Home-made Nigerian Meatpie

I'm not that much of a baker, but I decided to bake today and voila, it turned out really well. It was bound to be another boring saturday as Six Nations Rugby was on tv and my better was full of lergies. I decided to do something exciting by baking Nigerian Meatpie.

Ingredients:-

Self raising flour- 1kg (makes up to 15 pies)

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt
half a glass of cold water

40g of butter

500g of Mince meat

2 carrots

peas
2 potatoes- diced into small pieces
thyme
scotch bonnet- quarter
2 stock cubes
6 tablespoons of olive oil
1 egg (For glazing the pie)

Instructions:-

For the mince meat:-

Add the oilve oil in a pot, leave to heat up for 2 minutes, add onions and leave to fry for 1 minute. Add the mince, carrots, peas, scotch bonnet and diced potatoes. Add the stock cubes and thyme and leave to cook until brown for 5 to 7 minutes and leave on the side to cool.

For the dough:-

Glaze your baking dish with some butter and leave aside.

Add the flour in a bowl, add the baking powder and salt and use fingers to mix thoroughly until it becomes crumbly. Add the butter and water, mix well until thick and in a ball form. Once thick, roll wth a dough roller and section with a dough cutter or bowl to make round cuts on the rolled out dough.


Scoop in the mince in the center of the round cuts making sure the quantity of the mince does not overflow. Close the dough, and use a fork to press the two edges together to close tightly; place in the baking dish. Break the egg in a bowl, whisk and glaze the top and ends of the pies with a glazing brush; this is to ensure that the meatpie is perfectly sealed preventing it from opening whilst baking.

Set in a pre-heated oven for about 30 to 40 minutes on moderately hot 375-400°F ♎ 190- 200°C

Enjoy..X

Jollof Rice with Peri-Peri Chicken and Plantain

One of Africa's most popular dishes eaten almost in all parts of Africa and the world.

There are so many variations of this dish but everyone mostly uses the same or similar ingredients. Very easy to make yet can be very tricky if you do not get it right.

Ingredients:-

For the rice:- Easycook rice(500g),
2 tin Plum tomatoes
3 bell peppers
2 red onions
1 scotch bonnet depending on how hot you can handle
A tablespoon of thyme
2 tablespoons of tomato puree
stock cubes (2 cubes and 1 ground stock cube)
half a teaspoon of flavour enhancer
Salt to taste
Bay leaves- About a handful
olive oil(about 150-200ml)

Peri-Peri chicken:-
Chicken pieces
2 tablespoons of ketchup
2 tablespoons of barbeque sauce
1 tablespoon of barbeque seasoning
1 tablespoon of ground pepper

Plantain- Plantain, 100ml of olive oil.

Instructions:-

Jollof Rice:-Add your olive oil in your pot and leave to fry on low heat for 2 minutes, whilst that's on heat, blend together 3 bell peppers(depending on how many people you are serving), 1 onion, 1 scotch bonnet(depending on how spicy you can handle), 2 tin plum tomatoes; until fine and smooth. Add the mixture into the hot oil and add the stock cubes, the thyme and the salt to taste, tomato puree and stir.

Leave to cook on medium heat until you can see the oil residue at the top of your mixture (roughly about 10 minutes). Whilst that's cooking, rinse your rice twice to get rid of the extra starch in the rice, add the rice in your mixture, stir gently and cover with an aluminium foil paper. Leave to cook until the rice is dry and soft. Serve as desired.

Peri-Peri Chicken:- Glaze the chicken pieces with all the ingredients by making sure the sauces get into every corner of the chicken (so that you can taste the sauce in the chicken when its done), place in an oven dish, cover with an aluminium foil and place in the oven for 20 minutes on on moderately hot 375-400°F ♎ 190- 200°C

Plantain:- Slice the plantain and dice in small pieces; Add your olive oil in a frying pan or saucepan, leave to heat up for 2 minutes on medium heat, add your plantain and fry until golden brown.

Happy Cooking..xxxx


Enjoy.

Nigerian Okra Ogbono served with Amala

I decided to go back to my roots by preparing a dish that originates from the western part of Nigeria; Okra Ogbono served wit Amala.

Amala is a thick brown paste made from yam which has been peeled, dried, cleaned and then blended into flour form. It is eaten primarily among the yoruba people of Nigeria.

Ingredients

500g of okra
about half a cup of ogbono
a handful of ground crayfish
2 stock cubes
ground pepper
4 cubes of frozen leaf spinach
Beef, chicken pieces (bolied and seasoned)
Stock cat fish
100ml Palm oil
Bitter leaf
King prawns(optional)
Beef stock
Amala powder


chop the okra into small pieces and leave on the side, heat the palm oil in a pan on low heat for 2 minutes and add the beef stock, stir in the stock cubes, ground crayfish, the ground pepper, stock cat fish and the bitter leaf and leave to simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Still in Low heat, add the beef and chicken pieces and stir, gradually add the blended ogbono and stir. Do not cover as this is a slimey dish and once covered, it gets too slimey and can lose its form. At this stage, you will be able to see that the ogbono has started to draw.
Add the leaf spinach as you wish, depending on how you like it, you can chop it more if you prefer. Stir the mixture and leave to simmer for a about 5 minutes. (taste it at this stage to check if you require salt or more stock cubes).

The Okra goes in next, stir and leave to simmer for 5 to 7 minutes on low heat. As the king prawn is optional, I add my king prawns at the end to avoid it shrinking when it gets in the stew (lol).

For the Amala- boil some water in a kettle and add to your pot on fire, I'll leave it for another one minute to over boil; turn your heat down and gradually add in the amala powder by continuously stirring until fine and in paste form. To avoid lumps in the amala, once thick and fine, add a bit of water and leave to boil with the mixture for 30 seconds to 1 minute and stir constantly.

Thanks for reading. xxx

Welcome to the Season of Love- Happy February

Yayyyyy welcome to the season of love; Happy New Month to all my readers, I am so excited for this month and I just want to say thank you all for reading my blog from all over the world. I have gone up to over 500 views in just 3 weeks, thank you all for reading.

I have alot planned for my blog and my youtube channel this month so make sure you stay tuned. As I've said previously, I have alot of Valentine meal ideas to show to you all and I'm sure you will be as excited as I am to try the dishes.  Have a good start to the month all and stay blessed (o toddles).

St Valentines day is Fast approaching

                              Valentines! Valentines! Valentines!

I can't believe its the end of January and February comes knocking; and there's only one thing on everyone's mind- Valentines!!!!!!

The day is fast approaching and I'm so excited, I know its only a normal day but I'm quite excited this year.
What are your plans for Valentines day? It falls on a thursday so I don't think alot of people will do much, but I'm quite looking forward to seeing a few bunches of flowers and chocolates flying around (lol). Are you the sort of person that doesn't believe in Valentines or do you just feel its the norm every year and the day comes and goes as every normal day?

Well why don't you try having a nice and quiet meal at home with your loved one instead of the hassle of getting a table booked at a restaurant, and you end up eating in an over-crowded environment! Trust me most women will love when a man does the woman's job by preparing a nice roast dinner (with the best red wine in a romantic candle lit room) to show her love; not just on Valentines but also once in a while. The saying "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach", the same saying applies to the woman. So men take note, YOU can do the cooking this time, play some nice love songs in the background and reflect on good times. Trust me, that will not only build good relationship moral, it will also help to get to know your partner better.. Ladies can also nudge their partners by giving them a rough idea of the perfect home stay Valentines they'll like this year...

Stay tuned to my youtube channel for Valentine meal Ideas this week.

Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Bechamel Sauce

I went on a brief trip to the biggest city in Italy (Rome) lol in my kitchen; I made a delicious, and when I say delicious I mean a very tasty dish inspired by my favourite Celebrity Chef (Gino D'acampo). I saw him make this dish on tv and it looked really complicated so I thought I'll add my own twist to it. Being a lover of cooking, I take certain and uncertain risks (if you are in the financial/business sector, you'll understand what I mean). I made this complicated looking dish very easy and it came out better than I expected. My Video Director (My hubby) had a bit too much and ended up passing out on the sofa before 8pm (lol).

Happy viewing and let me know what you think.

Ingredients & Step by Step Instructions:-

Cooking time 35minutes

Serves 4
250g Fusilli Pasta
20g Anchor butter for greasing
150g smoked salmon trimmings
2 tablespoons chopped chives
50g of Coloured Mature cheese
50g of Mature Cheddar cheese
Salt to taste

For the Bechamel Sauce
40g Anchor butter
30g plain flour
200ml cold skimmed milk
Pinch of grated nutmeg
Half teaspoon of smoked paprika

Bechamel Sauce

To make the Bechamel sauce, melt the butter in a pot or pan over mdeium heat, add the flour and stir until brown. Gradually whisk in the cold milk, lower the heat and whisk until thick. Once thickened, stir in the nutmeg, paprika, chives and black pepper. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

Pasta

Fill your pot with three quarters full of water, add 2 tablespoons of salt and allow to boil. Adding salt to the water before adding the pasta allows your pasta to be in form.
Pour the pasta in and leave to cook for 2 minutes or as indicated in the packet. Drain the pasta and leave to cool for a few minutes. Grease your grill/oven dish with the remaining butter and add your drained pasta in. Cover it with the smoked salmon, cheese, chives(optional) and the bechamel sauce as you please. You can also add some breadcrums if you prefer your pasta really crunchy and place in the grill for 20 minutes on
moderately hot 375-400°F ♎ 190- 200°C


I hope this helps guys! so remember the next time you are making your pasta or spaghetti, remember to add your salt in the boiling water before adding your pasta or spag.

Thanks for visiting guys...xxx

Seafood Paella

I decided to visit south western part of europe today in spirit (lol), I made a Spanish signature dish that most people find complicated to make. There's no process to making this dish as it just involves adding all the ingredients together. Take a look below and let me know what you think...!!!

Follow me on Twitter:- @saiprojects
Instagram:- saiprojects.

Fried Rice with Chopped Tomato Stew

My first cooking video on my Youtube channel below; "Fried rice" -is one of my favourite dish to prepare. I love Fried rice so much I can actually eat it 7 days a week (weird right); the reason is because its one of the dishes I could easily put together without worrying about what goes in it, as long as it contains rice and seafood, trust me i'm in (lol). Enjoy...x

Ingredients

Easy cook basmati rice, sunflower or vegetable oil, tomato, mixed vegetables, king prawn, red onions, stock cube, soy sauce, thyme, curry powder, black pepper, seasonings and salt to taste

Copped Tomato stew:- Chopped tim tomato, red onion, stock cube, salt, sunflower or vegetable oil, raw chicken or beef

Music by:- Future Lovershttps://www.pond5.com

The Secret to Cooking

Let me start by saying "Welcome to my blog and have you subscribed to my Youtube channel? https://www.youtube.com/user/saioladeji?feature=mhee

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity".  ~Voltaire

In order for you to enjoy cooking, you need to care about what goes in your stomach (lol); I say this to my loved & closed ones. For you to actually know what the secret to cooking a delicious meal is, you need to know what the ingredients contain and what it does to you. There is nothing more satisfying to me than cooking; I started cooking when I was about 17 which happens to be when I started living on my own with no mum's cooking or family nearby to teach me how to cook. I woke up one early morning and did not get out of bed until about 5pm simply because I was hungry, didn't know what to cook, how to cook or who to call to teach me how to cook. I managed to get myself on that amazing bus 182 to Brent cross London, with a few pounds in my bank account (remember i'm only 17 here so don't judge me lol) popped into M&S and bought myself a few chilled items. From Jumbo prawns(my bestest) to sweet chilli sauce, to rice, to noodles name it.To cut my story short, I got home with no help of the internet, got myself into that little kitchen of mine and literally chucked all my shopping together; it did taste nice but was too filling(lol). I found out that cooking is not as hard as it seemed, its just how and what you put together.

As time went by, I met my partner who is an absolute lover of cooked food and a hater of takeaways(lol), I knew that I had no choice but to take cooking as a chore and a hobby.

To all you food lovers out there, cooking is great fun and extremely impressive when inviting friends round for dinner... have I convinced you yet?
I know some of you might feel daunted by cooking but I am all about fresh simple ingredients and I have proven in my youtube videos that I keep things easy & simple and I won't let you down.