Jollof Sphagetti

I love simple food. This jollof sphagetti is one of them, think jollof rice but with sphagetti. Check check check it out ... 

Ingredients (this would serve two people)

100g of Sphagetti
Blended Pepper (tomato, onion, tatashe, ata rodo)- about 4 cooking spoons of the pepper
4 table spoons of Olive Oil (or any type of oil)
1 small onion (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
Salt
Black Pepper
Seasoning Cube
A handful of Basil (aka Efinrin) (chopped) (optional)
a very tiny pinch of sugar (optional)
Smoked Sausage- chopped and fried (optional)

Note: The Basil and sugar are optional, but they make such a huge difference!! The basil changes the taste of the pepper, and the sugar mellows down the sourness of the pepper. 

Boil water for the sphagetti, salt the water and add sphagetti. Cook the sphagetti for 10 - 15 minutes until almost fully cooked . Drain the water out of the sphagetti when done and set aside)

In a separate pot, fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil for 2 minutes

Pour in the pepper to the oil, add the seasoning cube, salt,  black pepper, tiny pinch of sugar and basil. Fry till the pepper is cooked and most of the water has evaporated

Pour the cooked sphagetti into the cooked pepper and mix. If using sausages, add now

Serve and enjoy!!

Result: Great!

Difficulty Level: Relatively Easy

Making It Again?: One of my favourite dishes, so a huge yuuuuup!

Grilled Chicken and Mixed Vegetables

It started off like this... Saw a simple grilled chicken and mixed vegetable dish Ina Garten made and thought aha! I can make that very quickly for dinner, and will add potatoes to mine. I have to confess that it wasn't made quickly, it took me over an hour but most of that time was spent peeling potatoes...lol. Don't let that discourage you from making it, it makes a simple and healthy dinner.

 Lets start with the grilled chicken:

 The chicken breasts were marinated in 2 tablespoons of oil, salt, black pepper and half a seasoning cube for an hour, then thrown on the grill for 15 Minutes. If you do not have a grill, you can use a frying pan and cook the chicken breasts on medium heat, 5 minutes on either side.

Mixed Vegetables: This was made up of:

1 Can of Sweet corn
Half a Can of Kidney Beans
Half of a medium sized onion (chopped)
Chopped Green Peppers and Red Peppers
Butter
Cameroonian Pepper
Salt

I melted half a teaspoon of butter in a pan, and added the onions, fried for 1 minute, added the red peppers, fried for another 3 minutes, then added the green peppers, sweet corn and kidney beans, a pinch of salt and cameroonian pepper and fried for 3 minutes.

(Next time, I'll skip the red peppers. I used the naija red pepper (aka tatase) and the taste was too sharp, taking over the whole thing)

Served with potatoes and chicken stock gravy.

Result: Good-ish not exceptional
Difficulty Level: Medium
Making It Again? Yup, but with minor amendments

Love,

Jumi

P.S. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please send me an email at whatwasmadefordinner@gmail.com

Baking 101

One of the things I've always struggled with cooking wise is baking! You should see some disasters I've made in the past (and present if we are being totally honest)... Too much sugar, too much salt, rock hard cake, gooey cake, burnt biscuits, the list goes on......  

I am getting better at baking (if I say so myself... lol), but what I've learnt is that baking takes a lot of patience and precision. What I used to do before was ignore the measurements and steps in a recipe and just throw everything together into a bowl based on my "guestimate" and mix. So what I've done here is compile a list of the things that I have found have made a huge difference in my baking. Please forgive me if the list appears to be very obvious but these are mistakes I have made and learnt from over the years. I hope it helps.

Cookie Dough- From a batch of cookies I made a couple of weeks ago

So here goes:

i. Buy a kitchen scale and weigh everything.

ii. Bring out all the ingredients from the fridge at least 30 minutes before baking so they are room temperature (unless the recipe says otherwise). I can't tell you the difference room temperature eggs and butter have made to my cakes;

iii. Sift dry ingredients i.e. flour, baking soda etc before using. It makes everything fluffier. I'd suggest the sieve with the tiniest holes (e.g. the one used to sieve amala);

iv. If the recipe calls for it, mix butter and sugar properly till very soft. This is another must not miss step;

v. If the recipe says do not over mix, for the love of God, do not. You'd end up with a rock hard whatever. Believe me, this has happened to me more than once;

vi. Do not add more baking powder or soda than the recipe calls for, even if you think it won't rise. You'd end up with a chemically taste;

vii. If a recipe calls for buttermilk, mix milk with the juice of half a lemon. I still haven't found buttermilk in Nigeria, if anyone knows where I can find this, please let me know!!

viii. If baking a cake, do not be tempted to open the oven for the first half of the baking time (or even at all till the end if possible), your cake may end up deflating and you'd end up with a flat cake. 

ix. To test if a cake is done, insert a dry toothpick right in the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean, it is done.

x. Grease your baking pan, if not your cake will stick to the pan and you will have a patch patch cake when u take it out of the pan.

Is there anything I have missed? Any more suggestions? 

Much ado about Mashed Potatoes and Guinness

I found this recipe for a Guinness Beef and Carrot Stew served with mashed potatoes, so thought hmm... Guinness as the base of a stew, never tried that before, lets go for it! 

The stew was rich and delicious but the beef was kinda tough... So next time I will be leaving the stew in the oven for much longer!!!

Now on to the mashed potatoes!!! Recipe below:

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

• 8 Large or 10 Medium Irish Potatoes 

• Quarter of a cup of Cream/Milk/Powdered Milk mixed with water

• Half a tablespoon of Butter

• Half a teaspoon of Salt

Directions:

1. Peel the potatoes, add water, salt and boil for approximately 20 minutes or till very soft

2. When the potatoes are almost ready, warm your cream/milk for 1 minute

3. Drain all the water out of the cooked potatoes

4. Immediately add the warm cream/milk and butter

5. Then mash with a fork or potato masher till smooth

Note: The trick is to mash the potatoes immediately they are taken off and whilst they are still steaming hot.

Result: Not bad!
Difficulty Level: Medium?
Making it Again? Hmm not anytime soon, but yeah...

Apparently I Love Eba

So, apparently I love Eba cos here it is again. This time its "featured" with Ogbono. The Ogbono was made in a hurry cos we got stuck in traffic (as usual) and got home pretty late. The Ogbono ended up being a little too watery cos I used too much water, but we landed on it anyways :)

Ogbono Recipe Below:

Ogbono: 

Ingredients
• Ground Ogbono Seeds
• 2 - 3 Table Spoons of Ground Cray Fish
• Cooked Assorted Meat: Beef, Goat Meat, Cow Leg, Shaki, Pomo, Chicken or any other meat of your choice (cut in small chunks)
• Dried Fish Chunks
• A handful of Chopped Pumpkin Leaves (Ugwu)
• Three table spoons of Palm Oil
• Stock Cube
• Salt 
• Dried Ground Pepper or Fresh Chopped Scotch Bonnets (Ata Rodo)
• Chicken or Beef Stock (Chicken or Meat Water as we call it)

Directions:
1. Pour the stock into a pot and boil
2. Once it starts boiling, add the palm oil then the ground ogbono seeds, ground crayfish, and pepper
3. Allow it to boil for another 5 minutes. Test the consistency of the ogbono by scooping out some of the ogbono mix and pouring it back into the pot. If it looks too watery/thick, add some more dried ogbono/water till you get your desired consistency.
4. Allow to boil for a further 15 minutes then add the cooked assorted meats and dried fish.
5. Allow to boil for another 15 minutes then taste. If required add salt, stock cube, more pepper etc 
6. Add the Ugwu
7. Let the Ogbono cook on low heat for another 10 mins and voila… You are done 

Result: Ok
Difficulty Level: Easy cos I had pre-cooked all the meats
Making it Again? Yup! It's in constant rotation

Eba (Or should I say Garri) and Egunsi

Yorubas call it Eba, Igbos call it Garri... I call it delicious (Corny I know, lol)

I was craving Eba, so when I got home n my hubby mentioned he was planning on having Eba if I didn't get home on time, it was a done deal.

The Egunsi was from a batch I made at the weekend and threw into the freezer (who does not appreciate weekend cooking...).  A great recipe for Egunsi can be found here. I defrosted it, added water cos that Egunsi was dry!! And voila... a yummy dish in 15 minutes.

Result: Good

Difficulty Level: Easy for the re warming part; Time consuming for the actual cooking of the Egunsi

Making It Again? Standard P

Rice with Prawns in a Creamy Garlic Sauce

This was the dish that started it all. I was looking for an easy recipe to make for my hubby and I on Valentine's day, wasn't particularly interested in sitting in traffic and wanted a cosy and chilled dinner. Found this recipe here. It looked easy, straightforward and lush, so gave it a try. 

Had it with a lettuce, tomato and avocado salad.

Whilst making it, I had my seasoning cube and Cameroonian pepper beside the gas cooker. I had every intention of drowning the sauce with these spices in case it didn't turn out right. Alas, it was utterly delicious without the "extras".

I shaped the rice by stuffing cooked rice into a small bowl (making sure it was packed tight) and turning the bowl onto the plate.

Result: Delicous
Difficulty Level: Easy

Making It Again? Asolutely!

Genesis

The idea for this blog started from a picture I posted on Instagram of what I made for dinner on Valentine's day. I want to be making dinner most nights and not cruising by on indomie or forgoing dinner altogether like I used to. 

So will be posting pictures of our dinners taken with my IPhone. I will try my best to be as realistic as possible and will show the good, bad and ugly (hopefully a whole lot less of the bad and ugly :)

Enjoy