Recipe 7: Seared Salmon with Roasted Potatoes

This is definitely one of my go-to recipes whenever I want to impress people with my still-growing culinary skills. The recipe produces one of the best roasted potatoes you would ever taste and one of the tastiest seared fishes ever. So let's get started.

Ingredients:

For Fish:

Salmon- 1 pound or ½kg
Thyme- 1tsp
Black pepper (to taste)
Salt (to taste)
Cilantro (optional)- ½tsp
Lemon juice (from fresh lemons or concentrate) or Vinegar- 2tsp

Preparation:

Step 1) Mix all ingredients in a separate bowl and rub the mix on the fish. Let the fish sit in the fridge for 2 to 4hrs (fish unlike meat soaks in flavour very easily, so if you do not have time to let the fish sit then just go ahead to the next step).

Step 2) Take your marinated fish and place it on a non-stick pan or a pan with a teaspoon of olive oil. Cook for 3-5 minutes on each side on low to medium heat.

For Fish Sauce:

Mustard (whole grain, dijon or plain)- 1tbsp
Cream- ½cup
Parsley- 1tsp
Thyme or Oregano- 1tsp
Curry- ½tsp
Black pepper (to taste)
Salt (to taste)

Preparation:

Step 1) Place all ingredients in a pan or small pot and cook for about 7-10mins.

For Potatoes:

Potatoes- 5 medium sized pieces, chopped into two pieces and peeled
Salt (to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)
Butter- ½ a stick
Rosemary- 3 sprigs, fresh and broken into smaller pieces
Olive oil- 1tbsp
Garlic- 3 cloves (use more if you like garlic, use less if you don't like garlic)
Water (based on amount of potatoes)

Preparation:

Step 1) Boil the potatoes for about 45mins on medium heat. The water used in this step should be enough to fully cover the potatoes. You'll know the potatoes are well cooked when you poke a fork in the potatoes and it goes through with little effort.

Step 2) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees farenheit. Butter an oven proof dish and place your potatoes into the dish. Chop up your ½ a stick of butter into small cubes and place them all over the potatoes. Sprinkle the black pepper and salt on the potatoes as well.

Step 3) Place your potato filled dish into the oven and let it roast for 30mins.

Step 4) Take your garlic, rosemary and olive oil and mash the garlic using a wooden spoon or your fingers so that the flavours infuse into the oil.

Step 5) Take out your potatoes and take a fork or potato masher and lightly press the potatoes until they flatten ever so slightly. Next, pour the garlic-rosemary-oil mixture and make sure you pour it evenly over the potatoes.

Step 6) Place the potatoes back in the oven until they turn golden brown. This can take anywhere from 15mins to 30mins depending on the size of your potatoes and oven.

I know it seems like an extensive meal to make but trust me its not. What I would advice is that you can try each component of this meal separately and then when you feel more comfortable, you can put them all together in one dish. So give it a try and let me know what you think.

So until next time, bon appetit.

xoxo #foodgasm
(Follow us on twitter @InCoPot)

Recipe 6: Chinese Fried Rice

Ever made a pot of boiled rice that ended up being way too much for your tomato sauce? Well it happens to the best of us. And quite frankly I would have to agree, left overs do make for some of the best meals ever. You beg to differ? Okay then, tell me what your thoughts are after you've made this very yummy and easy-to-make Chinese fried rice that can be made from left over rice (in this recipe I use freshly boiled rice).

Trust me you'll be a believer in left overs. So without further ado lets get to cooking.

Ingredients:

Boiled rice (white or brown)- 3½ cups
Onion- 1 medium, diced
Green pepper- 1 medium pepper, diced
Garlic- 3 large cloves, finely chopped
Cooked gizzard (or chicken or shrimps or pork)- 1¼ cup (check "Recipe 4" to see how to make cooked gizzard)
Pan seared scallops (or cooked chicken or shrimps or pork)- 1 cup
Fried eggs- 4 eggs
Mixed vegetables (frozen green peas and carrots)- 2 cups
Soy sauce
Cooking oil (optional; was not used in this recipe)
Salt to taste
Black pepper

Preparation

Step 1) Into a medium sized non-stick skillet or pan place your onions, garlic and green pepper and stir vigorously for a minute.

Step 2) Add your gizzard, scallops and fried eggs into the pan and continue stirring (gently this time).

Step 3) Add your rice and soy sauce to the mix and keep stirring for about three minutes.

Step 4) Add your green peas and carrot mix into the skillet or pan and stir for about 30 seconds (if your using fresh green beans you should boil in a pot for 3mins or until beans become soft to the touch before adding it into the rice mixture. Remember though, you never want to cook vegetables for too long)

Step 5) Add salt and black pepper to the mix (optional). You can also add other spices like thyme, paprika, red pepper flakes or curry if you wish to (optional).

Step 6) Serve (if your making as much as I did, you can just pour the mixture into a big pot and store it there, otherwise you are free to serve it immediately).

NB: I cook vegetables for short periods of time to preserve their nutritional value. Also remember that I use freshly cooked rice for this recipe so the rice is still hot and the steam from it will help cook the vegetables when they are placed in a pot. If you are using left over rice, you may want to cook the vegetables a bit longer. If you are serving the meal immediately, make sure you fry your onions for about 5mins (that's where the oil comes into play) or until it begins to turn brown, if not you and your guests will have onion breath (but who cares right.. lol).

   
I garnished my dish with some cooked frozen shrimps, black pepper, salt, paprika and thyme. To crown my efforts, I decided to down a glass of red wine, that was definitely the highlight of my evening.

I hope you all enjoy your Chinese fried rice.

So until next time, bon appetit.

xoxo #foodgasm
(Follow us on Twitter a@InCoPot)

Recipe 5: Egusi soup

Ever since I was a child I found the art of creating this meal quite fascinating. I have always considered my mom the best chef ever, not just because of how tasty she made it, but how quick and effortless she made the preparation seem.

This is one of my favorite Nigerian soup, which is served with either pounded yam, garri (Made from cassava) or semolina, It all depends on your preference.

I will show you the few steps involved in preparing this exquisite meal. You can also tweak your preparation once you get used to the recipe.


Ingredients:

Turkey, Goat meat, Beef (Your choice)
Grounded egusi (melon seed) - 1/2  cup
Spinach/Ugwu/Bitterleaf
Egusi (Blended melon seeds)
Ground pepper(Hot naija pepper)
Grounded crayfish
Dry fish
Boiled Stockfish
Salt
Curry / Thyme
Maggi/Knorr cubes - 2 to 3
Palm Oil - 1/2
Fresh garlic - 2 cloves (chopped or sliced)


Preparation:

Step 1) Put meat in pot and turn heat to low-medium; add curry powder, ground red pepper, thyme, ground pepper,chopped ginger & garlic & knorr cubes and let it sweat for 10 minutes (This allows the spices to penetrate into the meat)

Step 2) You can now add enough water and cook in medium heat for 1.5 - 2hrs till meat is soft and edible. While waiting for the meat to cook, chop your fresh spinach and set this aside

Step 3) Return to boiling meat and check for softness, stir palm oil into the stock without draining and add crayfish, dry fish and stock-fish. Cover and allow to cook for 10 minutes

Step 4) Sprinkle the egusi in the stock and do not mix immediately, allow to cook for 2 minutes, (this step is necessary to prevent it from being too smooth).

Step 5) Add the spinach and reduce to low medium heat and allow to simmer for few minutes. Stir

And Voila, ready to be served

You can serve with  pounded yam, amala, semolina or garri

So until next time, bon appetit.

xoxo #foodgasm
(Follow us on twitter @InCoPot)

Recipe 4: Gizzard Sauce

Growing up in Nigeria, eating organ meat is nothing new to us. This recipe can be an appetizer and can also be served as a side dish. 

Served by itself

Served with white rice, plantain and boiled egg

Ingredients:



Gizzard - 1kg
Cloves of Garlic / Garlic powder
Onions - 1 medium
Tomatoes - 6-10 medium sized, chopped
Ragu sauce /Tomato paste -  3 Table spoon
Ground dry pepper (Naija pepper) - 1 teaspoon
Bell Peppers - 1/2
Cooking Oil / Palmoil - 1/4 cup
Ginger
Knorr cubes - 1-3 cubes
Parsley
Crayfish - 3 tablespoons
Salt & black pepper to taste


Preparation:

Step 1) Wash the Gizzard well and season with  chopped onions, garlic, salt, some black pepper, knorr cubes and a very tiny bit of ginger. Cook for 30 minutes on medium heat

Step 2) Once the gizzard is cooked, put in oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or till when its nicely brown. I prefer to bake mine but you can choose to fry if you want, it all depends on your preference.

Step 3) Put 1/4 cup of oil in medium heat and pour in finely chopped onions and garlic and fry for 1 minute  (Loving the aroma already ;)). Pour in your chopped tomatoes, bell peppers and stir continuously for 10 minutes. Add ragu sauce and crayfish and keep stirring to avoid it from burning.

Step 4) Add in your spices, remember you can always tweak in your favorite spices. Pour in the gizzard and stir continuously till evenly coated.

And Voila, ready to be served.

P.s
If you want a recipe for the rice and plantain, let me know.

So until next time, bon appetit.

xoxo #foodgasm
(Follow us on twitter @InCoPot)

Recipe 3: Black Eyed Beans

Black eyed beans is typically made on New Year's day in Southern states in the United States of America. The indigenous people believe that it brings them good luck in the new year. Now, because I'm someone who believes you can't have too much of a good thing, if this meal brings good luck then I better be making it all year round (right? it makes sense to me). So here's my take on an American classic; black eyed beans served with white rice.

Ingredients:

For Beans:
Black eyed beans (or white beans for my naija folk)- 4 cups
Onion- 1 medium size, diced
Garlic- 2 cloves, finely chopped
Ham- 2½ cups, cubed into bite size pieces
Chicken- 3 chicken breasts (cooked), shredded
Dried bay leaves- 4
Dried thyme- ¼ tbsp
Ground dried pepper (naija pepper)- ½ tbsp
Curry- ¼ tbsp
Garlic powder- 1 tbsp
Ginger- 1 pinch (unless of course you like ginger, I won't add more than ½ of a tbsp)
Bouillon cubes- 2 cubes (if you're using Maggi, or one cube if you're using Knorr) 
Salt- ½ tbsp
Black pepper- 1 tbsp
Bacon- 4 strips
Water

For Rice:
Rice- 1 cup
Water- 2 cups
Salt to taste (optional)

Feel free to replace the ham and bacon in this recipe with chicken or fish. If you have access to fresh bay leaves and thyme, use that. If you cannot find garlic powder, just use an extra clove of garlic. You can also add some green pepper to this recipe to give it some color contrast.

Preparation: For Beans


Step 1) Bring 8 cups of water to a boil in a pot. Wash the beans with some water that is at room temperature. Add the beans to the water and turn down the temperature to medium heat. Cover the pot and leave to cook until the beans has absorbed most of the water. This can take anywhere between 30mins to an hour depending on how effective your stove top is.

Step 2) Add your diced onions and dried bay leaves into the beans after the beans has absorbed most of the water. Use a cooking spoon to mix the onions and dried bay leaves into the beans and add more water if the beans is not yet as soft as you'd like it to be.

At this point the amount of water you add is dependent on how soft and watery you would like your beans to be. If you want your beans to be softer, leave the beans to absorb more of the moisture. If you like the texture of the beans and you would like it a bit more watery, then do not bother leaving the beans to absorb more moisture and just move on to the next step. If you want a softer texture with a watery consistency, then leave the beans to absorb some moisture, check the consistency and if the moisture left is not as much as you'd like it to be, then add just enough water and move to the next step.

Step 3) Add your ham, chicken, garlic (fresh and/or ground), thyme, pepper, curry, ginger, bouillon cubes, salt and  black pepper. Leave this to simmer on low heat for 15-30mins (the longer it simmers the more the flavors are incorporated, but remember everything in moderation).

Step 4) Add your bacon (optional)

Voila, your beans is prepared. Now on to the next phase of this meal

For rice

Step 1) Bring two cups of water to a boil and add a cup of rice to the water. Turn down the heat to low heat and allow the rice to absorb all the water. This can take about 30mins so keep an eye on the rice as it cooks.

And now you're ready to serve.

So until next time, bon appetit.

xoxo #foodgasm
(Follow us on twitter @InCoPot)

Recipe 2: Fruit and Veggie Smoothie

So today happens to be one of those days I just wanted something other than a bowl of oatmeal or scrabbled eggs. I figured I'd stay healthy and make a yummy smoothie and pair it with some quinoa chocolate cake (trust me this stuff is really good).

For this post, I'll write out the recipe of the smoothie and have a separate post for the quinoa chocolate cake.

Ingredients

Frozen Banana- 1
Frozen Strawberries- 1/3 of a cup
Peas and Carrots- 1/3 of a cup
Almond milk-  1/3 of a cup
Grapefruit juice- 1 cup
Wheat germ- 1 dessert spoon
Oatmeal- 2 dessert spoons

Before I go into the preparation, let me say this, this is one recipe that you can tweak as many things as you want to. For example, instead of the frozen strawberries you can use raspberries, mixed berries, peaches or any fruit of your choice really. I used frozen strawberries here because I live on an island. That means everything that we get is either flown in or shipped in. So by the time fruits get into the city, they aren't as fresh as they can be. Hence why frozen fruits work well for me. But if you get your fruits fresh, go ahead and use them. I would advise you to cool them in a refrigerator and add some ice to give it a frothy finish.

Secondly, feel free to replace the grapefruit juice with any fruit juice of your choice using the same measurements. If you don't have wheat germ you can leave that out of the recipe. You can also add some yogurt (which I typically do but I didn't have any yogurt in my fridge today). The almond milk can be replaced with coconut milk or fresh milk or any milk of your choice. Sometimes I would add a handful of spinach in the recipe as well to get my iron for the day. 

Remember, its a smoothie not rocket science, so go to town with it and use things that are at your disposal.

Preparation:

Step 1) Chop the bananas into small circles in order to make it easy on the blades of your blender especially if your using frozen bananas.

Step 2) Add all the ingredients into the blender and blend.

Step 3) Serve

This is an easy, refreshing and very healthy smoothie that you can make on the go or during a lazy weekend. You can make it as thick or light as you wish by adding more oatmeal (for thickness) or more liquids (for a light consistency). This particular recipe makes a smooth velvety texture that can easily make 2-4 servings.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

So until next time, bon appetit.

xoxo #foodgasm
(Follow us on twitter @InCoPot)

Recipe 1: Italian Meatloaf

To all my meat lovers (you know who you are, don't be shy), this is an excellent main dish that can be served for dinner alongside roasted potatoes or rice pilaf or even a healthy bowl of salad. As you all will soon get to know, we're always open to trying new alternatives to make commonly prepared meals. This Italian Meatloaf is probably one of the most unique meatloaf recipes out there. It was inspired by the beautiful Laura Vitale (find her on youtube at Laura in the kitchen and her website is http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/).

Let's get straight into business, shall we?

Ingredients:

Minced turkey (healthier option), Minced meat - 1 ½ pounds
Onion- 1 small, finely chopped
Garlic cloves- 2, minced
Genoa salami- 4 ounces, chopped into cubes
Eggs- 4 hard boiled and 1 raw
Bread crumbs, ground oatmeal (healthier option)- ¼ cup
Whole milk, Almond/ Soy/ Coconut milk (healthier options)- 2tbsp
Provolone cheese (sharp)- ½ cup
Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese (not the dry stuff)- ¼ cup
Parsley- 2tbsp, finely chopped
Olive oil- 2tbsp, divided
Salt (to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)

Alright, so that was the hard part, now on to the fun part :).

Preparation: (5 easy steps)

Step 1) Cook the onion and garlic in 1 tbsp of olive oil for 5 to 6 minutes. After this, let the mixture cool.

Step 2) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees farenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drizzle a little olive oil to stop meatloaf from sticking. If you do not have parchment paper, olive oil on the pan would work just fine.

Step 3) In a large bowl, mix together the cooled onion and garlic mixture, parsley, bread crumbs, parmiggiano, raw egg, the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil, milk and the salami. Season with salt and black pepper, add the turkey and mix until everything is combined but don’t overwork the meat.

Step 4) Put the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and flatten out to get rid of any air pockets. Add ½ of the provolone along the middle lengthwise and place the 4 hard boiled eggs on top. Add the remaining provolone around the eggs and carefully shape into a loaf covering the eggs making sure its all the same thickness so it cooks evenly.

Step 5) Bake for 45 to 55 minutes and let cool for a few minutes before serving.

And voila, we're done. Easy right? 

Now sit back and enjoy this yummy meal with your choice of red wine (we suggest a fruity flavored red wine to step this meal up a notch).

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. 

So until next time, bon appetit!!

xoxo #foodgasm
(Follow us on twitter @InCoPot)

xoxo #Foodgasm

Hi everyone welcome to our blog. So we're trying to figure out a really cheesy "welcome" post that we would look back at and laugh our selves into a stomach ache. Clearly we're doing a good job at that :). I guess we should introduce ourselves before we move on to talking about the inspiration behind this blog.

We're two ambitious young women still trying to discover ourselves. In this journey we've fortunately stumbled upon the world of food (great, now we'll have to figure out how to watch our weight with this love for food :p).

We've both grown up loving food; especially growing up in Nigeria (all our naija peeps you know na ;)) we've come to appreciate good home cooked meals. However, our love for food is no longer just limited to Nigerian foods as our exploratory palates have led us to discovering the beauty of food in different countries.

Intercontinental Cooking Pot (InCoPot or ICP) is a spot where we can all celebrate our love for all kinds of foods. Join us in our journey to discover healthier ways of preparing commonly known meals. Trust us, we love our grease and fats, but we believe that moderation is key.

Welcome aboard our food train and we hope that you stick with us through out the ride.

xoxo #foodgasm
(Follow us on twitter @InCoPot)