Sasa's Kitchen Against GMO - You Should Be Too

I bought some beans from my usual grocer the other day. I was excited because I had been dreaming of moin-moin and beans porridge and dodo (fried plantain). I soaked the beans for a whole day and cooked for another 6 hours but still inedible. I had to check the packet again to make sure I hadn't bought beads! 

In the end I chucked it all out and went with something I thought would work - Lentils. Part of the beans family, right? It worked very well. Follow this recipe but omit the step about peeling the beans. Serve with chicken suya and salad.

The inedible beads, sorry beans got me thinking about some "noise" being made back home in Nigeria right now about the introduction of GMO and I thought I better add my two cents to the matter.

My very good friend Patrick has written extensively about this issue here and the ever gorgeous Ify has highlighted health issues with respect to GMOs here. Please take some time to read these articles.

The minister of Agriculture has responded to all the noise, claiming that there are no GMOs in Nigeria only "biotechnical" seeds. He claims that there is a difference between biotechnology and GMOs. If you go to the Monsanto's website (the largest producers of GMOs) they proudly say they are a biotechnology company helping farmers increase their yield. And Monsanto's representatives have been seen doing "business".

I feel that even if GMOs are a good thing, we don't need them in Nigeria. We have fertile land. All we need is for the government to support and help with mechanised farming. We have so much potential and haven't exhausted all the options. For example, flood resistance seeds have been introduced in Kwara state.  It doesn't make sense to use flood resistance seeds when the cause of the flood is man made. Fix the damn dam! 

When a girl brings a guy home and introduces him to her parents, the parents investigate the guy and his family. We need to take that approach with regards to GMOs and do our homework. There has been a lot of news about GMOs around the world. Many western countries are rejecting GMOs even poor countries that have no food. There have been many suicide cases reported in India due to failing GMO seeds. We need to ask questions, investigate. We need to conduct tests and then decide with the support of the whole nation if this is the way to go.

Making the Undesirable Desirable

Have you guys seen the movie Between Us? It is a really good insightful movie (don't mind the critics). You should watch it, there are many lessons to be learnt from the movie.

After watching the movie last night, AF and I started to discuss aspects of the movie and called on our past experiences as examples. There were two lessons we agreed on 1) without opportunity, handwork can be worth nothing 2) to succeed in life, to achieve your goals, you have to make the undesirable desirable.

Lesson 1: AF said I have never beaten him in word with friends, ever! i was shocked because that's a big fat lie. however i didn't have any evidence because i had played so many times and the app only stores so many games. The only way i could prove this was not true was to play another game with him and win. Good plan right? Great plan!

Anyway for hours I was leading by at least 50 points. I remained focused, thought things through before I placed my tiles. I worked damn hard at that game. When there were only about 6 tiles left in the bag my dearest husband played a four-letter word and scored 70 points and blew me out! I have refused to finish that game. He has been nudging me all day to play, I just can't deal. Hiss!

Lesson 2: We all have dreams of doing something special with our lives. for some people this comes easily but for others, they will have to navigate their lives down a different route to achieve that dream, that goal. The first step is to be realistic about our goals and dreams and the next step is to do what ever it takes to achieve that realistic goal. This can some times mean you have to do what you don't like.   The trick is to keep your eye on that goal and make the undesirable desirable. 

When you watch the movie please let me know what you think. Do agree on the lessons learnt?

Speaking of undesirable things, AF decided last week he liked brown rice. Heaven save me! As i don't have the energy to cook two different pots of rice I came up with a recipe that allows me to enjoy the brown rice.

Ingredients:

2 cups of brown basmati rice

1 medium onion, sliced

1 tsp of whole coriander

1 tsp of whole black peppercorns

1 tsp of dry mustard seeds

1 tsp of cumin seeds 

2 tbs of sunflower oil

Water

Method:

Wash the rice and soak in hot water for about 30 minutes, drain and keep aside. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions until they are soft on medium heat, fry for about 3 minutes. Remove the onion from the pan and keep aside. Add all the seeds to the pan and cover. once they start to pop, add the drained rice and mix thoroughly for even distribution. Add water, just enough to cover the rice and let it cook on low heat. You may need to add more water. They trick is to add water bit by bit so you don't end up with soggy rice.

When the rice is cooked, stir in the fried onions. 

Serve with goat stew or cat fish.