by Angela Bala | May 8, 2022 | Local Delicacies, Food & Kitchen
Tuwon Alabo, or cassava swallow, as people like to call it, is a local dish made from cassava flour (Alabo), which is produced by fermenting peeled cassava in water, sun-drying the fermented cassava, and milling it into powdered form. This flour comes from a root vegetable called cassava. It is also a great substitute for wheat flour and yam flour in a variety of recipes, including tuwon masara. This article seeks to teach you how to prepare Tuwon Alabo.
In addition, Tuwon Alabo is widely consumed and enjoyed by most Nigerians, irrespective of tribe. It is popularly known as Lafun or White Amala in the western part of Nigeria.
Learn how to prepare Tuwon Alabo in a few steps!
Equipment for Making Tuwon Alabo
Ingredients for Making Tuwon Alabo
The ingredients needed to make this delicacy are just cassava flour and water
Procedure for Preparing Tuwon Alabo
STEP1: Sieve the cassava flour (Alabo).
STEP 2: Place the cooking pot over medium heat, add water to the pot, and allow it to boil.
STEP 3: Once the water is boiled, remove it from the heat and stir in the sieved alabo with a wooden spatula into the boiled water. Stir continuously until it gets thick and smooth.
STEP 4: Add a little hot water to it and place it back on fire. Leave to cook on medium heat for at least 2 minutes or more to give a smooth-looking tuwo.
STEP 5: Stir again until it becomes smooth and lump-free.
STEP 7: Use the plastic fetcher or the calabash fetcher and pack the tuwo into a food warmer.
STEP 8: Serve hot with any soup of choice.
How to Serve Tuwon Alabo
Tuwon Alabo should be accompanied with Spinach Soup, Okro Soup, Bitterleaf Soup, or any soup of choice. Plain tuwo is somewhat neutral in terms of taste and would taste bland. It would also go perfectly well with any beverage you choose to use.
Occasions Best to Serve Tuwon Alabo
Tuwon Alabo can be served on any occasion whatsoever, as long as the dish is being enjoyed by its consumers.
How to Store Tuwon Alabo
Tuwon Alabo can be stored in a refrigerator like any other dish, and it can last for a very long time, but to the detriment of its delicious taste.
Nutritional Benefits of Tuwon Alabo
Fermented foods offer certain health benefits, including anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-mutagenic activities. It reduces several health risks, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, GI disorders, and obesity.
Tuwon Alabo plays an immense role in the health and nutritional status of people, as cassava flour is said to be an option for those with high cholesterol or high blood pressure because it contains low sodium sugar, and fat.
More so, cassava flour (Alabo) contains resistant starches that have a variety of potential health benefits; this includes improved digestive and colon health, improved insulin sensitivity, and may also help with weight loss efforts.
Cassava is widely known for its richness in carbohydrates, which are the main source of energy for the body and contain important vitamins and minerals. Therefore, Cassava Flour Snack, or Tuwon Alabo, is very beneficial to the body.
Conclusion
Now that we’ve seen how easy it is to prepare Tuwon Alabo and its contribution to the body, I trust that I have been able to help someone here with dinner preparations.
If that person is you, please leave a comment in the comments section on how this piece has been helpful to you and the final outcome of your Tuwo.
by Aisha Zakari | May 1, 2022 | Food & Kitchen
Eid is approaching! Eid means “festive” in Arabic. There are two parts to Eid: Eid ul Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, our fasting month. We also call it “Small Sallah”, and Eid ul Kabeer, which marks the historical event of the sacrifice of our Prophet Ibrahim (A.S) and the sacrificial lamb. We call it “Big Sallah,” and that’s why meat is in abundance too. Along with the meat, there are a lot of recipes you can cook on Eid too.
It’s that blessed festival we Muslims all around the world come to celebrate by bringing friends and family together in joy, happiness, harmony, and festivity. Food is necessary and the most important part of this festival. In Nigeria, most households consume rice during this festive period. In this article, which I hope will come in handy, I’ll be sharing with you recipes you can make at home apart from rice that will be delicious.
You should spice things up in your household this Eid. Let’s get spicy!
Foods to Cook on Eid
1. Pounded Yam and Egusi Soup
This is one of the recipes you can cook on Eid. It’s my mom’s favorite, and it’s prepared when she wants to ditch the same old rice when she’s in the mood to spice things up for Eid. This is her go-to always. I mean, why not? Pounded yam is filling and satisfying, and when dipped in egusi, it makes the celebration just right and delicious.
We like to pound our yams using a mortar and pestle. However, with advancements now, there are blenders for pounding yam and also processed yam flour (pounded yam), but mortar and pestle remain in my household.
2. Amala and Ewedu Soup
This is basically a Yoruba delicacy that is eaten with stew. This Ewedu is mixed with stew to enrich it and make it edible too. This is my very own favorite.
I like to eat my Amala with Ewedu soup but you can eat it with Egusi, vegetables,, or Efo Riro.
3. Mouth Watering Goat Meat – Pepper Soup
Eid is always complete with this bowl of assorted meat – be it goat meat, chicken meat, or ram meat. This is surely one of the recipes you can cook on Eid.
4. Ram & Yam Porridge
Is there still leftover yam from the pounded yam? Why not make this recipe for friends and family? They will definitely enjoy it.
Add in ram meat to give this dish a sweet, delicious, and festive moment.
This dish is delicious and tasty; you can substitute the yam for potatoes. You could make it watery and add pepper soup spice so you can drink the water and have the same feeling as devouring pepper soup.
Savor the moment, right?
5. Peppered Meat
Pepper Meat is one of the recipes you can cook on Eid. This could be eaten as a whole or pierced through skewers with green bell pepper and onions.
Any way you choose to eat, it’s fine honestly.
6. Vanilla Cupcakes
I mean, what’s Eid without snacks to give to friends and family? It’s even extra chops for us as we have varieties to select from – samosa to spring rolls to doughnuts and then cupcakes.
This is one of the recipes you can cook on Eid.
7. Chocolate Cupcakes
The chocolate cupcake is simply cupcakes but we’ll be adding cocoa powder or chocolate bars and sometimes both into the batter. If you have chocolate bars, add this to the batter and bake. You’ll get the twist in your mouth when the chocolate melts.
Remember, you can add chocolate bars into the batter – it makes the cupcake richer in taste too.
8. Zobo Drink
What’s Eid without drinks, right? I mean, what’s any festive occasion without a drink? There are other drinks like Kunun Aya, or Kunun Gyada to try.
Conclusion
Eid is that time of the month when friends and family come together from afar to catch up and have a good time. In order to do this, different dishes are served to enjoy each other’s company as we jolly dey go with the dishes.
I hope this article has informed you that there are so many dishes to prepare for Eid apart from rice. Tell me in the comments section the one or ones you will be trying out this coming Sallah.
Eid Mubarak once again! Taqabballahu minna wa minkum!!
by Khadija Garba | Oct 24, 2020 | Food & Kitchen
Yam has been a Nigerian food far back in the history of food and Nigeria itself. It has been a source of delicious meals, generation after generation. In addition, it is a tool of employment for its farmers and suppliers and an empowerment strategy for both genders across the food industry. It is a whole in which multiple varieties can be sourced. In this article, I will be sharing with you dishes you could make with yam.
Yams are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in many temperate and tropical regions, especially in Africa, South America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Oceania.
Yam is an edible tuber, and they are found primarily in Niger, Benue, Edo, Oyo, Taraba, Abia, and Sokoto states of Nigeria. In Nigeria, here are all the dishes you could make with yam.
Yam Recipes from Nigeria
1. White Yam
This is the second-easiest yam recipe for me. All one has to do is pill the yam, cut it into pieces, wash it, and boil it until it is soft. Why did I say it was easy? Because during the cooking, you don’t have to stand in front of the cooker dreading its burning; you just have to put in enough water. Then go about your other activities while checking on the pot from time to time.
White yam is mostly served for lunch, and it is enjoyed with stew, cabbage, onion, or egg sauce, and sometimes just oil and pepper. It depends on the mood and pocket of the eater.
2. Fried Yam
Fried yam is also one of the dishes you could make with yam. In most cases, this yam goes directly from cutting (slicing) and washing to being pushed into hot oil after sprinkling a little salt or maggi. Only a few people boil it before frying. Boiling usually makes it softer, even after being fried.
Fried yam is enjoyed as breakfast or dinner. It is preferably taken with pap, (kunu) or custard. In some cases, it is garnished with a little egg or onion sauce by the side of the plate. It is the easiest yam recipe for a few people.
Also, fried yam has been a source of livelihood for a lot of people. It is fried and sold to people side by side with Akara. I remember my secondary school days. We used to have women whose canteen consisted of this yam and akara. Then, we could eat something tangible during break periods for as little as 50 naira.
3. Golden Yam
Golden yam, laced yam, yam, and eggs are all names used to identify the recipe of yam dipped into eggs. It is a famous yam recipe within Northern Nigeria and Nigeria at large for different reasons:
First, it is a devotedly patronized recipe amongst the Nigerian Muslim communities during Ramadan for iftars.
Secondly, it is a variety that can be made out of leftovers. Throughout my life, each afternoon, we make white yam and it stays overnight. We preserve it, then wake up first thing in the morning to wash, slice, and fry eggs for breakfast.
Thirdly, it is an additional source of livelihood for a lot of people, especially men. In my life, I know some men who fry yam with eggs in the evening (7 p.m. to 10 p.m.), and they are making it. As a matter of fact, one already has it, not to mention restaurants with it on their menu.
Yam and egg are prepared by peeling off the skin of the yam. Instead of cutting into pieces, the yam is sliced into pieces, then washed and boiled. Note that the boiling doesn’t take time, like in the case of the white yam. After the boiling, it is sieved to drain out the water and cool it down a little.
Meanwhile, you break and beat your egg inside a bowl. Put a frying pan with oil on the fire. When it’s hot enough, you pick a slice of the yam and dip it inside the egg before throwing it into the oil for frying. Frying doesn’t take long; at least the egg around the yam crisps turns into something not desirable.
On an ordinary day, this yam recipe is a breakfast goal for most people.
4. Yam Porridge
Instead of just boiling in water, here it is chopped into medium-sized cubes, and the water is not crystal clear. It is a combination of onion, tomatoes, pepper, meat, palm oil, and maggi. In some cases, beans and spinach are added to the mix.
It is one of the afternoon dishes you could make with yam for lunch. As the name implies, this yam recipe comes out looking yummy.
5. Roasted Yam
This is the easiest dish you could make with yam. As roasting implies, locally, the whole tuber is placed atop a grill that has an open fire underneath. When it’s done, the yam is then sliced and peeled to be eaten with oil and pepper. It is a lunch menu.
Using today’s technology, however, it is sliced circularly before being soaked in salt water for some time. Then, it is placed in an oven and grilled at low heat. It is enjoyed with any sauce. This type of roasted yam recipe belongs to both the breakfast and lunch menus.
6. Pounded Yam
This is one of the dishes you could make with yam. Just like the name has a ring to it, the processing of this meal includes pounding. Yam is boiled to a serious level of softness, followed by a vigorous pounding session in the traditional pestle and mortar with as little water as possible. When it has been beaten into the desired finesse, it is molded into a medium ball-like shape and it is served with traditional soups like Egusi, Okro, bean soup, etc.
This process requires raw power, which is why women in this generation stay away from this yam recipe as much as possible. Though the machine has been invented for the pounding process, it is not popular among households. It should be noted that not every yam is a fine agent for this swallow. The specific types for a tasty swallow are the ones gotten from Niger State because of their powder-like capacity, not to mention the starchiness that is responsible for sticking.
It should be noted that this is one of the best dishes most men like. It is probably their best swallow.
7. Yam Balls
This is a yam recipe that is not funny to achieve at all. Why? This is because it has a lot of processes to go through before reaching perfection. First, the yam is boiled, then pounded inside a mixture of sauce (ground tomatoes, onion, and pepper with maggi fried in very little oil) while it is still hot. After the smoothening, it’s molded into small ball-like sizes. These ball-like, prepared yams are fried in oil after being dipped in a bowl of beaten egg. See! This is why I labeled it “the not easy recipe you could make with yam’.
Yam balls are an afternoon package that is sometimes used as snacks during events related to weddings.
8. Amala
Bakin (black) Amala just like pounded yam, is a swallow; it is a category of food taken with Nigerian soups such as Egusi, Okro, Ewedu, etc. This type of amala is made from the peels of yam. First, the sandy or brown part of the yam is stylishly scraped before the main peeling occurs. The peels are then washed and dried before being ground into powder. The ground powder is what is used to make this meal.
First, water is put on fire. When it boils, a handful of this powder is made into a paste and then poured into the boiling water. After a few minutes, another handful is fetched and added to the already boiling paste while being seriously turned with a spatula (“mucchiya in Hausa) into smoothness and desired thickness. Amala is ready for consumption. This is surely one of the dishes you could make with yam.
Conclusion
Yam is an important type of food in Nigerian societies, which is why it is enjoyed in different recipes. The above-mentioned are 8 dishes you could make with yam. A lot of festivals are centered around yam. It provides a healthy amount of potassium, metabolic B vitamins, fiber, etc. Not to mention, it is a good source of energy.
