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.

Egg White omelette

In an effort to eat a lot more healthier. I made an omelette full of veggies mainly spinach lol I love spinach. 

Ingredients:

• 2-3 egg whites

• 1/3 cup fresh spinach

• 1/2 yellow bell pepper 

• 1 turkey bacon 

• 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil 

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper(optional)

• 1/2 teaspoon salt (preferably sea salt

Method:

1. Wash spinach and bell pepper,chop them and the bacon into small pieces just like in the picture below.
2. Crack your eggs,removing the yolk, add the chopped ingredients, adding the salt and pepper after, stir well  
3. In a frying pan on medium heat, add coconut oil after it has melted, add the egg and let it fry for 2-3mins on one side with a spatula turn it for the other side to fry as well

Ps: You can use green pepper, onions,tomatoes and one of my personal favorites broccoli to this. Also if you are doing 2-3 eggs and you like the yolk you can have one yolk in there. I eat the egg whites because I was told it was good for me. 

Ingredients

Before turning

Almost ready

Served with whole grain bread and fruits

Lean Beef stir fry(I guess...lol)

My mom decided that we have to start eating healthier this year so I've been trying out some recipes on my own. Just because I'm eating healthy doesn't mean it has to be boring lol

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2lbs of lean beef
• 1 medium onion
• 1 green or red pepper (or both)
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon seasoning salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 jalepeno pepper

Method:

1. Wash meat, there should be little to no fat on this, but if there is, make sure you remove all of it, season meat with spices
2. Chop your vegetables(look at the pictures below to see what size I had mine)
3. In a large sauce pan pour your coconut oil and allow it to melt, then add in your meat and allow it to cook, after 20 minutes the meat should be all cooked and no longer pink, add in your vegetables. Let it cook for about 5-10 minutes, the stir fry should be ready by now. (You can season to your taste, if you prefer it more salty or less spicy)

PS: If you want this saucy(with some sauce), add 1/2 teaspoon of flour to 1/2 cup of water and add it to the meat, let it cook for 5 mins or until it thickens

Beef

After washing and cutting

All seasoned 

Coconut oil melting 

In the process

Ready for vegetables

Stir fry lol

All Ready!

Chicken spaghetti?(Idk...lol)

Or maybe I should call it chicken lo mein like the Chinese restaurants call it? lol I really don't know but anyways you get the point.

Ingredients 

• 1 box of spaghetti 
• 1 or 2 Chicken breast(boneless chicken)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 2 carrots
• 1 red & green bell peppers
• 1 small onion 
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or more depending on the kind of pasta you use)
• 1 tablespoon oil(vegetable,canola,coconut)

Method

1. Wash chicken breast and chop into small pieces, season with black pepper and seasoning salt
2. Chop your vegetables into medium sizes, set a side 
3. Boil your spaghetti with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon oil(so you don't have sticky spaghetti)
4. In a deep frying pan, pour your oil and fry your chicken breast, when the chicken is all done (no longer pink), add in your vegetables, stir for a while then pour in your spaghetti, keep stirring for about a minute then add in your soy sauce, add some seasoning salt to taste if you want it a little more tastier. ENJOY :-) 

The ingredients: I decided to use whole grain linguine and coconut oil because thats what I had at the moment(it was really good too, healthy and GOOD)

The chicken

Before cooking the spaghetti

The spaghetti is all ready to be mixed with the chicken and veggies

Chicken and vegetables

I skipped adding the soy sauce to this because well the whole grain linguine is already brown in color

All ready to be served...this was missing green pepper but you see the carrots and red pepper and the invisible onions lol

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

Fried chicken(Theedee's way)

I usually prefer baked chicken but when I crave for fried chicken this is how I do it. I like to season my chicken the night before so that it marinates well, but that's only if you have time. There are 2 ways I like to do this, I have both ways below.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs of chicken(I use quartered leg chicken)
• 2 tablespoons seasoning salt(I use lawry's as always)
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons black pepper
• 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons onga 3-mix spices(that is if you have, you can find some in some african markets)
• 2 teaspoons parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon crushed pepper(optional)
• 1/2 a gallon of oil

Ingredients 2: 

• 2 onions
• 3 scotch bonnet pepper(jamaican hot pepper)
• 1 jalepeno pepper
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons ginger
• 2 tablespoons seasoning salt
• 2 tablespoons black pepper
• 1 teaspoon crushed pepper(optional)

Method:

1. Wash and cut the chicken into two pieces (drumstick and thigh, that is if you are using quartered legs like I do), remove skin and fat(this is by choice only but I don't like my chicken with the skin on,it bothers me lol)
2. Soak in water and a tablespoon of vinegar for about 10mins
3. Season the chicken with the ingredients, making sure that every part of the chicken gets some of the seasoning, let it marinate overnight
4. In a big pot, steam the chicken till its no longer, heat up oil in a frying pan and fry chicken until its brown(shown in the picture below)

Method 2:

1. Start with step 1-2 in the first method
2. Blend onions,pepper,ginger and ginger, season chicken with blended ingredients then with seasoning salt and remaining of the ingredients, let it marinate overnight
3. In a big pot, steam the chicken till its no longer, heat up oil in a frying pan and fry chicken until its brown(shown in the picture below)

Some of the ingredients

Before mixing it all on the chicken

All seasoned and ready for the fridge

Stages of the fried chicken

Steaming

Looks like its deep frying

All ready! :-D

Okra stew

Okro/Okra however you like to call it, its still the same. I loveee it and it goes perfectly well with some banku or kenkey or eba(gari)  

Ingredients:

• 2 & a half  onions
• 4 tomatoes
• 1/3 teaspoon of ginger
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper (Or jamaican hot pepper)
• 1 or 2lbs of goat meat
• 1/2 cup palm oil or regular vegetable or canola oil
• 1 or 2 packs of cut okra(they are sold in almost every supermarket)
• 1/2 salted fish(koobi, this however is optional)
• Spices to taste(as always I used my lawry's seasoning salt,my black pepper and etc for this)

Method:

1. Wash goat meat,clean it very well(removing all sights of fat and all) and season it, then steam for about 20 mins(or until it's no longer pink)
2. Blend the 2 onions,tomatoes,pepper and ginger
3. By now the goat meat should be steamed, you can choose to pour your oil on the goat meat now or if you are anything like me in a separate cooking pot, slice half an onion,sauté it in the oil(add koobi if you are using some),after a minute of stirring add the goat meat and blended ingredients and allow it to cook for about 15mins
4. Add your cut okra to the stew now (if you are adding any other dried fish or salmon to the stew now is the best time to add it)and allow it to simmer for 10mins, season it and let it cook for another 15mins then your stew will be all ready

Ps: if you are going to be using fresh okra make sure you wash it well, cut the top and bottom off. Chop it into little pieces and go to step 4. 

The ingredients

Chips

Have you attended any Ghanaian funeral and seen some chips with peanuts ? OR have you received a pastry bag from a Ghanaian event and it had chips, meat pie and scones or pound cake? Well these are the chips......I really don't know what else to call these but chips because that's exactly what they are lol. 

Ingredients:

• 5lbs flour (1 bag of flour)
• 2lbs butter (8 sticks)
• 2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons of salt(I use Lawry's seasoning salt simply because of the flavor it gives)
• 1 teaspoon of onion or garlic powder (optional,gives it flavor)
• 1 tablespoon of sugar (optional, I use it because it gives it a little sweet taste)
• Water to mix
• 1/2 a gallon of oil(for frying)

PS: I said garlic powder not salt because if you use garlic salt and the seasoning salt you would end up with an overly salty chips and that leaves a sour taste in your mouth, no one wants that lol. 

Method:

1. Using your hands, mix the butter and flour until you get a bread crumb like texture, add your salt,onion powder ,nutmeg and sugar
2. Using cold water, mix it until dough forms and make like in the picture below
3. Roll with a pin and cut them in preferred sizes, you can use a scissors or knife to cut them
4. On medium heat, fry them until they are golden brown

PS: when you cut them, set them aside in a tray with flour at the bottom and on top of it so they don't stick together. (Hopefully this makes sense,lol)

Step by step to the chips

All ready...:-D 

Ats)m) (Chin chin)

Ats)m) is the Ga name for these. I will find out the twi name for it (that is if there is one). The Nigerians call this chin chin. It can be crunchy or soft. I have both ingredients here so you can choose which ever one you prefer. :-)

Ingredients: Soft ats)m)

• 4 cups of flour 
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup of butter(2 sticks)
• 2 teaspoons nutmeg

Crunchy ats)m)

• 4 cups of flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons nutmeg

Method:

1. Mix the sugar & milk and set aside 
2. Mix the flour,nutmeg, add in the butter and mix well till there are no lumps in the mixture(breadcrumb like texture).
3. Add in your milk mixture, mix well until dough is formed. 
4. Knead on a flour surface till dough is smooth
5. Roll with pin and cut into desired sizes
6. Fry on medium heat till its golden brown(with constant stirring it)

These are the soft chin chin(just like I like it)

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