Africa and Food

							Nigerian foods are the most exciting, rich and tasteful of all African cuisine. They are often in the form
of thick green vegetables, aromatic spices and pepper, garnished with assorted meat or fish. These foods
can be easily cooked once you know how.

Uncover or learn the secret recipes to great tasting AfricanFoods.

In some good Nigeria restaurant you will uncover great tasting food, secret ingredients and cooking
methods needed to master classic Nigerian Dishes like.

1. Moi-Moi

2. Boiled Yam with Garden eggs, shrimps and smoked fish

3. Jollof Rice

4. Edikai Ikong with Pounded yam

5. Amala, Gbegiri, Ewedu and Stew

6. Efo Riro

7. Ofe Onugbu and Eba

8. Asun(Goat Meat Barbeque)

9. Nkwobi

10.Mixed Okra soup

11.Isiewu(Goat Head Mix)

12.Banga Soup

13.Okra and Melon Soup

14.Ogbonno(Draw Soup)

Pictures of tasty food you will love below:
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Some essential Nigeria food

 I am often asked for the essential Nigerian food ingredients that Nigerian food lovers should always
have in their kitchen. So here is a list of the essential ingredients for Nigerian food recipes. You can buy
all these ingredients in Nigerian food markets and African food shops in all major cities of the world.
Watch this video and this video to see some of these ingredients in living color.
1. Stock Cubes
In Nigeria, we use stock cubes to cook virtually every recipe: Soups recipes, Rice recipes, Beans recipes
or Plantain. Once you will add ingredients to the Nigerian meal you are cooking, then you should add stock
cubes to it.
The most popular stock cubes used in Nigerian food recipes are Maggi, Knorr and Royco.
2. Salt
Salt is added to almost every Nigerian food recipe. The exception to this being Custard/Akamu/Ogi and
the fufu meals. For the fufu meals, they get their taste from the soup that goes with the meal.
If you are advised by a doctor to stay off salt, then by all means leave it out when preparing your
Nigerian meals.
3. Thyme
Thyme is an important seasoning when cooking beef or chicken for Stew and Rice recipes. Please do not
add thyme when cooking meat that you will use to prepare Nigerian Soup recipes. That's a big no-no.
4. Onions (Red or White)
Onions should be used when cooking beef or chicken that you will use to prepare the Nigerian Stew
Recipes and the Nigerian Rice Recipes. It can also be used for some Nigerian Soup Recipes examples:
Okra Soup, Pepper Soup, Banga Soup and Edikang Ikong Soup. It is not advisable to use onions for Egusi
Soup but it's not too bad if you use it.
But NEVER add onions to Bitterleaf Soup and Ora (Oha) Soup. It will take away the traditional taste of
these soups.
5. Palm Oil
Palm oil is the preferred cooking oil when you want to prepare Nigerian Soup recipes. The best palm oils
are the ones that are pure red and free flowing.
If the palm oil is orange or even yellow in color, it means it was not well processed and contains a lot of
water. This may cause it to be smelly and this will adversely affect the taste of your Nigerian soup
dishes.
Congealed palm oil is not necessarily bad. Most palm oil sold in western countries may be congealed due to
the cold weather.
6. Vegetable Oil
Pure vegetable oil is used to cook all Nigerian Rice Recipes and Nigerian tomato stew. It is also used for
any recipe that requires frying, examples: Fried Plantain, Fried Yam and all the fried Snacks recipes.
Groundnut Oil is used as an alternative to pure vegetable oil but due to its strong taste, it is not so
popular.
If you are outside Nigeria, Sunflower Oil is a very good alternative to pure vegetable oil. Whatever you
do, NEVER use Olive Oil to cook Nigerian recipes. The taste is so strong that the food will not taste
Nigerian.
7. Pepper (Fresh and Dry)
With the exception of Nigerian Snacks and Nigerian Fried Rice, hot chilli pepper is present in all Nigerian
foods. Even if you don't like pepper, it is always good to add a tiny quantity because this will bring out the
taste of your Nigerian meals. If pepper is absent, the food will taste bland to any Nigerian person.
8. Curry Powder
The only Nigerian food recipe where you must use curry powder is Nigerian Fried Rice. This curry powder
is what gives the meal the yellow color so endeavour to add curry powder else your Nigerian Fried Rice
will not look appetizing.
Please note that this curry powder is not the hot Indian curry. It only serves as a colorant. Ask your
African food grocer for Nigerian or African curry powder that does not contain chilli.
Some people add curry powder to Nigerian Beef and Chicken Stew but I think it makes the stew taste too
artificial.
9. Plain Flour
Plain flour is the basis of a majority of Nigerian snacks. Flour is often used as a thickeners for the
Nigerian Vegetable Sauce.
Plain flour is used to prepare some quick and easy recipes so you should always have it in your kitchen.
10. Plum Tomatoes
In Nigeria, we use only one type of fresh tomato: the plum tomatoes to cook Nigerian dishes. This is
known as tomato pera in Spanish and pomodoro pera in Italian.
Most other types of tomatoes have strong smells and taste so they are not good for preparing the
Nigerian Tomato Stew or Nigerian rice recipes.
11. Crayfish
Crayfish is essential when preparing Nigerian soup recipes. If you don't have it where you live, no worries
but if you do, use it because it makes Nigerian Soups taste good.
12. Nutmeg

Nutmeg is not used in a lot of Nigerian recipes but when it is used, it plays a very important role. Nutmeg
is the ingredient that gives Nigerian Moi Moi, Nigerian Puff Puff and Nigerian Chin Chin their unique
taste so do not miss adding nutmeg to these Nigerian recipes.



By Uches,

Best regards.