Hey guys hope everyone's having a chilled out weekend? Well as for me, its been a busy sunday for me doing some food shopping.
Today's menu is one of Nigeria's most popular side dishes; Gizzard and Plantain aka Gizdodo. Its basically a combination of gizzard, spices, mixed peppers and plantain; and I must say I'm not really a fan of plantain but since the hubby eats anything plantainised, (hope that's correct english lol) Gizdodo has been one of his all time favourite. I made it to a family friends Christmas party last Christmas and everyone including hubby fell in love with it. A whole pot of it went in seconds (great right). My hubby has now requested I make it almost every weekend, jeez men what are you like? lol.... Man city & Sunderland were playing today and all hubby's friends decided to chill at ours today so I thought I'll entertain them with it.
Anyways you know I always bring to you easy and quick meals and I can guarantee you that when you try this method, you'll thank me later.
By the way my guests requested they took some away but unfortunately a full pot of it was gone in 15mins. O'toodles..xxx
Video Pictorial here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjHnjgI968M
So here we go:-
Cooking time:- 1 hour
Ingredients (to serve 4-6)
Gizzard (chicken gizzard):- there are 2 types of it, the turkey and the chicken. I've never used the turkey one so I'll stick to what I know which is the chicken gizzard
2 medium sized red onions
1 scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
1 tin of peeled plum tomatoes
1 bell pepper
Mixed yellow, green & red pepper (I used the already cut frozen one, makes life easier lol)- get from any food chain supermarket
2 medium sized plantain
2 teaspoons of salt
stock cubes
1 teaspoon of All-purpose seasoning
thyme
1 fresh lime or lime juice
Olive oil
Utensils
Blender
Pot/saucepan
Oven
Kitchen foil
Step by step Instructions
Prepare your gizzard by firstly cleaning it thoroughly; now the gizzard can be extremely dirty so you'll need to clean properly. Cut the lime into half and squeeze the first half into the gzzard in the container, soak for about 10minutes as lime contains acid and in effect also kills the dirt in the gizzard. After 10minutes start the cleaning process and make sure all the extra fat and dirt is taken off the gizzard. Repeat this process until really clean (picture below). Squeeze the second half of the lime in the gizzard and use your hands to massage it, once this is done rinse well and place in a pot. Add salt, stock cubes, thyme & onions and leave to boil for at least 40minutes. Whilst that's boiling, prepare your pepper and add the plum tomatoes in a blender with 1 onion, 1 scotch bonnet (you can add more if you like that burning sensation), 1 bell pepper and blend roughly (picture below). Heat about 150-200ml of olive oil in a pot on really low heat for about 20mins max (remember on really low heat). After the 20mins, add the pepper mixture (you only need half, as this pepper is just to coat the gizzard so store the remaining half in the freezer as you won't need alot of blended pepper) stir and add 1 stock cube, a teaspoon of all purpose seasoning, salt to taste and leave to fry on low heat. Once frying, you'll begin to see the oil residue at the top of the stew, the stew should also have reduced in size during the frying stage (you're doing well so far). Don't worry as the stew is just to coat the gizzard not make it a watery stew.
Now your gizzard should be ready, place in an oven pan and put in the oven for 17mins on 375-400°F ♎ 190- 200°C. If you prefer frying, you can always fry but as most people are now becoming very health concious, oven cooking is the healthier option.
Once done, place the gizzard in the stew and mix. Whilst this is cooking, start peparing the plantain by cutting into cubes (pictures below), fry and leave aside. Add the mix pepper (green, yellow & red) into the gizzard mix and sliced onions and leave to cook for a further 2 mins. Now everything should start to come together and should start looking shamazing lol. Add the plantain and leave to steam for 2mins(please time this as plantain will get soggy once left in for too long); voila you're done & you can see that this is so easy to prepare...Well done, you've now successfully completed the Gizdodo stage, let me know how you get on please :-) and stay tuned for more recipes :-) Comments & questions welcome.
Gizzard being soaked with fresh lime
gizzard boiled and in an oven pan with kitchen foil
Olive oil
Today's menu is one of Nigeria's most popular side dishes; Gizzard and Plantain aka Gizdodo. Its basically a combination of gizzard, spices, mixed peppers and plantain; and I must say I'm not really a fan of plantain but since the hubby eats anything plantainised, (hope that's correct english lol) Gizdodo has been one of his all time favourite. I made it to a family friends Christmas party last Christmas and everyone including hubby fell in love with it. A whole pot of it went in seconds (great right). My hubby has now requested I make it almost every weekend, jeez men what are you like? lol.... Man city & Sunderland were playing today and all hubby's friends decided to chill at ours today so I thought I'll entertain them with it.
Anyways you know I always bring to you easy and quick meals and I can guarantee you that when you try this method, you'll thank me later.
By the way my guests requested they took some away but unfortunately a full pot of it was gone in 15mins. O'toodles..xxx
Video Pictorial here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjHnjgI968M
So here we go:-
Cooking time:- 1 hour
Ingredients (to serve 4-6)
Gizzard (chicken gizzard):- there are 2 types of it, the turkey and the chicken. I've never used the turkey one so I'll stick to what I know which is the chicken gizzard
2 medium sized red onions
1 scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
1 tin of peeled plum tomatoes
1 bell pepper
Mixed yellow, green & red pepper (I used the already cut frozen one, makes life easier lol)- get from any food chain supermarket
2 medium sized plantain
2 teaspoons of salt
stock cubes
1 teaspoon of All-purpose seasoning
thyme
1 fresh lime or lime juice
Olive oil
Utensils
Blender
Pot/saucepan
Oven
Kitchen foil
Step by step Instructions
Prepare your gizzard by firstly cleaning it thoroughly; now the gizzard can be extremely dirty so you'll need to clean properly. Cut the lime into half and squeeze the first half into the gzzard in the container, soak for about 10minutes as lime contains acid and in effect also kills the dirt in the gizzard. After 10minutes start the cleaning process and make sure all the extra fat and dirt is taken off the gizzard. Repeat this process until really clean (picture below). Squeeze the second half of the lime in the gizzard and use your hands to massage it, once this is done rinse well and place in a pot. Add salt, stock cubes, thyme & onions and leave to boil for at least 40minutes. Whilst that's boiling, prepare your pepper and add the plum tomatoes in a blender with 1 onion, 1 scotch bonnet (you can add more if you like that burning sensation), 1 bell pepper and blend roughly (picture below). Heat about 150-200ml of olive oil in a pot on really low heat for about 20mins max (remember on really low heat). After the 20mins, add the pepper mixture (you only need half, as this pepper is just to coat the gizzard so store the remaining half in the freezer as you won't need alot of blended pepper) stir and add 1 stock cube, a teaspoon of all purpose seasoning, salt to taste and leave to fry on low heat. Once frying, you'll begin to see the oil residue at the top of the stew, the stew should also have reduced in size during the frying stage (you're doing well so far). Don't worry as the stew is just to coat the gizzard not make it a watery stew.
Now your gizzard should be ready, place in an oven pan and put in the oven for 17mins on 375-400°F ♎ 190- 200°C. If you prefer frying, you can always fry but as most people are now becoming very health concious, oven cooking is the healthier option.
Once done, place the gizzard in the stew and mix. Whilst this is cooking, start peparing the plantain by cutting into cubes (pictures below), fry and leave aside. Add the mix pepper (green, yellow & red) into the gizzard mix and sliced onions and leave to cook for a further 2 mins. Now everything should start to come together and should start looking shamazing lol. Add the plantain and leave to steam for 2mins(please time this as plantain will get soggy once left in for too long); voila you're done & you can see that this is so easy to prepare...Well done, you've now successfully completed the Gizdodo stage, let me know how you get on please :-) and stay tuned for more recipes :-) Comments & questions welcome.
Both sides of the gizzard to be cleaned
Boiling stage of the gizzard
Olive oil
gizzard after being in the oven