Herby Tomatoes

When the garden gives you tons of tomatoes, you come up with different ways to enjoy them. My yellow pear tomato plants have finally stopped producing deliciously sweet fruit. Until the next season. We enjoyed popping them like candy but with the other lovely herbs growing in the garden, we also enjoyed them cooked gently.

In a hot pan, some olive oil. Chopped garlic. The tomatoes. Salt or a seasoning cube. Some pepper. Fresh herbs at the end. Cooked for just long enough for the tomatoes to blister. I especially like the flavor of fresh thyme and tomatoes. That's it. Simple and delicious. You can definitely use any kind of cherry or grape tomato for this and adjust the quantities of the ingredients to taste.

Enjoy!!!

Messy Eats: Fragrant Prawns

A lot of us were told growing up not to play with our food. That was all well and good when trying to teach manners, however I know now, in my culinary journey that some of the best food experiences involve playing with one's food - using hands to eat.

Communal meals in the Middle East and a lot of Africa involve huge trays with different items of food and plates or bowls for individuals with hands used to scoop food from the trays to your mouth. There are rules of etiquette that guide this process. This practice is seen in India as well. Even in the West, messy burgers and fries require fingers to get the job done. Closer to home, popular Nigerian meals of soup and a starch (swallow) are best eaten with hands.

I wanted a full on messy but delicious food experience that involved hands and sauce and would be fun as well. I thought of crawfish in the US cooked in spicy seasoning and served on long tables with diners wearing bibs to protect their clothing from stray juices and people taking the shells off these little critters and some sucking the heads (the best part) with looks of rapture on their faces.

Inspiration came.

This dish is so easy to put together but is really finger licking good. Literally. You can have it on its own. Or with rice or potatoes or soft bread to mop up all the sauce. Regardless of what you choose to have as a side to accompany this dish, have spare plates for the shells and lots of paper napkins to clean up afterwards.

You will need:

• 1kg plump shell on prawns
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 small red onion - cut into chunks
• 6 cloves of garlic - peeled and cut into half
• 1 small piece of ginger - cut into 2
• 4 green chilies - cut into half
• 2 large lemongrass stalks - bruised or cut into half
• Choice of fresh herbs - one or a mix of thyme, African Basil (scent leaf), curry leaves, basil
• Salt to taste

Directions:

• In a large sauce pan, add all the ingredients except the prawns and bring to a gentle boil stirring constantly.
• Taste and add salt to taste
• Add the prawns and stir to make sure the prawns are all coated with the sauce
• Turn the heat to low and cover pan
• Cook for 10 minutes and stir prawns and sauce
• Serve in individual bowls

Enjoy!!!

Exploring my Green Thumb

I have set myself a challenge for 2015. One of many. But this one is special because.......I am a notorious plant killer. I simply do not have a green thumb. I have tried to grow pretty flowers and they all died. I tried to grow cactus plants and bamboo things - which are supposed to be únkillable'. Well not in my case. They turned brown and turned moldy. I have tried culinary herbs - with limited success but nothing like the flourishing pictures online.

So I just gave up. However, a few months ago, I decided to revisit this matter. In my mind's eye, I see myself growing all sorts of fruits and vegetables. And herbs and flowers. And going from my garden to my food lab or into a pretty vase in the house. As a former management consultant and strategist, I decided to be methodical about this. I wrote out all the terrible things that happened to the plants and what I did to contribute or not contribute to their demise. And I saw some learning points. I went online and have subscribed to YouTube channels, bookmarked home gardening websites and I am ready.

Come January, I will be starting a greenhouse that I plan to grow culinary herbs, flowers, fruits and vegetables. My challenge is to try to grow as many things as possible including things that people have sworn will not thrive in Nigeria. I also hope to have good enough harvests - even if its 2 purple carrots at a time that I can challenge myself to use in my food lab. I will document this (mis)adventure on the blog and I honestly cannot wait.

In the interim, I decided to plant scent leaf/efinrin/nchawun/African basil as a test case. I use this herb a lot - in peppersoup, egusi soup, I add to yam porridge, white rice, fried stew and even to lemonade so it made sense to start with this.

Look at it!!!! I am so excited. There is hope for me afterall. Its doing so very well and I think this bodes well for my greenhouse project....

Enjoy!!!!