Once Upon A Food Lover : November 2020

What to do with your overripe plantain, make some Plantain Bread! There's absolutely nothing not to love about this bread especially if you're a plantain lover, it is flavourful but not too much as to overwhelm the plantain taste.

This is the 2nd time I'll be making this, because I hardly have overripe plantains. With my love for all things plantain, from unripe plantain porridge, to fried plantain with the ripe ones which I like pairing with omelette or scrambled eggs, to beans and plantain porridge with the softened ripe ones, I hardly have enough to be overipe or perhaps I don't buy too much.

I had to hide away the two I used for this recipe because I really wanted to make some plantain bread plus I remembered I haven't put up the recipe here.

This quick bread is not light and fluffy like your normal cake, it's a bit on the heavy side though not dense, probably why it's referred to as bread rather than cake (eventhough it's made with baking powder/soda).

There's so much going on here and I'm loving it, biting into it at first, the crunchy coconut and sweet raisins toppings announces itself, on the 2nd to 3rd munch, you get the sharp citrus, the subtle nutmeg and the sweetly intoxicating vanilla flavour ( I would kill for this combo), moving on, are you biting into something yet, wait what's that? And then you bite into it again, *wide smile*, oh! It's tiny chunks of plantain! And this was one of the reasons I didn't mix the raisins into the batter cause I didn't want any interference when I'm biting into the plantain chunks.

I know you can't wait any longer so let's get right to it 😁.

WATCH HOW I MADE THIS HERE:

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INGREDIENTS

2 overripe plantains
1 egg
1/4 cup of oil
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of orange zest
1/4 cup of milk
1 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

PROCEDURE

First start by peeling the plantains and either mashing them in a bowl with a fork or pureeing with a blender.
Break in the egg, add the oil, sugar, vanilla, orange zest, milk and whisk together.
Sift in the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder and nutmeg and fold in till well incorporated. Don't overmix the batter.
Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan.
Bake at a preheated oven or pot for 20 - 25 minutes.
It is done when a toothpick or fork inserted comes out clean, bring it out and allow to cool before removing from the pan.
Serve with tea or hot chocolate for breakfast or with icecream for dessert.

I have a few great Cake Recipes already on the blog you can check them out below and add them to your list to try next!

If you enjoyed this recipe, do leave a comment below and share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #onceuponafoodlover or tag me @onceuponafoodlover. I would love to see!

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Happy Baking!

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A spicy, nutty and flavourful Nigerian peanut stew.

Groundnut soup is a great alternative for when you can't find the ingredients to cook egusi soup or you just want to try something different. It is not only a common and delicious Nigerian delicacy but also popular in other African countries like Ghana, Sierra Leone as well as other cultures like Taiwan (East Asia) and Virginia (United States) with peculiar recipes specific to each of them.

It is usually eaten with carbohydrate like rice or a ‘swallow’ like eba, pounded yam, cassava fufu etc. It goes by several names such as Maafe, Soup d'arachide, Omisagwe (Etsako people of Edo state, Nigeria).

This is the first time I'm actually making/eating this soup.

Why did I pick up interest in it? Recipes and questions about groundnut soup keeps on popping up wherever I go, cookpad, Facebook groups etc, but having never eaten this soup before, I was sceptical at first not knowing how it'll taste? if I'll like it?, but I had to get past all that and after researching more about it, the various ways it can be cooked, I tried it out and all I can say is.....

I'm definitely making it again!!! 😍

INGREDIENTS

Assorted meat/fish
1 cup raw ground nut (roasted groundnut works as well)
1/2 teaspoon of Uziza seed (Piper guneensis)
1 cooking spoon of palmoil
Scotch bonnet/habanero pepper, blended
Ugwu (fluted pumpkin leaf)
3 tablespoon of Ground crayfish
Seasoning cubes
2 medium sized onions
Salt to taste

PROCEDURE:

STEP 1:

PREPARING THE INGREDIENTS:

Wash and boil the meat/fish with seasoning cubes, salt and onions, boil till tender and keep aside. Ensure you boil the hard meats like kpomo, shaki and fish like stock fish before adding the softer ones.
Pick out the bad ones and toast the raw groundnut in a pan, stirring constantly till they become fragrant and turns light brown.
Leave to cool down completely.
Grind the toasted groundnut and uziza into a rough powder with a dry mill, processor or mortar and pestle. (I didn't bother removing the skin)

STEP 2

Here, you can use any of the methods for cooking egusi soup to cook this groundnut soup. This includes:

1st Method (Frying method; the one I used)

In a pot,heat up the oil a bit, add the chopped onions and blended pepper and fry till it dries up
Mix the groundnut with water to form a paste (you can choose not to though, it depends on how you do your frying method of egusi), then pour into oil and mix properly.
Add the crayfish and stir properly for about 1 min.
Then add the meat/fish with stock,cover and simmer for 5 minutes stirring at intervals to avoid burning
Cook till the soup thickens and add more water if too thick for your liking.

2nd method:

Add more water enough to cook the soup to the meat stock.
Add the ground groundnuts and stir very well till there are no lumps.
Bring this mixture to a gentle boil over low- medium heat for about 5 minutes
Add the palmoil, the pepper, crayfish and dry fish and continue cooking,stirring every 5 minutes to prevent burning
Add more or less water if necessary and continue cooking till you get your preferred consistency.

Step 3

You can adjust the seasonings and serve the soup at this moment if you don't like having leaves in your groundnut but if not, continue to the next step.
Add ugwu leaf, taste and adjust the seasoning, cover the pot and turn off the heat.
Serve with rice or any swallow of choice.

NOTES:

Store bought roasted groundnut/peanut also works perfectly for this.
The soup tend to thicken up real quick and burn so watch closely, stir as often as necessary and add enough water but, not too much to make it watery.
The palmoil is added mainly for colour so don't add too much cause the groundnut itself contains oil.
This soup is a bit sweeter than egusi so I suggest you make it spicy (thanks to the uziza and fresh peppers) if you're not a fan of sweet things.
Washed bitterleaf can also be used instead of ugwu to tone down the sweetness.
Other leafs you can use includes scent leaf, uziza, and though I've not tried them, I think okazi or utazi leaf will make a wonderful addition too.
If using bitter leaves, add it a bit earlier because it is a tough vegetable.
Dry cayenne pepper can also be used in place of fresh habanero pepper.

Have your tried Groundnut Soup before? Will you be trying it after reading this?

Let me know how it goes in the comment section below.

You can also tag me at #onceuponafoodlover on Facebook and Instagram with pictures of your recreation.

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HAPPY COOKING!

Garri,(processed cassava meal/Granulated cassava) is made by slicing, grating, soaking, fermenting, grinding and then finally frying tubers of cassava. It is a very popular food in nigeria, often eaten in two major ways;as a swallow (made by adding garri into hot water and stirring or turning until it forms a dough) and as a cereal (by just adding cold water, milk, sugar, groundnut or anything that suits your taste bud). There are two types of garri, the white and yellow one. The yellow garri is just garri that had palm oil added to it during the final production process which is frying.

I don't know the reason the person that invented yellow garri had in mind but I know that scientifically it has been proven to have a reduced cyanide (HCN) content (ie less poisonous) and a higher Vitamin A value (good for eyesight)ie more nutritious.

Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting and potentially deadly chemical that exist in various forms and can be found in many plants. It leads to cyanide poisoning especially when the foods containing them are not cooked or processed properly before ingesting.

It has been confirmed that oil has a way of neutralising cyanide.

It also gives it a less sour taste, finer granules and a more pliable texture. And you'll agree with me that yellow garri is more aesthetically pleasing hence why I always like to turn my white garri into yellow garri if that's what I happen to have at that moment.

I don't know if adding oil after the whole processing will still make any difference, scientifically but hey I'm here for the aesthetics 😉

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WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Garri
A bowl
Hot water
A little red oil
Wooden spatula ie garri turner

PROCEDURE:

Add some red oil (about a tablespoon) to the bowl, the quantity depends on the quantity of garri you're making, let's say 1 tablespoon to 1-1/2 cups of garri
Add some of the hot water to bowl, about a cup
Add the garri till the water is soaked up ie no longer visible
Cover and leave for 30 seconds
Then mix very well till the colour becomes uniform, adding a little hot water if it's too hard.
Cut and wrap according to your desired shapes or eat it as it is with your favourite soup.