Tasty Coconut Greens

In the first video in the new series on YouTube, I show how to make greens totally moreish.

Enjoy!!!

YouTube Channel Relaunch

Powered by Maggi, Uzo's Food Labs is back with a bang!

Uzo Orimalade is making a YouTube comeback after a two-year hiatus with the relaunch of her YouTube Channel. Join her as she shares her garden tips, home and kitchen life hacks and cooking videos with ingredients provided by Konga Daily with new episodes on Mondays. Subscribe to her channel on   www.youtube.com/uzosfoodlabs.  Also follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter on @uzofoodlabs, Maggi Nigeria @maggi_nigeria and @Kongadaily

Welcome to her world!!!

Appearance on CNN's African Voices

I had the honor of being featured on an episode of CNN's African Voices in April 2017.

You can watch the segment here: CNN Segment

Happy viewing!!!

Chef's Face Off - Update!!!

So its a wrap.

It was something. Mystery basket included Chocolate powder. Eggplant. Cardamom pods. A coconut still in its husk. Tomato pepper sauce. Pickled vegetables. Fresh tomatoes. With a pantry that had only fresh mint, basil and cilantro, bell peppers, onions, milk, butter and dried spices. No rice, pasta or flour. We had 35 minutes to whip up a dish using all the ingredients provided. 10 minutes in, we were stopped and asked to switch stations. The horror. 10 minutes after, we were asked to take something from the other person's station. I ended up presenting a Thai style coconut and lemon soup with a temper (sort of like a really intense fried concoction of chicken and onions and vegetables and herbs...seasoned and fried till crispy) which went in the middle of the bowl of soup for intense flavor and texture.

Thank you to all the blog readers that came up and introduced themselves and kept yelling Go Uzo during the cook-off. LOL

Enjoy!!!

Updates - From The Garden, About The Blog and A Preview into 2016

Life has been all sorts of hectic lately. Which is a good thing. It is what I want. It is what i have been working towards. However, in order not to get completely overwhelmed and lose track of absolutely everything, I have had to take a step back. To plan things properly. 

I am very excited to say that after 3 years of registering a domain and renewing and doing nothing, we will actually go live with our website in 2016. The goal is to launch by the end of the first quarter at the latest. The website will have a section for the blog and so much more. All things 'From Uzo's Food Lab' related. This is a roundabout way of apologizing for the sporadic posts. Its also manic season for the bakery which leaves very little time to post. 

Exciting and busy times ahead. One of my major dilemmas is finding the right person to design the site without mortgaging my future children. Any recommendations will be very helpful.

Before we go all Idris Elba and Common sexy with the blog, here are a few updates from the garden:

Pepper harvest - sweet banana, cherry bomb, green bell, jalapeno and  Hungarian hot wax varieties

Ripening cherry bomb pepper

Tomato harvest - large cherry and striped stuffer varieties

Spider plant. I am making an effort to introduce inedible plants into the garden

Brussel Sprouts forming. Its been trial and error but i have it right. Finally 

Begonia plant. Its so pretty i think

My very first beef steak tomato from the garden

Black truffle tomato coming in

With the Christmas season here, I would love to know what will be making it onto the menu this year?

Enjoy!!!

Kitchen Tip - How to keep cake moist

To prevent hard, stale tasting cake, use slices of bread. Attach slices of bred to the cut exposed part of cakes with toothpicks. The bread keeps the moisture in.

Enjoy!!!

Drowning my blues with Boozy Iced Tea

Have I mentioned that I do not drink alcohol? Well I do not drink alcohol - usually. Sometimes though, life just deals all sorts of hands and short of screaming - maybe crying and screaming, some alcohol is needed.

Shall I go into details? Let me see - after getting excited about a potential business opportunity, it fell through. The same day, I went to the garden for some stress relief and saw that plants in 8 pots had just died. As a result of some pest I am sure. Then - the bakery staff forgot a pretty big order and the client showed up for pickup at 4pm and everyone was confused. To cap the day off, I reached for a baby wipe to clean my face and some how grabbed antibacterial wipes instead which resulted teary eyes and bruised skin.

I was completely drained. One would have thought that I would simply crawl into bed and sleep but I was too wired. I knew this day deserved some alcohol. Down to the kitchen I went to make some boozy iced tea  - only a handful of readily available ingredients required, cold, kind of healthy and just what I needed...

To make a small pitcher for 1, you will need: 2 green tea bags (You can use any kind of tea you like including fruity flavored varieties), fresh basil or efinrin (African basil, scent leaf) leaves

You will also need cold water, sugar to taste and of course alcohol - I used citrus flavored vodka

The wonders of no recipe required. Simply chuck everything into a little jug and stick in the fridge or freezer for all the flavors to come together. I stuck my pitcher in the freezer and went up to take a long shower.

After about an hour, the boozy tea was wonderfully chilled and ready for me. Delicious. Refreshing. And also ensured that I slept very well.

Enjoy!!!