Shrimp Dodo

"Shrimp, just Shrimp"

Moriam Olowo

Everyone went through the infectious stage of gizdodo and as delicious as that was, nothing beats a good shrimp dodo. If you’re a shrimp lover like me, you won’t stop thinking up ways to add shrimp to your everyday meal. I once made a shrimp sandwich so trust me, I love shrimp. Since I knew how to make gizdodo, I just applied the same principle here and Voila!

Ingredients:

·         1 pound shrimp

·         3 large ripe plantains

·         ½ of a medium sized red bell pepper, chopped.

·         ½ of a medium sized green bell pepper, chopped.

·         ½ of a medium sized orange bell pepper, chopped.

·         1 cup of thick blended pepper ( I usually have blended pepper in my freezer, makes it easier when I need to cook anything that only requires little of it)

·         Salt to taste

·         Canola oil

·         1 cube Maggi

Instructions:

1.   Dice the plantain, add salt and fry until its golden brown, set aside.

2.   Pour pepper into a medium sized pot and let it cook for about 6 minutes, add shrimp, all chopped peppers, seasoning and 1 tablespoon of canola oil. Let it cook for another 5 minutes.

3.   Add in the fried plantain and stir until everything is properly mixed together. Let it cook for another 5-7 minutes until the pepper is sort of dried on the dodo and shrimp before serving.

In the picture below, I served mine with potatoes because I was craving potatoes but it can be served as a side dish with jollof, fried and white rice.

Baked Chicken with potatoes and Kale.

“I was a Kale hater but now, I'm still not a lover"

My sister is a lover of potatoes hence the constant struggle to give up completely on McDonald fries. Boiled, fried, baked, she will eat it but I don’t know if she has eaten raw potatoes. That would be weird.

We have been trying to eat different types of potatoes just so we can get out of the everyday Russet potato taste hence the Yukon gold potatoes. Kale was a vegetable that I was just like umm I’m not so sure but hey I’ll try almost everything so I decided to figure out what the best way to cook it would be for me.

For this dish, you need;

·         2 chicken whole legs

·         1 pound Kale stem

·         1 pound medium sized Yukon gold potatoes

·         ¼ cup extra virgin oil

·         Salt to taste

·         Ground pepper

·         1 teaspoon paprika

·         1 cup chopped onion

The quantity for the ingredients should be at your own discretion because it depends on how many people you’re cooking for. This serves 4-6 people.

Instructions:

1.       Preheat oven to 450 degrees, chop onions, kale and cut potatoes into two or three depending on the size of the individual potatoes.  

2.      In a baking or roasting pan, toss kale, potatoes, onion, olive oil and the seasoning and spread out in the pan.

3.      For big chicken pieces, I usually cook them on the stove before boiling them because it saves me the time of having to pop them back into the over if they are not cooked all the way.

4.      Cook with salt, pepper, onion and paprika and brush with olive oil before setting it on top of the kale and potatoes; cover with a foil and bake for 20 minutes.

5.      Remove the foil and let it bake for another 25-30 minutes till the chicken is cooked completely and vegetables are tender.

6.      The juices from the chicken should keep the vegetable and potatoes moist and delicious.

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole with Baked lemon Chicken

"So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being."

I had never made a casserole dish but wait till you try this. It is sooo DELICIOUS. I had a couple people try it and they loved it so i am tapping myself on the back.

Ingredients for Casserole

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

1 Tablespoon garlic powder

16 oz prepared wild rice sold at most grocery stores in boxes

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper and dried ground pepper

Ingredients for Lemon Garlic chicken

6 tbsp olive oil

2 lemons

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper and dried ground pepper

3/4 lbs green  beans

5 chicken breasts

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Coat a large baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Arrange the sliced lemon in a single layer at the bottom of the dish.
2. In a large bowl, combine the remaining oil, lemon juice, garlic powder, salt, black and ground pepper, green beans. 
3. Remove the green beans and arrange on the lemon already placed in the dish.
4. Place the chicken in the bowl with the seasoning mixture and coat thoroughly. Place the chicken in the dish on top of the green beans. I put my green beans on top of the chicken as seen in the picture because I wanted it to be somewhat crispy but some of it burned on the edges so it's your choice. 
5. Pour any remaining seasoning over the chicken and roast for 40-50 minutes. 
6. For the casserole, the recipe says shredded chicken breast but what I did was boil one of the chicken breast and shredded it myself. 
7. Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Saute onion, celery and carrot until softened for about 10 minutes. Stir in chicken, wild rice, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Reduce the heat to low and allow to simmer. 
8. Transfer to a small baking dish. Top with cheddar cheese and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is all metled through out.