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Love,

Sasa

When Grown Men Cry

Ma Kaduna is gone, may her soul rest in peace.

Before Bey, there was Ma Kaduna, the first true independent woman. 

A true definition of a feminist that taught me to demand what was rightfully mine. She taught me what it means to be a hustler. A very bold and audacious lady who rode her motorbike about Lokoja town like she was giving the world the finger while dressed in her cute nurses uniform, in a world where women were expected to sit at home and make babies. But she did have babies, 8 of them! My mum being one of them.

She spoke more than five local Nigerian languages including English. She felt it was necessary for people to be insulted and abused in their own language so there will be no misunderstanding. A true terrorist to her family, a real force to reckon with. 

She taught me to add sweet potato to my yam porridge to give it a sugar like taste while using the wooden spoon to hit my hand as I reached into the pot to pick out a string of dried fish staring deliciously at me.  

I will miss you. I miss you.

Sweet Potato Porridge

Ingredients:

500g of sweet potato, cut into big chunks

1 cup of spinach

2 medium tomatoes

1 red bell pepper

1 tbs of flaked chilli

1 tsp of garlic

1 tsp of ginger

3 beef franks, thinly sliced

½ medium onion, sliced

3 tbs sunflower oil

2 Knorr cubes

salt to taste

1 tsp of thyme

Method:

Blend the tomatoes and bell pepper in a food processor. In the mean time grill the sliced franks for about five minutes in the open. Heat the oil in a large sauce pan for 3 minutes and pour in the blended mixture. Fry for about seven minutes then add the chilli, Knorr cubes, garlic, ginger and  thyme.  Add the chunks of sweet potato and onions and combine thoroughly. Add enough water just to cover the potatoes and leave to cook for 10 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until the potatoes are soft.  Take the pan off the heat and toss in the grilled franks and add salt to taste.

Kitchen Hacks 1 - Saving Time With a Chopper

Welcome to the first of my kitchen hacks. In this section I will share tips on the little things that make my life easier in the kitchen.

Today's kitchen hack is about bulk chopping food produce like garlic and ginger, ingredients I use almost every day, and preserving it in oil in the fridge for later use. I also use this method for okra and leeks. I chop loads and freeze and use when I need to. This saves time and money as I don't have to throw away any produce because they have gone off.

Step 1 - Choose your chopper. There is a chopper that comes with most blender, the chopper blade is usually like a straight thin blade. There are also some sophisticated ones by brands like Philips, Breville, Kenwood etc. These are really good and will chop more of your produce than the standard ones. However they are more expensive. For this tip the standard one is used.

Step 2 - Fill only ⅓ of the cup with your choice of produce. If the cup is too full, you will end up a very fine paste as well as huge chucks. You want the final result to look like you used a knife to chop it yourself.

Step 3 - Use the "P" setting on the blender as demonstrated. This is what gives the desired effect.

Step 4 - Pour the chopped produce into a sterilised jar or freezer bag if you are intending to freeze.

Step 5 - To preserve it in the fridge add olive oil to the jar. Without this your chopped item will go off.

Easy as ABC...

Plantain Chronicles II

Educating ones self is a continuous process. Today's recipe is a modification of the recipe in the first Plantain Chronicles. The difference is using panko crumbs to coat the plantain balls.

Panko crumbs is something I always felt was posh and never found in my local grocer here in Doha. Today I decided it was high time I made mine. 

Panko Crumbs

Ingredients:

4 slices of day old white bread, crust removed and cut into small squares

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 oC. Blend the crumbs in a blender using the pulse function until all the bread has been shredded. Avoid making fine crumbs.

Place the crumbs in a flat oven tray and toast for about 4 minutes. Shake the tray after 2 minutes to make sure all sides of the crumbs are toasted. 

Plantain Balls with Panko Crust

Ingredients:

1 very ripe Plantains

1 tbs crushed chill

1 Knorr Cube

3 tbs of plain flour

3 tbs of fine breadcrumbs
1 cup of flour, for coating
2 eggs, beaten, for coating
1 cup of Panko crumbs, for coating
½ cup of grated Parmesan 

stuffing of your choice e.g. boiled egg, cheese, prawns

Method:

Mash the plantain until there are no lumps and mix in the chill and knorr. Add the flour and breadcrumbs and combine thoroughly. What you want in a thick dough that would hold so you may need to add more flour. Using the boiled egg as the stuffing, fold the plantain dough around the egg, cover the whole egg. For other types of stuffing mentioned, flatten a table spoon of plantain dough in your palm, place stuffing prawn in the centre and fold into a ball.

Place one stuffed plantain ball in a bowl of flour and coat it thoroughly with flour, dust off the excess. Return the flour coated ball in to the a bowl containing beaten eggs and then lastly coat with the panko crumbs combined with the Parmesan.

Repeat this for the rest of the stuffed balls. Deep fry them until they are golden brown and crunchy. Enjoy with sauce of your choice.