SHRIMP CAKE

I have made breakfast plans for tomorrow and top on that list is this shrimp cake recipe. This recipe is so easy and could be really diverse if you want it to be. You do not have to stick to just shrimp. You can make it a really wholesome meal and go crazy with your vegetables and meat options. I just personally preferred shrimp for this. I think something about the rains makes me crave seafood.

Shrimp has a lot of benefits but as with everything, moderation is key. Shrimp is great for hair health because of its zinc content, it is great for bone health because of its calcium, phosphorus and magnesium content. It also great for the brain, anti-aging and improving thyroid function. Consuming a lot of shrimp is dangerous as it causes high cholesterol. When adding your shrimp for breakfast this weekend, please be conscious of this fact. Enjoy this shrimp cake recipe.

Recipe for Shrimp Cake

Ingredient

1 Cup Raw Shrimp (Peeled, deveined and chopped)

1 tablespoon corn starch

A tablespoon of all purpose flour

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 large eggs

1/2 onion, chopped

A tablespoon mayonnaise

1 tablespoon green onions, chopped

A teaspoon black pepper

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

Seasoning cubes

1 tablespoon of Butter

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Method

In a bowl, mix your butter, corn starch, eggs, flour, shrimp, garlic, mayonnaise, green onions, black pepper, onions, baking powder and seasoning cubes till a slightly runny mixture is formed.

If your mixture is too thick, add a little water to loosen it up a bit. Remember, we are making the shrimp cakes thick and not flat like pancakes.

Heat up your vegetable oil and scoop the mixture into your pan. Fry on low- medium heat enough to brown and cook. You can also cover the pan so the cake cooks all the way through.

Serve with a little sweet chilli sauce or as part of a full breakfast.

Cakes

0

BREAKFAST PIZZA

Breakfast Pizza has been on my list of items to cook for the longest time. Unfortunately, balancing work and my love for cooking has been hard these days. I am working on my efforts to be a bit more deliberate about my blogging. I am not making any promises but I will try my best.

This weekend is a long weekend so I am trying to add to your breakfast options this weekend. Do I score brownie points for my absence? I think so! Please remember you can modify this recipe in any way you like. If breakfast in your world involves potatoes, you can add some boiled potato cubes to this recipe. The more tweaked to your taste it is, the more likely you are to enjoy it. I like my eggs sometimes slightly runny or medium so not all the way cooked. It is always better to adjust to your taste.

Recipe for Breakfast Pizza

Ingredients

1 piece of Flat Bread

1/2 Red, Green, Yellow Bell pepper (Sliced)

1 tablespoon Butter

2 tablespoons of seasoned Tomato Sauce (you can use left over stew)

Two Eggs

1 Sausage

1/4 Red Onion

2 tablespoons of Cheddar Cheese (Grated)

1 teaspoon black pepper

Salt

Seasoning cubes

1 teaspoon Parsley

Method

In a pan, heat up your butter on low heat. Place your flat bread in the pan and take off the heat till you assemble the pizza elements.

Smear the tomato sauce on the flat bread. Add your onions, bell peppers and sausages.

Put the pan back on the fire still on low heat.

Break your egg into a bowl and scoop one at a time onto the pizza. Season with salt, black pepper and seasoning cubes.

Cover the pan and allow the egg to set.

Sprinkle the cheese and parsley and allow to set.

Serve your breakfast pizza warm with a hot or cold beverage.

Nigeria food

0

YAJI SPICED OLIVES RECIPE

A few weeks ago, I had sent in a recipe to the Naija Nomads website on Yaji Spiced Olives. I also spoke about my experience with olives in Morocco. They have fast become my favourite go to snack. I also think because I wasn’t a fan of them previously, I never noticed how common they were when I dined out here. Every restaurant I have been to recently in Lagos, serves olives with their salad or as a side in a buffet.

Recently, I was in Ogun state for work and the amount of olives served at lunch and dinner was alarming and they kept replenishing the supply in the buffet. At that point, I decided it was important to experiment a little bit with olives.

Olives are a great source of Iron which helps with haemoglobin formation, they also help with stomach ulcers, cardiovascular health and are a great antioxidant.

Recipe for Yaji Spiced Olives

Ingredients

2 cups of Black olives

Two Tablespoons of Yaji Spice

2 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil

1 teaspoon of Cumin

1 teaspoon of Black Pepper

2 Tablespoon of Chopped Parsley

4 Cloves of Garlic

2 Scotch Bonnet Pepper

2 teaspoons Salt

Method

Crush your garlic cloves in a bowl and set aside.

Chop your scotch bonnet peppers and parsley

Mix your garlic, pepper, parsley, black pepper, yaji spice, cumin and salt

Stir in your black olives in the mix and pour in your balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Transfer to a Jar and allow to marinate for 3-8 hours so that the spices will be infused in the olives.

Serve on its own or with Garlic Bread.

Nigeria food

0

Efo Riro Soup

Efo Riro is a very popular Yoruba soup in Nigeria, it is one of my favorite Nigerian soups because of its health benefits. The name ‘efo’ means vegetables, hence it is a Yoruba rich vegetable soup/stew that this happens to be one of the most delicious Yoruba soups that I have made.

If you scroll down a little, you will find a deliciously made plate of efo riro, as served with fufu – it was delicious 😉

It is a little bit similar to the popular edikaikong soup, the difference is the use of tatashe, spinach and few other Yoruba local ingredients, although some people choose to use tomatoes for personal reason but I think tatashe does a perfect job.

Here are the ingredients for making efo riro, I think it would take a little over 30 mins for preparing the ingredients and then the actual cooking takes about 60 minutes. As usual, the ingredients below can serve just about 5-6 people, you can increase or decrease depending on your audience.

Ingredients Include: (for 5-6 People)

Sliced Spinach leaves (7-10 cups)
7-10 pieces stock fish ear
assorted meat (1KG)
1 cup of sliced tatashe
quater cup of sliced pepper
half cup of sliced onions
Half Cup of Ground Crayfish
2-3 spoons of iru (locust beans)
smoked fish (2-3 medium)
Palm oil (200ml)
3 knorr cubes

Here are some of the ingredients for making efo riro, top left is smoked fish, followed by sliced onion at top middle, then 3 spoons of iru in a plate. Below is sliced spinach and pepper/tashe at left and right respectively.

Preparation:

Use either tatashe or shobo, about 5-10, slice alongside the fresh red pepper and transfer in a bowl, this improves the look of the soup at the end of the day. Wash meat thoroughly with lots of water and salt to remove sand then be sure to also wash the smoked fish if you are making efo riro soup with fish.

Here is my delicious efo riro, served with fufu

How To Cook Efo Riro

If you follow the steps outlined below cautiously you will end up with a very delicious pot of obe efo riro, {obe} is the yoruba name for soup in case you are wondering.

Step 1
Place the washed meat in a pot, add a little of water, season with salt, sliced onions, 2 knorr cube and allow to boil for 10-15 minutes, add 1-2 cups of water and cook till tender and the water is almost dried.

Add the smoked fish, stock fish, add a cup of water and cook for another 10-15 minutes depending on the hardness of your stock fish, you need to know that people like them better when they are very soft. The water should be almost dried, don’t allow to burn.

Step 2
Remove the pot from heat, place another pot on heat and pour in some palm oil, 200ml. Allow to heat before adding the sliced onions, pepper/tatashe, stir and allow to fry for another ten minutes while stirring occassionally to avoid burning.

Step 3
Add the cooked meat/stock fish/smoked fish, stir and allow to simmer for 5 minutes, add the crayfish, iru, stir and allow another 3 minutes. Add a cube of maggi, salt to taste, stir and add the spinach leaves. Stir all together and allow to simmer for another 3-5 minutes and you just mad a delicious pot of efo riro

Step 4
This is how to make efo riro soup in Nigeria, please serve with Eba, Pounded yam, rice, beans, Semolina, Amala or any other similar Nigerian Food of choice, I like this soup and fufu the way it appears above.

You can see the video for preparing efo riro below! You can also go ahead and read up other articles about Yoruba foods. this soup is just one of them, you can also learn how to prepare gbegiri (the popular beans soup), we also have a Yoruba version of Bitter leaf Soup.

Nigeria food

1

How To Cook Okra Soup

Okra soup is one of the most popular Nigerian soup, I like this soup because it is very easy to prepare and likely the cheapest soup in Nigeria.

 I remember making a pot of (Okra) Okro soup with just two hundred and fifty Naira, (10 years ago 😀 )… more like a one dollar soup.

I used frozen fish, Okra and some other ingredients to prepare the soup, then you could buy a good frozen fish with just forty or fifty Naira, I am talking about the “good old days”.

Okra soup is one of the most common soups eaten by the people of Igbo, often it is combined with ogbono for best result, you can learn more here about making Nigerian Ogbolo(ogbono) soup.

There are several reasons why I like this soups above other Nigerian soups, the most outstanding reason being that kids love it, I learned that the best way to introduce eba or fufu to kids is to serve with Okra or ogbolo soup, this way it would be very easy for them to swallow, I have tried it and found that it works perfect.

Sliced okro, cleaned roasted fish at the top right (or frozen fish), combination of ground crayfish and red peppers.

Okro is also good for adults, as a matter of fact I just made a pot of okra soup before writing this, a very small quantity that would serve for this night, it is Sunday night here in Nigeria. I like this soup because the two major ingredients are very rich in vitamins (okra and fluted pumpkin)

So lets make a delicious pot of Nigerian Okra soup, The exact way an Igbo woman would like to make it, Did I tell you that Okra is one of the most popular soup in Igbo land especially from April to July, its exact harvest season

Below is the list of ingredients that was used in the process, you can always increase or reduce depending on the number of the person you are looking to feed and of course their stomach sizes.

Ingredients For Okra (Okro) soup

Serving 4×2 | Preparation time:

Okra (a medium size bowl full)
Fluted Pumpkin leaves (as desired) optional – I don’t use it.
Stock fish head (medium size)
1 kg of meat (beef, chicken, turkey, etc)
2 medium sizes frozen mackrel (optional)
Or Roasted mackrel (optional)
2 to 3 cubes of Maggi or knorr (seasoning)
Salt and pepper to taste.
200ml Red (palm) oil
half cup of ground crayfish

Okra Soup Preparation In Nigeria

Slice the okra and set aside in a bowl, the trader in most Nigerian markets can assist you with slicing the okra, but you can also try using a kitchen knife, I like to slice Okra myself, although there is no harm in using the help of the market women.

If you want to make this soup with just frozen fish, the process is a little bit simpler than using cow meat. You will need to parboil the fish with all the necessary ingredients for five to ten minutes. Then pick out with a fork leaving the extract (water from fish after cooking) in the pot, add two cups of water also, then the hot-water-washed stock fish and dry fish.

But if you are making this soup with cow meat you would want to parboil the meat with all necessary ingredients, I like to parboil meat with lots of ingredients and then use very few ingredients while making the real soup, it is likely that the whole ingredient would be left in the meat extract (meat water) after parboiling. Parboil with only ingredients for about ten minutes then add about two cups of water and cook till the meat is tender.

For me, I used a combination of fresh (frozen mackrel) and beef.

Precook them together, remove the fish after 8 minutes and continue cooking the meat until it becomes soft.

Add the stock fish, cook for about 15 minutes till they are soft for consumption.

Add palm oil, crayfish, 1 or 2 cubes maggi (seasoning), pepper and salt to taste. You will find a tasteful soupy combination. You can add the ground ogbolo at this point if you are making a combination of Okra and Ogbolo soup, it is a good combination even though I don’t do it often.

Add the okra five minutes after the ogbolo, stir, and cook for about 3 minutes before adding the leaves (optional), you can use fluted pumpkin or the normal pumpkin leaves.

Allow to simmer for another 3 to minutes and you can serve with eba, fufu or semo.

You just made a very delicious Nigerian okra soup

Nigeria food

0

How to cook - EGUSI SOUP

INGREDIENTS

• 200 g of Egusi seed,
• 400 g of beef,
• 50 g of cooked and boned stock fish pieces,
• 3 Tbsp. (45ml) of ground dried crayfish,
• 1 small bunch of Ugwu or bitter leaves,
• 50 ml of palm oil,
• 2 Knorr Stock Cubes,
• 1 small onions,
• 4 large fresh tomatoes,
• 1 tsp (5ml) ground chilli powder.

PREPARATION METHOD

• Cut the beef into small cubes, season with one chopped onion and one Knorr Stock Cube. Add half a cup of water and boil for about 10 minutes or until tender. Set aside.
• Mix the ground egusi in half a cup of water. Set aside. Blend the tomatoes, the second onion and the chilli. Set aside.
• Heat the palm oil in another pot and add the Egusi mixture. Stir well and allow it to fry for a moment. Add the blend and stir well. Then Add the ground crayfish, second Knorr cube and stock fish.
• Add 2 cups of water and allow to cook for five minutes. Add the boiled meat and stir. Turn the heat down and simmer for a further two minutes.
• Wash and finely slice the Ugwu leaves. Add to the simmering soup and stir. Continue to simmer for a further five minutes to allow the vegetables to soften. Serve with cassava fufu or garri.

Ingredients

0