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| Hot pot of Jollof |
Hi readers, I know its been a few weeks since my last post. The past few weekends was spent eating out or entertaining friends with any little spare time spent watching Netflix instead of creating new content. One thing I did focus on over the past few weeks however was reaquainting myself with Bae… Bae being Jollof rice. Yes, the west african dish is that special. So special my friend Tavian posted a song on Youtube about eating the thing. That track really conveys my feelings about the dish. The voice sounded soft, sweet and then shaky at one point because he was holding back tears. We can safely say the dish means something to him and most west Africans. Keep on singing Tave. Let the next be a ballad about spinach stew and pounded yam my friend. I also posted soo much about Jollof a colleague sent me pictures of the Jollof rice she made for her mum on mothers day and from what I saw she didnt to too bad. Let’s put it this way, it looked better than Jamie Olivers confused Jollof mix. Good job Taz.
Now, I already gave tips on how to cook Jollof rice in one of my earlier posts, so this blog post is just about some of the lovely sides I made with the dish for friends a few weeks ago. The friends being dudes I went to school with at the age of 11. One of em was visiting london for the weekend with his partner, so I decided to host a dinner party for them and the boys. Seeing as it was mostly a Nigerian affair, the menu had to be Jollof, 2 types of meat, Pak Choy and some peaches. I got up at 7am to make the Jollof as that was the most time consuming dish. I marinated the chicken and lamb in 2 types of Nandos marinade the night before so a quick fry, followed by some grilling in the oven for 40 minutes.The chicken came out juicy and tender.
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| Nando’s semi fried chicken |
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| Homemade Nando’s chicken in a the oven |
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| Roast chicken in Nando’s marinade |
Whilst the chicken was roasting, I went to Chupitos, a spanish restaurant outside my flat for a quick drink. The chef was kind enough to give me his sesame oil infused with garlic and chillies after he heard I couldnt find any at the local stores. I actually added this to my Pak Choy and bacon stir fry and it tasted delicious
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| Chupitos chef |
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| Pak Choy with bacon and sesame oil |
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| Roasted the Pak Choy dripping in sesame seed oil for 10 mins |
Pak Choy in the oven for 10 minutes, its now time for frying my peaches and plum in duck fat. A duck breast from Lidl ( well priced and good quality ) was seasoned with all spice, rock salt and black pepper. The breasts were fried skin side down for 6 minutes, then turned over for 2 minutes before going in the oven for 14 minutes.
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| Pan fried and oven roasted duck breast |
The peaches and plums were then fried in all the oil released from the duck. The slighty fatty and sweet fruits goes pretty well with the spicy Jollof rice.
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| Peaches and plums fried in duck fat |
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| Plating up some dinner |
It was defintely tasking putting all different elements together while trying to time your guests arrival times. Yes, the Nigerian lateness curse passed down from our African ancestors striked again. A 3pm start time soon ( Thanks Alani ) turned to some guests getting to mine at 4.30pm or was that 5pm. Some of the guests got hungry while waiting so we held a vote and the mandate was to wait a few more minutes. The rest of the boys arrived and the first thing Kirk said was ” You waited for us to get here? How cultured , we would have started eating a long time ago”. I actually smiled when I heard that comment because if this happened when we were younger in Lagos, the late guests would have probably had only peaches and Pak choy left to stare at.
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| Jollof is bae |
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| Plate was bursting |
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| Eating away |
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| Kevene looks like he’s about to pass out on the chair |
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| Picture time..thanks for the visit Alani |
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| Picture time..thanks for a the visit Alani |
Dinner party over and clear up wasnt as bad because I resorted to paper plates and plastic cups. It was nice catching up with the boys indeed. Here’s to another 20 more years 🙂