Spring rolls and Samosas just go hand in hand. No small chops at a Nigerian party is complete without those two. Mini Puff Puffs complete the trifecta. For my recipe for Puff puff, click HERE. For tips to making the perfect puff puff, click HERE. I hope this weekend, you will attempt the small chops trifecta in your homes. I am showcasing two methods, based on the shape of your wrapper i.e. either square or round. Samosa’s are slightly more fiddly than spring rolls, so don’t beat yourself up if it doesn’t come out as a perfect triangle. Mine certainly didn’t. back to my dexterity challenge. Hehehehehehehehehe.

You will need

Samosa wrappers – to learn how to make the wrappers click HERE
Your choice of filling
Flour and water to make a paste
Hot oil for frying.

Dooney’s Kitchen tip: here are my store bought wrappers. I got them from an Asian store. It is best you make your own wrappers if you can’t find any Asian stores nearby. Puff pastry which is readily available in supermarkets don’t do as good a job. 

Remember to always cover the wrappers (either store bought or homemade) with a damp kitchen cloth to prevent them from getting dry. If frozen, let it defrost naturally

flour and water to form a thick paste. it must be thick enough to be used to seal the edges

For square wrappers

1. Lay one out flat on your work surface

2. Fold it into two equal halves. Fold it towards you. Please ignore the picture i.e. I folded it away from me and it didn’t work, until I realised i was supposed to fold it towards me. I forgot to take a picture when I corrected it.

3. Take the left edge and lift it up

4. Lift it up further towards the other end and watch how the fold is beginning to look like a triangle

5. Lay it flat till it forms a triangle. It is important that the base of the triangle is lying flat on the same line as the other end, while the tip of the triangle is lying at the other end. In this picture, you can see that the very first fold of step 2 was made facing me.

6. Now take the other tip of the triangle, lift it up

7. and fold it down till the tip you were holding in Step 6 is now touching the other end. Now you have two triangle, facing each other i.e. their tips are opposite each other, left and right

another picture

5. It would be best if you turn it slightly such that the tips are facing up and down, like the picture below

6. Take your flour paste and apply on the first layer of the lower triangle. After applying, flip it up, such that it now rests on the tip of the upper triangle.

This now leaves you with one more layer.

7. Apply the flour paste on that last layer. You can choose to apply either at the edges alone

or right across the entire triangle

8. Once applied, flip it over, so that you now have one triangle.

9. Lift the triangle off the work surface, with the tip on the left sitting down, such that you can see the pocket of the triangle to fill

10. Add the filling of your choice

11. Then using your fingers, apply the flour paste on V part above and inside the base of the triangle, just above where the filling stops

12. Press down, such that the base of the triangle closes, and there is no more gap, and then you flip the upper part down, thereby sealing it. Don’t worry if your first few ones are not pretty, you will soon get the hang of it. I feel these pictorial illustrations are better than watching a video, because I had to pause the video like 15 times and continue.

13. Heat up oil in a deep pan, fry a few test batches to test the temperature of the oil, before you fry a big batch.

For Round of Circular wrappers

1. Cut the wrapper into two equal halves

2. Take one half and lie it across such that the straight line part is facing you and the rounded edge is away from you. Flip one edge towards the middle

3. and flip the other edge towards the middle too such that you now have a triangle

4. Lift it up with the tip towards the bottom of your palm.

5. Add any filling of your choice and seal the edges. Please scroll back up to Step 12 above to see how to seal a samosa

6. Fry in hot oil till golden brown

………………..and you have your gorgeous Samosa. Serve with Rodo Jam. Recipe for Rodo Jam, click HERE

see, my samosas weren’t exactly perfect, but they still passed muster and tasted great

Colour golden, pair with rodo jam and I tell you, no party small chops will top that

Now, you can make your own samosas

The post Samosas appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Hi, my name is Dunni Obata, and I am a Recipe Developer. I feel like I should be introducing myself like that from henceforth, hehehehehe. You know what they say about packaging. 2015 is the year for rebranding, re-strategising and all the “re’s”. If you know how long this has been bugging me to the point of annoyance. When the #eatNigerianfoodandmovemore ministry started this year, the nagging feeling to make healthier Nigerian snacks hit me again. This time even much stronger, especially with the constant January bombardment of Diet Chef Tv ads where they say you don’t have to cut out your favourite foods. According to them, Fitfam, doesn’t always have to be about salads and food that don’t make meal times enjoyable. I repeatedly heard the phrase “you can still eat your favourite foods and not feel guilty about it. Well, you wouldn’t say. Looooool. Puff Puff was high on the list. What to do, what to do. The first thing was to get rid of white sugar, that was kind of easy, use brown sugar. Still, I wanted to push the envelope further, but I parked it to one side. Then the biggest elephant in the room, get rid of the white flour, boy that was hard. The obvious choice is to use wholemeal, but yuck, I can’t stand wholemeal (whole wheat flour). I am sorry, it doesn’t taste good for anything. Make pastry or bread product with just wholemeal and I wouldn’t go near it, even if you paid me. Ugh!!!

I researched other alternatives and yes, they exist but for you guys who live in Nigeria, it will be difficult to source, and totally unfair, to take that route, not to mention unpatriotic, hehehehehe, if the core ingredient of a much loved Nigerian snack isn’t made with an easy to source Nigerian ingredient. Then I thought wait a minute, Oat flour, of course, Oat flour. My joy was short lived. My research showed that yeast would not work with oat flour alone because it doesn’t contain gluten and it is low in starch, so you need to combine it with other flours with a high starch content like rice flour, tapioca flour, potato flour etc. I wasn’t aiming for a gluten free Puff Puff and still keeping in mind something easy to source in Nigeria, so I used wholemeal as a substitute to provide gluten. If you want to make a truly gluten free Puff Puff, then I have given you what to substitute, but knowing my aversion for it, I decided it would be a minor partner. Its only use is to allow the yeast work its magic.

The beauty of my research was the part where I read that yeast doesn’t need sugar for my mixture to rise. WHAT!!!!!!! That was an unexpected blessing, so I don’t even need brown sugar. I remember stopping, looking at the screen like twice and doing the happy dance. Remember that I don’t bake, if I did, I probably would know this but hey, as Mama says, “it is when you wake up that it is morning”. This fit fam movement has really educated me on things, I would never otherwise have been bothered to read about. Things like calorie counting, glycemic indexes, insulin production, yadi yadi yada. It felt like being in medical school again. Honey has a low glycemic index, oatmeal contains waaaaaaaaaay more protein than carbs and also low in calories, wholemeal is super good for you too in terms of protein and fibre. This is probably THE healthiest puff puff you will EVER eat, hands down in terms of nutritional value. I was talking about the legacy of Dooney’s Kitchen in a previous post, I hope this is something else, I can add to the list.

As the header denotes, this is at the Recipe Development phase, and I am going to fine tune it. I have seen so many twists to the moin moinlette, that I fully trust you guys to run with this. Do remember to share. I tried this out for the first time on Tuesday night and I remember biting my nails hoping it will rise. I mean, I had no recipe to work on, nothing to even tweak. This was all me, a true Dooney’s Kitchen original. So, I measured in the bowl and when the warm-ish water hit the mixture and I started seeing bubbles, I thought okay, this is working, this is working. I placed the bowl in a oven i had heated for 3 minutes and turned off. 20 minutes later it had risen and was smelling like puff puff, that yeasty smell. If you were blind folded you won’t even mistake it for nothing else than puff puff. Whoa, another 15 minutes later it had risen even more. I had to cover my mouth to scream, because it was so late at night. My first trial had to be deep frying, just to be sure it would rise in the oil like normal puff puff. As you can see the amoebic shapes, all down to my hands shaking because I was so nervous.

Or maybe I should just come clean now and say my puff puff frying skills are an epic fail. My flatmate and I wolfed it down in minutes. His first experience of Puff Puff and he asked to please take the rest to work the next day. My friend Kemi fries the best puff puff, so I have told her to try the recipe and take pictures. Come back next week, and you may see pretty balls.

When I tore it open, I could see the holes like a traditional puff puff. I am really detest honey and I was dreading the taste, but was pleasantly surprised to realise that I couldn’t detect a strong honey flavour. All I tasted was sweet as if I used sugar. The yeast reaction and alcohol produced, masked the honey taste perfectly, leaving only sweetness. The texture was perfect, not doughy as you expect with many wholemeal products

I kept my friends up on Whatsapp sharing my progress and Vivian said Dunni, I am not deep frying with you o, I will try it in a frying pan, like the Akara Pancake (recipe HERE). We agreed, we will call it Panuffs. I wanted to explore more options for healthier frying, and still get that aerated texture (like chewing air, hey, that is why it is called puff puff) and ball shaped. I suddenly remembered my ableskiever pan. Remember I talked about buying one in June last year, when I posted how to season a Kasko pan (HERE). I swear, my store is a treasure trove. I have had the thing since July last year and never used, so last night, I made the mixture again, yes my recipe worked again, and to my utmost surprise, the pan worked a dream. I think this is the “bestest” way to truly complete the healthy puff puff cycle. Each hole in the pan needs only a few drops of oil to fry, and you get to keep the ball shape, and aerated texture.

Pardon the burnt bits. There is a skill to turning out gorgeously brown, balls of airy delicious goodness. I got this pan on ebay. If you live in America, they are everywhere, if you live in Europe, buy on ebay. If you live in Nigeria, get a Masa pan. This nailed the “puff puff”, very well.

With the #fitfam movement, personally visual cues are important when eating healthy food. I wanted this to look like puff puff, taste like puff puff too, because hey it IS puff puff, just healthier. I did try the pankara way, but it felt kind of flat and dense. What you need is height, to get that aerated, feels like chewing cloud texture, so I tried the egg ring Funmi gave me, taking inspiration from making an English Crumpet. If you have ever seen crumpet batter, it looks a whole lot like puff puff mixture. You can also use crumpet rings to make this. This is another good way to go, but low heat is needed to allow it cook through for 5 – 7 minutes or more, otherwise, in trying not to let the bottom burn, you take away the ring too soon and it will fall flat.

Or you don’t want to go through the trouble, fry flat in a pan like an Akara Pancake. Of all four experiments, this was my least favourite, because it didn’t have that chewing air effect, it was more doughy. In order of favourite in terms of texture

‘Masa’ Pan
Deep frying (evil, hehehehehe)
Crumpet style
Panuff – (frying flat)

You want to be truly experimental, try it in a Waffle maker or Sandwich Toaster. I am still going to be tweaking and tweaking this, who knows, the final perfect product could just show up in a cookbook. Hey, y’all have to pay for that effort. Hehehehehe. Let’s make some healthy gorgeous puff puff.

Oats and Wholemeal Flour Puff Puff

 

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Prep time

40 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

55 mins

 

No sugar highs, components with low glycemic indexes, which are good for you, best of all less guilt.

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks

Serves: 2

You will Need

• 1 cup of Oat Flour (158 calories)
• ½ cup of Wheat Flour (187 calories)
• 3 - 4 tbs of honey - depending on your tolerance for sweetness 64 calories per tbs
• 1 packet of fast action yeast (7g - 23 calories)
• ¼ - ½ cup warm water -
• 1 tbs of Sunflower oil (120 calories) for frying in a 'Masa' pan

Calorie Count

• Total calories 703 (using 3 tbs of honey). This can feed 2 people conveniently. Now divide by 2 and you've got a very healthy snack right there. 351 calories. No guilt. Say Thank you. Lol.

How To

1. To make your own Oat flour, simply blend in a dry mill as you would egusi for example
2. Measure 1 baking standard cup of Oat flour into a bowl
3. Add ½ cup of wholemeal, one packet of yeast and honey
4. Combine with warm water and stir till there are no lumps. Start with ¼ cup of water and add more slowly. A reader's feedback of this recipe was that you would need less water than the standard puff puff recipe
5. Leave in a warm place to rise. I turned my oven on for 3 minutes and turned it off. This was after 15 minutes
6. and later after another 15 minutes
7. Choose your preferred method of frying. Mine is to use a 'Masa' pan, to which a few drops of oil are added to each hole and filled with a tablespoon of the mixture on medium heat.
8. Flip over when the bottom has browned, and chew airy delicious healthy puff puff
9. Likewise, you can fry like a crumpet or fry flat in a pan. See literature for details

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The post Fitfam Puff Puff – recipe development phase appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Today marks my one month Fitfam journey, and what did I tell you guys at the beginning of January? IT WORKS!!!!! Hand on heart, I have cheated a total of 10 times in the past one month, and yes I did fall off the wagon with Maltina and Plantain chips, which I have had 3 times, and then King Prawn Fried rice from my favourite takeaway which I didn’t cook, and KFC hot wings with McDonald’s chips. No coke for a month though. I have swapped the need for fizzy drinks with sparkling mineral water, and it works like a charm. I noted down all the times I cheated, just to get an average, and it has amounted to roughly 2.5 times a week, which is totally unacceptable. I want to go down to once a week, and even further down to once in two weeks. Healthy eating is not a diet, but a lifestyle. So, what have I been eating. Nigerian food, Nigerian food, Nigerian food, albeit some modified to be healthier. I am glad that the blog is gaining a reputation for healthy Nigerian food. I started the year saying I was looking for someone to contribute healthy meals, not realising that I had it within me, to develop myself. I tell people, cooking is not my greatest gift, not even close. My intuition is my greatest gift, and the knowledge of my faith has helped me hone it well. Re-reading The Secret has also helped and now I feel more alive and in tune with Creation than ever before.

Baked Buns

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

35 mins

 

Nigerian buns are traditionally fried, but this is Fitfam certified. The firm batter is baked instead and fortified with wholesome ingredients, as a snack or breakfast to go with a cuppa

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks, Breakfast

Culture: Nigerian

Serves: 8

You will Need

• 1 cup of Self raising flour - or you can use half % half i.e. half oatmeal, wheat meal, almond flour etc
• 2 - 3 tbs Honey - you can use sugar
• 2 - 3 tbs cold milk
• 1 - 2 tbs coconut oil - or your choice of oil
• Warm water
• a dash of vanilla extract
• Trail mix - dried fruit, sultanas, raisins, nuts or you can use chocolate chips, fresh fruit, desiccated coconut

How To

1. Measure the flour into a bowl and add the honey
2. Add the milk
3. Add the oil
4. Add water gradually and combine. What you should be aiming for is a firm batter, that moves almost cleanly from the bowl.
5. Add the trail mix or your choice of toppings and stir
6. See how firm, and elastic the dough is. Also notice how it came together as a ball, and almost cleanly off the bowl
7. This was where things got tricky. I didn't want to bake in Muffin containers again. I tried to use a mini savarin tin, but that was a disaster, the dough was too firm. Totally frustrated, I looked at the bowl and realised the batter reminded me of cookie dough ice cream. It does, doesn't it, the contrast of the raisins against the creamy dough does look like chocolate chunks in cookie dough ice cream, so I brought out my ice cream scoop, and as if it was ice cream, I scooped out the dough unto baking paper
8. These baked in the oven at 220 for 25 minutes. 20 minutes in, I brought them out and gave the buns a milk wash, these helped to give it a golden brown colour

Dooney's Kitchen Tips

If you find that your dough is too watery, sprinkle a little flour on it, to firm it up, but don't go overboard, or your buns will be doughy. These buns are light and airy. Better still, place in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. You can choose to fry these, but the baked version is sooooooo much better

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Try out this recipe this weekend, for your kids, for yourself, for a girls night out. it is so simple, and I bet you, it will make you feel good. Have a lovely weekend folks

The post Baked Nigerian Buns appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Yes, pause to read that for a second, turn your head to one side, look up at the words again, and then remember that Dunni is crazy like that, and then you continue reading. Hahahahahaha. Yes of course, why not.

I am writing this on Oscar night, a few hours to the main event and watching one of these programmes in the run up to the event, and watching these people at the top of their game, watching their experiences, and hearing them tell their stories, is so inspiring. I laughed hard at some bits, some made me smile, and others darned near made me cry, some I found myself clapping for. Not to be arrogant or anything, but I could see myself in these people. I get asked all the time how I do what I do, and my default answer has always been “I don’t know”. After watching this programme, where past, winners, past and present nominees were interviewed, I can finally say I know how I do what I do. I push myself. I watched that show, and thought back to famous actors and actresses, that have never even been nominated before, and I can see why these select people have been. They are different, they aren’t just the MVP’s by luck, but sheer hard work and dedication to their craft. There is always going to be a select few at the top, that is how nature works. The Steven Spielberg’s the Martin Scorcese’s the Tom Hanks, the Meryl Streep’s The Judi Dench’s, The Daniel Day Lewis’s, I can go on and on. I mean to get to the pinnacle of your craft must be a very special thing. One thing that echoed through all of their words was, no matter how hard it is, it is so rewarding, and here I am, this 80’s baby, and I can finally say, this is the most rewarding thing I have ever done with my life. Of course when the roles of being a wife and Mum get added to my life, they hopefully will be equally as rewarding.

So, why am I cheesing over an industry that is so far removed from me, technically it is not that far of, because there are things we have in common, such as talent, lights, cameras, and connecting to large audiences, and just being a super star, hehehehehe. Even if you take away all that, the Oscars have always been inspiring for me. Last year was the year of Lupita, and I remember exactly what I was doing this time last year. I remember repeating those words, and 1 year later, I still find myself chanting it. When I get all these images of what I want to do with my gift and I get scared of how they will manifest, I say back to myself, Dunni, your dreams are valid. No matter if you are technically this not found person yet, outside the Nigerian environment, if Lupita can go from Shuga to Drama School to Oscar winner in such a short time, nothing is impossible. I woke up to hear the Oscar winners, and I was screaming for Eddie Redmayne. He doesn’t know me, but I wanted him to win. Yaaaaaaay, I am in a good mood today, because a BIG announcement is coming up this afternoon, like MAJOR.

Anyways, how did this cray cray idea come up. Quinoa. Yup, from the most disgusting of foods, came this sweet, spicy and salty baby. Please Quinoa is nasty, don’t even try selling me the idea. Someone dropped a comment on IG about Quinoa tasting like Pestilence and Grief, and It is the funniest thing I have heard so far this year. I put up a post on IG asking for ideas to like Quinoa, and everyone came back with a savoury option. I don’t like it when an ingredient defeats me, so I thought of my granogi parfait and said, okay, Quinoa, I will make you sweet, maybe just maybe I will be able to tolerate it. I searched on IG for sweet Quinoa ideas, and I came across this gorgeous picture of Quinoa porridge and candied almonds. My brain locked in, and looking at the almonds, I remembered that almonds are a good substitute for Egusi, and then I thought, wait a minute, what if I flip it backwards. If almonds can be used for egusi soup, then egusi can be candied, in the place of almonds. Oooooooooh, yessssssss. I did think it was crazy for a second, but hey, I do crazy. I do it weeeeeell. So last night, with oscar buzz going on tv, I pushed myself to try this out. Batch one burnt, because I wasn’t watching it, but batch two was so perfect, I wanted to scream, where is my food Oscar. Loooool.

What does it taste like? Like a nutty, buttery, sweet version of Egusi. The first few chews will confuse your brain for a bit, then when understanding sets in, you will not put this down, I promise. Make sure you make a decent portion batch, because once you start munching, you won’t stop. Let’s candy some Egusi, shall we.

Candied Egusi bark

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Egusi is traditionally used in savory dishes, but a seed, like any other seed, it can be candied into a bark that is butty, crumbly and delicious

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Sweet Cravings

Culture: Nigerian Fusion

Serves: 2

You will Need

• 1 cup of Egusi
• 1 tablespoon of cold Unsalted Butter - optional
• Salt
• Dry pepper - cayenne pepper
• Honey

How To

1. Melt butter and Egusi in a pan. I chose to use butter, because it provided some much needed moisture. My first batch was without butter, and the Egusi burned much quicker, and the candy was drier. You can use margarine or leave it out completely. If you do, watch it closely on low heat
2. Once the butter has melted with the Egusi, keep stirring, and add dry pepper and salt. Keep stirring until well combined, and you will also hear and see the Egusi start to pop in the pan.
3. Before the butter gets completely absorbed and the egusi seeds starts to burn, add the honey. I wasn't measuring the honey, but pour enough to cover the egusi seeds
4. Keep stirring and you will notice the honey starts to deepen in colour.
5. At first, it will look like the Egusi is swimming in the honey, but as the colour of the honey deepens and thickens, it starts to coat the Egusi. This is also when you should turn down the heat to medium
6. Keep stirring and the egusi will bind with the honey, such that you can scoop up without any drizzling, then you need to turn down the heat further and watch it, because it will go from golden brown to burnt so fast.
7. Pour from the pan unto a baking sheet and spread out as much as you can. Bake in the oven at 200 for 10 - 12 minutes. Slightly longer if you wish, but not more than 2 - 3 minutes.
8. Take it out of the oven and allow to cool. Be careful, this will be very hot. The honey will melt in the oven pooling across the Egusi, and as it cools down it will harden. You can leave it to harden and break out into barks, like this
9. Or, before it totally cools down and hardens, mold it into small bite sized balls
10. Or you can have a bit of both
11. While it is still warm, you can also roll in some desiccated coconut, for extra flavour
12. Serve as a snack, or with your oatmeal porridge, tapioca porridge or quinoa porridge. That is if you can wait, because as soon as these pop into your mouth, the chewy sweet goodness is unstoppable

Dooney's Kitchen Tips

Your Egusi must be dry and devoid of moisture.

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Now breathe, and remember again that Dooney is a gangster cook, nothing is off limits. You can accuse me of many things, not having original ideas, is definitely not one of them. The End.

The post Candied Egusi bark appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Hello, how about I start referring to you guys as The Tribe. I kinda like that, rather than “people”. You guys are my Tribe, we belong to a Tribe. The past week I had been plagued with a nasty cold, and the week before, serious photo sensitivity issues. Like they say, when it rains, it pours. I mean, I wished for the end of winter, and now that spring is here, the sun is finally out, my eyes revolted and didn’t want the sun. How strange. Anyways, batteries are recharged, I kept away from running, to allow my body heal itself and yesterday, I hit the pavement with my running group and ran 5km+ non stop, way ahead of my group, 2nd to finish. Yesssssss. My group coach had to comment, wow Dunni, your pace was so fast, well done. The week I was on Doctors orders to stay home, Le Kitchen felt my presence, and one of the dishes that came out was this, well two dishes.

Preparing the DodoKara wrap. You can choose to drizzle over a little dressing

These two amazing meals were borne out of The Moin Moin Burrito? You don’t know what that is? Oooooooooh, you see why you need to follow @dooneyskitchen on Instagram, @DooneysKitchen on Twitter or join the Tribe site HERE. I also have pictures of The Moin Moin Kebab too. I put up a quick recipe. Anyways, to continue the redefining Moin Moin movement, I wanted to make a Dodo Shawarma, with Moin Moin cubes, and then I thought, wait. How about I use Plantain for the wrap. Off to Google. It is the fist place I go to for research, so I don’t make the embarrassing mistake of thinking I came up with something first and naively writing it out too. Google, is now our Lie Detector/Fact Bible. You better be able to swear on Google or pass the Google test before you put something out there.

Thanks to the Paleo dieters, search results about the plantain tortilla wrap abound aplenty. Huge sigh of relief. I was already hungry, and thinking up a recipe for something wasn’t on the cards. Of all the recipes I saw, this one from ZenBelly HERE resonated with me the most, or so I thought, until I blended the plantains. For someone who gives out recipes, I am not very good at following them. You know how they say teachers don’t make the best students. Lol. I blended the plantains with water, and thought wait a minute, why is it this watery. I checked back at the screen and thought oh dear. I wasn’t supposed to add water. Here I was arguing with the recipe and saying “so how are you to blend without water”. Oops, the recipe recommended a food processor. Using a food processor, as compared with a blender, you don’t need water. Oh dear. So here I was with a watery batter, kicking myself. The next course of action was to thicken it. Sticking with the Paleo way of life, white flour is a no no, and thanks to a reader from Instagram Yemi, I now have beans flour at home.

Plantain and beans are like 2 and 3, so what best to use than Beans Flour. Now, that, I can swear on Google doesn’t exist. Lol. A Dooney’s Kitchen Original which I have christened DodoKara from the word – ‘dodo’ (fried plantain) and ‘Akara’ (fried bean batter).

With my batter the same consistency as the one in the recipe I was following, I spread it out thinly on baking paper and placed in the oven.

Oh dear, disaster. It stuck to the paper after baking. I tried again and oiled the baking paper.

Same result.

if you have better luck than me, please let me know how you did it. Thanks

By now I was hungry and frustrated, so I thought hey, frying pan. I diluted with a little water, and the first few tries gave me a pancake. Hmmmmn, that wasn’t the point. I want a wrap, then I remembered making the spring roll wrap, how watery the batter was, so I added more water and voila, Houston we have a wrap. Tribe, that is how the DodoKara was born. What did it taste like? Dominantly plantain, but it had a good enough hint of beans and by the 3rd bite, you could get the inflections from the beans. It felt weird. Like eating dodo and akara in the same meal, see, what I did there? Hence the name. Introducing the DodoKara. Let’s cook.

DodoKara - the wrap and pancake

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

A healthier alternative to the white flour tortilla wrap. This is made with plantains and bean flour. Re-inventing the Dodo and Akara pairing

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks; Breakfast

Serves: 3

You will Need

• 1 overripe plantain
• ¼ beans flour
• 1 heaped tablespoon of coconut oil - substitute with any oil you wish
• Salt
• Dry Pepper
• 1 egg

How To

1. Peel the plantains, cube and add to your blender. Followed by the egg, coconut oil, water to blend, about ⅓cup of water. Season with salt and dry pepper if you wish. I would recommend the salt though, the dry pepper is just for extra kick
2. Puree till smooth
3. Now, you should have your slightly watery batter. Use the bean flour to thicken it slightly.
4. For the Pancake, you are looking for roughly about the consistency of pancake batter. Heat up the pan with a little oil, and when hot, spoon over the batter, and move the frying pan around, depending on how large you want the pancake. Flip it over and allow the other side to cook..
5. For the wrap, you need to further dilute it water, and it should be much lighter than that of pancake batter. If your first one doesn't turn out like a wrap, don't fret, your mixture is too thick. Add a little more water, heat up the pan again with a little oil, scoop the batter on, and move the frying pan around to spread it round the entire circumference of the pan. As it cooks, you will see it very light around the edges, and no patchwork will develop on the surface (as it would a pancake), because the batter is sufficiently watery
6. and those are your two options for DodoKara. The Wrap or The Pancake
7. For the wrap, choose any filling you wish. I took it a step further by using cubes of dodo, a simple salad and drizzled on some dressing

Dooney's Kitchen Tips

Make sure you watch your beans flour closely. Too thick, just dilute, too watery, just thicken with a little extra flour. This recipe is still in its testing phases, so you as the cook, can play with the proportions as you wish

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McDonald’s has got nothing on this.

A breakfast pancake, that is so quick and simple to make. Top with fresh fruit.

I hope you will try this recipe en masse. I can’t wait to see your pictures

The post DodoKara – the wrap and the pancake appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

The Easter bunny, just like Santa Claus is a Western import, but hey I have no qualms about it. It is fun, goofy and gives you warm, fuzzy feelings. Not talking about the political correctness or incorrectness today, it is too beautiful outside. Maybe spring has finally decided to stay. Yesterday morning, I was looking through my Instagram feed and this easter egg picture from Food Gawker came up, but it wasn’t just an easter egg, but a brownie baked inside an eggshell. I thought what, really, how is that possible. Thanks to Google, I had all the answers I needed. Kemi had planned akara for breakfast yesterday, so I said to her, we are going to try this with Moin Moin. Surely it must work. We bake Moin Moin all the time. So after making the most amazeballs fluffy Akara using a hand mixer (check out @dooneyskitchen on Instagram) and passing out on the sofa, we dragged ourselves up, followed the recipe I found and that’s how we made Nigerian Easter Eggs.

It is so simple, you can do this with your kids during the Easter holidays. Try it with Moin Moin batter, Puff Puf batter, cake batter, pancake batter or even omelette mixture. It is such fun, I promise you. Let’s cook “Moin Moin Eggs”

1. Using a cork screw or a pin, make a hole on top of the egg

2. Peel around the edges, or use the cork screw to make the hole a little wider

3. Empty out the egg into a bowl, and rinse out the eggshell

4. Now, repeat this for as many eggs as you want to make, and then soak the egg shells in warm salty water for about half an hour. To allow the eggs sink, fill the hole with salt water.

5. While the eggs soak, prepare your moin moin batter. I whisked the eggs we poured out into the bean batter using a hand mixer to make it light and fluffy.

followed by palm oil and a little fresh pepper, and seasoned with salt. We didn’t have any fillings at home, but you can use any moin moin filling you like.

6. Get out a cupcake pan and foil. fold the foul and tuck into the holes of the pan. to form support for the eggs. It is best you use an egg to test that the foil will hold in place

7. Your eggs should have soaked enough by now, drain out the water, allow it to dry for some time, just a few minutes, then coat with oil. You can do this with oil spray, or just pour in a little oil, shake around gently, and pour out the oil

8. Lay out the eggs unto the foil paper and then pour in the moin moin batter. We used a plastic bag as a piping bag. Just snip the ends, and you are good to go. Fill to about 3 quarters, because the moin moin will rise a little bit.

9. Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for about 15minutes, or under. Check after 10 minutes though, depending on how hot your oven is. See why i said don’t over fill? If this happens to you, just use a table knife to scrape off the over spill. Spy the red velvet moin moin below? Hehehehe

and then peel. Trust me, it cooks through, and trust me, the delight that you will feel. Now imagine how your children will feel.

the moin moin even looks like cake

If I was home, I would have decorated this to the max, even dyed the eggshell too, but alas, I had to work with what I had. I hope you guys try this too.

The post Nigerian Easter Eggs appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Waste not, want not. As a food blogger, especially with experimental cooking, waste is almost inevitable, but recently, I have been making concerted efforts to reduce my waste, and so far, so good, I seem to be succeeding. This came from my bid not to waste the leftover garri from battering fish, chicken and prawns. You will discover it too, when you try my Garri Fried Chicken (recipe HERE), that as eggs come in contact with the garri, it begins to form clumps. The more you do the double dipping, the more clumps you get. Ordinarily, I would have thrown them away, but I thought to myself, wait. If garri fried so well, and created this gorgeous crust because of the eggs, what if you fry these clumps. Heck, you already have hot oil staring at you, why don’t you try it. And so I did. Wowzer, I was eating it hot straight from the pan.

It was sour and savoury, and not eggy at all. I was throwing the balls into my mouth, as I would groundnut and chin chin. How wonderful. First I get garri crusted yumminess, then I have these crunchy garri balls to chew on. Re-inventing another garri snack right there. Off to tell my colleagues more, so we I can trul sell this garri-gluten free phenomenon. hehehehe. Let’s cook

Erunrun Garri - crunchy fried garri balls/garri chin chin

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

10 mins

 

Going beyond garri and groundnut as a snack, you can enjoy garri as crunchy and spicy fried balls

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks

Serves: 1

You will Need

• Garri
• Your choice of seasonings - you can make this sweet or savoury
• Eggs
• Oil for frying

How To

1. This recipe was a by product of making garri fried chicken, but you can also make this from scratch. All you need is just to slowly add beaten eggs to a bowl of your seasoned garri, and use your hands to make it form into clumps.
2. It is as simple as that
3. Note, the clumps must be somewhat firm. Too soft, and it is likely to disintegrate in hot oil, so don't add too much eggs. Ensure that your oil is hot, and then fry your balls until golden brown. Drain on a kitchen towel and enjoy

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The post Erunrun Garri – crunchy fried garri balls/garri chin chin appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

Continuing with unusual ways of coating food before frying, or as the fitfam gurus say, bake, bake, bake. Working on the new site design has forced me to categorise the current site, so we can have a seamless transfer. That is how I found a post from August last year (yikes!!!) on Akara Tempura. I thought wowzer!!!! How come I haven’t tried this since. Basically, the idea is to use akara batter like the japanese tempura batter. I found this again before I tried garri fried chicken (recipe HERE), and on the tails of success with that, I was finally going to try it out. Last week saturday, after my deliveries, to wait out the traffic, I drove to Kemi’s house. Gosh, I need to move to North London. Discussion for another day. Anyways, I had done my research on Google, and yup, it is a thing. Thanks to the Paleo people, the vegetarians and of course the Indians. In fact thanks to the community or should I say movement of people with special diets, I have started to look at Nigerian food through their eyes, and I am looooving it. So, where was I, ah yes. Kemi and I were discussing the game plan to make this work. She said, you are going to have to add eggs, otherwise plain blended beans won’t stick. I laughed and remembered a conversation we had almost 2 years ago when i told her i wanted to fry akara like a pancake. She said, Dunni, you need to add eggs, or it won’t fry flat like a crepe. I have proven her wrong. Recipe for Akara Pancakes can be found HERE.

Yam dipped in plantain batter and fried

So, we were back to that argument again. You need eggs, you don’t need eggs. I said how about I use soda water to lighten up the batter, after all tempura batter is sometimes made with soda water, to make the batter light. We were at this discussion till past midnight. Despite the fact that I had a 45min motorway drive ahead of me, I was too psyched to get my ass off the chair. Then I said, why don’t I use beans flour, rather than freshly peeled beans, the wetness of raw beans, may be detrimental, and so the ping pong continued and I said Google will have to settle this argument. Lol, and so Google did. Yup, bean flour as a batter is a bonafide recipe, in fact the Indians call theirs Pakoras. How cool is that. Isn’t that just close to Akara, in a way. heck, the Brazilians also eat akara, theirs is called Acaraje. This is why food cannot be patented. You have an idea about something, especially when it gets to food, someone somewhere has done something similar, and for me, it is a lesson in humility to never claim you were the first to do anything. I still keep my sense of wonder, when I excitedly think of something, check Google and see that it has been done before. It somehow makes me feel in a weird way, connected to foodies out there, like we are a part of one big huge family. Which is also why I make sure I mention sources of inspiration, so that when someone who thought they had a brilliant idea, comes across a link to my site, they too can smile and feel connected to me too.

in order of appearance in a clockwise motion. Yam dipped in plantain batter – Yamadodorita. Plantain dipped in Bean Batter – Dodokarita. Gizzards dipped in Plantain batter – Gizdodo redefined and finally Yam dipped in Akara batter – Yamakarita

The original idea was beans, and as i was getting out of the car to walk to the asian food store, i wondered why my bag had felt heavy all day. Guess what I found in it, a box of plantain fufu powder, which i had originally planned to prepare for someone, as a back up in case I didn’t find fresh fufu. I was on the phone with Kemi too, and I said, wait, what if i also try this with plantain. She said ooooooh, now that will be something special. Yam, dipped in plantain batter. Redefining the Dundun and Dodo street food concept. See, why my friends are the bestest. They listen and contribute to my crazy food ideas. I don’t know what to call this yet, suggestions have been flying around on Instagram since I posted it last night. See why you need to follow @dooneyskitchen, for the latest from me.

So, I decided to try this in 2 variants, the plantain and the beans version. Think about it, dip boiled yam in plantain batter and fry, then dip another batch of yam in beans batter and fry. Amazeballs, I swear. Repeat the process with Plantain. So, this is Nigeria’s response to the Indian Pakoras. I will call mine the Tempakara from the word Tempura. You can have Yam Tempakara or Yamakarita. Dodo Tempakara, Yamadodorita, Dundodo. Keep the suggestions coming guys. Let’s Cook

Yam battered with Akara and Plantain

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

35 mins

 

Moving on from the classic Yamarita, to the Paleo version. Rather than use white flour to batter, use bean flour, or plantain batter. Redefining the fried yam, dodo and akara Nigerian street food phenomenon

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks

Serves: 3

You will Need

• Yam
• Bean flour or blended beans
• Sparkling water or soda water
• 1 egg
• Salt
• stock cube - optional
• dry pepper - optional
• I would advise that you either use the egg or soda water, not both. Eggs or soda water loosens up the beans or plantain batter, making the coated dough light and fluffy.

How To

1. Peel your yam and cut into batons. Boil in salt water until it has almost cooked through. Drain the hot water immediately, or your yam will continue cooking and get soggy
2. Blend raw plantain with one egg, OR about ¼ cup of soda water.
3. You want your batter to be slightly thick. Too watery, and it will slide off the yam into the oil. Trust me, that happened. If you are using egg, just blend the plantain and the egg, don't add water.
4. Season your batter.
5. Place the yams side by side with the batter, like a workstation kind of thing. .Heat up oil for deep frying
6. Dip the boiled yam into the batter, allow it to coat, shake off the excess. and fry
7. For the bean batter version, you also follow the same process. I was using bean flour though, not freshly peeled beans (you can use peeled beans), so I mixed the flour with soda water, till i got a thick consistency, seasoned it and repeated the process.
8. The more soda water you add, the lighter your batter, and you will notice it puff up when frying in the oil. Just don't go overboard.
9. Now, you know what else I did? I got out fried gizzards from t he freezer, dipped it into the plantain batter and fried. Gizdodo redefined right there.
10. What do both taste like, you guessed it. Like yam and fried plantain, and like yam and akara. I absolutely loved it.

Dooney's Kitchen Tips

Another thing that i got out of the experience was, when next you are blending beans for akara, don't use tap water. Use sparkling water. I swear it doesn't affect the taste, but the texture, wowzer. Light, fluffy akara, that won't absorb that much oil. Please try it and let me know.

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Recipe for the Luth Scaries Ata din din:

• 2 long pieces of red tatashe
• 2 pieces of tomatoes
• 4 pieces of ata rodo
• 1 piece of red onion
• Vegetable oil

Roughly chop these in a food processor, and fry in a looooot of vegetable oil, till it fries and reduces. Season with 1 pack of stock cubes, and drizzle over your fried yummy bits. This was dinner with chilled sparkling water. Game of Thrones was a tad underwhelming, but it is the first episode. It always builds up. Can’t wait

Redefining the Nigerian Street food

The post Yam battered with Akara and Plantain. Redefining Nigerian street food appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

I can tell stories for days about Yoyo, oh my!!!!! My mother was very selective about what street food we were allowed to eat, but she had no reservations with Yoyo. Not just for the taste, but for hygienic reasons. We bought Yoyo when it was served straight from the hot oil, so any concerns about food poisoning were eliminated. Oh, Yoyo, oh Yoyo. This minute fish that is dipped in seasoned flour and fried in hot oil. So more-ish. You can eat an entire basket and not realise how much you’ve eaten. Your fingers will just keep going back to the bowl, and going back till it empties. Paired with cold soaked garri, it was one of the things that made me look forward to going shopping with Mummy in Isale Eko (Lagos Island).

I hated those trips, gosh the walking around, going through corners with a human sea of traffic, that would made you stick to Mummy like glue because you were afraid of getting lost. There were no mobile phones then you see, so that fear was real. My mother walked very fast, and with a strong sense of direction, i definitely didn’t inherit that. Don’t pay attention for a second, and you would lose her in the head of the teeming market crowd in Isale Eko. Trying to juggle some bags she made you carry, before we bought things large enough to demand the services of an “alabaru”. Alabaru’s are people who, bless their hearts, for not that much money, they would follow you around the market, relieving you of the burden of carrying heavy bags and bags of goods. Alabaru in Yoruba literally means, someone that helps you with your load. So they would be right behind Mummy, picking up everything that we bought, and carrying it on their heads. Gosh, it used to freak me out, seeing them pile and pile on cartons and cartons of stuff. At the end of your shopping trip, they followed you to the car, to offload, after which they got paid. Mummy always paid them more than they asked for. If we stopped to eat, she would buy them food too. We had our regular “alabaru’s”, who many times I have seen abandon other customers, just to serve “Iya Ola”, because they knew it would be worth their while. My mother shopped for the family in bulk you see, and her mother was one of the largest wholesalers in Nigeria, who had a number of shops in Oke Arin, so Lagos Island was my mother’s play ground. She knew eeeeeeeeverywhere.

One minute she was in front of you, the next minute she has taken a corner, which you didn’t even know existed. She knew her way round like a pro, as I said before, I didn’t inherit that. I still get lost in large shopping centres, and even while driving. If my sat nav was human, it would have abandoned me aaaaages ago, because my penchant for getting lost is legendary. Lol. In the hot sun, buying provisions for the house, what you would normally buy in a supermarket, by mother bought in bulk in markets across Lagos. She knew them all, from Isale Eko, to Balogun, to Gutter – for lace, gold, shoes and bags, to Agege, to Mushin, to Mile 12, my goodness, that woman knew where to get everything in bulk and for cheap, and she dragged me along too, no questions asked. My children don’t know how lucky they will be, we have Costco. Loooool. Anyways, Yoyo was something to look forward to, after walking the length and breadth of Isale Eko. Mummy would stop at the shop of one of her favourite sellers, and we would buy a new plastic container, cold water, and of course Yoyo. She made us wash my hands of course, then we would dig in. Yoyo was sold wrapped in newspaper and packed in a plastic bag. Gosh, the aroma that would hit you when you open the parcel, is something I can never forget till this day. So, when I came across this fish, and best of all I was given free, you can’t imagine how pleased I was to recreate a past food memory. You can read the story of how I got free fish on Instagram

Something to try this weekend. Let’s Cook

Yoyo - The Isale Eko treasure

 

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A bite sized battered fish popularly called Yoyo in Isale Eko.

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks

Culture: Yoruba

You will Need

• Fresh fish - smelt, anchovies
• White flour Flour - or garri for the gluten free version
• Dry pepper - cayenne pepper
• Salt
• Seasoning cube - optional
• Vegetable oil - or your choice of frying oil

How To

1. Rinse the fish after which you pat dry with kitchen paper towel.
2. Prepare the seasonings. I started with Salt and dry pepper .
3. Add white flour to the bowl
4. Or use garri
5. Lay out a wide strip of kitchen paper towel or a dry kitchen tray. Dip the fish into the flour seasoning mix and place on the paper towel. Repeat the process until you have exhausted your fish. . Don't fry immediately. otherwise the flour will slide straight off into the oil. Allow the moisture from the fish to absorb some of the flour, ensuring that the coating will stay intact, to a large extent.
6. While you wait, heat up oil in a pan, enough to deep fry. Once the oil is hot enough, test a batch first with 2 or 3 pieces, to gauge the temperature of the oil. By the time this batch is fried to golden brown, the oil should be hot enough. Fry your Yoyo and serve with Garri and Cold water. Well, I did, you can serve it in a salad, or as a mini burger.

Dooney's Kitchen Tips

Yoyo was always slightly salty, so go a little heavy on the salt. Just a little.
If you are worried about going overboard with the salt, after frying, you can also dust on some extra salt and dry pepper after frying.

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The post Yoyo – The Isale Eko treasure appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

I have received product from Oreo for this post. It is an entry to the Foodies100 Wonderfilled recipe challenge sponsored by Oreo, which marks the launch of two exciting new flavours: Peanut Butter and Golden. The delicious new flavours are available in all major supermarkets at an RRP of £1.08.

So, I received an email from Oreo asking if I wanted to try their two new flavours launching in the UK market and participate in the Oreo Challenge. Goodness me, my eyes popped out from my skull when I read that email and almost had a heart attack. Wait, what, they know who I am, they know about Dooney’s Kitchen, huh, whaaaaaaaaat. I almost fell like rushing out of where I was and screaming. Lindy who contacted me was such a nice lady. I wrote back and said thank you very much for the offer but just to check in, I am a Nigerian food blogger, and you should be expecting me to work with these Oreos applying a Nigerian food twist. She wrote back and said sure, actually we are excited to see the African twist you would add to our products. Oh wow, really!!!!! Are you kidding me? Then I went to ask again how she found me, and she sent me a link to a site showing the rankings of top food bloggers in the UK. Dooney’s Kitchen came up as number 28, and wait for it, the only African food blog in the top 50. Like seriously, my day went straight uphill from there.

When the package arrived, I still didn’t know what I was going to do with it. The Oreo Challenge closes today and I kept ruminating the idea in my head. Funny enough, the day the package arrived, I was eating a packet of plantain chips and cooking. I looked at the Oreos and thought, wait a minute, what if I combine Plantain with Oreos. How I was going to do it, I didn’t know. I asked a friend and she said, Dunni, I don’t think it is going to work. her daughter and another friend who could overhear the conversation at the other end, said the same thing. The thing about me is, it is when you tell me something can’t work that I go ahead and prove you wrong. I am the type that doesn’t really listen to dissenting voices if i have an idea in my head, because it is my vision and not the other person’s, so if they don’t get it, it is up to me to bring that vision to life and ensure that they get it.

I kept munching on plantain chips and the Oreos peanut butter flavour at the same time, and gosh, the flavours made a whole lot of sense. The plantain chips brought another dimension of sweetness and saltiness to the Oreos, and the peanut butter just completed the marriage in taste heaven. OMG!!!!! I am going to do this, I kept telling myself. I am going to do this. I was especially happy with using Plantain because it is something I had NEVER seen anyone use before. trust me, I did an extensive Google search, not just that, this recipe will appeal to Africans, as wait for it, Oreos biscuits are snacks, and Africans loooove snacking on Plantain, so it is two for two. Beyond the shores of Africa, in the Caribbean and all across the Islands, plantain snacks are common, even beyond that to South America, plantains are commonly used as snacks. So, this is a truly global multi cultural way of using Plantains and Oreos Peanut butter cookies in one recipe. BOOM!!!!! There was no changing my mind from there. I truly had my answer. I was going to make Mosa (fried pureed plantain balls) and add Oreos to it, which would melt in the hot oil, to form a gooey centre but still be crunchy at the same time. Like a Beignet or a Bofrot or Tatale, or Zippole but with Plantains instead of flour. I imagine it to be quite yummy, it surpassed my expectations. You NEED TO TRY THIS. Like seriously, head to the nearest supermarket and buy these Oreos. These balls are sweet, spicy, crunchy, gooey and veeeeeery Nigerian too.

When I fried the first batch, it finished before i remembered I needed to photograph it. They were that good. I wanted a more defined uniform shape, so I decided to use the Cake Pops maker to achieve that. From the shores of Africa, to The Caribbean and South America, I present you Plantain Oreo Balls. The Nigerian term for it would be Oreo Mosa. Let’s Cook

Peanut Butter Oreos Plantain balls

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

A delicious multi cultural marriage of Oreos and Plantains, that is soft, gooey in the medium, sweet, salty and crunchy.

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks

Culture: Nigerian Food Fusion

Serves: 10 - 12 balls

You will Need

• 1 - 2 over ripe plantains
• 6 - 8 pieces of Oreos peanut butter flavour
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of cayenne pepper - dry pepper
• A pinch or two of grated nutmeg
• 6 - 7 teaspoons of self raising flour

How To

1. Crush the Oreos biscuits in a food processor,
2. or you can place in a freezer bag and whack with a rolling pin
3. Puree the over ripe plantains until smooth. You don't need to add water. You can whisk for extra fluffiness if you wish. I let my electric whisk run for about 2 minutes, to get the pureed plantains to be very light.
4. Season with salt, grated nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and stir in the flour until well combined. P.S - you don't need to add any sugar as the over ripe plantains and the oreos biscuits are sufficiently sweet.
5. Fold in the chunks of Oreos.. Note, you would want a combination of slightly big and slightly small chunks. The small chunks will melt during cooking to achieve a gooey centre, whilst the bigger chunks, some of it would melt, but the rest will provide the signature Oreo crunch that many of us love and associate with Oreos. I even added a few extra bits of oreo just for luck
6. Your batter should look like this. See the small and big chunks?
7. You can choose to deep fry the batter to get fritters
8. or go even further, if you want well defined, uniform balls, use a cake pops maker.
9. This is so simple to make and so yum, kids and adults alike would love, love, love it.

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Slather on some of the oreos peanut butter filling and double yum

I have read some of your comments on the teaser post on Instagram and suggestions to try this with Akara (fried beans fritters), I really can’t wait to try. That would be deliciously mental. Lol

The post Peanut Butter Oreo Plantain balls – mosa meets oreo appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.

You must be thinking, Dunni is at it again. Which one is Moringa Puff Puff? Well, Matcha, the super green tea powder has been coming up lately in my Instagram timeline, and you know that when something about Easter (matcha is from Japan) or Western cuisine piques my interest, I try to see how I can make it Nigerian. Most of the pictures I have been seeing from ice cream to Latte’s to bread, beignets and other baked goods always had this lovely and pleasant shade of green, I almost drove to Holland and Barett one night to buy Matcha. I had tasted it at the International Food Festival in London early this year and it reminded me of wheatgrass. The world has gotten crazy for Matcha. You can say that Moringa is a close alternative, and as with most things African, we are sadly always late to the game. Moringa is gaining ground though, and one of the people leading the movement are the team at Aduna. They are a company situated in London, marketing Baobab and Moringa in these absolutely beautiful packaging. They have made these two products trendy, gaining the attention of the Hemsley sisters and most of all, getting to the top of their category in Richard Branson’s Pitch to Rich competition

Image credit: www.aduna.com

They kindly sent me samples of these super foods and when the matcha bug bit me, before i could grab my keys and head out, I remembered that the Aduna team sent me these products to review and thought hmmmmn, Moringa is a green powder, why don’t I start with that and see how it turns out. Moringa can be used in smoothies, lattes, breakfast cereals etc, but in true Dooney’s Kitchen style, I wanted to go where no one has been before. Add Moringa to puff puff. I wanted to create that pretty green colour, i had seen on baked goods infused with Matcha. I woke up way too early today and decided to try out the batter with Moringa, and would you believe, that just as I was mixing, I opened Instagram and the first thing I saw was a picture of The French Beignets, being sprinkled with Matcha. I had a good laugh. Beignets ( pronounced bain-yay) are the French equivalent of Puff Puff.

Moringa powder is quite strong and I didn’t want to detest my creation, so I kept searching my cupboards for items that would stand up to it, especially to mask the bitterness. I thought of honey and shelved the idea immediately. I thought of chocolate chips and as I was rifling through my cupboards, my fingers hit the tube of condensed milk that I had and I though ah ha!!!! This is my answer. Thanks to Labelle of @foodace that had mentioned earlier that milk makes your Puff Puff creamy, I thought to myself, using condensed milk, i get the best of both worlds, creamy and sweet. In trying to add other spices and flavours to this batter, I believe I have created my best Puff Puff recipe till date.

You can choose to omit the moringa if you want, just to try this amazeballs puff puff recipe, but you will be missing out on that fresh, green, herby flavour that moringa powder brings to this recipe. The choice is yours. Let’s Cook

Moringa Puff Puff

 

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Prep time

1 hour

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

 

Enhancing or upgrading the puff puff experience, using Moringa powder. A pale green colour inside, with a hint of it coming through on the golden exterior. Puff Puff like you haven't seen it before

Author: Dunni Obata

Recipe Category: Snacks

Culture: Nigerian

Serves: 4

You will Need

• 1 cup + 3 quarters of a cup of plain flour
• ½ - 1 teaspoon of Moringa powder - alternatively you can use well steeped Moringa tea
• ¼ cup of sweetened condensed milk
• ¼ cup of sugar
• ¼ teaspoon of grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon of dry pepper - cayenne pepper
• A pinch or two of Salt
• A dash or two of Vanilla
• 3 - ⅓ cups of warm water
• 1 sachet of fast acting yeast - 7g of fast acting yeast

How To

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, except the moringa and water -
2. Add the moringa powder. The reason i left out the moringa was, i started with ¼ of a teaspoon first, then i worked my way to half a teaspoon
3. After I added the warm water, I couldn't taste or see the Moringa powder as much, so I added another 1.4 teaspoon and then another, making the total, 1 teaspoon.
4. Cover wtih a damp cloth and leave in a warm place for 45mins to 1 hour or even longer, to allow the dough to rise. You will appreciate the pretty green moringa colour after it has risen
5. The rest is standard. heat up enough oil to deep fry, either scoop with your hands, a spoon or an ice cream scoop and deep fry the batter until you get golden delicious balls.
6. Wondering what the puff puff looks like inside, well here you go. Doesn't it look really pretty

Dooney's Kitchen Tips

Alternatively, you can use well steeped Moringa tea, if you can't find the powder. Don't use too much of the tea or the powder, so your puff puff don't turn out bitter.

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Try my Moringa puffs and let me know what you think. If you have access to this Moringa powder, which you can order from Aduna.com and you can also order Matcha, I would suggest you buy them, as I will be working closely with those two in the nearest future. We are going to have such fun with them, you’ll see. This Puff Puff’s are just the beginning.

The post Moringa Puff Puff appeared first on Dooney's Kitchen.