VANILLA ICE CREAM

How to make VANILLA ICE CREAM

           Vanilla Ice Cream or any flavour of ice cream is quite easy and straight forward to make. The one challenge is how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker. On this page, I will give details of how you can successfully make some Vanilla Ice Cream in the comfort of your home.

            This is just one method. I will be sharing other methods and flavours soon so stay tuned.

                      INGREDIENTS

For 5 big scoops of vanilla ice cream, you will need:

*500mls fresh milk (not evaporated milk)

*250mls whipping cream

*6 egg yolks

*60g sugar

*2 tablespoons vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod

All these ingredients can be purchased from supermarkets all over the world. If you are in Nigeria, look for them in big department stores like Shoprite.

   FOR DECORATING THE ICE CREAM

*Honey

*Caramel

*Fruits

         UTENSILS AND EQUIPMENTS

*Freezer

*2 Bowls: 1 should be big enough to accommodate the ice cream mixture, the other should be big enough to accommodate the first bowl.

*Spatula

*Pot

*Ice cream spoon (optional)

BEFORE MAKING VANILLA ICE CREAM

1. Make a large quantity of ice cubes. This will be used in cooling down the ice cream mixture in Step 8 below. I usually make at least 30 ice cubes for this.

2. If you will be using a vanilla pod, cut it open by slicing along it to expose the seeds.

3. Break the eggs and separate the yolk from the egg whites. For ice cream, we need only the egg yolks.

DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING VANILLA ICE CREAM

1. Pour the fresh milk and the whipping cream into a sizeable pot.

2. Add the vanilla extract. If you are using a vanilla pod, add everything (seeds and fibre) to the milk and whipping cream in the pot.

3. Start cooking on medium heat.

4. While waiting for that to boil, whisk the egg yolks very well. Add the sugar and mix well.

5. Once the contents of the pot start to boil, reduce the heat to very low. If you added vanilla pods, remove the fibre from the milk at this time.

6. Once you see that the milk is no longer foaming so much (due to the reduced heat), slowly add the egg yolks to the milk, whipping cream and vanilla mixture. Stir till well incorporated.

7. Increase the heat to medium and stir continuously till you notice the solution thickening. This should take about 10 minutes.

8. Once you are happy, place the ice cubes into the big bowl and add some water to them. Pour the ice cream mixture into the smaller bowl and place this bowl into the ice water bath. Stir the ice cream mixture continuously (with a spatula) till it cools down completely. You may need to watch the video below to see how I did this.

9. Place the bowl containing the ice cream mixture in the freezer. After 30 minutes, bring it out, stir very well with a spatula and place it back for another half an hour. Then bring it out and stir again. Repeat the process till a creamy solid is formed. It is important to stir very often because this prevents ice from forming in the ice cream. Depending on your freezer, this process takes between 3 and 5 hours.

10. Once you are happy with the texture of the ice cream, serve and decorate with honey, caramel and/or fruits.

11. If you have any left overs, put in a container, cover and place in your freezer till whenever. When you take it out of the freezer, it may appear rock solid unlike the ice cream purchased in the shops. All you have to do is leave it on your kitchen counter for 5 to 7 minutes or till it softens to ice cream texture before serving.

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PANCAKE

              How to make PANCAKES

          This is a simple recipe for the thin, delicious Nigerian-style pancakes. It is made with those ingredients that we always have in our kitchen. So you do not have any excuse for not making this recipe right away or latest this weekend.
           Most Nigerians think of pancake as just a snack. Yes, pancakes go well with a chilled drink. But have you ever thought of another way to enjoy pancake? Now listen to this! Pancake is the most balanced meal you can have at breakfast as it is a blend of protein (from the eggs), carbohydrates (from the flour) and fats and oil (from the butter and vegetable oil). And we are not even talking about the micro nutrients. Maybe that's why the pancake is commonly referred to as Diet in Nigeria.

You can eat pancakes with Custard , Akamu (Ogi) or Oat Meal.

So put more effort into your weekend breakfast by preparing this recipe for you and your family. Yes, mostly during weekends, so you can relax and enjoy the pancake because you are in no hurry to leave the house.
Learn how to make the Nigerian pancake and re-live your teenage years when you used to buy Diet during recess or after school. Ring a bell?
                        INGREDIENTS
*1 cup | (150g) of plain flour
*2 medium eggs
*½ cup (125 mls) of evaporated milk ( Peak Milk)
*2 tablespoons of margarine
*1 cup (250 mls) of water
*¼ teaspoon of salt
*6 teaspoons of sugar (or to taste)
*Ground Chilli Pepper (to taste)
*Vegetable oil

Before you fry the pancake:

1. Put the margarine is a small bowl and melt in the microwave. You can also place the bowl in a bigger bowl of hot water to melt the margarine.

2. Break the two eggs into the melted margarine and beat till smooth. Then add ½ cup of water.

3. Add the flour and mix well till there are minimal lumps.

4. Add the milk, salt, sugar, ground pepper and the remaining ½ cup of water, stir well.

5. Blend the mix using a liquid blender. This will give the pancake batter the smoothest consistency. If you don't want to blend it, no problem, just mix the ingredients very well so that the lumps are minimal.

Note: You can also add onions to the pancake but make sure that your blender can liquefy the onions. If not, the pieces of onions will not let you achieve very thin pancakes.

                        PREPARATION
*1. Set a frying pan over medium heat. Add a few drops of vegetable oil. Just enough to lubricate the frying pan.

*2. When hot, pour some pancake batter into the frying pan. Tilt the pan so that the batter coats the surface of the pan evenly. This should be a very thin coat.

*3. Fry the underside of the pancake for approximately 1 minute, shaking the pan from time to time till the pancake comes loose. You can also loosen it with the spatula. Check the underside to be sure it has browned to your liking, preferably light brown.

*4. Flip the pancake so you can fry the top side as well.

*5. The pancake is done when both sides are light brown.

For breakfast, serve with Custard , Akamu (Ogi) or Oat Meal. If you just want to snack on the pancake, make sure you have a drink chilling in the freezer before you even start mixing the batter.

Enjoy!

 

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BANANA BREAD

        How to prepare BANANA BREAD
   
        This Banana Bread is so decadent that once you start you can't stop!.
       
                         INGREDIENTS

          The quantities of ingredients listed below are what I used for medium loaf of banana bread.

*1 cup (150g) plain (all purpose) flour
*2 over ripe bananas
*125g (1 stick) butter
*4 eggs
*¼ cup sugar
*1 teaspoon baking soda
*½ teaspoon yeast
*½ teaspoon salt
*1 tin Peak Filled Evaporated Milk
*¼ cup roasted groundnuts and cashew nuts.

Notes on the Banana Bread ingredients:
1. Use very ripe but firm bananas.

2. Peak Milk works well with this recipe because it is uper creamy.

3. The eggs should be at room temperature. Which means that before you make the banana bread, bring the eggs out of the fridge long before you will make the cake. If it is winter where you live, bring them out the night before.

4. Peak Filled Evaporated milk had a unique rich creamy flavour that works well with the vanilla and butterscotch flavours.

                     INGREDIENTS
1. Pour the Peak Milk in a cup and warm it up a little bit, about 30 seconds in the microwave oven.

2. Add the yeast to the milk, stir and set the mixture aside.

3. In a dry bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda.

4. Crush the groundnuts and cashew nuts with a rolling pin.

5. Melt the butter.

6. Mash the banana either with a fork or a potato masher till as smooth as possible.

7. Whisk the eggs.

8. Add the mashed bananas, the butter and the milk and yeast mixture. Stir.

9. Add the dry ingredients and stir till everything is well combined.

10. Add some of the crushed groundnuts and cashew nuts.

11. Pour into a bread pan and sprinkle the remaining groundnuts and cashew nuts on top.

12. Bake in a preheated oven at 170 deg Celsius (350F) for 1 hour.

13. The banana bread is done when a wooden skewer inserted into the bread comes out clean. The bread also springs back when you press it down.

14. Place it on a rack for about 5 minutes then bring it out of the pan.

15. Then lay on the rack till it has cooled down to a comfortable temperature.

16. Then slice and enjoy!

Enjoy it with a chocolate drink or any chilled soft drink.

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NIGERIAN MEAT PIE

 How to prepare NIGERIAN MEAT PIE

           This one tastes so good and believe me, the first time I made it, a whole pan was consumed in no time! I only made a few changes to the original Nigerian Meat Pie to get this. I replaced the Irish potatoes with sweet potatoes and added sweet apple. These two add a kind of subtle sweetness to the meat pie. Then I used a flat baking pan to make it look like the western pies.

                        INGREDIENTS
For the Dough:

*300g plain flour (All Purpose Flour)
*150g margarine
*1 teaspoon baking powder
*2 pinches salt
*¼ cup cold water.

For the filling:
*½ of a medium SWEET potato (150g)
*1 small carrot (130g)
*1 sweet apple
*250g minced beef
*1 small onion
*1 big stock cube
*1 teaspoon thyme
*Salt to taste
*Water.

Thickener for the filling:

A mixture of:
*1 tablespoon plain flour
*¼ cup cold water.

Ornamental Ingredient:
* 1 egg

                             DIRECTIONS
The meat pie filling:
1. Wash, peel and dice all the vegetables. Do the same for the apple.

2. Follow the direction for making Nigerian Meat Pie filling.

3. After step 4 from over there, add the diced apple, add the thickener, stir and leave to simmer for about 3 minutes.

4. Set aside to cool down.

The Dough:
The dough for this pie is mixed exactly the same way as the dough for the classic
Meat Pie. Follow the directions over there to mix the dough.

Roll, Fill and Close:
1. Set your oven to 170°C (335°F) to preheat.

2. Rub margarine on the insides of the baking pan. Break the egg, beat it and set aside.

3. Knead the rested dough for a bit and divide it into 2 parts. One part should be slightly bigger than the other.

4. Roll out the bigger dough to a 5mm thickness making sure that the diameter of the rolled out dough equals the diameter of your baking pan plus two times the depth of the pan and then some excess to allow for sealing the meat pie.

5. Once happy, drape the flat dough on the pan and make it snug the inside corners of the pan.

6. Fill the dough-lined baking pan with the filling.

7. Brush some egg on the dough covering the edge of the pan.

8. Roll out the remaining dough to 5mm thickness and a diameter that is a bit wider than that of the baking pan.

9. Cover the pan with the rolled out dough and use a fork to seal the edges. Feel free to close the edges any how you like.

10. Rub the egg on the dough. This gives the pie a golden brown look when done.

11. Set the pan on a rack in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes or till the top covering is golden brown. Place the pan closer to the bottom heating so that the dough at the bottom of the pan will be well done by the time the top dough is done.

Try this and you'll love it!

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YAM BALLS

        How to prepare YAM BALLS
Yam Balls make a great breakfast meal or snack and it is so delicious! It is another way to enjoy sweet yam.
   
                       INGREDIENTS
*1kg (2.2lbs) white yam
*3 eggs
*¼ cup Peak Milk
*8 small cubes of butter
*1 small fresh paprika
*Scotch bonnet pepper (to taste)
*1 small seasoning cube
*½ teaspoon black pepper
*½ red onion
*Salt (to taste)
*Vegetable oil (for frying)

NOTES:
1. If you do not have white yam where you live, you can manage sweet potatoes but they do not taste the same.

2. Peak Milk makes the yam balls moist and creamy.

3. Scotch bonnet pepper is atarodo, ose oyibo or atarugu.

4. Paprika is sweet peppers that are common outside Nigeria, in Nigeria use tatashe. When using tatashe, you may want to skit the atarodo, ose oyibo or atarugu (scotch bonnet pepper).

5. You can use carrot oil to fry the pepper and onions, see the video below.

BEFORE PREPARATION:
1. Dice the peppers and onion.

2. Boil two of the eggs till hard. Then cut into pieces. I get about 8 pieces from one egg.

3. Peel and cut the yam tuber into medium cubes. Rinse the yam cubes and place in a sizeable pot.

                  COOKING METHOD 
1. Pour enough water to about the same level as the yam cubes, add the seasoning cube and black pepper and start cooking on medium heat.

2. After 30 minutes, the yam should be soft with a little water in the pot. Add salt and the cubes of butter, stir and set aside to cool down a bit.

3. Pour a little vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the onions and peppers for about 7 minutes.

4. Mash the boiled yam, adding Peak Milk as you mash. You just need to mash the yam for a bit. See the video below.

5. Add the fried peppers and onions and mix very well.

6. Set some vegetable oil in a deep pan to heat up. The oil should be 3 inches deep.

7. Mould the mashed yam into balls and set aside.

8. Break the remaining egg and whisk.

9. When the oil is hot, coat each yam ball with the beaten egg before throwing into the hot oil. Put as many balls as you can without overcrowding.

10. Stir often and at the first sign of browning, it is ok to take it off the oil.
Serve with a chilled drink or for breakfast with other breakfast meals .

           

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