Thanksgiving Fete

"The thing I'm most thankful for right now is elastic waistbands"

I am super excited about having my first thankgiving gathering this year at my place. I'm not sure if it was laziness or lack of funds that prevented me in previous years but for whatever reason, I am ready for the challenge this year.

The menu is super exciting because I am cooking some dishes I am familiar with but also trying new recipes from my cookbook. We have Fried rice, Jollof rice, BBQ ribs, deviled eggs, roasted veggies, chicken casserole, pepper soup (posted recipes for these earlier) turkey gizzard mini kebabs, mini chicken drumsticks in 4 different flavors (bbq, buffalo, peppered and sweet chipotle). Also my friend Kemi will be making turkey, mashed potatoes, corn bread and caramel cake. My sister, the dessert person in the family will be making Pina Colada Cheesecake. That will definitely be something to try.

I'll make sure I post pictures and recipes :)

Nigerian Goat meat Peppersoup

                                                “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” 

                                                               ― George Bernard Shaw

First of all, Kudos to me to finally getting my pepper soup recipe right. I have tried everything from using meat stock as a base and just dumping the pepper soup spice in and some seasoning or just throwing everything tasteful in the pot and hoping it turns out right. Different people have different ways of making it but I wanted something with the most basic ingredients in my kitchen and finally I got it. 

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cube of maggi

1 table spoon dried/ground pepper.

1/2 onion chopped 

1 tbsp pepper soup spice

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp curry

1 tbsp garlic powder

An assortment of goat meat (smoked meat, honey tripe, pomo, cow leg)

FYI, I have used this menu for chicken as well :)

Instructions

•  Rinse your choice of meat and clean it thoroughly. 
• Place in a pot and season with curry, salt, maggi, onions, garlic powder, vegetable oil and ground pepper and let it cook until tender. Different types of meat cook differently so you may need to remove the goat meat to let the tripe and cow leg cook longer.
• After everything is cooked thoroughly, add pepper soup spice and some more ground pepper if you like spicy food. Taste for spice and salt and add more as needed. Also you can add curry for color.

Fried Rice and Grilled Salmon

                 "The only thing I like better than talking about food is eating."

I started practicing how to cook proper fried rice at like age 16, mostly because I wasn't a big fan of Jollof rice at the time and that's what most people preferred. We would be having lunch like on sunday and everyone would be eating Jollof rice and I would cook my own small portion of fried rice. Even now when I cook it, i try to use different spices to see what different seasoning does to it. Fried rice is very simple to make, i just throw everything in the pot and let it cook. 

Fried Rice

   Ingredients

   8 cups Rice
   1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
   1 tablespoon curry
   1 teaspoon salt
   2 Know cubes
   2 cups mixed vegetable (frozen)
   1/2 pound small peeled shrimp
   1/2 pound chicken gizzard
   1 tablespoon dried thyme
   Substitute seasonings include; Basil, oregano, onion powder (very little),
   garlic powder. I add one of each not a combination of everything. 

     Instructions

• Wash rice or parboil the rice and rinse it out
• Add curry, salt, know cubes, thyme, vegetable oil and some ground pepper, just enough so it doesn't change the color
• Add water, enough to cover the rice but not too much. Add shrimp and gizzard
• Let rice boil, but not to a point where it's sticking together. Ideally the grain should be separated.
• After the rice is soft, add the mixed vegetable and let simmer on low heat. 
• Add more salt if necessary, more curry can also be added for color.

Grilled Salmon

Ingredients

1/4 Caribbean hot sauce

2 tbsp Parsley, chopped

2 tbsp dried basil

2 tbsp dried thyme

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Juice of 2 limes or 1/4 cup of lemon juice

2 tbsp white vinegar

Instructions

1. Combine all the rub ingredients mix them into a paste, making sure that all the ingredients are fully integrated. The paste should be approximately the consistency of a thick tomato sauce. If it is too thick, thin it out with a little more white vinegar.
2. Rub the paste on the salmon making sure you cover all areas. I usually put my seasoned fish in foil and leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours. 
3. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees, I use a foil lined pan to bake it just for cleaning purposes. Spray pam cooking spray on the foil and place the salmon apart, spray the salmon and bake in the over for 25-30 mins. This is usually enough time to bake the fish so I wouldn't advice you stick a toothpick in it cos it could break the fish. Also anymore time than this and the fish could end up dry.
4. Serve and garnish

Andouille Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo

           "Food for the body is not enough, there must be food for the soul."

Gumbo is food for the soul, nothing like a loaded soup on a cold friday night. I went to Pappadeaux for dinner early in october and my mum had always been raving about how good their gumbo is. I tried the andouille sausage and shrimp gumbo and fell in love right there and from then, I knew Gumbo was on my to cook list.

I found this very easy recipe online and tweaked it a little with some substitutes to make it more spicy and a little bit more flavored so I hope you like it. 

• 
  Ingredients
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 4 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano,
• 1 teaspoon dried ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon Oxtail seasoning or whatever seasoning makes you tingle. 
• 1 8-ounce bottle clam juice
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained, chopped
• 1 pound smoked andouille  sausage, sliced
• 1/2 pound okra, trimmed, thick slices

• 2 pounds uncooked medium shrimp, peeled, deveined

You can add a cup of cooked long grain rice if you'd like but I didn't.

• Heat oil on high heat until almost smoking. 
• Add flour and stir until dark red-brown, about 5 minutes. 
• Immediately add celery, onions and bell peppers. Cook 5 minutes, stirring and scraping bottom of pan often. 
• Mix in bay leaves, salt, oregano and cayenne. 
• Add clam juice, canned tomatoes and sausage. Boil 8 minutes. 
• Add okra, reduce heat and simmer until okra is tender, about 10 minutes. 
• Add shrimp to gumbo and simmer until just cooked through, about 3 minutes. 

I always try to have someone taste my dishes, and my friend loved it so hey I'm doing something right. ;)