

The Last Year at a Glance

Since I last posted, my blog became severely infected with spam, virus and bugs. I spent a long time trying to fix it and eventually gave up. I never gave up cooking though.

Since I last posted, I won third place in the Knorr Taste Quest. I was surprisingly called back after I had left for the grand finale. I was really shocked and excited but also very nervous. I needed to bring my A game and put all fears behind me. We were given gigantic worms to cook among other things. I just channeled my fears of creepy crawlies into cooking something scrumptious and in the end it paid off.

Since I last posted, I got engaged, got married to my AF and had a beautiful baby girl, Z.

Since I last posted, I moved cities, first to Aberdeen from Lagos and now live in Doha, Qatar. So it’s been a lot of moving, packing and unpacking for me. Tiring but very exciting.

With my blog up and running, my feet firmly in one place I hope to continue to post recipes for you all.

Thanks for never giving up on me.