Suya/Kebab Wings

Hello, my lovely people. I am really trying to stick to my promise of posting more recipes. Today I am going to share a very simple wings recipe with you guys. I posted this a couple of times on my snapchat and had a few people ask for the recipe so here we go.

Video at --- Suya/Kebab Wings

Ingredients

•  1lb chicken wings
• 1 tablespoon of seasoning salt
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of red pepper(optional)
• 1 small onion(chopped)
• 1 teaspoon of parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes(optional)
• 1 cup of oil(for frying)
• 1/3  - 1/2 cup of suya/kebab powder

Method: 

1. Wash and clean the wings well removing any sight of hair that maybe on the wings
2. Season wings with all ingredients except the suya/kebab powder and oil, let the chicken marinate in the fridge for 30mins to an hour(overnight if you have the time to spare)
3. Add the oil in a medium frying pan, on medium heat, fry the wings until well done(they should be golden brown in color and shrunk from its original size)
4. In a medium saucepan, spray a little bit of cooking spray or 1/4 teaspoon of oil, add the fried wings and pour in the suya/kebab powder. 
5. Stir the wings until all parts of the wings are covered with the powder
6. Serve as an appetizer or with jollof, fried rice, fried yam, etc

**This recipe is using the frying method but you can bake it if that is what you want. After baking just add the suya/kebab powder**

Seasoned wings after marinating

Frying the chicken

Chicken wings frying nicely

Chicken wings fried nicely and suya/kebab powder added. 

I made these for a small portion not a big quantity as the recipe suggests

Jollof x suya wings x fried plantain

Chicken Sauce

Hi my fellow foodies, yes I am trying to get back to actively blogging. It will take sometime but I will get the hang of this blogging and "vlogging" lifestyle. Today I will like to share with you all another simple sauce. You should already know how I feel about simple dishes.

Video here -->Chicken Sauce

Ingredients: 

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 tablespoon seasoning salt
• 1 teaspoon red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch/flour(depending on how thick you want your sauce)
• 2 carrots
• 1 small onion 
• 1 small green pepper
• 2 tablespoons oil 
• 1 small sachet of onga chicken spice(or knorr cubes, onga cubes, any spices you use to make your food tasty)

Method: 

1. Wash and cut chicken into small chunks/pieces
2. Season with spices and set aside 
3. Cut vegetables in big chunks and also set aside
4. In a small sauce pan, add the oil and fry the chicken until well done
5. Add about half cup of water to the cornstarch/flour and add to the fried chicken and stir occasionally until sauce thickens up, add in your seasoning or spices to taste to your preference 
6. Add in your vegetables, allow to simmer for a bit and serve with your main dish

**For those of you wondering why my sauce looks brown in the end, I did add a little bit of oyster sauce for color difference and flavor, but it is optional of course**

Refer to video for the step by step on this. Enjoy

Sauce all ready

Served with Fried Rice, coleslaw and shito(black pepper)

Kebab

Nothing like the kebabs they sell on the streets of Accra at night with that hot pepper on it lol. But since I'm not in Ghana this is the closest thing I could make to satisfy my cravings. This is what you will normally see at MOST Ghanaian events in New York. You can tweak this according to your preference. Some like it really spicy and some would rather not have spicy at all.

Ingredients:

• 2lbs beef 
• 1 big onion 
• 1 green pepper(optional) 
• Kebab powder(you can get some of this at some African markets. I brought mine from Ghana) 
• 1 tablespoon seasoning salt
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon of parsley flakes
• 1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper(optional)
• 1 -2 tablespoons of red pepper or cayenne pepper(optional)

Method:

1. Wash the beef and cut it into small pieces
2. Season it with the seasoning salt and black pepper,parsley,crushed pepper,red pepper and two tablespoons of the kebab powder(if you have time you can put it in the fridge over night so it marinates well)
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C), spread the seasoned beef in a greased baking sheet and bake it for 30-45mins(depending on how deep your pan is) with constant stirring until its ready
4. In a small sauce pan,melt a 1/3 teaspoon of butter add your chopped onions and green pepper,stir in a tablespoon of kebab powder and saute it for a minute. Now the fun part begins lol, if you have the kebab sticks this would be perfect, stick one beef, add an onion and green pepper, keep going until there's no more beef and veggies left. (You should have about 3 beef on each stick,depending on how big you cut the beef). 
5. Sprinkle some kebab powder on them and serve, ENJOY!

PS: Some people complain about how dry some kebabs are,to prevent this if you have some plain tomato stew at home you can toss about 3 tablespoons on the baked meat and put it back in the oven for about 10 minutes. 

Beef

I had to cut a lot of fat out of this. Before seasoning. (This was for a larger batch of kebabs)

Seasoned and ready for the fridge to marinate well or ready for the oven

Spread foil in oven and bake it (PS:This creates alot of mess)

Easier method to bake(PS:Just takes a little more time to cook)

Step by step of the veggies that were used for the kebabs

This was for a friend's birthday party that's why it looks like a lot but this is how your kebabs should look when you are done. Sprinkled with a little more kebab powder

Kelewele (Spicy Fried Plantain)

Ahhhh!! Who remembers kelewele from Ghana. Just passing by the lady making it will make you want to stop and buy some! If you don't know by now I am a plantain addict, yes I love PLANTAINS!! lol So its safe to say this has got to be one of my favorite things too. This goes very well with some peanuts.

Video for kelewele is on my YouTube channel at - Theedee's Kelewele(Spicy fried plantain)


Ingredients:

• 2 yellow plantains
• 1 tablepoon salt
• 1 tablespoon powdered ginger or 1 fresh ginger
• 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of powdered red pepper (cayenne could be used if you don't have the red pepper from the African shops) or 2 or 3 fresh red pepper
• 3 ginger
• Oil for frying

Ps: You can blend ginger,scotch bonnet pepper and some powdered red pepper if you don't have the powdered ginger(that gives you the authentic kelewele after all, but to make things easier I like the powdered stuff). You can increase the amount of spices to use depending on your preference some like it really spicy, others don't. 

Method:

1. Peel plantain and wash it. Cut the plantain into small sizes (see pictures below).
2. Season plantains with salt,ginger and pepper, set it aside for about 30minutes if you want it to "marinate" very well(that's if you have time to spare)
3. If using fresh ginger,garlic and pepper blend it, pour it on the cut plantains, let it marinate(yes lol) for a while then go to number 4.
4. In a frying pan, on medium heat, heat up the oil, pour seasoned plantains in and fry till its golden brown(see after picture)

The ingredients (using the powdered pepper and ginger,which I got when I was in Ghana)

Before seasoning(I cut the plantain into 2, then into another 2, that's how I got these sizes)

Well seasoned and ready for frying

Deep frying the kelewele(so you will need enough oil for this, that's why I didn't specify how much oil you will need)

Yummy kelewele

Yummy kelewele with roasted peanuts

Grilled tilapia

Goes soooooo well with banku or kenkey with red pepper/black pepper(shito)

Ingredients:

• 2-4 Tilapia
• 1onion
• 1-2 whole ginger
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2-4 scotch bonnet pepper(depending on how spicy you want it)
• 1 tablespoon of seasoning salt(or regular salt,like always I prefer Lawry's)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper(optional)
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/3 cup of oil

Method:

1. Wash tilapia and remove any scales or fins
2. Grease a baking pan or if you are like me,line up your oven with foil 
3. Blend all ingredients with 1/3 cup of oil and season the fish, make sure all parts of the fish gets some of seasoning.(allow it to marinate overnight or 1 to 2 hours)
4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) or on low broil. Grill for for 20mins then turn the other side of the tilapia and allow it to grill for 20mins. (DO NOT ALLOW IT TO BE COMPLETELY DRY OTHERWISE IT WOULD BE TOO HARD.....WE WANT SOFT YUMMY GRILLED TILAPIA :-D) 

Ps: You can use the whole tilapia or cut them into 2. Just like I have in the picture below. Cutting them too small leaves you with little to no fish when it's done grilling

Before cleaning

After washing and cleaning it well

Seasoned and ready for the fridge for marinating

All seasoned and ready for the oven or grill

Had it with kenkey,black pepper,red pepper,sardine and some chopped vegetables

Grilled using essiespice's mango chili medley, it was just as yummy, I added more pepper to this because we wanted it really spicy.

Suya

Let's not get this confused with khebabs lol. Suya is what Nigerians call this. I tried this when I visited one of my favorite Nigerian restaurants in New York and I fell in love. I ordered this spice from Essiespice called Meko dry and I used it instead of suya spice wanted to try something new and I am glad I did. 



Ingredients:

• 2lbs of beef(with little to no fat at all)
• Suya Spice(or Essiespice meko dry)
• Peanut Oil (if not, then Vegetable Oil will do but peanut is ideal)
• 1 tablespoon salt

Method:

1. Cut the beef into very thin fillets.
2. Put some peanut oil in a bowl, add the salt and stir it 
3. Using a cooking brush, rub peanut oil on the fillets of beef. (This helps the Suya spice stick to the meat so make sure you do not leave out any part of the meat.)
4. In a baking sheet, spread the Suya spice and dab the fillets of beef in the spice making sure that the beef takes as much of the spice .When you are done with the dabbing, all the beef should covered with the suya spice
5. Place all the spiced beef in a plate, cover it(with a clean film preferably) and leave it to marinate for about an 1 hour.Once the beef has marinated, preheat oven at 350°F or 177°C(If you will be using a grill the settings should be at  about 300°F or  150°C)
6. Place the beef flat on the oven rack(you can place foil on the oven rack and poke some holes in it if you don't want to make your rack dirty lol) and put in the oven to grill.After 15 - 20 minutes, flip the beef to grill the other side as well.  Rub some of the remaining peanut oil on both sides of the beef. Increase the temperature a little bit(not too high) and grill both sides of the beef for 5 minutes each.

Before the cutting

Fillet cutting(was a lot of work...lol)

I couldn't cut it as fillet-ish as i wanted but it still worked lol

Essiespice to the rescue

All dabbed in spice, ready to marinate

Marinated for an hour

Bottom shelf in my oven with foil

All ready

In the roasting process

All ready

Method:

Ps: The length of time you'll roast each side of the beef depends on how thick the fillets are. So the total grilling time for the beef is 30 - 40 minutes.

Ready to be served

Beef sauce

1 of my favorite accompaniment to go with fried rice. But it can also go well with white rice, yellow rice and even mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs beef chucks or whole
• 1 green pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch or flour
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce 
• Spices: (lawry's,maggi,black pepper,or any seasoning of your choice)

Method:

1. If you have a whole beef, cut it into beef chunks, wash and season your beef and
2. On medium heat, add the tablespoon of oil , "fry" the beef and allow it to cook for about 30 - 40minutes(When the meat is softened and no longer reddish/pinkish looking then its ready)
3. Cut the carrots, green pepper and onions into medium chunks as shown below. 
4. Add the tablespoon spoon of flour to1 or 1/2 a cup of water(depending on how much water there was to season the beef from the start) and pour it on your beef, allow it to cook for another 15mins, then add in the oyster sauce, when the sauce begins to thicken up adjust with spices for taste and add vegetables. 

PS: Don't add the vegetables too early otherwise they would get really soft & you might not even see them in the sauce

Onions and green pepper as requested

Seasoned beef ready to steamed

Flour and water mixture

Green pepper and carrots (This person didn't want onions.)

Ready for the veggies and other ingredients

Almost ready :-) 

Ready :-D