A meal fit for a father

Firstly, let me say how terribly difficult it is to cook and take pictures of the process at the same time. One has to consider dirty hands, burning oil etc. So that is my excuse for not taking as much pictures as I should have, this being the first time that I have tried to do it all by myself. Hats off to the other blog contributors who make it seem so easy.

Yesterday I decided to make lasagna for lunch, one veggie and one chicken. My father put some chicken thighs and wings to bake to compliment the lasagna.

I started off with the veggie first, giving the minced chicken a little more time to marinate in the seasonings. So it began with your usual suspects, I sautéed some onions, garlic, celery and thyme in olive oil with a tablespoon of butter. Add salt and black pepper for flavor, then in goes two bags of mixed vegetables. The mixed vegetables that I got had green peas, carrots, string beans and corn which are a nice blend of flavors. After the cooking the veggies for about 10 minutes, I added a tin of Hunt’s Tomato Paste along with some Italian Seasoning. Let that come to a simmer then turn off the pot.

In the meantime between time, I had my lasagna cooking in a pot of boiling water with a dash of oil to prevent them from sticking together.

I took out a deep casserole dish and used a teaspoon of olive oil to grease it. In goes a thin layer of veggies to the bottom of the dish, then I do a layer of lasagna. I add the veggie mixture to that layer then sprinkle it with grated rat cheese.

I repeated this step until the dish was filled. To top it off, I put a thin layer of tomato paste and sprinkled a decent helping of cheese. I then added some parmesan cheese and paprika to it for a bit of a twist.

Popped that into a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes and there you have it. Veggie Lasagna!!!

Now for our chicken lasagna I had two packs of minced chicken marinating in seasoning. I found out later that two packs of chicken are not enough to fill a biggish lasagna properly, so I advise you to go with three packs. To season it I squeezed a lime, added some salt and black pepper, thyme, onion, garlic, sieve and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. I let that sit for about 30 minutes while I was preparing its veggie counterpart.

Dice 1 onion, 5 cloves of garlic, celery, thyme and 1 pimento. To a heated pot I added a bit of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter and sautéed my chopped veggies.

Then in goes our minced chicken.

I sprinkled a bit of cayenne pepper to the pot for a bit of zing. After the chicken has started to cook through, add the Hunt’s tomato paste and let it simmer for a couple minutes again to make sure all the flavors meld. At this point you can add tomatoes and sweet peppers if you like. I didn’t have any so I could not add even though I really wanted to.

To bring the lasagna together I followed the same steps as the veggie lasagna, the only difference being I sprinkled Italian Seasoning on top with the cheese instead of paprika.

I was contemplating making a fresh salad to go with this meal but realized soon after my contemplation began that I didn’t have any lettuce or tomatoes. Who wants to make a fresh salad without lettuce? - Certainly not me.

All in all, my father was content with the meal. He ate a sliver of chicken lasagna with a sliver of veggie lasagna and a baked chicken wing. Needless to say, he eats like a bird. Chinyere however, does not eat like a bird!

Pig Tail Oil Dong

There are few classic dishes which are more filling, more convenient and easier to make than Oil Down - aka the food of the gods. Its the perfect meal to plan, when you intend to be in the middle of the Caroni swamp with just one pot and a campfire, and not sure if the fish will be biting.

The way this version is made may be slightly different from the norm, but the first rule in bachelor type cooking is to bend the rules, so lets go.


Cut up your yellow variety breadfruit into two inch cubes. Cover in water until you're ready for it, since it oxidizes real fast.


Roughly chop up your seasonings of choice, I used the old basics, chadon beni, chives, onion, garlic, and a few hot peppers (1/4 of one would work for non pepper eaters). I forgot to bring the thyme, which is excellent in oil down.


Boil your pig tail for about 1/2 hour or so and drain.


Into your cast iron pot add some oil and a little onion, garlic and hot pepper and fry till it just begins to brown.

Add the pigtail and stir fry for a few minutes.



Once the pig tail is hot and happy, add the remaining seasoning and the breadfruit and stir to distribute the seasonings.


Pour the coconut milk into your pot, add water until it almost covers the breadfruit. Use the milk of one coconut per breadfruit. One thing I always add to oil down is dasheen bush leaves -not the stalks though. Put them in whole at the top, and cover the pot. At this juncture you can add stuff like carrots, plantains cassava etc if you like, however I don't do that.
Cook until breadfruit is done, stirring occasionally.
About 10 minutes before its finished, add your trusty golden ray, and check the salt. Stir and cover till done.


Since we neglected to bring dishes, the oil down had to be enjoyed from a basin, which turned out to be quite practical.
There you go, the food of the gods... well, most of the gods.

a crazy egg loaf

i've mentioned this more than once before in certain circles and got those looks that say "you're crazy. that can't be done." well crazy maybe, but it can be done, and if you actually give it a little thought, you can put your own twist and make it taste really good too. check it out.


i put six eggs in a bowl. simple enough right?



yuh know me with lime. gots to have it.



seasoned the eggs up with some salt, black pepper, all purpose and garlic powder.




next i put in some chopped pimento, onion and chive



now this is where one might think it gets crazy for some reason... i don't know why. anyway, how about some flour, baking powder and a lil yeast?


after mixing them in, making sure everything was well integrated into a smooth mixture, i added some parmesan and some cheddar cheese. mixed that in as well. it ends up looking like a rich cake batter. still smooth and fluid, but with a little body to it.




next step, cover it down and let it sit there for a bit, while the oven heats up.




greased up my trusty pyrex dish with a little touch of vegetable oil. just enough for the loaf not to stick while it cooked. then into the warm oven it went.




this is the loaf that came out. soft, even brown crust with a light, fluffy inside. not to mention a tempting, cheesy aroma.




the only problem is, i'm not quite sure how to use it. it's cool at breakfast with sausage or deli slices and a lil pepper sauce on the side. my father was suggesting that it could be served with a savory ketchup based something like a dip. i was even thinking about making a herb oil with shadon beni, basil and olive oil, drizzling it over a couple slices and trying it with a fresh salad. we'll see. but for now, let's just say it can be done and leave it at that. the real lesson here... doh knock it until yuh try it.

leh we bubble.

Tuna Patties

Food Network has to be the best thing on cable. It’s a great and lucrative idea. Food all day, everyday? BRILLIANT! I was watching it by Dawi’s grandmother when I saw Paula making some Salmon Burgers. Dawi commented that it probably would be good to do something like that with tuna… a suggestion that was tasting right in my books. So I decided to try a tuna patty.



Whipped out some tuna. 2 tins of chunks in water and 2 tins of chunks in oil. Drained of course. Bumble Bee or Brunswick… don't really care that much. They're not paying for this big up anyway.



I put it in a bowl and just spread it around a little.




Enter lime. Makes it nice and tangy.




Then I cut up some shaddon beni, celery, onion, pimento and chive.





Mixed that up with the tuna.




In mixtures like these, one would usually use a bread crumb-esk ingredient. I tried these cheddar flavoured toasted Ritz Chips. I just put them in a sandwich bag and crushed them up a bit.




Then I took my premium quality rolling pin to them for that absolute crush.





The end result was not absolutely fine, but absolute enough to do the trick.




I usually wouldn’t use egg to bind, but I decided to take a chance this time.





Then I put some of my flavourful buddies into the egg, hoping that they would be transported all around the mixture.




The mixture ended up looking like this. Time to get to cooking.




But first, I had to heat up some oil in my trusty frying pan turned pizza dish.




As soon as the oil was hot, I scooped out manageable portions and put them in.




Well, the patties came out nice, with a light crust on the outside. I could tell they would make an interesting sandwich.




The Curious Mouth had hers with 8 grain whole wheat bread. But I preferred to have mine with marble rye.




Slice of tomato, lettuce, mayo, ketchup, mustard, pepper sauce. Some potato chips at the side and we on!




Good call Dawi. I’ll have to line you up with some.


Leh we bubble!

PIZZAT LEFTOVERS PART 1: Pizzat Treats

after a pizzat lime, there's one thing you're sure to end up with. leftover ingredients. so what do you do? cook some more! but what's the fun in doing the same thing again? so this time i tried a lil pie like vehicle we ended up callin a pizzat treat.


i started by cutting up the balance of the chicken salami.



then i cut up some pimento, onions and carrots.



fired up a burner and got the onions and pimentos going in some oil.


next, carrots joined the saute.


followed by the chicken salami.

when it got a decent cooking, it was time to add that left over pizzat sauce. i figured that since the toppings were now fillings, it might be wise to put sauce and ingredients into one.



so i took dawi's trusty pizza dough and spread it out before spooning on a very generous portion of the filling.



now notice the size of this thing right here. yeah... i got a bit carried away.



dropped some cheese on that baby. guess what???



as soon as i folded it over, the filling burst out the back and the sides and it was all over the place. i just picked it up and dropped it into a pan and baked it like that anyway. it came out like this. tasted good, but looked like a mess!!



anyway, good sense prevailed, and i scaled it down considerably. workable sizes.




folded and pressed the edges in.



the first attempt came out ok.



the curious mouth dug in and gave it the stamp of approval, which to me meant:
start the next round!




so i loaded up that trusty frying-pan-turned-baking-tray-substitute and got some more going.



they turned out pretty ok.
i'll try them again sometime with a more flavourful meat like ground beef or some sort of tangy chicken perhaps. and i'll make some holes in the top with a fork to see what happens too.



leh we bubble.