Corned Beef / Minced Meat Sauce

First of all, I recently just discovered that its "Corned Beef"; all my life I have been calling it "CORN BEEF". I actually laughed out loud upon realizing it haha. Have you always known it has Corned Beef?

Anyways, this sauce brings a lot of memories for me. I stayed with my grandma during my early primary school days; so we used to make this simple delicious sauce almost every weekend. I'm however adding the minced meat part to it because it's the same process; you just have to heat the minced meats to take out the excess water first then you are good to go.

 

You will be needing:

 

A Can of Corned Beef or Minced meat

Habanero Pepper (about 60%; you can reduced it though if you are not a pepper fan like I and my generation hehehe)

Onions (about 10%)

Tatashe (about 30%)

Ginger and Garlic (to your preference I usually use more garlic and ginger though)

Bullion Cubes

Salt (to taste)

Palm Oil

Cray-Fish

 

Lets Cook.

 

Blend your peppers, onions with ginger and garlic (not too smooth) and heat up your frying pan/pot with about 3 to 4 cooking spoons of palm oil. Dice your onions to the palm oil and let it fry for a minute before adding your pepper mixture.

If you are using minced meat, you will need to put it in a pan and reduce the heat and let the water dry out for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Let it fry for about 20 minutes on high heat then reduce. You will see it is well fried when the oil disappears and then later settles on top of the pepper. (see picture below)

Season with your preferred bullion cubes, salt, crayfish. You really don't need curry and thyme but you may add it if you so wish but if you are used to adding that in all your cooking skip it for this meal and see a difference. Let it fry for about a minute then add your corned beef or the pre-boiled minced meats. (if you are using corned beef please be careful with salting your sauce as corned beef is already salty.

 

Let it fry for a bit longer on a low heat and your corned beef or minced meat is ready.

 

Served with either yam, bread or with pasta. Also, the good thing is you can take the one you will be using for the day and freeze the rest away for use another day or recipe.

 

Let me know what you think and comment below if you have any questions as well.

 

 

 

Stewed Beans

This is easily one of my favorite food of all time. Growing up, I think I must have eaten enough beans for Africa lol. I don't know where I got this superstition from but I learnt that beans makes one tall, so I tend to eat a lot of beans because I believed it would make me tall. haha (yes, I am tall just incase you are wondering lol).
This is one of the very few meals that I cook and is always consistent in taste. If you rarely get your beans to taste delicious don't worry, you've got me now. It's actually very easy to cook.

You will be needing;

Honey beans (2 cups)
Habanero peppers (about 70% depending on your level of tolerance.)
Tatashe (this is to give it that lovely color; you will need about 15%)
Tomatoes (this is optional, I used to totally skip this step lol but trust me you will like it. You only need about 5% of it anyways)
Onions (lots of it about 10%)
Bullion cubes  (2)
Salt (to taste)
Palm oil
Crayfish


Lets cook

Put your water into a pot and leave to boil. (Pick your beans to remove all traces of dirt then rinse).When the water is boiled add your beans to the boiling water and add onions; lots of onions. (I later added more onions after taking the picture below).

Add enough water to the beans else you will need to be adding more water to the beans as time goes on (except you are using a pressure cooker where you would have already added a lot of water.) I added enough water to this but I kept drying up so stay tuned to it. lol

 

While you are waiting for the beans to get soft, get on with the peppers; blend your peppers, heat your frying pan with about 3 to 4 cooking spoons of palm oil, dice your onions and let it fry for a minute before adding your blended peppers then season to your taste. I only use maggi, salt, crayfish and i'm good.  Then let it fry till its reduced.

 

 

When its well fried, switch off the burner and check on the beans it should be soft by now.

 

Back to the beans: You need it veerrrrry soft like the picture below and ONLY after its soft, you can mash it if you like yours mashed. The lot of the beans is already mashed anyways because it has been cooked to be very soft.

 

 

 Then add the fried pepper mix to the beans and stir well. 

 

 

If you haven't already seasoned your pepper now is a good time to.

 

After mixing, reduce the heat to the lowest and leave on for 5 to 10 minutes. I like to leave mine a lil longer though. Personal preference.

Serve with cassava flakes hehehe  or plantain or simply eat alone.

 

Easy-Peasy Pancakes

Here is how to make simple pancakes that you can have in the morning or like me, late at night. It is also very filling and can be paired with fruits such as apple, berries, honey, fried eggs or eaten alone.

You will be needing:

Flour (2 cups)
Eggs (2)
Brown or White Sugar (to taste)
A pinch of salt
Milk either powdered or liquid. I used both though.
Baking powder (optional)
Nutmeg (optional)
Flavor(s) I used both vanilla and  milk flavors.
Water (1 cup)
Butter or Oil to fry.

Lets cook

Sift your flour

Mix all your dry ingredients that is flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, powdered milk and nutmeg and in a separate bowl, mix all the wet ingredients except the water as well; that is eggs, liquid milk, and flavors.

 

 

 

 

Combine both wet and dry ingredients together, don't worry it would become thick, this is where you add water little by little till be becomes a little bit watery or to the consistency you like. If you have this very liquidly milk you can use that instead and skip the water. I couldn't get it so I had to use water instead which still came out fine as well.  

 

 

Be careful not to beat the batter too much just mix until it is smooth you can also use a mixer for this purpose; when you are done, heat up a nonstick frying pan on low heat with as little butter or oil as possible.

 

 With a deep spoon or a small rounded bowl, pour your batter into the pan and wait for a minute or so till you see the edges bubbling sort-of; then you turn it over. 

This is it turned over.

 You can also do it the Nigerian way and chop onions and pepper to your batter. If not, repeat the process again till your batter is finished.

....And that's it...Easy Peasy right? lol. smells amazing as well thanks to the flavors.

 

Like I said earlier, you can eat it alone or with any accompaniment of your choice.

Please leave comments if you tried it or know of any other method lets share ideas.

xoxo.