THE FOOD DISCIPLE

Hello Everyone!

CATFISH!! Ahh my favorite kind of fish ❤ This stew is definitely one of my favorite meals to prepare. I enjoy this with white Basmati or Jasmine rice on a nice Sunday morning. If you are Nigerian, you know rice is a must on Sundays and it is not every time you eat fried rice or Jollof, sometimes switch it up and have rice and stew.  For the non- Nigerians, this is a tomato based stew prepared the Nigerian way with catfish. It is light because it is not heavily seasoned as the other kinds of stew (chicken, turkey, beef etc) . This stew is prepared without curry, thyme or nutmeg, and this is what I love about this besides the fish😀 It is simple, light and just simply deeeelicious. You do not have to be African or Nigerian to try this recipe, be bold and increase your food palate.   

Now let’s get to it.

Enjoy!

Catfish Stew (Tomato Sauce)

August 25, 2017

Servings: 4

Prep: 30 min

Cook: 1 hr

Total: 1 hr 30 min

Difficulty: Medium

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By: admin

Ingredients

• 2 Catfish (cleaned and cut into 3 pieces per fish)
• 1 Can of Whole Tomatoes
• 4 Red Bell Peppers/ Red Sheppard Pepper
• 1 Large Red Onion
• 2-3 Garlic Cloves
• 3-4 Scotch Bonnet Pepper ( 2 for less heat)
• ½ cup of Vegetable oil/ Palm oil
• 3- 4 Seasoning Cubes
• Salt

Directions

• Step 1 To clean catfish, place in a bowl and wash with cold water twice. Add boiled hot water and add to catfish and salt. Allow to sit for about 3-5 minutes, this will remove the slimy skin from the fish. Rinse again with cold water and set aside.
• Step 2 Place catfish in a pot, add 2 cups of water, finely diced onion, salt and 1 seasoning cube. Cover and allow to steam on medium low heat for 6-10 minutes. Catfish is very delicate, do not overcook because it will also cook in the sauce. Remove fish from stock and reserve stock for stew. Add salt according to preference.
• Step 3 To make stew, blend into a puree all ingredients except vegetable oil, seasoning cubes and salt. Blend half of the onion and chop the other half and set aside. Place in a pot and cook until all the liquid evaporates. Set pepper mixture aside.
• Step 4 In a saucepan, add cooking oil on medium heat, add chopped onion when hot and saute until soft. Add your pepper mixture and saute for 10-15 minutes or until your oil starts separating from the pepper mixture. Stir occasionally so it does not stick to the bottom of the pot.
• Step 5 Add your fish stock, 2 seasoning cubes and salt. Stir, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt or seasoning cubes before adding your fish. Reduce heat to medium low, gently add fish to the stew, cover and let simmer for 5-8 minutes. At this point do not stir with your spoon because catfish gets very soft and it can break easily. Hold your pot with both handles and shake, tilt from side to side, this is the safest way to stir the sauce without breaking (my mum taught me this 😀). Uncover pot and allow to simmer for an additional 3-5 minutes. Now everyone knows that Nigerian stew is ready when the oil settles on the top.Turn off heat and allow to cool before serving.
• Step 6 Your stew is ready!! Stew is mostly enjoyed with rice but you can serve with any carb of your choice.

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are having a great week! Today’s recipe is one that is perfect for the current weather condition. Pepper Soup is a West-African soup prepared using different kinds of meat with peppers, onion, crayfish and local pepper soup spices as its primarily ingredient. Pepper soup is usually very spicy, and watery in texture; it is said to have different medicinal benefits and it is used commonly to treat cold symptoms (it works every time, I guarantee you). In today’s recipe I will be using one of my favorite fish Basa and I paired it with grilled baguette; Al Bacio!!😚 ( kiss fingertips and toss away). This is one of my go to dishes during this time of the year and I am always pleased. It is great with catfish or goat meat, and you can pair this soup with steamed rice, boiled/ grilled yam or plantain, throw in some noodles or baguette as I did. Try this recipe and let me know what you think 👍🙋😃

NOTE: You can find crayfish, scent leaf and pepper soup spices at any West-Indian or African grocery store.

Now let’s get to it.

Enjoy!

Basa Steak Fish Pepper Soup & Baguette

July 23, 2017

Servings: 2

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 20 min

Total: 30 min

Difficulty: Easy

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By: admin

Ingredients

• 4 pieces of Basa Steak Fish
• 1 medium sized Onion
• 1 Scotch Bonnet Pepper
• ⅓ tsp of Cameroon Pepper (optional)
• 1 tbsp of Crayfish (blended)
• 1 and ½ tsp of Pepper soup spice mix
• 2 Seasoning Cubes
• 1 tsp of Scent leaf
• 3-4 cups of Water
• ½ tsp of Pepper Flakes (for garnish)
• Baguette (grill and serve)
• Salt

Directions

• Step 1 Clean fish properly by soaking the fish in boiling hot water for 2-4 mins, discard water and rinse fish two times. Place cleaned fish in a pot. This is done to remove all impurities as well as to remove the ice fish taste, so you can have a nice tasty result in the end. Blend your onion and scotch bonnet pepper and add to the fish and then your water.
• Step 2 Place on medium heat, add crayfish, Cameroon pepper, seasoning cube and salt. Add salt according to preference, stir carefully, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes.
• Step 3 Add your pepper soup spices and scent leaf, reduce heat to medium low, stir carefully not to break the fish, cover and cook for an additional 6-8 minutes.
• Step 4 Place bread slices on the grill, grill until crunchy and set aside.
• Step 5 Taste for seasoning and adjust salt if needed, garnish with pepper flakes. Leave to simmer for an additional 1-2 minutes.
• Step 6 Your food is ready!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all are having a great week so far. So in collaboration with Zinny’s Factor, here’s another delicious quick recipe you can prepare for work. Fried rice is loved by everyone! I mean!! Its fried rice; one of my favorite is Thai spicy fried rice. So the story behind what motivated me to learn how to make Thai fried rice is just interesting. So on a nice Friday evening after getting my hair done, I was on my way back home when I started craving shrimp Thai fried rice and deep fried chicken just the way I like it 😍😋(perfect combo). I recently moved to a new city, so am still finding my way around town including restaurants. So I found a Thai restaurant downtown not too far from my apartment; it was a little after 9pm, keep that in mind. I walked in, grabbed a menu and started getting myself familiar with their food choices, I found myself contemplating if the calorie intake was worth it this late. In that moment, I told myself it was not worth it and I stepped out. I literally took 2 steps and I found myself running back, yes i’m weak like that when it comes to food 😀. Standing at the door, I realized I could not get back in, only for the server to tell me they were closed. Am like what do you mean closed its just 9:30pm at this point and they close at 11pm; so what was their reason 😠 I still do not have a clue until today, but this got me super angry and pumped. Anyway I had to go back home, hangry and unsatisfied and I told myself I was going to spend that weekend learning how to make Thai fried rice. Now here you have this, its super fast and easssyy. You can make this as much as you want, as long as you have the sauces and eggs in your refrigerator, you are good to go. To cut the long story short, here is my spicy shrimp Thai fried rice recipe.

Please be sure to visit Zinny Factor  for your daily dose of ideas and solutions on how you can maximize productivity within your workplace.

Now let’s get to it.

Enjoy!

Thai Shrimp Fried Rice

June 25, 2017

Servings: 4

Prep: 10 min

Cook: 20 min

Total: 30 min

Difficulty: Easy

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By: admin

Ingredients

• 1 lb of Fresh Tiger Shrimp (deveined)
• 2 cups of Jasmine rice
• 2 cups of Mixed Vegetables or any vegetable of choice
• Scallion (3 stalks and sliced)
• Yellow Onion (sliced)
• 4 Eggs
• 2 tbsp of Chili paste
• 3 Cloves of Garlic (minced)
• 2 tbsp of Sugar
• 4-5 tbsp of Oyster Sauce
• 5 tbsp of Soy Sauce
• 4-5 tbsp of Fish Sauce
• Basil Leaves
• Vegetable oil

Directions

• Step 1 Wash and cook jasmine rice. Set aside to cool. Make sure you cook the rice firm and not soft, use fork to stir.
• Step 2 In a Wok, add ⅓ cup of vegetable oil and when it is hot, scramble 2 eggs. Add shrimps cook for a minute until it turns pink. Add 1 cup of mixed vegetables, some scallions,yellow onion, garlic and 1 tbsp of chili paste. Stir fry for about 2 minutes.
• Step 3 Add rice, 1 tbsp of sugar, 2 tbsp of oyster sauce, 2 tbsp of fish sauce and 2 and ½ tbsp of soy sauce and stir fry to properly marry all the ingredients with the rice for about 3-4 minutes. Add basil leaves and stir fry for another minute. Make sure rice is room temperature or cool before stir frying.
• Step 4 Repeat step 2 and 3 for the remainder of the ingredients.
• Step 5 Food is ready!!