“Eating is spiritual. And eating food with loved ones is truly communion with God. Do your best to eat the food you love with people you love :) it makes it taste better.” ~ Munachi Abii

Rooibos Tea Cake 

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Serves: 8 
Prep time: 35-40 mins 

Always make sure your pan is well greased. Always put baking paper at the base of your Pan and grease the sides with either butter or cooking spray. Let the loaf cool down a bit once it’s done baking before removing it from the pan, when it’s warm it’s a bit delicate and is guaranteed to break. Be patient.

Ingredients: 
500g Vanilla Cake Mix
1C Rooibos Tea, cooled
3 Eggs
1/3C Oil
1 Banana, mashed
2 tsp Ground Cinnamon 
1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp Ground Ginger
125ml Walnuts, chopped
1 tsp Baking Soda

Icing:
250ml Water
4 Rooibos Teabags
1 Cinnamon Stick
4 Cardamon Pods
4 Cloves
2 Star Anise
Icing Sugar
Chopped Walnuts for topping

Method: 
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. 
Grease a cake tin. 
Mix the tea, eggs and oil together, add the wet ingredients to the cake mix, using a spatula. Mix until a smooth batter is formed.
In a separate bowl, mix the banana, spices, nuts and baking soda together. Stir the banana mixture into the batter. Pour batter into prepared baking dish.
Bake for 25 mins or until a testing pin is inserted and comes out clean.
Cool the cake down completely. 
To make icing, boil the teabags in the water with the rest of the ingredients excluding the sugar and nuts. Reduce liquid to about 1/2 cup. 
Using a sieve, remove all the spices from the liquid and cool the liquid down completely. 
Whisk in the icing sugar into the liquid until you reach a desired consistency. Spread over cake and garnish with nuts. 

Ginger Beer Sorbet

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Serves: 8-10

If they don’t serve “Gemere” at your wedding, is it even a wedding? Only our grandmother was the designated ginger beer maker, she makes it so well and if you want good ginger beer, make sure it brews for a couple of days. We made the typical ginger beer into a sorbet, it’s an amazing pallet cleanser. 

Ingredients: 
1 1/2 L Water
1C Castor Sugar
2 Tbs Ginger Powder
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar 
Peel of 1 Apple
Peel of 1/2 Lemon
Handful of Pineapple Pieces
1 tsp Instant Dry Yeast

Method:
Pour 500g water into a pot. Add sugar and still until it’s all dissolved.
Add ginger, cream of tartar, Apple and lemon peel as well as pineapple pieces. 
Add the rest of the water and simmer on medium heat for about 12 mins. Then allow to completely cool. Stir in the yeast. Cover and leave to stand overnight.
Strain through a whisk into a container and chill. (At this point, it’s ready to drink.)
To make sorbet, place ginger beer into the freezer container and freeze for about 2 hours. Stir with a for every 30 mins so it doesn’t crystallize.
Once it can hold shape and frozen, you may serve. 

Oven Roasted Fish with Crispy Kale and Shito Mayo

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Serves: 4
Prep time: 1hour 10mins 

Catfish is a big deal in Nigeria and it’s normally deep fried whole. With this recipe, feel free to use your favorite and preferred line fish, you can honestly go wild. 

Shito Mayo
Ingredients: 

100ml Palm Oil 
3 Red Onions, finely diced
1 Red Pepper, finely diced
2 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
2 Tbs Minced Ginger
6 Jalapeño Peppers, ground
2 Tbs Thyme Leaves, chopped
3 Habenero Peppers, finely diced
1 Tbs Chili Flakes
5 Tbs Tomato Purée 
50ml Chicken Stock
50ml Worcestershire Sauce
80g Dried Ground Shrimp Powder
1 Tbs Ground Black Pepper
1 Tbs Himalayan Salt

Method: 
Heat a heavy-based saucepan, add oil, fry onions over medium heat till translucent for about 2-3 mins. 
Add garlic, ginger, jalapeños, thyme and habeneros and fry for a few mins.
Stir in the purée, stock and Worcestershire sauce until a thick paste forms. Add in the chili flakes, prawn powder and cook for 10 mins. Adjust seasoning.
Cover and cook on low heat for 30 mins. (You can either blend sauce or leave it chunky). 
Pour sauce into a sterilized jar and cool in the fridge.
To make Shito Mayo, mix 1 cup of Shito sauce with 3/4 cup mayonnaise till well blended.

Fish and kale Ingredients: 
4 Whole Fish Fillets (Hake or Yellowtail)
3 Tbs Thai Fish Spice
1 Tbs Ground Black Pepper
1 Tbs Sea Salt 
2 Tbs Palm Oil
1 Lemon, quartered 
300g Kale
Palm oil for deep frying

Method: 
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
Heat oil in deep fryer at 160 degrees celcius.
Season fish with salt and pepper and Thai spice. Drizzle with oil, bake in the oven for 20-25 mins until fish is cooked but not dry. 
Shred kale to desired size, fry till crispy and bright green.
Drain on paper towel. 

Chin-chin Strawberry Cheesecake

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Serves: 8
Prep time: 35-40 mins

6. Chin chin is amazing, it tastes like deep fried shortbread chips, that’s the best way we can describe it. We thought it would be really cool to incorporate it into one of our favorite desserts of all time. 

Ingredients: 
250g Chin-chin
1 Tbs Sugar
Pinch of Salt
125g Butter, softened

Filling:
200g Fresh Strawberries
1/4 C Castor Sugar
3/4 C Sugar
1 Tbs Lemon Juice
2 Tubs Cream Cheese
1/2 C Sour Cream
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence 
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 C Sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
In a food processor, crush the chin-chin until crumbs. Add the salt, sugar and butter and blitz to mix. Press into the bottom of a baking tray. 
Bake for 15 mins, take it out and reduce heat to 160 degrees celcius.
In a saucepan, add strawberries, sugar and a pinch of salt together and bring to a simmer for 10 mins.
Purée the mixture with a stick blender, add lemon juice and set aside.
Best cream cheese and sour cream with an electric beater, add the 3/4 C sugar and the vanilla, beat until smooth. Add the eggs and mix well.
Pour the cream cheese mixture into the cooled crust. Top with strawberry purée, use a skewer to create a swirl. Bake until set for 25 mins.

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Egusi Soup

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serves: 4-6
Prep time: 40-50 mins

Egusi Soup – The original Nigerian Egusi recipe is delicious but making this soup is not really an easy process (for us) so we decided to simplify it… A lot ! We will ease into the original recipe slowly. This version is good, think of it as; Egusi soup for beginners. 

Ingredients: 
1 Tbs Palm Oil 
3 Spring Onions, thinly sliced
2 tsp Curry Powder
1 tsp Chili Flakes 
350ml Sauce ????
2 Tbs Dried Ground Melon Seeds (Agushi) 
4-6 Habenero Peppers, crushed
Juice of 1 Lime
200ml Vegetable Stock, if required
250g Baby Spinach 
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground Black Pepper

Method: 
Heat a large heavy- based saucepan. Add coconut oil, sauté with onion over medium heat until softened. Add curry powder and chili flakes and stir well. 
Stir in the sauce and simmer over heat for 15-20 mins. 
Gently stir in the Agushi, break down any lumps using a wooden spoon – the space will be creamy and resemble scrambled eggs. 
Add the Habenero peppers and the lime juice . Leave to simmer over a medium heat for another 10 mins. 
Add a bit of stock if sauce becomes too think, add a little at a time.
Stir in spinach and seasoning, simmer gently till spinach is wilted.
Enjoy. 

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Spicy Grilled Chicken Feet

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“In Mamelodi we called grilled chicken feet ‘Chicken Kwasa’, we don’t know why, lol but it sounds cool. Chicken kwasa is normally sold to school kids as a break time snack by local vendors. This is such a big hit with the locals.” 

 

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 40 mins 

 

Ingredients: 

500g Chicken Feet, cleaned 

2 tsp Smoked Paprika

2 tsp Curry Powder

1 tsp Salt 

1 tsp Black pepper 

3 tsp Thai Mixed Spice

2 tsp All Spice 

1 tsp Cumin 

1 tsp Coriander 

1 tsp Chili Powder

1/4 C Sunflower Oil

1/4 C BBQ Sauce 

 

Method: 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. 

Line baking tray with foil. 

Par-boil the chicken feet for about 18-20 mins. Drain and pat dry. Mix all the spices, oil and BBQ sauce together and coat the chicken feet.

Grill in the oven for 20-25 mins until cooked.

Serve warm with a starter.

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Chicken Wings with a Blue Cheese Dip

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Serves: 6

Prep Time: 55-60 mins 

 

“There’s this cute restaurant called ‘The Local’ in Newton Massachusetts. We went on a snowy Sunday afternoon for a quick lunch and we ordered the most affordable dish on the menu which was the wings. It was a great choice, hands down the best wings we’ve ever had in our lives.”

 

Ingredients: 

1.5 kg Wings 

1/4 C Flour 

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt 

1 tsp Pepper 

1/2 tsp Onion Powder

1/4 C Hot sauce 

1/4 C Sweet Chili Sauce 

1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper 

 

Blue Cheese Dip: 

1 Tub Sour Cream

1 Log Blue Cheese, crumbled

1/3 C Fresh Cream

Salt and Pepper to taste 

1 tsp Lemon Zest 

2 Tbs Chopped Dill

 

Method: 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper. 

Place wings in a bowl, add flour, baking powder and the rest of the spices, toss and coat the wings evenly. Dust off the wings and place in a single layer on the baking sheet.

Bake for 40 mins until lightly golden and crispy. Then set aside. 

In another bowl, mix together the hot sauce, sweet chili sauce, butter and brown sugar together. Pour over the wings and coat evenly. 

Bake in the oven for another 10 mins. 

For the blue cheese dressing, blend all the ingredients together until well blended. 

Serve the wings warm with the dip.

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SWEET & SMOKY ROOIBOS BBQ DRY RUB MIX

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INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 Tbls Smokey salt 
11/2 Tbls smoked paprika 
2 tsp chilli flakes 
4 Tbls loose Rooibos leaves 
2 tsp dried rosemary 
1 tsp cumin seeds 
1 1/2 tsp ground pepper 
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp dried thyme 
1/2 tsp chilli powder 
1/4!tsp ground all spice

METHOD:
Place all the ingredients into a pastel and mortar and grind the ingredients till smooth and well combined. 
Store in an airtight container till ready to use. 

You can use this mix as a dry rub on red meat, chicken, seafood , veggies, tofu, corn on the cob. Or just sprinkle on already grilled veggies.

BAKED CITRUS & GINGER ROOIBOS PUDDING

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INGREDIENTS:

120 g butter 

60 g brown sugar 

50 g castor sugar

2 eggs 

15 ml grated ginger 

2 Tbls orange zest 

120 g self-raising flour 

 

SAUCE:

50 g brown sugar

180 ml cream 

4 Citrus & Ginger Rooibos teabags 

 

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Line six 150 ml moulds. 

Cream butter and sugars till light and fluffy. 

Add eggs one at a time. Mix till well combined. Add ginger and oranger zest.

Fold in the flour. 

Spoon mixture into moulds. Fill them 3/4 way to the top. 

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from moulds. 

 

SAUCE:

Combine all the sauce ingredients into a sauce pan. Slowly bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes till the flavors are infused. 

Spoon over upturned cakes.

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ROOIBOS CHICKEN CASSEROLE

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INGREDIENTS:

2 Tbls seasoned flour

1 Tbls loose Rooibos tea leaves

8 chicken pieces

5 Tbls sunflower oil

2 shallots, finely chopped

180 ml sherry

320 ml strongly brewed Rooibos tea

Fresh parsley, thyme and bay leaf tied to string 2 Tbls minced garlic

50 g butter

200 g mushrooms

1/4 cup cream

 

METHOD: 

Tip the seasoned flour, chicken pieces and loose tea leaves in a food bag. Shake well to evenly coat.

Heat oil in a large pan, add the chicken pieces, a few at a time, fry on all sides till well browned.

Add sherry and allow to reduce a little bit. Add the tea, herb bundle and seasoning. Bring to the boil. Pour chicken into casserole dish. Simmer for 45 minutes (covered) until chicken is tender and sauce has thickened.

In a pan, melt butter, add mushroom, heat till soft. Add in the garlic and stir. Season lightly.

Top chicken with mushroom mixture and Crème fraîche and serve.

 

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