Curry Fried Rice with Sweet and Sour Beef

Home …………………….. Happiness

Kids ……………………… Joy

Life ……………………….. Good

Morning alarm ……………. Morning run

Eggs...............................…....Breakfast

Amala ……………………....Shitta

Diet …………………………Coke

Woman …………………….. Awesome

Beautiful ……………………You

Chinese.…….………….……Take out

Ok I wrote all that because I wanted to illustrate that anytime I hear Chinese I simultaneously think takeout. I love Chinese meals “I no go lie”.

It’s an easy meal to make, hardly taking much time to cook except the preparation stage which involves a lot of chopping.

I modified this recipe of fried rice to make it more Nigerian this is achieved by adding curry to the rice. Chinese don’t add curry to their rice.

Ingredients

For the Rice

2 Cups Rice

1 Tbsp Curry powder

1 large Onions, thinly sliced

3 cloves Garlic, sliced

250 g Shrimps

Mixed veggies (carrots, Peas, sweet corn, red and green peppers)

Sugar

Salt

Oil.

For the Sauce

500g beef

2 Tbsp chopped ginger

1 Tbsp chopped garlic

1 tsp chili flakes

2 Tbsp soy sauce

Seasoning

2 Tbsp Sugar

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp Corn starch

2 cups water

Salt

Oil

Chives for garnishing

1. Boil the rice as you would normally cook it add the curry powder to the rice. Once the rice is done allow it to cool down a bit you can transfer it into a colander to hasten the cooling process. 
2. In a frying pan heat 3 tbsp of oil sauté the onions and the garlic until translucent add the veggies and the shrimp cook until the shrimps turn pinkish white. You can add any cube seasoning of your choice.  Add the boiled rice, sprinkle the sugar on top the rice and keep stirring for about 3 minutes, seasoning with salt. Set the rice aside
   

Simple Chinese Egg Fried Rice.

Chinese egg fried rice is a super-duper easy meal to make. There are some evenings when am at a loss for what to prepare for dinner. I guess it happens to you too..... or am I alone?

Well when this happens I look through my fridge for leftovers that I can whip up and serve. In comes my simple Chinese fried rice!

The ingredients are a staple at my house as a baker am never out of eggs and I almost always have leftover boiled rice. This my version is devoid of lots of veggies but you can add any veggies you like e.g carrots, capsicum, peas, spring onions, garlic etc. 


Ingredients

2 cups boiled rice (day old rice are the best so boil your rice a night before)
1 onion
3 tbsp oil

4 eggs

2 tsp honey

2 tsp soy sauce

Salt

1. Slice the onions and fry in a tbsp of oil in a non stick pan.
2. Crack the eggs and whisk, add to the onions and fry until done.
3. Turn the eggs unto a plate, pour in the remaining oil into the pan heat it up and add the rice
4. Add the honey and soy sauce and fry
5. Taste for salt and add a little salt, make sure you taste because the soy sauce is salty.
6. Add the eggs back in with the rice give them a good stir.
7. Your meal is ready!

Air Buns ( Nigerian Puff Puff)

I made puff last Sunday, my nieces came over to my house and I wanted to make a fast snack that was easy to make and didn't involved the oven. Puff puff is very easy to make and it involves very little washing up which is very ok by me.

If you are familiar with Nigerian snacks, have you ever noticed that we don’t usually have a structured recipe for many of our street snacks? It is usually just put this, this and that you basically eye ball all the ingredients! I have tried to get a recipe for puff puff and it was always the same answer just put flour, sugar, yeast, water, etc. No right recipe even food bloggers all seem to differ in their recipes. The only consolation is that puff unlike cake or bread is a hassle free pastry.

So after some experimentation I came up with this recipe which I keep tweaking whenever I want to make another batch and depending on whom am serving the ingredients changes! But this is the one kids love more, because it's so sweet.


Ingredients

4 cups Flour

1.5 cups Sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4 to 3/4 cup warm water

1.5 tbsp yeast

1 tsp dry pepper (optional)

Vegetable oil for deep frying


1. Mix the yeast with 1/4 cup of water put a little sugar on top set aside. This would help to quickly activate the yeast.

2. Let it stand for about 5 minutes.

3. Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl.

4. Pour in the yeast mixture into the dry mixture and stir, gradually pouring in the remaining water, do not pour all the water at once just do it gradually. If you want the puff puff to be very light and airy add more water but if you want it a bit stiffer then go gently with the water.

5. Add the pepper for a little kick

6. Allow to prove for about 30 minutes to an hour

7. Heat the oil for frying to a high temperature then scoop small balls and drop into the oil. Make sure that it's small because it puffs up in the oil as it fries.

8. Once it turns golden brown scoop out and drain the puff puffs.

9. Once drained roll in a bed of sugar and serve with an iced cold drink

10. Ebe ano!

Green Plantain and Sweet Potato Pottage

Plantain is a stable food item in my home especially with my kids. Recently my husband developed an affinity with green plantain (unripe plantain) he wants it as part of his meal at least twice a week. I get the whole eating healthy stuff and the need to eliminate some high glycemic meals. The only snag is that green plantain has no sugar and is not a sweet meal so getting my kids to eat it is usually a tug of war. Hence the addition of sweet potatoes, which gives it the right amount of sweetness.

Ingredients

7 medium to large size green plantain

1 large sweet potato

1 medium smoked fish

2 tbsp crayfish, dry blended

1 large onion

1/8 cup or1 large cooking spoon palm oil

1 cup shredded ugu about 1 small bunch

Seasoning

Salt to taste

1. Peel the skin of the plantain, it’s easier to hold the plantain vertically. Give it a straight cut from top to bottom then gently use your fingers or the knive to lift off the skin. Cut each plantain into 5 or 6 round pieces. Peel the potato and cut into large chunks about 2 to 3 times larger than the plantains.

2. Wash the peeled plantains and potatoes and place in a pot over medium heat. Add enough water to just cover them do not pour too much to totally cover them some of the vegetables should be sticking out of the water. Too much water would make the pottage watery.

3. Add the sliced onions and palm oil, bring to a boil.

4. Next put the washed dry smoked fish, crayfish and the seasoning

5. Stir at intervals with a wooden spoon this would help to thicken the sauce.

6.       Boil until the plantains are tender and the water is reduced to form a thick sauce by now the potatoes should be tender.

7. I like to add the sliced fresh pepper at this point; I like to see little flakes of pepper.

8. Salt and finally add the ugu and give it one last stir. Turn off the heat after a minute

9. Serve.

Tip: The use of wooden spoon rather than metal to stir helps to keep the bottom of the pot from burning the food