CbB: Beans Fiesta à la carte

This isn't easy for me considering that the comments I got ranged from "wth" to "eeewwww" but I must say that I got a few "woooowww" from those I told about this. From those who actually ate it, all I got was "mmmm.....nice!" and "definitely better that the original pancake". So my summary is that I must have done something right!! The taste of the pudding is after all in the eating. Let me share with you and so you can be the judge. 

I told my story to some good people at www.wivestownhallconnection.com of how my 'akara fiesta' turned into a disaster ( I can't bare to repeat it) and how I came out shinning brighter than a diamond. This is it ---->

Beans Fiesta and Yoghurt

I used my ground beans from a failed mission to make a pancake!! Magic innit?!!

I got to enjoy this beans pancake with fresh yogurt and a slice of lemon for breakfast.

Behind the scene

Ingredients

Beans

Egg

Magarine

Baking Powder

Sugar

Milk

Groundnuts

This is how it happened:

After washing, skinning and grinding my beans into a smooth and thick paste, I poured it into my mixing bowl. 

In a separate bowl, I mixed my eggs with milk, sugar and baking powder. I used liquid milk so I didn't need to add water to get my desired consistency also the beans was ground with a little water. 

I poured this mixture into the beans paste and mixed thoroughly. 

I crushed some groundnuts by wrapping some in a kitchen towel and beating gently with my rolling pin. I sprinkled the crushed nuts into my batter and mixed some more. 

I put my pan on the fire and added some butter into it and reduced the heat. I gently added spoonfuls of my mixture into the hot oil still on medium-low heat. I waited till the top part (which I could see) had almost completely solidified before flipping over. 

With both sides browned to taste, I removed them from the pan and put on a kitchen towel to drain some oil. I repeated this for the rest of my batter. 

Now, I know that I love beans (like it's on my top 3 favorite foods) in whatever form it is made, but this did not cloud my judgement. I can confidently eat these pancakes without worries! #winning

Don't just be the judge by thinking about it, judge it by actually trying it out for yourself. Let me know how it goes.

Short Rant: Unpaid Work

Why are men not at least a little bit more in a hurry to get married than ladies? Ok to be a bit more realistic, at least as much in a hurry as ladies! 

See this:

“Marriage or a defacto relationship increases, not decreases, a woman’s amount of unpaid work (u would think that it would decrease it right, I mean logically it should). Compared with women who live alone, a woman in a relationship doubles the time she spends on preparing food and on laundry work. On the other hand, a man in a relationship reduces his unpaid work by a quarter”- Derek Llewellyn-Jones, 1998.

Haaaaaaaaaa!!!! So who really benefits from marriage? Men, I should think!! But no, they say it’s women who want to get married as soon as possible. Are we that eager for more unpaid work (i.e“work no pay”)?? I guess we are a very very, I insist, very charitable specie, what with the going around asking for more work for no pay (or is there pay?). 

It's time to turn the tables! 

A guy has no reason to refuse a proposal which goes:

(insert whatever special name you favor), I love you with all my heart, I want you to be the father of my proposed children and I want to change my last name and leave my family and cleave to you and your family. It’s possible you are not ready to settle down now but let me propose this to you, I am willing and able and ready to take a WHOLE quarter off your unpaid work (dishes, laundry, house cleaning (which you weren’t doing before tho), shopping, cooking) to give you more time to just chill (mind you, it is ‘oyibo’ people that have said it is a quarter so I am certain for the average African man it is at least four-fifth).  

What sane guy wouldn’t say yes to that?! So ladies can go ahead and propose this and unlike the situation with when a guy proposes, the rate of positive responses would be a whopping high of 91.68% (the remaining 8.32% are not yet born).

I am thinking men should start being much more grateful that we want to take over their unpaid work for free!!! It's time!

Disclaimer: The content of this post is not the real life view/position of Bella. Derek there just gave me food for thought……and rant. hehehehe!! 

What happened on May day....II

After I finished enjoying my 'delish' breakfast (see here), I set things in motion for an even 'delish-er' dinner. It was May day after all and comes only once a year (so does every other day, but still....), so who says I cant make a party out of it?

I had my first beef goulash at a Hilton hotel and it was totally amazing (as compared to nothing because I had no idea what it was supposed to taste like, I just knew it was good!), kudos to the Chef!! I was sold on the spot! I decided to try it out at home but it didn't taste like the goulash I fell for :( I was sure something had gone wrong with the recipe. I was too determined to miss out on this, so I kept going till I found the perfect recipe to work with! *hi-five for me* 

What better day to try it out than on a day caution had gone with the wind......

Coconut Rice and Hungarian Goulash

Hehehehehehe!! You can (and should) bet it tasted REAL GOOD!! 

Behind the scene

Ingredients

Pork (cut into bite sizes)

Onions (generous portion)

Green and Red Bell peppers (chopped)

Green and Red Chilli peppers (chopped)

Fresh tomatoes (diced)

Paparika

Red wine vinegar

Meat stock (optional)

Flour 

Black pepper

Garlic

Ginger

Thyme

Sesame seed oil

Soya oil

Salt

Curry leaves

Rice

Coconut

Pork Goulash

I cut my pork into not-so small pieces and marinated in onion, ginger, black pepper, salt and garlic for a few hours till I was ready to cook (generally not necessary, just did so out of habit). 

I sprinkled flour (enough to  cover the pork) and black pepper (forgive me, I love black pepper) on the pork. 

I poured sesame seed and soya oil in a  non-stick pot (just enough to cover the base and some) and put on high heat. I added the pork allowed it to brown (u can brown in batches when using large quantity of meat), not necessarily cooked through, just well browned on all sides the removed it from the oil and set aside. 

I added more oil to the pot and stir fried the onions, chopped garlic, chopped  bell and chilli peppers for about 3 minutes. 

I added the fresh tomatoes (I like to do without puree, but u can also add this) and red wine vinegar and stirred for about 2 minutes, then put the pork back into the pot with paparika, more black pepper, thyme and meat stock (this may be salty so just add salt if necessary to taste). 

The broth should cover the meat properly (or add water till it does), I covered the pot and allowed to boil. Then I reduced the heat and simmered for 1 hour (or 90 minutes till the meat becomes so soft and parts easily) stirring occasionally so it won't burn. 

When it was ready, I turned off the heat and sprinkled my chopped curry leaves. 

Note: If you prefer a thicker consistency after the meat is softened, you can thicken with a little flour.

Coconut Rice

I put hot water into a pot and let it boil, after which I added my rice and left it to boil for 10 minutes. 

I grated my coconut and rinsed out the milk and oil with hot water using a sieve (after I had removed 2 table spoons of the grated coconut). 

After the 10 minutes, I poured out the water in the rice and poured the coconut milk into the rice, just enough to cover it then left it on low heat to soften the rice while soaking up the coconut milk. 

When the water dried up and the rice softened, I sprinkled the 2 spoons of grated coconut I saved earlier on it and turned off the heat.

Voila!!! CbB Coconut rice and Pork Goulash was born! 

There are so many goulash recipes out there but the key is to find the one that suits your taste. The first goulash I made had sour cream and that didn't work well but this recipe is just right for me!! 

CbB: Yam Vegetable

In the spirit of healthy eating, this is one of my many favorites. I know people argue constantly about whether yam is healthy or not and i definitely dunno the winning side. However, I choose to stand with those who say yam is healthy but should be eaten in moderation, at least till one party wins the argument. 

Yam Vegetable as i choose to call it (cos i know many people have different names for it) or 'Ji agwo ro agwo' as my people call it has many variants and you can choose to add or remove ingredients as you please. However, this is the version I favor the most: 

Boiled yam with Spinach, Ukpaka and Roasted fish

I know most Ibo families eat this dish and most likely other tribes. We sure did eat this a lot at home and we still do. Some people prefer plantain (ripe or unripe) so can choose to replace the yam or use both yam and plantain. This is also a pretty easy dish to prepare and isn't time consuming. 

Behind the scene.....

Ingredients: 

Boiled yam cubes or plantain (ripe or unripe) 

Pepper

Crayfish

Onions

Smoked fish

Spinach leaves (washed and cut)

Uziza leaves (some may call it hot leaves)

Maggi/Salt

Ukpaka/Ugba (I hear this is made from oil bean seed)

I also love to use akidi (i really don't know any other name for it) but I haven't seen this anywhere in Abuja

I put a little palm oil in my frying pan and allowed it to heat up and smoke for a bit.

Added onions, smoked fish (as i like the fish to soak up the sauce) and ukpaka/ugba and stir fried it for a few minutes, then added the pepper, crayfish and maggi. I added the pepper at this point cos i had cut it up. If the pepper is blended and has water in it, it might be better to add it at the same time with the ukpaka and onions so the water dries up. 

I added the boiled yam into the sauce and mixed properly (I always remove the fish before mixing so it doesn't break up into tiny pieces). 

After mixing properly, I added the spinach and ukpaka leaves (taste for salt, pepper or crayfish) returned the fish and left it to simmer on low heat for a few minutes. 

Food was ready!! 

Some people love to see 'bits n pieces' of shaki, pomo and others in their meals so this would also be pre-cooked and cut into bite size and put in alongside the smoked fish.

If you do try this, I'd like to know how it went. If you have a different recipe, do share!  

What happened on May day....I

Without a bit of shame, I decided to go the whole nine yards, throwing all caution to the wind, and spoil 'me and mine' on May day. It's not like I am on any (strict) diet but this year I decided (like every other year) to pay more attention to what I eat (at least this isn't too stringent......hehehehe! Lots of room for 'movement').

For breakfast, this is what I came up with:

CbB Egg and Sausage sandwich with vanilla flavored yogurt

Not behd ehn......

I had a lovely time enjoying this while watching a movie.........what else are holidays for??!!

Behind the scene........

Behind the scene:

Eight (not so thin) slices of Next's Royal Family bread 

(No! I wouldn't admit to queuing for 33 mins the day before to buy this bread)

Three Eggs

Four Sausages

Flour

Butter

Black pepper

Green and Red peppers

Salt

I tossed my sausages (after defrosting) in a mix of flour, black pepper and salt and fried them with a little butter on low heat.

Then I fried my eggs with the green and red peppers, salt and a little black pepper. ( I don't like onions in my egg so I usually do without but for those who do, please help yourself). I also do not like the sight of raw eggs on bread so I always fry them before putting it on the bread and into the sandwich maker. 

I piled my egg and sausage on the bread (sandwich style) and placed them in the sandwich maker to "sandwich and brown" (seeing as everything was already pre-cooked :-P). 

This was ready in barely 3 minutes. And I had a nicely browned sandwich, good to go!!

Enjoy with any beverage of choice!!  

Lemme know your idea of "the perfect sandwich"......