A Sallah different from the norm

How to prepare peppered gizzardPeppered gizzard makes a wonderful appetizer especially when it is served at special occasions such as parties or even at home to entertain guests as small chops. Instead of the usually fried rice with chicken, go simple with peppered kpomo, peppered gizzard as well as peppered goat meat popularly known as […]

How to prepare peppered gizzard
Peppered gizzard makes a wonderful appetizer especially when it is served at special occasions such as parties or even at home to entertain guests as small chops. Instead of the usually fried rice with chicken, go simple with peppered kpomo, peppered gizzard as well as peppered goat meat popularly known as asun.
Ingredients for preparing peppered gizzard
Two packs chicken gizzard
Fresh peppers (enough quantity to your taste)
Two medium onions
One big stock cube
One teaspoon of thyme
Salt (to taste)
Two tablespoons of vegetable oil
Toothpicks (for serving)
Rinse and place the gizzard in a pot, add one cup of water, in one cube of maggi, and half teaspoon of salt. Simmer on low heat for 25 minutes. Increase the heat to high and stir constantly till all the remaining liquid in the pot is absorbed. You don’t want to lose any flavour by pouring away the gizzard stock.
Lay the gizzards flat in a baking bowl. Grill in an oven at 170°C or 338°F till the top side is dry and brown. Turn them and grill the underside too till dry and brown.
Heat the vegetable oil in another pot. Add the pepper and onions. Allow to fry for three minutes and season with onemaggi cube, thyme and salt to taste then add the grilled or deep-fried gizzards. Stir very well till the pepper is evenly distributed on the gizzards. Serve with chilled drinks.
The festive season is here again as usual many homes will be immersed with cooking carbohydrates. Asun is always an easy escape from all the heavy carbohydrate meals at celebrations.

Ingredients for Asun
Goat meat
Scotch bonnet Pepper (coarsely ground) to
taste
Onions (sliced)
Seasoning cubes to taste
Salt to taste
Little water
Method
Clean the meat without cutting into pieces. Always ask the butchers to remove the big bones from the meat,especially if using the hind-legs or fore-legs of a goat. Pat dry with kitchen tissue and grill to cook and brown the meat and infuse the smoke flavour.
Chop meat into small bite size pieces. Place in a pot and add the onions, sprinkle very little water to cook meat a little further and prevent meat sticking to pot. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Mix seasoning, pepper and salt and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring almost all through this time. This helps to make a slightly thick sauce for the meat. Serve hot.
Cooking Tips
Female ‘native’ goat works best for asun. The meat cooks faster and the skin is softer. Ask the butchers when buying. Adjust pepper to your tolerance level.

Watermelon mock-tail drink recipe
Watermelon is a low calorie fruit and could replace most carbonated drinks we consume daily.
Ingredients
Six Medium chunks of watermelon
120 ml of water (half cup)
Two lemon slices
Two teaspoons of black currant
Half teaspoon of sugar for syrup
Sprinkles or sugar for garnishing the glass
Ice cubes
Method
With a quarter cup (60 ml) of water, blend the watermelon chunks and sieve for the juice. You can also use a juicer and avoid using extra water.
In a separate cup, mix the rest of the water and the half teaspoon of sugar to form syrup. You could use warm water so the sugar dissolves better. Pour the sugar mix into the watermelon juice, add the black currant.
Use one of the lemon slices to rub around the tip of the glass and rub the glass in the sprinkles or sugar for garnishing.
Pour some ice cubes in your glass and pour in the watermelon juice and serve cold. Garnish with more lemon slices or any other fruit of your choice.

Yamarita with corned beef and egg sauce scampi
Yamarita is the best way of enjoying yam. Its taste and feel are absolutely fantastic. It gives this heavenly sensation when having it as a meal especially with a very nice and delicious sauce preferably garnished with seafood. Trying it this Sallah won’t be a bad idea.
Ingredients
One small tuber of yam
A tin of corned beef
Half kg of king prawns
Four eggs
Half a cup of plain flour
Sunflower oil
Onions
Bell peppers
Method
Slice your yam in to shapes, depending on preference. Rinse the slices of yam and place in a bowl, add some sugar (not compulsory), add some water, cover up and place in the refrigerator overnight to soften and sweeten.
Parboil the yam with the same water that was in the fridge the next day. Once parboiled, drain and powder it in a pan with the plain flour. Heat up a pan or wok with sunflower oil ready to fry the yam. Whisk two or three eggs in a bowl and place the powdered yam in the eggs one at a time, roll over till the eggsare all over the yam. Once, the oil is heated, place the yam in the hot oil one at a time to fry and fry for four minutes, remove when it turns golden.
Method for corn beef and egg sauce scampi
Remove the shells from your prawns, rinse and steam or stir fry in a wok, add spring onions peppers etc, depending on preference. When the colour of the prawns changes, you can set them aside.  If you are using ready cooked prawns you can skip this step. In a hot wok, add some sunflower oil, and stir fry your diced bell peppers and onions. Do this for about 10 minutes and add your corned beef. Stir fry for another three minutes, and then add your eggs depending on preference. To keep it nice you don’t need to whisk the eggs since you are stir frying. After three minutes your egg scampi sauce is ready.