Puff Puff - Just How You Like It

All You Need!!

3 cups of self-raising flour

1/4 cup sugar (you can add more if you want but I like mine with less sugar) 

1 medium nutmeg (grated)

I sachet fast action dried yeast or I tablespoon dried yeast

Pinch of salt

450 ml of warm water or 2 cups of warm water (measure out 3 tablespoons from the 2 cups. i.e. 2 cups minus 3 tablespoons to get the perfect water measurement)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract (optional)

Frying Oil for deep frying (its deep frying, so we need a lot)

Steps

• Add all dry ingredients into a bowl {flour, nutmeg, yeast, sugar and salt}, set aside.

• Pour the measured water into a jug, add the vanilla extract and stir together.

• Pour into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix with you hand until well combined (to ensure that your puff puff dough is perfect; write 8 on the dough using the dough; if it doesn't disappear immediately, then you are so on point but if it does, please add little flour}

• Cover the bowl with a foil/cling film and cover again with a tea towel.

• Put in a warm place, I usually put mine in the oven {please do not turn it on oo!!!!!}. Leave it in there for at least 30 - 40 minutes that is, if you are in a rush. You can leave it as long as you want.

• In a wok/pot, add frying oil just a little above half of the wok/pot. Turn on the heat and allow to get hot (just like when you want to fry plantain/chinchin/fish...) 

• While the oil is heating up, bring out all you would need to stir and bring out the puff puff. 

• Once the oil is heated, drop a sample in {I use my hand/fingers always}; just to see it the oil is hot enough. If the oil is not ready yet, please allow few more seconds but if it is, drop few more {don't drop too much in because it is going to suck oil}.

• Fry until brown {turn them time and again so they brown evenly}. Turn down the heat or turn it off and drop in another batch, once they are all risen, turn up the heat. Repeat for the remaining puff dough.

Enjoy with a class of milk/wine/juice, anything really!!

**I will try and make a very short video on how you can use you hand/finger to drop in the puff-puff dough and get that perfect shape...**

You can store puff-puff in the fridge, warm the next day or whenever you want to eat them and munch away...

Berry and Citrus Blend

Ingredients

Raspberries (I used frozen)

Strawberries (Fresh ~ washed, sliced and remember to set some aside for decor)

Blueberries (Fresh ~ set some aside)

Kiwi (peeled and cut as in picture ans set some aside)

2 Limes (juiced)

1/3 cup of natural yogurt

Procedures

****I didn't really measure the amount of fruits used but you can never go wrong with this. If you want to taste more strawberries, add more...same goes if you want any particular taste to be strong.****

Add all the ingredients into a blender or food processor, blend together and there's your have your smoothie.

Pour into your individual glasses and top with the fruits you left out!

Enjoy

Potato Pancakes

For these delicious mouth-watering pancakes, I mixed blended potatoes in the pancake batter. These can be made as thin or thick, just like you love your pancakes. They are served with rolled around a hot mixed vegetable fillings of your choice, chicken sausage and sardines. You can find the recipe by clicking on this link.

LaBelle's Crunchy Oven Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients

1.5kg of potatoes

3 cups of water

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of hot liquid seasoning (Maggi brand)

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 tablespoons sunflower/vegetable/olive/groundnut oil

Procedures

Peel the potatoes, cut in wedges, put into a medium pot and add water. Boil for 15 minutes (if you are using new potatoes, boil for 15 minutes but if its old potatoes boil for about 8 minutes).

Turn oven to 180 degrees Celsius. On a roasting tray, add the sunflower oil and then put into the oven.

Drain and leave on the sieve. Sprinkle the black pepper, the liquid seasoning and toss together; continue tossing so as to achieve that rough crunchy potatoes after being roasted.

Put the pre-cooked potatoes in on the heated roasting tray. Increase the oven to 220 degrees Celsius and roast for 25 minutes or until golden.

It's pretty easy to achieve, enjoy your oven baked crunchy potatoes.

Your feedbacks are always appreciated!

Simple Spicy Oven Baked Chicken Legs

Ingredients

4 kg chicken legs

87g of garlic {peeled}

3 scotch bonnet

1 tablespoon salt

6 chicken knorr cubes

2 tablespoon seaseme oil

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 tablespoon dark soy sauce 

1 tablespoon barbecue sauce

1 tablespoon dry rosemary 

1 tablespoon dry powdered garlic 

229g of ginger {peel and cut into smaller chunks} 

3 bell pepper  - red, yellow and green {cored and roughly chopped}

Procedures

Add all the ingredients into a food processor except for the powdered garlic. Blend until combined properly.

Make 3 large incisions on each chicken leg. Put all of them into a big bowl or a big pot, sprinkle the powdered garlic on them and rub them into each leg.

Empty the content of the food processor on the chicken legs, turn the legs just to ensure that the marinade gets to all of them.

Cover with a cling film, leave in the fridge over night but if you want to bake immediately, leave in the fridge for atleast 2 hours.

Baking Process

Turn on the oven to 160 degrees

Arrange the marinated legs on a baking tray, sprinkle a tablespoon of hot liquid seasoning {maggi brand} on the legs.

Cover with a foil, pop into the oven. Bake 45 minutes to an hour.

 Check on the chicken, remove the foil and then turn up the gas to 200 degrees.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, so as to achieve that crispy dry burnt chicken skin.

Serve Hot!

***NOTE: You can always reduce the quantity of each ingredient used, if you are making this to serve for 2-3 people. But if you are having visitors over, these quantities are just perfect***

You can see the chicken legs in the red serving dish and I still had plenty in the oven, some of which my guests took home. I love taking care of my friends.

Simple HMR xoxo

Easy Buns Recipe ~ Nigerian Snack

Growing up, although my Mom was a teacher and had a teaching job, but she was very business inclined, she sold gold jewelries and she supplied various dishes for people. She catered for numerous occasions, ranging from supplying buns to the school where she taught to cooking variety of meals for meetings and conferences.

I watched her prepare these dishes and develop numerous recipes. I was always by her side because I had so much interest in cooking. I remembered waking up early in the morning to help mix and fry the buns and package them for delivery. I was very much involved in every single dish prepared in the house, so that was how I learnt very much how to cook, yes!!!

So for today, I would be sharing my mom's very own buns recipe.

Ingredients

2 cups of plain all purpose flour

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1 small nutmeg

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1and 1/2 cups of water

pinch of salt

For Frying

Deep frying pan or a deep pot

Frying oil

Preparations

In a big or medium bowl, add all the dry ingredients.

Then add in the water and mix all together with your hand until well combined.

Cover the bowl with a foil, leave for about 30-45 minutes.

In a deep frying pan, add frying oil just above half the pot or pan and then heat up.

Once heated, scoop in the buns mix with your hand {please do not scoop in too much at a time, because it's going to suck oil}.

Fry until golden brown. Once the first batch is done, reduce the gas heat and scoop in the second batch. 

Allow the buns to rise before you turn back the heat. {the reason we reduce the gas heat is because the oil is already too hot, if you add the buns in an over heated oil, it will just brown the buns leaving the inside uncooked}.

Fry until golden brown.

Hope you enjoyed reading through the recipe!

Thank you for visiting our blog, please feel free to LIKE us on facebook if you like this recipe and wish to know when we post new recipe.

I will be making a video of this recipe soon.

Thanks ever so much, hope to see you again soon.

LaBelle's Simple Lemon Cake

Ingredients

1/2 nutmeg

1 cup of sugar

220g of butter at room temperature

1 and 1/2 cups of self-raising flour

15mls of natural lemon flavouring

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (bicarbs)

1 medium lemon (zest and juiced)

5mls of organic vanilla extract

4 large eggs at room temperature

1 tablespoon coconut flakes for sprinkling

Preparations

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees/gas 5. Grease your cake tin , then dust with flour and shake off excess but if you are using a silicon one, no need for greasing.

Put the sugar and butter into a bowl, cream together until fluffy or once the colour becomes lighter. You can do the creaming with the a hand mixer, a wooden spoon or food processor. {If you are using a food processor or hand mixer, you can allow to mix for about 8-10 minutes or longer time if using wooden spoon}.

While the sugar and butter are being creamed, sift in dry ingredients into a medium bowl; the flour, bicarbs, and the nutmeg. Set aside

Once the butter and sugar mixture is ready, crack the eggs  and beat in one at a time, mix and then add another. Always ensure that you mix in one direction, for instance clockwise if using a wooden spoon. You can mix for as long as you want, so enough air would go into the mixture.

Then add vanilla extract, lemon flavouring, lemon juice and the zest. Mix properly. Add the dry ingredients in batches into the egg mixture. Fold in until properly blended or completely combined.

Pour your batter into baking tin, put into the oven, reduce to 160 degrees. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the tin. Then sprinkle the coconut flakes!

Enjoy

Labelle's Home Cooked Meals

xx

Moi-moi with egg and sardine

Moi-moi is an African dish made with beans. Back at home in African, it was something we ate mostly saturdays and the process of making this dish is somewhat tiring. One can use black eye beans or any nigerian brown beans to make this dish. For this particular recipe, I used beans flour (check most Asian/African shops if you are living in the Uk) because I find it easier.  If you want to prepare moi-moi from scratch using beans, please follow this recipe.

Here we go...

Ingredients

3 knorr cubes

Salt to taste

2 red pepper (tatashi)

3 cups of water

1 large bulb onion

1/2 nutmeg (grated)

Eggs (any quantity)

10g ginger (skinned)

2 gloves of garlic (peeled)

1 scotch bonnet (optional)

1/3 cup of grinded crayfish

2 cups of beans flour

2 tins of sardine in sunflower oil

2 tablespoons of sunflower/vegetable oil

Preparations

Boil the eggs, peel and set aside.

In a blender, add the red pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, scotch bonnet and a cup of water, then blend together. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, add the beans flour, crayfish , nutmeg and knorr seasoning. Drain the oil from the sardines into the bowl, add the sunflower oil as well.

Then empty the blender contents into the bowl, mix together. Add the remaining water, mix until smooth. Add salt to taste.

Add the sardines, turn and spoon into your individual containers. Then drop in the boiled eggs in each container.

In a large pot, add about a 1000mls of water, bring to boiling point and then put in the container, cook for 40-45 minutes or until done. Please always check the water in the pot that it doesn't dry out.

Serve hot!
Enjoy!

Buns and Chin-chin - African snacks

Mixed Beans served with Puff Puff

Ingredients

• 2 tins of kidney beans
• 1 tin butter beans
• 1 white onion, diced
• 3 garlic gloves, crushed and chopped
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper, diced
• 1 tbsp of tomato puree
• 1 canned chopped tomatoes
• 2 bell pepper, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup of sunflower oil
• Goat meat (you can use any meat of your choice and any quantity), chopped into smaller pieces
• 1 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp of dried rosemary 
• 3 knorr cubes
• Pinch of salt
• Puff puff, to serve

Preparations

In a medium pot, add the meat, season with thyme, curry, rosemary, 2 knorr cubes, pinch of salt and a cup of water. Cook until tender. Remove the meats, fry and set aside. Freeze the meat stock for future use

Drain the beans, rinse with warm water and set aside. In a pot, add the oil and heat up for few seconds, then add the onion and garlic. Fry for 2 minutes. 

Then add the tomatoes, the puree, scotch bonnet and the remaining knorr season and bring to the boil and allow for 10 minutes, then add the drained beans.  

Cook for 5 minutes, add the meat, then reduce the heat, cover the pot and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes. Ladle the mixed beans into a bowl and serve hot with puff puff.

Enjoy

Fried Rice

Tuna And Prawn Pancakes - Recipe By @ajikespecial

Tuna and Prawn pancakes, perfect for weekend breakfasts. A friend @ajikespecial shared this recipe, I tried it out, it came out perfect and was delicious. I have so included this dish on my menu. Really worth trying out, believe you me. Click here to find out how you can prepare these beauties. Thank me later.

Enjoy...

Belle's Kitchen