What to Make for Easter

Now we all know there is an almost standard feast most Nigerians eat for Christmas... Think: Jollof Rice, Fried Rice, Chicken, Turkey, Plantain, Salad etc... But is there actually one for Easter?

I googled classic Nigerian Easter dinner, but nothing came up. So started looking at the "Oyinbo" versions of an Easter dinner. It revolved around three "meats": Ham (ehn?!); Lamb (more like it); and Chicken (by now they were speaking my language); Sides were macaroni and cheese; potatoes; stuffed peppers(!); rice etc.

So if we were to adapt the above for the Nigerian taste I'd say the typical easter dinner should be jollof rice; fried rice; potatoes; chicken; beef; macaroni and of course plantain! So, not much different from our typical naija Christmas feast :)

What do you think the perfect naija easter dinner is? What are you making for easter?


Top Picture from Southernliving.com

Introducing Supermartng.com

Need groceries and do not want to get into traffic and fight for parking at the Supermarket, introducing Supermartng.com!!! 

Supermart is an online grocery delivery service that will bring a great deal of convenience to your life.

Today, we are proud to introduce Supermart which will allow you shop from over 18,000 grocery items that will be delivered to your home or office at a time of your choosing and in as early as 3 hours after your order. The service is initially being offered in Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki (up to VGC) and Marina.

It costs only N800 to have a personal shopper pick all items in your order and have them delivered to you. We hope you are as excited as we are about this time-saving service and we look forward to receiving your orders soon. Feel free to share with friends and colleagues.

How Supermart works:

1. Add your favourite groceries to your cart

2. Enter your delivery address

3. Select a preferred day and time of delivery to your home or office

4. Pay via Interswitch, Mastercard or Visa (both local and international)

5. Your groceries are delivered to you

Start shopping now at http://www.supermartng.com/ 

What Was Found Online I

We are starting a new series which will be a roundup of interesting and quirky things found online.

Beautiful places that  actually exist! and are not part of a sci-fi movie.

Recipe of the week: Ina Garten's Parmesan Chicken  

I'd highly recommend this book- Garlic and Sapphires

One of my favourite blogs- thirdworldprofashional- The name says it all

A roundup of the best tourist destinations in Nigeria... IITA Ibadan is actually a wedding present which hasn't been used, Sorry S & L!

Have a good weekend all,
Jumi

 (Top photo from IITA) 

What is an Entrée?

A Roast Potato and Lamb; Mushroom and Steamed Carrots Entree 

So my cousin was telling me about the Knorr Taste Test Season 1 auditions where contestants were asked “what is an entrée”. Answers ranged from "an entree is an appetizer", "an entrée is what you use to start a meal", "next question..."  You can watch some of the auditions here. The show looks very interesting and they are already on Season 2, so will definitely be watching from this point forward

Now don’t get me wrong, I did not know what an entrée was for the longest time either! It was when I started watching Chopped (a TV show on the food network that I am obsessed with it) that I realised an entrée was the main course. However, even when my cousin asked me what an entree was,  I couldn’t quite remember if an entrée was the starter or the main meal. Entrée sounds to me like “entry” so my guess was starters. But erm, I wasn't right. Dictionary.com defines an entrée as "a dish served as the main course of a meal."

So now next time someone says “oh lets move on to the entrée; or what are we having for the entrée” we all know that is just a posh way of saying the main course i.e. the rice, the amala, the potato, the pounded yam, the starch :) 

So who else will be watching the Knorr Taste Test show? If you were asked to make the perfect entrée, what would you make? Let's know your thoughts.

The Best Tomato Soup Ever!!

So I am a self confessed recipe hunter!! I'm always on the look out for easy recipes online. Once I start seeing strain this, wait for 5 hours do that, wait for 20 hours to spin the food in the air, I immediately close the page! "Aint nobody gat time for that"

Now if I see a dish I like somewhere and I am looking for a recipe for it, one of the first things I do is google the meal and add Ina Garten!!  She is one of the cooks on food network- Barefoot Contessa and her food always looks delicious and relatively effortless to make. Also, I have tried a couple of her recipes and they always turn out great. 

So when I saw that she had a simple tomato soup recipe, my first thought was tomato juice (yuck)... Lol. Buuuut the recipe looked too easy not to try! I am a serious sucker for easy recipes. So here is how it went.

Tomato Soup (Adapted from Ina Garten's recipe)

Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium red onions (chopped)
2 carrots (unpeeled and chopped)
3 cloves minced garlic 
10 medium tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon tomato puree (e.g. De Rica or Gino)
A handful of chopped fresh basil leaves (Efinrin)
2 cubes of Knorr Chicken
2 tea cups of water
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
180g cream 

Directions
1. Heat the olive oil in a large, pot over medium-low heat. 
2. Add the onions and carrots and cook for about 10 minutes, until soft. 
3. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. 
4. Add the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, knorr chicken, water, salt, and pepper and stir well. 
5. Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat to the lowest, and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, until the tomatoes are very tender.
6. Add the cream to the soup and blend with your blender 

Serve with bread

Results: Delicious!!
Difficult Level: Easy
Making It Again? Oh yes!

Winner of the What You Made For Dinner Giveaway

The winner of the What You Made for Dinner Giveaway is Awele! Congratulations!! I will contact you to arrange delivery of the banana bread.

Much Love,
Jumoke

WYMFD Giveaway Entry 2- Chocolate Cake with Caramel Shavings and Crushed Walnut Pieces

Our second entry for the What You Made for Dinner Giveaway is from Awele. She baked a Chocolate Cake with Caramel Shavings and Crushed Walnut Pieces. Oh my! Talk about decadent. Awele's entry coming up!

"I have always been a fan of chocolate cake and because I realized I couldn't keep spending my hard earned cash on  buying them (at least not as much as I usually do) I went on a mission to bake the perfect one.  I set out in search of an easy recipe, and I found one at http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_chocolate_birthday_90089.

I followed the directions to the letter and used the ingredients as shown in the attached picture. As this is my first chocolate cake, I didn't want to experiment with the jam and chocolate layering and all so instead I crushed some walnut and caramel pieces over the surface."

Result- Excellent!

Difficulty level- Simple did not have to mix the batter for long

Making It Again?  DEFINITELY