The Business unit

2014-09-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

This salad has so much to celebrate: salty cured ham, juicy chicken breasts, crunchy croûtons and a creamy dressing. Wow.

Ingredients

For the salad

4 slices of speck (or prosciutto)
2 cornfed chicken breasts, bone and skin removed
knob of butter
2 thick slices white bread, cubed
2 cos lettuces

For the dressing

2 garlic cloves
75ml/3fl oz white wine
2 eggs, yolks only
1 anchovy fillet
75g/3oz parmesan cheese, grated
150ml/5fl oz extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Preparation method

Preheat the grill to high.
Place the speck or proscuitto onto a baking sheet and place under the grill for 3-4 minutes, or until crisp. Remove speck and place on a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain.
Cut both chicken breasts through the middle, without cutting through, to form one large flat piece. Season, to taste, with salt and black pepper and brush with olive oil.
Heat a griddle pan until hot then place the chicken breasts on it and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until just cooked through.
Heat a frying pan until hot and add the butter and then the cubed bread. Fry until golden brown, then remove.
Separate the leaves from the lettuce and cut into chunky pieces.
For the dressing, in a medium saucepan, bring the garlic and wine to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the garlic has softened. Leave to cool.
Combine the wine and garlic with the egg yolks, anchovy and cheese in a mixing bowl. Blend with a hand blender or food processor until smooth. Drizzle in the oil in a thin steady stream, taking care not to add it too quickly, otherwise it could split and curdle. Stir in the mustard and add seasoning to taste.
Add the crisp-fried speck, croutons and lettuce to the dressing and toss to combine. To serve, place salad on plate, top with chicken and pour the dressing over

2014-09-03T06:59:00.001-07:00

I love a good Thai chicken curry, fragrant with spices, chilli and ginger, and creamy with coconut milk. This is my pastry-topped tribute to that dish.
Equipment and preparation: for this recipe you will need a 1.2 litre/2 pint pie dish and a lattice cutter.

Ingredients

For the filling

2 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (about 150g/5½oz)
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 300g/10½oz)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 banana shallots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
1 tsp finely grated root ginger
2 tsp Thai green curry paste
200ml/7fl oz coconut cream
150ml/5fl oz chicken stock
2 lime leaves, torn
1 stem lemongrass, bruised
1 small sweet potato (about 175g/6oz), peeled and cut into 1cm/½in cubes
1 tsp cornflour, mixed with a splash of water
black pepper
splash of Thai fish sauce

For the shortcrust pastry

150g/5½oz plain flour
pinch fine salt
40g/1½oz unsalted butter, chilled, cut into roughly 1cm/½in cubes
35g/1¼oz lard, chilled, cut into roughly 1cm/½in cubes
1 tsp lemon juice (optional)
1 free-range egg, beaten, to glaze

Preparation method

For the filling, cut all the chicken into 15mm/5/8in chunks. Heat the oil in a sauté pan or a wide saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the shallots, garlic, chilli and ginger and fry gently for a few minutes, or until soft but not coloured.
Stir in the curry paste and cook for a minute or two. Add the chicken pieces, increase the heat a little and cook, stirring all the time, until the chicken has lost its raw look. Add the coconut cream, chicken stock, lime leaves, lemongrass and sweet potato. Simmer for 12–15 minutes, or until the sweet potato is tender.
Add the cornflour, bring to a simmer and stir until the sauce begins to thicken. Take off the heat and season, to taste, with black pepper and a little fish sauce. Leave to cool. Remove the lemongrass and lime leaves and transfer to a 1.2 litre/2 pint pie dish.
To make the shortcrust pastry, put the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and lard and rub in lightly with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Alternatively, do this in a food processor or a mixer and then transfer to a bowl.
Technique: Rubbing in
Watch technique0:46 mins
Using a table knife, work in two tablespoons of cold water and the lemon juice (if using) until the pastry comes together. Add a little extra water if needed.
When the dough begins to stick together, use your hands to gently knead it into a ball. Wrap the pastry in cling film and put in the fridge to rest for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface. Cut a long 2cm/¾in wide strip of pastry, dampen the edge of the pie dish with water and press the pastry strip to it. Use a lattice cutter to cut a pattern in the remaining pastry. Pull the pastry very gently to open up the lattice, then place over the pie. Press the edges down to seal, then trim away any excess pastry. Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg.
Technique: Covering a pie with a pastry lid
Watch technique2:11 mins
Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until the pastry is golden-brown. Leave the pie to sit in the tin for five minutes before serving.

2014-09-03T06:54:00.001-07:00

Any time of day is a good time for a slice of Greek pie - often eaten on the move as a snack between meals or as a light lunch or evening meal with a salad. Chicken is a favourite filling for pie and it would normally be baked. This version is fried.

Ingredients

For the filling

2 tbsp olive oil
large knob of butter
1 leek, thinly sliced
4-5 spring onions, thinly chopped
150g/5oz button mushrooms, thinly sliced
225g/8oz boneless cooked chicken, shredded
150g/5oz feta cheese, crumbled
4 tbsp chopped dill
4 tbsp chopped parsley
4-6 tbsp double cream
a little freshly ground nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper and a little salt

For the pastry

olive oil, for brushing
200g/7oz filo pastry

Preparation method

For the filling, heat the olive oil and butter in a pan and fry the leeks, spring onions and mushrooms until softened.
Place in a large bowl with the cooked chicken, feta cheese, herbs and enough cream to make the mixture moist.
Season the filling with lots of freshly ground black pepper and a little nutmeg, to taste. Try the filling and add a little salt if needed. Feta cheese is very salty so you might not need it.
Brush the base of a frying pan with olive oil. Lay some large pieces of pastry over the pan so that it drapes over the sides and brush all over with olive oil, then spoon in half the filling.
Rip a piece of pastry and lay on top of the filling to cover. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with a little water.
Spoon in the rest of the filling; place more pastry on top in the same way as before to make the top layer, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with water.
Fold the pastry, hanging over the edges of the pan, back over the top to form a nice round pie. Brush again with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with water.
Fry for 6-8 minutes on a low heat, checking all the time so it doesn’t go brown too fast.
Remove from the heat, turn over like a Spanish tortilla by placing a plate over the frying pan and quickly turning the pie upside-down on to the plate. Quickly slide it back into the pan and cook the other side for 6-8 minutes, or until golden-brown.
Place on a round wooden board and cut into large wedges. Serve hot or cold with a green salad or vegetables.

2013-10-22T06:09:00.001-07:00

2013-06-11T08:04:00.001-07:00

How to Make Nigerian Cake

Nigerian cake is simple and sweet. There's not a lot going on in the cake but it tastes delicious. No chocolates, to whipped cream but Nigerians love it and they are always searching for that unadulterated Nigerian Cake recipe for that cake that melts in the mouth.
How to Make Nigerian Cake [Video]
Whether you are looking to bake a Nigerian wedding cake, a Nigerian Birthday cake for your kids or you just want to bake a cake that you will store in your freezer and munch on from time to time, the Nigerian cake recipe detailed on this page is the basis for all Nigerian cake recipes. All you need to do is add a little twist to yours. But don't go too far with it else you ruin it :)

Nigerian Cake Ingredients

The quantities of ingredients listed below are what I used for a cake that I baked with a 10 inch diameter and 2.5 inch deep cake pan. When done, the cake had a diameter of 10 inches (of course) and a height of 2.5 inches with a slight dome.

500g/1.1 lbs. Plain Flour
12 Medium Eggs
500g/1.1 lbs. Butter (NOT Margarine)
400g/0.88 lbs. Granulated Sugar
3 teaspoons of Baking Powder
3 tablespoons of Vanilla Extract
Half cup of Brandy

Tools You'll Need to Bake a Nigerian Cake

The following are the minimal tools you'll need to bake a Nigerian Cake:

An oven with top & down heating capability. Buy it in USA | in UK
Cake mixer. Buy it in USA | in UK
Kitchen scale: Buy it in USA | in UK
Sieve or Sifter
Egg Whisk. Buy it in USA | in UK
Bowls Buy it in USA | in UK
Spatulas
Cake Pan: 10 inches in diameter and 2.5 inches deep. Buy it in USA | in UK

More information about the Nigerian Cake Ingredients

The flour to use for your Nigerian Cake
You MUST use plain flour for you to have success with the Nigerian Cake recipe detailed on this page. I do not know what using a self-rising flour will do to your cake if you use it. The problem with self-rising flour is that they never state the amount of the leavening agent (in this case, baking powder) they added to the flour. This is why I prefer plain flour so that I have more control over the amount of baking powder that I add to the cake recipe.
The butter to use for you Nigerian Cake
For those living in Nigeria, please use baking butter NOT margarine. You should be able to buy baking butter from any shop that sells bakery ingredients. For my US audience whose butter comes in sticks. I don't know the weight of 1 stick of butter. Maybe this is written on the wrapping so you can check it and then know how many sticks correspond to 1.1 lbs.
Please do not melt the butter. Bring it out from the fridge the day before you make your Nigerian cake. This way, it will be soft enough for creaming on the day you'll bake the cake.
Sugar
If you think your granulated sugar is too coarse, you can grind it with a dry mill (the one used for grinding egusi, ogbono, etc) before adding it to the butter for creaming. You only need to grind it a little bit to reduce the size of the grains of sugar. This reduces the creaming time.
Flavour
The job of the vanilla extract is just to add a vanilla flavour to the cake. If you want another flavour such as butterscotch (used in wedding cakes) etc, please use it to replace the vanilla flavour and add it when I add the vanilla flavour.
Dry Fruits
If you want to add dry fruits such as raisins, please soak these in brandy for at least 1 week (up to 1 month for Nigerian wedding cakes) before adding it to your cake. This is so that the fruits will not make the cake go bad or taste funny after some time especially for Nigerian Wedding cakes which people like to keep for a longer time.
Brandy
The brandy is a preservative for the cake. With all those eggs in the cake, it can go bad before the event if you don't add brandy to it. But please do not go overboard with the brandy. You don't want people to feel tipsy after eating your cake.

Before you make the Nigerian Cake

Make sure that all the utensils and appliances you will use for the cake are clean and dry.
Check, check and check that you have all the ingredients you will need to bake the cake.
Print out the Nigerian cake recipe and keep it close by. For those who prefer using the video, bring your laptop close enough LOL
Everything ready? Let's go!

Making the Nigerian Cake: Step by Step

1. Cream the butter and the sugar

Put the soft butter and the granulated sugar into the mixer and start creaming.
I used the highest setting on my mixer which is a 300 Watts appliance and the creaming took me a total of 1 hour.
Please follow the instructions in the user manual of your mixer when creaming. For my mixer, the instruction says that I should not run the appliance for more than 10 minutes at a time. So, I cream for 10 minutes, stop to let the mixer rest and cool down, I run it again for ten minutes etc. And it took me a total of 1 hour creaming time (stoppage time NOT included) to completely cream the butter and the sugar. Your own time may be more or less depending on the type of mixer you have and the size of the grains of your sugar.
A well-creamed sugar/butter mix should look much whiter than the butter you started with, softer (it should be able to drop from a spoon, see video) and you can barely feel the granulated sugar when you taste the creamed butter and sugar. Some granulated sugar may be stubborn and you can still feel the grains but it's OK so long as the butter/sugar mixture is as white and soft as possible.

2. Prepare your baking pan

When you are almost done with the creaming, prepare your cake pan by rubbing the insides with soft butter. Then put some flour into the greased pan, making sure the flour touches every part, then pour out the flour.
The greasing and flouring of the insides of your cake pan will prevent the cake from sticking to the pan thereby making it easy for you to bring out the cake from the pan when done, without denting the cake.

3. Beat the Eggs

Break all the eggs into a big bowl and whisk them to a smooth blend.

4. Add the eggs and mix

Before you do this step, you should make sure that your butter and sugar are well creamed.
If your mixer is big enough to accommodate the creamed butter and sugar with the whisked eggs, add the whisked egg into the mixer. Mix till you have a smooth fluffy blend of the creamed butter/sugar and the eggs.
If your mixer is not big enough, transfer the creamed butter and sugar to a bigger bowl. Add the eggs and use a hand mixer to mix the two till you get a fluffy smooth blend. My mixer is quite small so this is what I did in the video below. This took me about 5 minutes with my 300 Watts hand mixer which is extractable from my mixer.

5. Turn on your oven to preheat

It's now time to turn on your oven to 150°C or 302°F so that it can start heating up while you finish mixing the cake. You should also switch it to the up & down heat setting.

6. Add the ornamental ingredients

Add the vanilla extract or any other flavours of your choice, add the brandy and pre-soaked dry fruits (if any) and stir with a wooden spatula till everything is well incorporated. Add some browning if you are baking a Nigerian wedding cake. This is what gives the cake the dark colour.

7. Add the plain flour with the baking powder

Now, add the baking powder to the plain flour.
Put the mix into a sieve or a flour sifter. Add small quantities of the flour through the sieve/sifter into the bowl where you already have other cake ingredients.
Stir very well with the wooden spatula. Add another small quantity of the flour with baking powder. Stir.
Repeat this process till all the flour is incorporated. I warn you, this procedure can make your arm die a bit so be sure you are ready for the arm exercise before you start :)

Notes:

It is advisable to stir the cake mix in one direction, in a folding fashion, when adding the flour because most cake experts say that when you stir in the opposite direction, air bubbles will be trapped in your cake mix and your cake will have holes in it when done.

It is important to pass the flour through a sieve or sifter so that you are sure that the flour that enters the cake mix in its finest powder form. You don't want to have small lumps of flour in your cake do you? This also ensures a very smooth cake mix.

8. Pour the cake mix into the greased cake pan

Once every ingredient is well incorporated, it's time to pour the mix into the greased cake pan.
If you want to make a multicolour layered cake then you should at this point divide the cake mix into the number of colours you want. Put these into separate clean dry bowls. Add the colours to each, stir well and pour into the cake pan one after the other. You should make sure you level out each coloured cake mix as much as possible before pouring another one.
Once you've poured in all the cake mix into the cake pan, gently lift and drop the cake pan several times to level out the cake mix as much as possible (see video). Don't worry if the top is not so smooth, as soon as the heat of the oven gets to it, it will level out.

9. Baking Time!

Transfer the cake to the preheated oven, placing the rack halfway between the top and the bottom of the oven.
Bake for at least 2 hours before attempting to open the oven door to check the cake. It took my cake 2 hours to rise to maximum and if you open the oven door before the cake has fully risen, you have interrupted the baking process, the cake will stop rising, may not be evenly cooked when done and it will be harder than normal when done. There are endless things that can go wrong with your cake if you do not wait for it to rise fully before opening the oven door. That it smells like cake does not mean that it is done :)
Even though mine took 2 hours, you should keep an eye on yours till you notice that it is no longer rising before attempting to open the oven door. All ovens are not the same so you should use my baking time as a guide only.

10. Check the Cake

After 2 hours, when I'm sure that the cake is no longer rising, I check it by driving a knife into the center of the cake. If the knife comes out with smears of the cake mix, then the cake is not done. If it comes out clean and dry, with only a smear of butter (oily look) then the cake is done. If the cake passes the knife test, I go on to do the other tests.
The second way I check the cake is to take a look at the sides of the cake pan. The cake should be separated from the pan or at least not stuck to the pan.
The third way I check that the cake is done is to dip a wooden skewer (stick) into the middle of the cake. Wooden skewers are a bit rougher than knives so they tend to pick up smears more. So if the wooden skewer comes out clean, the cake should be done.
Even when my cake passes all of the above checks, I still carry out the fourth test so that I can be doubly sure that it is done before bringing it out of the oven. Nobody wants to end up with an undone cake. The fourth and final check I carry out is to gently push the cake down at the middle with my open palm. If the cake springs back when I lift my palm and there is no impression of my palm on the cake, then the cake is done.

11. Cool and Decorate/Refrigerate

Once you are sure that the cake is done, bring it out of the oven and leave it alone for only 5 minutes then take out the sides of the pan. Then leave to cool down completely before decorating the cake.
You can also cut it up in desirable sizes and store in the freezer.
That's how the Nigerian Cake is made. You can serve it up as a snack with a chilled drink or eat it as a dessert. When decorated, use for birthdays and weddings.

2013-06-11T08:03:00.001-07:00

How to Make Whole Wheat Bread Tutorial

By Laura · Sep,24 2009
Besides making Sourdough Bread, this is my favorite, simple 100% Whole Wheat Bread recipe. This recipe makes two loaves. (I always double it for my family, so if the pictures in this tutorial look like twice the amount, that’s because it is.)
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
6 cups (give or take) whole wheat flour, divided
1 ¾ cups warm water, divided
1/3 cup honey
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon sea salt3 Tablespoons melted butter

Mix 3 cups of whole wheat flour with 1 ½ cups of warm water in a large glass bowl. Allow this to sit for about 30 minutes. This will break down the gluten and help the bread to rise better.

In a small bowl mix together ¼ cup water, 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast and 1/3 cup honey. Allow this to sit for about 10 minutes, or until the yeast is activated and mixture becomes bubbly.

In the meantime, melt 3 Tablespoons butter in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat and allow to cool. You don’t want the hot butter to kill the yeast.

Add 1 teaspoon salt, melted butter and yeast mixture to the flour and water mixture. Gradually add the remaining three cups of flour and stir well. As the dough becomes harder to stir, pour it out onto a clean counter and begin to knead the dough. If you create a nice dough before adding all three cups of flour…you don’t need to continue to add it in. Just add enough to make a nice, non-sticky dough.
Here’s a video to show you how to knead the dough. Two things: 1) I was having a freaked out hair day. So glad I could share it with you. 2) I’m pretty sure “wetter” is not a real word, yet I use that word toward the end of the video. I are sorry.

Don’t you love how I “spank” the dough at the end of the clip? There’s something very gratifying about giving the dough a nice “spank”. You should try it sometime.

Once you’ve kneaded your dough, place it into a bowl to rise.

Cover the dough with a cloth and let it rise for at least one hour or until it has risen to twice it’s starting size.

While you’re waiting for your dough to rise, get your bread pans buttered. You can also do some laundry, wash some dishes, or clean the bread dough out from under your fingernails.

There it is…doubled up.

Give the raised dough a nice punch.
(Punching? Spanking? Who knew making bread was so violent in nature?)

Using a floured hand, pull the dough out of the bowl onto the counter.

Knead for three or four minutes until the air bubbles are all gone.

Now you can watch how I shape my dough into loaves before baking. Again…more spanking…

Cover and allow 30 minutes to one hour to rise again. They should double in size, but the rising should happen more quickly this time because the yeast knows what to do by now.

See here how the loaves have doubled in size?

Bake the bread uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when you thump the top of it. (Great. Spanking, punching and thumping. I am really a bad influence.)

Allow the bread to cool in the pans for 10 minutes,
then remove it to finish cooling on a wire rack.

The bread slices more easily after it’s cooled. However…it’s awfully hard to wait…and bread fresh out of the oven slathered in butter is really, really good. I say go for it.
A few notes:

Making bread from start to finish takes about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Most of that time is waiting and baking time…but if you plan to make bread, you should block out an entire morning or afternoon.
If your water or butter is too cold or too hot, it will kill the yeast. If you can put your (clean) finger in the water or butter and it doesn’t burn you, but just feels warm… you’ve got the right temperature.
If the dough in your bowl has risen to double and suddenly you need to nurse the baby or wash cottage cheese out from between your toddler’s toes…just go punch down your dough and let it rise again before you shape it. It won’t hurt anything.
If you want to shape your dough into loaves, but bake them later: Shape your loaves then put them directly into the freezer before they have a chance to rise. Allow them to sit in buttered loaf pans for several hours (or overnight) so that they can thaw and rise before baking.
Many of you have asked if I have a bread machine. I don’t, so I’m sorry I am not able to answer your questions about them. I’m assuming this recipe would work in a machine, but I don’t know. Maybe some of you with bread machines can chime in on this?

Click here to read through posts describing and explaining grains, grain mills and grinding flour!——————————————————-

2013-06-11T07:59:00.001-07:00

Home >> Snacks Recipes >> Pancake a.k.a. Diet

How to Make Nigerian Pancake

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.
Nigerian Pancake Recipe [Video]
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 or Carnation are common in Nigeria)
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

Tools I used

Cooker: Buy it in USA | in UK
Blender: Buy it in USA | in UK
Microwave Oven for melting the margarine: Buy it in USA | in UK
Kitchen scale: Buy it in USA | in UK
Frying pan: Buy it in USA | in UK
Bowl

Before you fry the pancake

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.
Break the two eggs into the melted margarine and beat till smooth. Then add ½ cup of water.
Add the flour and mix well till there are minimal lumps.
Add the milk, salt, sugar, ground pepper and the remaining ½ cup of water, stir well.
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.

Directions

Set a frying pan over medium heat. Add a few drops of vegetable oil. Just enough to lubricate the frying pan.
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.
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.
Flip the pancake so you can fry the top side as well.
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!

2013-06-11T07:58:00.001-07:00

Club Sandwich, Naija Style

Club Sandwich may not be originally from Nigeria but Club Sandwiches are eaten a lot in Nigeria. We have taken this recipe from the West and completely made it our own, so much so that we now have Naija style Club Sandwiches.
How to Make Club Sandwich [Video]
Club Sandwiches are normally served on local Nigerian flights and exclusive hotels but you don't have to be mile-high to taste this snack or breakfast recipe. It is so easy to make so you should make one for yourself right after reading this.
You can eat the Club Sandwich as a snack with a chilled drink or serve it as part of a breakfast meal. It is also an essential part of a packed lunch, just add fruits and a drink and you are sorted :)

Ingredients you need for Club Sandwiches

The following are the quantities of ingredients you need to make a Club Sandwich for one person. Feel free to multiply the ingredients.

4 slices of bread (minimum)
1 egg (hardboiled)
1 fresh plum tomato (tomato Jos)
1 medium carrot
¼ small cabbage
2 pieces of Sardine
1 tablespoon of margarine/butter
2 tablespoons of Mayonnaise

Preparation of Club Sandwich

Wash all the vegetables very well.
Scrape the carrot and remove the seeds from the tomato.
Grate the carrot and cabbage using the small holes of a grater (see video below).
Cut the tomato into very tiny pieces.
Cut the hardboiled egg into tiny pieces.
Add the mayonnaise to the carrot, tomato, egg and cabbage. Mix well and set aside.
In a separate plate, mash the sardine with a fork and mix with the margarine. Don't worry if you don't like the smell of sardines, the margarine helps reduce the strong smell.
Using a bread knife, cut off the crusty ends from the slices of bread.
Take one slice of bread, spread the margarine and sardine mix on one side of it and cover with the second slice of bread.
Repeat the above step with the remaining two slices. By now you should have two separate slices of bread that are stuck together by the margarine and sardine mix, like this:
Now, take the first 2 slices, rub the carrot, cabbage, tomato, egg and mayonnaise mix on one side of it and cover with the other two slices.
By now, all the slices of bread should be stuck together with 2 fillings of the sardine and margarine mix and 1 filling of the mayonnaise mix in the middle like this:
Cut the sandwich into desired shapes and sizes.

Watch the video below to see how I cut mine :)
Serve the Club Sandwich with a hot chocolate drink or any chilled refreshing drink. Yummy!

2013-06-11T07:54:00.001-07:00

Home >> Cakes >> Nigerian Cake

How to Make Nigerian Cake

Nigerian Cake Ingredients

500g/1.1 lbs. Plain Flour
12 Medium Eggs
500g/1.1 lbs. Butter (NOT Margarine)
400g/0.88 lbs. Granulated Sugar
3 teaspoons of Baking Powder
3 tablespoons of Vanilla Extract
Half cup of Brandy

Tools You'll Need to Bake a Nigerian Cake

The following are the minimal tools you'll need to bake a Nigerian Cake:

An oven with top & down heating capability. Buy it in USA | in UK
Cake mixer. Buy it in USA | in UK
Kitchen scale: Buy it in USA | in UK
Sieve or Sifter
Egg Whisk. Buy it in USA | in UK
Bowls Buy it in USA | in UK
Spatulas
Cake Pan: 10 inches in diameter and 2.5 inches deep. Buy it in USA | in UK

More information about the Nigerian Cake Ingredients

Before you make the Nigerian Cake

Make sure that all the utensils and appliances you will use for the cake are clean and dry.
Check, check and check that you have all the ingredients you will need to bake the cake.
Print out the Nigerian cake recipe and keep it close by. For those who prefer using the video, bring your laptop close enough LOL
Everything ready? Let's go!

Making the Nigerian Cake: Step by Step

1. Cream the butter and the sugar

2. Prepare your baking pan

3. Beat the Eggs

Break all the eggs into a big bowl and whisk them to a smooth blend.

4. Add the eggs and mix

5. Turn on your oven to preheat

It's now time to turn on your oven to 150°C or 302°F so that it can start heating up while you finish mixing the cake. You should also switch it to the up & down heat setting.

6. Add the ornamental ingredients

7. Add the plain flour with the baking powder

Now, add the baking powder to the plain flour.
Put the mix into a sieve or a flour sifter. Add small quantities of the flour through the sieve/sifter into the bowl where you already have other cake ingredients.
Stir very well with the wooden spatula. Add another small quantity of the flour with baking powder. Stir.
Repeat this process till all the flour is incorporated. I warn you, this procedure can make your arm die a bit so be sure you are ready for the arm exercise before you start :)

Notes:

It is advisable to stir the cake mix in one direction, in a folding fashion, when adding the flour because most cake experts say that when you stir in the opposite direction, air bubbles will be trapped in your cake mix and your cake will have holes in it when done.

It is important to pass the flour through a sieve or sifter so that you are sure that the flour that enters the cake mix in its finest powder form. You don't want to have small lumps of flour in your cake do you? This also ensures a very smooth cake mix.

8. Pour the cake mix into the greased cake pan

Once every ingredient is well incorporated, it's time to pour the mix into the greased cake pan.
If you want to make a multicolour layered cake then you should at this point divide the cake mix into the number of colours you want. Put these into separate clean dry bowls. Add the colours to each, stir well and pour into the cake pan one after the other. You should make sure you level out each coloured cake mix as much as possible before pouring another one.
Once you've poured in all the cake mix into the cake pan, gently lift and drop the cake pan several times to level out the cake mix as much as possible (see video). Don't worry if the top is not so smooth, as soon as the heat of the oven gets to it, it will level out.

9. Baking Time!

Transfer the cake to the preheated oven, placing the rack halfway between the top and the bottom of the oven.
Bake for at least 2 hours before attempting to open the oven door to check the cake. It took my cake 2 hours to rise to maximum and if you open the oven door before the cake has fully risen, you have interrupted the baking process, the cake will stop rising, may not be evenly cooked when done and it will be harder than normal when done. There are endless things that can go wrong with your cake if you do not wait for it to rise fully before opening the oven door. That it smells like cake does not mean that it is done :)
Even though mine took 2 hours, you should keep an eye on yours till you notice that it is no longer rising before attempting to open the oven door. All ovens are not the same so you should use my baking time as a guide only.

10. Check the Cake

After 2 hours, when I'm sure that the cake is no longer rising, I check it by driving a knife into the center of the cake. If the knife comes out with smears of the cake mix, then the cake is not done. If it comes out clean and dry, with only a smear of butter (oily look) then the cake is done. If the cake passes the knife test, I go on to do the other tests.
The second way I check the cake is to take a look at the sides of the cake pan. The cake should be separated from the pan or at least not stuck to the pan.
The third way I check that the cake is done is to dip a wooden skewer (stick) into the middle of the cake. Wooden skewers are a bit rougher than knives so they tend to pick up smears more. So if the wooden skewer comes out clean, the cake should be done.
Even when my cake passes all of the above checks, I still carry out the fourth test so that I can be doubly sure that it is done before bringing it out of the oven. Nobody wants to end up with an undone cake. The fourth and final check I carry out is to gently push the cake down at the middle with my open palm. If the cake springs back when I lift my palm and there is no impression of my palm on the cake, then the cake is done.

11. Cool and Decorate/Refrigerate

2013-06-11T07:42:00.002-07:00

Home >> Salad Recipes >> Coleslaw

How to make Coleslaw

Coleslaw simply means cabbage salad. It is a blend of finely shredded cabbage, carrots and a few other crunchy vegetables. It is then generously dressed with mayonnaise and salad cream.
It is generally eaten as a side dish to such foods as Jollof Rice, Fried/Barbecued Chicken, Moi Moi and many other rice dishes.
Coleslaw is usually served chilled to allow the dressing settle into the vegetables.

Ingredients

1 small cabbage
1 small green bell pepper
½ tin of green peas
2 medium carrots
1 medium onion
5 tablespoons of salad cream (preferably Heinz Classic Salad Cream)
4 tablespoons of mayonnaise
½ teaspoon sugar
A pinch of salt

Preparation

All the vegetables need to be washed.

Cut the cabbage, green bell pepper and onions into very tiny pieces.
Scrape and shred the carrots using a grater, then use a knife to cut across the shreds to make the pieces even smaller.
Put the cabbage, green pepper, green peas, onions and carrots into a large bowl and stir till you get a good mix.
In a separate, smaller bowl, mix the salad cream, mayonnaise, sugar and salt.
Pour the cream mix into the bowl of vegetables and stir very well.
Chill and serve.

Note: If you prefer the coleslaw creamier, you can increase the quantity of the salad cream. Feel free to add a pinch of ground pepper if you like it spicy.

Coleslaw can be eaten alone or as a side dish to Jollof Rice, Coconut Rice, Fried Rice and other Nigerian rice dishes.

PRINCE AYANLOWO OLATUNJI AYOBAMI

2013-06-11T07:41:00.000-07:00

Home >> Salad Recipes >> African Salad (Abacha & Ugba)

African Salad (Abacha & Ugba)

My grandmother always told me that Abacha is not a meal. Though it can be as filling as any other main course meal, African Salad is usually eaten as an in-between meal.
How to Make Abacha with Ugba [Video]
I remember vividly how my grandma prepared Abacha as soon as she came back from the Eke or Afor market, garnished with a generous serving of garden eggs and the leaves, with some dry fish. Oh, I will never forget the long vacations spent at grandma's place.
Abacha is prepared with cassava. The cassava tubers are cooked till done then sliced with a special cutter. The sliced cassava is then soaked in cold water overnight, washed thoroughly and dried under the sun.
Your African Salad will not be complete without Ugba. Ugba, also known as Ukpaka, is made from oil bean seeds. These seeds are cooked for several hours then sliced, washed and fermented for a few days.

Ingredients for Abacha

The following are the complete ingredients you need to make a delicious African Salad. I will group the ingredients for ease. I did not use all these in the video because they are not available where I live.
For African Salad, the more ingredients you use, the tastier and more "complete" it will be. Some people may regard Ugba as optional but for me, it is a must :)

Minimum ingredients for making Abacha (African Salad)

Abacha | 3 handfuls
Ugba | 2 cups
Palm Oil | 30 cl
Powdered Potash (food tenderizer) | 2 tablespoons
Fish | Mackerel/Dry Fish/Stockfish
1 large Onion
Salt and dry pepper (to taste)
Crayfish | 2 handfuls
2 Stock cubes (Maggi/Knorr)
1 teaspoon ground Ehu seeds (Calabash Nutmeg)

Other seasoning you can add to the Abacha

1 teaspoon Ogiri / Iru (traditional Nigerian seasoning that smells like you-know-what lol)

Other meat and vegetables for the Abacha

3 Fresh Utazi leaves (Gongronema latifolium)
Pomo / Kanda (cow skin)
Garden Eggs | As much as you can eat
Garden Egg leaves | 1 medium bunch
1 medium Onion (for serving)

Before to Make Your African Salad

Prepare the ehu seeds by roasting, dehauling and grinding them with a dry mill. See this video for how to do that.
If you will use kanda (cow skin), cook till done and cut into small pieces.
Depending on your choice of fish (you can also use all of them), fry or roast the mackerel, soak the stockfish in water and debone the dry fish.
Wash and cut the vegetables into tiny pieces. Cut the big bulb of onion into tiny pieces and cut the medium one in circles. Wash the garden egges and set aside, no need to cut these.
Grind the crayfish and pepper
Soak the Abacha in cold water and rinse the Ugba with lukewarm water.
Once the Abacha has softened, put in a sieve to drain.
Put the powdered potash in a cup or bowl and pour about 1 cup of cold water. Stir well and you are ready to start making the African Salad.

Making the African Salad

The key to making a good African Salad is to make sure that all the ingredients are well incorporated. As you will see below, there's a lot of add this, stir, add that, stir. You may wonder why you can't just add everything and stir but if you do that, it will be very difficult for you to get a good blend of all the ingredients.

Pour the palm oil into a sizeable pot. Yes you need all that oil so that your Abacha will not have a dry feel in the mouth when done. Pour the water from the potash mixture, making sure not to pour the sediments.
Stir very well and you'll see the oil turn into a yellow paste.
Add the ground pepper, ground ehu, crushed stock cubes, crayfish, diced onions and ugba (ukpaka), then stir very well. Please not that we are doing everything off the stove.
Add the iru/ogiri and make sure it is mixed very well. Add the diced kanda/pomo and stir very well.
Now add the soaked and drained Abacha and stir till it is well-incorporated in the palm oil paste.
Add the sliced Utazi and salt to taste and stir well. You can also use dry Utazi if the fresh one is not available where you live. It is important that you add salt last because after adding all that seasoning, your Abacha may not even need salt anymore.
I like my Abacha warm. If you like yours that way too, transfer to a stove at this point and heat it up to your desired temperature at medium heat. When done, turn off the heat and add the sliced garden egg leaves, stir very well and serve.
If you like your Abacha cold, after step 6, add the sliced garden egg leaves, stir and serve with garden eggs, fish and onions.

You are done! Eat with chilled palm wine for the full effects :)
Watch the video below to see how I did mine. I used minimal ingredients but don't be shy about using all the possible ingredients if these are available to you.

PRINCE AYANLOWO OLATUNJI AYOBAMI

2013-06-11T07:39:00.001-07:00

How to make Nigerian Salad

Nigerian Salad is so unique that there is no other place that prepares such filling and exotic salad as this recipe. It can be had as a meal on its own or as a side dish to the various Nigerian Rice Recipes.
How to Make Nigerian Salad [Video]
The quantities of ingredients stated are what will give you a typical taste of the Nigerian Salad. The quantities can be halved or multiplied and the same taste will be achieved.

Ingredients

1 medium bunch of Lettuce
5 medium sized Carrots
4 small pcs of Irish Potatoes
2 medium pcs of Cucumber
3 medium Eggs
1 415g tin of Baked Beans in tomato sauce
200g of Sweet Corn
5 pcs of Plum Tomatoes (Jos Tomatoes)
Salad Dressing – the classic Heinz Salad Cream works best with the Nigerian Salad recipe. A close substitute is the Heinz Caesar Salad Cream. You can use mayonnaise too.

Tools I used

Glass Bowl Buy it in USA | in UK
Chopping board: Buy it in USA | in UK
Knives: Buy it in USA | in UK

Before you prepare the Nigerian Salad

Wash and cook the Irish Potatoes till done. The eggs should be hard boiled. To save time, these two can be cooked in the same pot as they need almost equal amount of time to get done.
All the vegetables need to be washed.

Cut the lettuce into thin shreds.
Scrape and shred the carrots using a grater.
Peel and cut the boiled potatoes into sizeable cubes.
Peel, remove the seeds and cut the cucumber as shown. If you want more green color in your salad, you may peel the cucumber in stripes.
Remove the seeds from the plum tomatoes and cut into small pieces.
Place all the cut vegetables in separate containers.

Open the sweet corn and drain the preservation water. Rinse the seeds and set aside. Also open the baked beans tin and set aside.
Remove the shells of the hard boiled eggs, slice thinly and set aside. An egg slicer is perfect for this job.

Preparation

With the exception of the egg, start putting the ingredients in small batches into a big salad bowl till all are exhausted.
Now, place the sliced eggs on the salad, covering the top.
Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for at least one hour. This is to allow all the ingredients to mix well.
Serve with a salad dressing of your choice but the Heinz Salad Cream works best with this recipe, seconded by a caeser salad dressing.

Notes and Tips
If you prefer your Nigerian Salad crunchy, substitute the lettuce with cabbage. You can also use the two as the lettuce adds a green color to the salad.
The above are the minimum ingredients for making a Nigerian salad. More ingredients such as boiled macaroni, corned beef, green bell pepper, green peas etc can be added for varied flavour.
The Nigerian Salad is best consumed within 24 hours of preparation if no salad dressing is added to it.
If you are lucky to buy a baby cucumber, it may not be necessary to remove the seeds.

Nigerian Salad can be eaten alone or as a side dish to Jollof Rice, Coconut Rice, Fried Rice and other Nigerian rice dishes.

PRINCE AYANLOWO OLATUNJI AYOBAMI

2013-06-06T04:04:00.002-07:00

Plantain Chips

Plantain Chips are crunchy Nigerian snacks made with either ripe or unripe plantains. When making it with ripe plantains, ensure that the plantains are just beginning to ripe and are still hard. This is so that they will be crunchy when done.
How to Make Plantain Chips [Video]
Plantain Chips made with unripe plantains are bright yellow while those made with ripe plantains are deep yellow in colour. Please note that we do not make these with bananas. We do not cook, fry or roast bananas in Nigeria.
I have never baked Plantain Chips in the oven neither have I seen that done. You can try that and see how it goes if you do not want to deep-fry it.

Ingredients

Ripe/Unripe Plantain
Vegetable Oil: enough for deep frying.
Salt to taste

Note: When making plantain chips with ripe plantains, ensure that the plantains are just beginning to ripe and still very hard. Soft plantains never get crunchy if used for this snack.

Before you fry the plantain

Wash and peel the plantains.
Thinly slice the plantains into a bowl of water. It is advisable to use a vegetable slicer to slice the plantains. The water helps prevent the plantain slices from changing colour.
When done, add salt to taste and stir.
Transfer the plantain slices to a sieve to drain the water.

Frying Directions

Heat some vegetable oil till hot.
Put the slices of plantain into the oil in such a way that they are not stuck together. See the video for how I do this.
Stir till the plantains are bright yellow and crunchy. If using ripe plantains, they will be deep yellow.
Transfer the plantain slices to a sieve lined with paper towels.
Store in air-tight containers when they have cooled down completely and munch away whenever you want.

Plantain chips made with unripe plantains hardly absorb any oil while those made with ripe plantains absorb some of the vegetable oil during the frying process.

PRINCE AYANLOWO OLATUNJI AYOBAMI

2013-06-06T04:03:00.001-07:00

Asun: Spicy Barbecued Goat Meat

Asun is a Yoruba delicacy that you will always see in the Small Chops section at every owa mbe.
How to make Nigerian Asun [Video]
It is simply grilled/barbecued goat meat with lots of pepper. I usually prepare this the way I prepare my Nigerian Peppered Gizzards.

Ingredients for Asun

1.2kg (2.6 lbs) goat meat (cut with the skin)
2 habanero peppers (or to your taste)
1 medium onion
3 big stock cubes
1 teaspoon thyme
Salt (to taste)
1 cooking spoon vegetable oil
Black pepper (optional)

To garnish

1 medium onion
1 small green bell pepper
1 small red bell pepper

Before you make Asun

Cut the goat meat into big chunks. Make sure you cut the chunks with the goat skin. If the skin is not there, it won't be the real deal Asun.
Wash and put the goat meat chunks in a bowl.
Add the thyme and black pepper; crush and add the stock cubes. Feel free to add other spices and ingredients that you use to marinate meat.
Mix the spices and the goat meat by gently rubbing with your hands.
Cover the bowl with a thin film. Put in the fridge and leave to marinate for about 1 hour
In my opinion, marinating beef and other kinds of meat is completely optional so you can skip the marinating process and go straight to cooking the goat meat.
Pound or blitz the habanero (scotch bonnet) peppers and set aside.
Cut 1 onion into 4 big chunks.

Making the Asun

After about 1 hour or the number of hours you chose to marinate the goat meat, put the meat in a pot. Use a pressure cooker if you have one because goat meat is quite tough and you will save lots of gas and electricity.
Pour water to just half of the level of the goat meat, add the big chunks of onion and start cooking at medium heat. You do not want a lot of water because you want the water to dry up by the time the goat meat is well done.
When the goat meat is well done, remove the big chunks of onions and add salt to taste.
Increase the heat to high and stir constantly till all the remaining liquid in the pot is absorbed. You don't want to lose any flavour by pouring away the goat meat stock.
Lay the goat meat flat on your oven rack.
Grill/Broil in the oven at 180°C or 350°F till the meat is brown all over. You will need to turn them from time to time. The meat should not be dry. This takes a maximum of 15 minutes with my oven.
While you are grilling the meat, wash, cut and thread the green bell pepper, red bell pepper and the remaining onion on toothpicks.
When the meat it well grilled/broiled, heat the vegetable oil in a dry clean pot.
Add the pepper and the thick stock from cooking the meat (if any) and fry for a bit.
Add the grilled goat meat.
Stir very well till the pepper is evenly distributed on the goat meat. The vegetable oil ensures that this happens and gives the Asun a nice glow.
That's it! Serve with the threaded vegetables.

If you are entertaining guests or having dinner with the family, serve with Fried Plantains or Jollof Rice.
If you are hosting a party, place them in a flat tray and put out with other small chops and snacks for your guests to enjoy.

PRINCE AYANLOWO OLATUNJI AYOBAMI

2013-06-06T04:01:00.002-07:00

How to Make Nigerian Egg Roll

Egg Roll! Egg Roll!! Egg Roll!!! Buy your Egg Roll! If you have ever travelled to Lagos from Eastern Nigeria by road, this is one of the things you'll hear being shouted by hawkers somewhere from Ore.
How to Make Nigerian Egg Rolls [Video]
I can't remember from where exactly you start hearing these calls from the hawkers but I know that this is my favorite thing to hear whenever I'm travelling to Lagos by road.
I love those perfectly oval Nigerian Egg Rolls and I've always wondered how they can make such a snack with the Puff Puff pastry perfectly covering the eggs.
So on this page, you'll find my attempt to try and replicate that delicious snack.
At first, I tried to make this snack using Puff Puff batter but failed woefully because the batter was too watery for egg rolls, the eggs did not pick up enough batter so I ended up with egg rolls with very thin puff puff pastry on the outside. In some cases, the egg was not fully covered and there were lots of the pastry sticking out here and there during frying.
I concluded that the egg rolls must be made from dough so I tried again using a sticky dough that I can easily manipulate with my hands.
The result is what you'll see in the video below but I strongly believe that the commercial egg roll makers must have a special machine for wrapping the dough on the eggs. That's the only way they can mass-produce the enormous quantity of egg rolls that are being sold on the Lagos/Benin expressway ... lol.
This is only my attempt to make the Nigerian Egg Roll so follow this recipe at your own risk :) I say at your own risk because I found that getting the insides to be well done is a hit/miss affair for me. Also, I guess there's an easier way to make these on a large scale or commercially. So for those of you who use my recipes for business, make sure you learn how to make egg rolls from an expert before attempting to supply these for money.

Ingredients

250g of plain flour
15 Eggs (approx)
2 level teaspoons of yeast (the one used in baking bread)
1 level teaspoon of ground nutmeg
Granulated Sugar to taste
½ teaspoon of salt
Lukewarm water (for mixing)
Vegetable Oil (for frying)

Tips for making Nigerian Egg Rolls

Do mix the dough with lukewarm water.
If your yeast is not as powdered as mine (see video), mix it separately with lukewarm water before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.
Heat up the oil at any temperature but reduce the heat to low before frying the egg rolls. I found that the outsides brown too quickly and if the oil is too hot, the insides of your egg roll will not be well done by the time the outside is brown or even burnt.
You only need to wrap the egg with a thin dough. If you want to make the dough thick so that the egg rolls will be as big as the ones sold in Nigeria, the insides will not be done by the time the outside starts burning. I tried everything possible, fried it with very low heat to no avail so there must be a secret to how the Nigerian ones are made. I'm still looking into that. But don't worry too much about the thickness, the taste is the same.

Watch the video below to see how I made my Nigerian Egg Rolls.

PRINCE AYANLOWO OLATUNJI

2013-06-06T03:53:00.002-07:00

How to Make Nigerian Egg Roll

Ingredients

250g of plain flour
15 Eggs (approx)
2 level teaspoons of yeast (the one used in baking bread)
1 level teaspoon of ground nutmeg
Granulated Sugar to taste
½ teaspoon of salt
Lukewarm water (for mixing)
Vegetable Oil (for frying)

Tips for making Nigerian Egg Rolls

Do mix the dough with lukewarm water.
If your yeast is not as powdered as mine (see video), mix it separately with lukewarm water before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.
Heat up the oil at any temperature but reduce the heat to low before frying the egg rolls. I found that the outsides brown too quickly and if the oil is too hot, the insides of your egg roll will not be well done by the time the outside is brown or even burnt.
You only need to wrap the egg with a thin dough. If you want to make the dough thick so that the egg rolls will be as big as the ones sold in Nigeria, the insides will not be done by the time the outside starts burning. I tried everything possible, fried it with very low heat to no avail so there must be a secret to how the Nigerian ones are made. I'm still looking into that. But don't worry too much about the thickness, the taste is the same.

Watch the video below to see how I made my Nigerian Egg Rolls.

PRINCE AYANLOWO OLATUNJI AYOBAMI

2013-06-06T03:49:00.000-07:00

How to Make Nigerian Puff Puff

Nigerian Puff Puff is that spongy, deep-fried, spherical snack that originated from Nigeria. It is soft and springs back to touch, you know, like when you pinch a foam sponge.
How to Make Nigerian Puff Puff [Video]
We leave it to our Nigerian brothers and sisters in the United States to tell you how tasty and special this Nigerian snack recipe is. Over there, it is rare to go to a party and not eat the Nigerian Puff Puff.
Making the Puff Puff recipe is both easy and complicated. Easy because the mixing is quite straight-forward and you will see proof that you are doing things right as you go along. It is only complicated when you do not follow the steps as detailed on this website.
For 250g of Puff Puff, you will need the following ingredients.

Ingredients

250g of Plain Flour
2 teaspoons of yeast (the one used in baking bread)
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Granulated Sugar to taste
3 pinches of salt
Lukewarm water (for mixing)
Vegetable Oil (for frying)

Before you make the Nigerian Puff Puff

If your yeast is the type that looks like tiny pebbles or is like paste, mix it with lukewarm water and set aside. you will add it later when you have added water to the Puff Puff mix. If your yeast is in powder form, then add it when you add the other dry ingredients to the flour (as mentioned below).

Directions

Put the floor in a bowl, add the ground nutmeg, powdered yeast, sugar and salt. Mix all these together.
Add water in small quantities and mix everything by hand till you have a good blend of all the ingredients. Add the yeast you mixed with lukewarn water if applicable. Use warm water to mix the puff puff ingredients if you want it to rise faster.
Keep mixing till the batter is smooth but not too watery to flow from a spoon. The mix should be much thicker than pancake batter (see video below).
Cover the bowl with aluminum foil and make sure it is airtight by pressing the edges of the bowl (see video).
Leave to rise for about 45 minutes. When OK to fry, the Puff Puff batter should have risen in quantity and will have some air bubbles.
Pour some oil in a deep pot and allow to heat up. It's not advisable to use a deep fryer for Puff Puff because of the netting but if you want to use it, set the temperature to 170°C.

Note: The oil should be at least 3 inches deep. This is so that the puff puff will become spherical when scooped into the oil. You don't want to end up with flat Pancakes. lol
Test that the oil is hot enough by putting a drop of batter into the oil. If it sizzles and comes up to the surface of the oil, then the oil is hot enough. If the oil is not hot enough, the batter will go down to the bottom of the oil and stay there.
When the oil is hot enough, scoop some batter into the oil with your hand by pressing the batter to come out from between your thumb and index finger. You should see the video for this technique as this is what will make your Puff Puff have a near-perfect spherical shape.
Put in more scoops of the batter, as much as the space in the frying pot will allow without overcrowding.
Once the underside of the puff puff has turned golden brown, flip the ball so that the topside will be fried as well.
When both sides are golden brown, take out the puff puff balls and place in a sieve. If you want to reduce the oil on your Puff Puff as much as possible, then line your sieve with paper towels. The paper towels help soak away the excess oil on the puff puff.

That's how the Nigerian Puff Puff is made.

PRINCE AYANLOWO OLATUNJI AYOBAMI

2013-06-06T03:29:00.003-07:00

How to Make Nigerian Chin Chin

Chin Chin is the crunchy deep-fried snack that originated from Nigeria. It is an ideal light refreshment for you and your guests. The Nigerian Chin Chin can last for weeks if stored in an airtight container.
How to Make Nigerian Chin Chin [Video]
With no baking involved in this recipe, Chin Chin is one of the easiest Nigerian snacks to make.

To make some Nigerian Chin Chin, you will need the following ingredients.

Ingredients for Soft Chin Chin

1kg of Plain Flour
150ml of milk / 150g of powdered milk
275g of granulated sugar
250g of margarine
2 medium sized nutmegs | 2 teaspoonfuls of ground nutmeg
Vegetable Oil (for frying)

If you want the Chin Chin really crunchy, use the following quantities of ingredients

1kg of Plain Flour
75ml of milk / 75g of powdered milk
200g of granulated sugar
125g of margarine
2 medium sized nutmegs | 2 teaspoonfuls of ground nutmeg
Vegetable Oil

Directions

Mix the milk and sugar in a bowl and leave to soak.

Note: If you are using powdered milk, mix the milk and sugar. Then add 150ml of water for soft chin chin (75ml of water for crunchy chin chin), mix and leave to soak.
One way to get the sugar to dissolve fast is to grind it in a dry mill before mixing it with other ingredients.
In a separate bowl, mix the ground nutmeg and flour, then rub the margarine into the flour till it has mixed well with the flour, leaving no lumps.
Add the sugar/milk mixture to the margarine/flour mixture and mix by hand till a smooth dough is achieved.
Place the dough on a flat surface and start kneading gently with a dough roller.
When the dough is flat, cut into desired sizes.
Deep-fry in hot vegetable oil.
While frying, continuously stir the chin chin till you get a golden brown color.
Scoop the fried pieces onto a flat tray to dry and cool down quickly.

When the chin chin had cooled down completely, store in a dry, airtight container.

BY PRINCE AYANLOWO OLATUNJI AYOBAMI

2013-05-31T05:41:00.000-07:00

How to Make Nigerian Sausage Roll

When we hear Sausage Rolls, Gala®, the most popular Nigerian Sausage Roll comes to mind. If you want to learn how to make Sausage Rolls that do not leave an after-taste of sausages in your mouth, keep reading. :)
How to Make Nigerian Sausage Rolls [Video]
I have seen a lot of recipes for Sausage Rolls where a beef sausage is slapped on a dough, folded and baked. But that tastes too "sausagey" for my liking. I'll rather put the sausage in a bread roll and eat instead of wasting my time and electricity baking that in the oven.

Nigerian Sausage Roll Ingredients

The number of Sausage Rolls you will get with the following ingredients depends on how flat you roll out your dough and the size you cut your sausage rolls during preparation.

For the dough

Plain Flour: 300g
Baking Powder: 1 to 2 teaspoons
Margarine: 150g
Salt: ½ teaspoon
Cold Water

For the sausage filling

300g of sausage (Satis® is a popular brand in Nigeria)
½ teaspoon of ground Nutmeg
1 big stock cube

Ornamental Ingredient

1 medium-sized egg

Tools I used while making the Sausage Rolls

Oven: Buy it in USA | in UK
Glass Bowl Buy it in USA | in UK
Kitchen scale: Buy it in USA | in UK
Dough Roller or good old wine bottle. Buy dough roller in USA | in UK
Hand blender for blending the sausages. A normal blender will NOT work well for this task because with normal blenders, you will need to add water to what you are blending but in this case, you don't want to add water to the sausages. Buy it in USA | in UK
A table: – You will need a flat surface to roll out and cut the dough.
A blunt knife for cutting the dough.
A brush for rubbing the egg on the sausage rolls.
A pestle.

Directions for preparing the Nigerian Sausage Rolls

The Sausage Filling

I don't like sausages because they are tasteless and salty. For this reason, I like to season sausages before using them in my Sausage Rolls. Boiling them with seasoning is never enough because the seasoning cannot penetrate the compact sausage.
The following steps will show you how I season my sausages before using them.

Put the sausages in a bowl and use a blunt object eg a pestle to mash them up.
Add the ground nutmeg.
Crush the stock cubes with your fingers and add to the mashed sausages. At this time, feel free to add any other seasoning that catches your fancy.
Stir well to mix the added ingredients with the mashed sausages.
Use the hand blender to blend the sausages into a smooth paste.
Set this aside.

The Sausage Roll dough

The dough for Sausage Rolls is mixed exactly as that of Nigerian Meat Pie

Put the flour in a sizeable bowl; add the baking powder and salt. Mix these dry ingredients very well. You really do not need a lot of salt for the sausage roll dough. Most sausages contain a lot of salt already.
Use a tablespoon to scoop the margarine in small bits into the bowl of flour. The smaller you make the bits of margarine, the easier it will be for you to rub them into the flour.
Use finger tips to rub the margarine into the flour till the mix becomes like crumbs.
Add cold water in bits and mix till a stiff ball of dough is formed. You only need a small quantity of water for this to happen.

Get other stuff ready :)

Set your oven to 170°C (~335°F) to preheat while you continue with the sausage roll.
Rub margarine on the insides of the oven tray, spray flour on it, pour out the excess flour and set aside. This is so that the undersides of the sausage rolls do not burn or stick to the tray during baking.
Break the egg, beat it and set aside, you will need it later.

Roll, Cut, Fill, Fold and Close

Roll out the dough to a 3mm thickness.
Use a blunt knife to make a rectangular cut on the rolled out dough.
Remove the excess dough and rub the egg on the rectangular dough.
Scoop some sausage along the edge of the length of the rectangle. The thickness of the sausage should be such that you can comfortably fold the dough and still be left with an overlap. Watch the video below to see how I did that.
Fold the dough as you would fold a mat.
Rest the folded roll on the excess dough to make a seal like you would with the flap of an envelope.
Cut the sausage roll to desired lengths.
Roll out more dough, cut, fill, fold, cut into desired lengths and place in the greased oven tray till all the dough is used.
Rub the egg on the sausage rolls. This gives them a golden brown look when done.
Set the tray in the preheated oven and bake till the Sausage Rolls are golden brown. This should take approximately 40 minutes depending on the thickness of your dough and the type/heating capacity of your oven.

That's how to make the Nigerian Sausage Rolls that do not have the strong sausagey smell and taste.

2013-05-31T05:32:00.000-07:00

How to Make Nigerian Meat Pie Recipe

The best Nigerian Meat Pie is moist, yummy and has minced meat, potato and carrot filling. The filling is usually adequately seasoned and gives the meat pie its unique taste.
How to Make Nigerian Meat Pie [Video]
The Nigerian Meat Pie is a popular snack because it is tasty, moist and does not produce crumbs when it is being eaten, if it is well-prepared, that is. The recipe detailed here will help you make the best meat pie recipe.
For another version of this recipe visit the Nigerian Meat Pie as a Dessert page.

Nigerian Meat Pie Ingredients

The number of meat pies you will get depends on the diameter of the meat pie cutter you use. A cutter that is 8 inches (20cm) in diameter will give you about 10 meat pies with the following ingredients.

For the dough

Plain Flour (All Purpose Flour)– 1 Kg (2.2 lbs)
Baking Powder – 2 teaspoons
Margarine – 500g (1.1 lbs)
Salt – 2 pinches
Cold Water - ½ cup / 125 ml / 4.2 oz

For the meat pie filling

2 medium-sized Irish potatoes
2 medium-sized carrots
500g (1.1 lbs) of minced meat
1 medium-sized onion
2 cooking spoons of Vegetable Oil
Seasoning - 2 big Maggi / Knorr cubes and 1 teaspoon of thyme
2 tablespoons of plain flour
Cold water – 1 cup / 250 ml / 8.4 oz
Salt to taste

Ornamental Ingredient

1 medium-sized egg

Tools you will need to make a meat pie

Oven: This will be used for baking the meat pie. Buy it in USA | in UK
Dough Roller or good old wine bottle. Buy dough roller in USA | in UK
Kitchen scale: Buy it in USA | in UK
A table: You will need a flat surface to roll out and cut the dough for the meat pie.
Meat Pie cutter: There are special cutters in the market but if you have a pot cover with sharp edges that can make a clean cut on the flattened dough, please use this.
Table fork: This will be used to press the edges of the meat pie after the filling has been added.

Directions for preparing the Nigerian Meat Pie

The Meat Pie Filling

Peel the Irish potatoes and scrape the carrots, wash and cut these two into tiny cubes.
Wash and slice the onions into tiny pieces.
With your cooker or stove set to medium heat, heat the vegetable oil in a pot, add the diced onions and stir for a bit, add the minced meat and stir vigorously till the minced meat turns pale.
Add 1 cup of water and the seasoning. Cover the pot and once the contents of the pot starts boiling, add the diced carrots and potatoes and cook till everything is well done.
Dissolve 2 tablespoons of plain flour in half cup of cold water and add to the meat pie filling. This tip is so that the meat pie filling does not dry up during baking. It is also what keeps the meat pie filling moist.
Add salt to taste, stir the contents and turn off the heat. Set the meat pie filling aside. Now is the time to prepare the dough for the meat pie.

The Meat Pie dough

Put the 1 kg of flour in a sizeable bowl; add 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 2 pinches of salt. You really do not need a lot of salt for the meat pie dough. The meat pie will get most of its taste from the filling. Mix these dry ingredients very well.
Use a tablespoon to scoop the margarine in small bits into the bowl of flour. The smaller you make the bits of margarine, the easier it will be for you to rub them into the flour.
Use finger tips to rub the margarine into the flour till the mix becomes like crumbs.

Note: In Nigeria, we also refer to margarine as butter but for my audience in the Western countries, please do NOT use butter for the meatpie dough because butter is too hard and this makes it difficult for you to mix it with the flour to achieve the crumbly look. So please use margarine.

Also butter is quite heavy so it makes the dough very greasy which hinders the elasticity of the dough.

Can I use melted butter? No, because it simply ruins the meat pie.
Now, start adding cold water in bits while at the same time folding the mix till a stiff ball of dough is formed. You will be surprised at how small quantity of water you need to get the dough stiff. At most, all you need for the 1 kg of flour is half a cup of water.
Knead the dough very well, put back in the bowl and leave to rest for 5 to 7 minutes. This makes the dough more elastic.

Cut, Fill, Fold and Close

Set your oven to 170°C (335°F) and leave to preheat while you continue with the meat pie.
Rub margarine on the insides of the oven tray and set aside. This is so that the undersides of the meat pies do not burn or stick to the tray during baking.
Break the egg, beat it and set aside, you will need it pretty soon.
Knead the dough some more, roll it out to achieve a 5mm thickness.
Use a cutter, be it the cover of a small pot or a meat pie cutter, to make round cuts on the rolled out dough.
Remove the excess dough, leaving behind the round cuts.
Scoop some meat pie filling into the center of the round cuts, the quantity should be such that you can comfortably close the dough without overflows. Don't worry if you over-filled the first one, you have many meat pies to fill today so at some point you will know just the right quantity of meat pie filling to scoop into the dough.
Rub the egg on the inside edge of the cut meatpie dough. Watch the video to see how this is done. This is to ensure that your meat pie is perfectly sealed and does not open up while it is being baked.
Fold one part of the dough to meet the other end and use a fork to press the 2 edges together to close tightly. Place your work of art in the oven tray and repeat the previous step till all the cut out dough is exhausted.
Roll out more dough, cut, fill, close and place in the greased oven tray till all the dough is used.
Rub the egg on the meat pies. This gives the meat pie a golden brown look when done.
Set the tray in the preheated oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. This time will depend on the type and heating capacity of your oven. For some ovens, the meat pie will be done in half an hour, for some, it may take up to 50 mins. Whatever type of oven you have, the important thing to know is that the best meat pies are the ones baked at medium heat. You can confirm that the meat pie is done when it starts browning. It is alright to open the oven to check this.

That's how the Nigerian Meat Pie is made. It may seem like a long process just because the procedure as explained here is very detailed and includes lots of tips that are often over-looked. You will see that it is an easy and straight-forward recipe when you actually do it. But why worry about the time it will take? Just think of all the yummy meat pies you will be eating. :)
Feel free to use half the quantity of the stated ingredients if you do not want to make as many meat pies.

2013-04-12T05:25:00.001-07:00

Friends or Enemies?

by Christy Fogg in Relationship

All too often I see couples who come into my office with their marriage in shambles and on the verge of divorce. They come to counseling in an attempt to save their marriage. You can usually spot these couples from a mile away; they sit on opposite sides of the couch (not touching AT ALL!), usually have their arms folded, and the moment they start talking, everything is the other person’s fault.
The sad thing about these couples is that somewhere along the way, they stopped being each other’s friend and instead started to view one another as enemies. They no longer look at the marriage as a team effort. Any positive feelings that they once had about their spouse are long gone. How does a marriage get to this point?

We Stopped Talking

Often couples that view one another as the enemy have stopped communicating with one another. Maybe one spouse doesn’t feel like the other spouse listens to them, so they stop talking. Perhaps a husband or wife constantly feels attacked or belittled by their spouse.
Maybe the communication was never really good to begin with, so both partners just got tired of trying and gave up. Regardless, it’s very easy to view your spouse as the enemy if you don’t know their thoughts and feelings, and if they don’t ask you about yours. This allows you both to assume the worst about each other.

We Stopped Trying

Some couples report that the anger and resentment they feel towards their spouse has increased so much that they don’t remember what it feels like to love and appreciate one another. So many couples enter into marriages not thinking about the time and effort they will need to invest in their marriage to keep it afloat.
The division between spouses can happen in scenarios like this: after what feels like the hundredth time of asking your spouse to not leave dirty dishes in the sink, your anger and resentment towards them takes over. You convince yourself that your spouse leaves the dishes in the sink because they want to make you feel miserable.
When you confront them, they feel attacked. Nothing ever really changes because you stopped trying to approach and communicate with love and understanding and your spouse stopped trying to help you because nothing is ever good enough.

We Stopped Caring

We all have emotional needs that we expect our spouse to meet, such as affection, sex, conversation, companionship, etc. When we don’t feel like our spouse cares or if they have an “all about me” attitude, it can feel very empty and bring a lot of pain. Not having needs met in a marriage can lead to a very dark place of feeling isolated from your partner.
I hear couples say all the time “Well they don’t meet my needs, so why should I meet theirs?” Having this attitude is guaranteed to continue to create a bigger wedge than already exists. Meeting one another’s needs means not keeping score. It means doing it because you care.

We Stopped Feeling

In order to cope with the hurt and the pain, some individuals put up huge walls in order to keep them protected from their spouse. In doing so, they often start to feel nothing but numbness. If your spouse has caused you pain and
there has never been any closure, your heart hardens over the years as a coping mechanism.
If you feel nothing when it comes to your marriage and/or your spouse, your spouse often becomes the enemy in the relationship. You start to blame them for the nothingness you feel. You just exist in a marriage, but don’t feel any passion or love towards the other person. It’s like a big black hole swallows up your marriage.

Getting Help

If you see yourself or your marriage in any of the above mentioned situations, please understand that the path you are heading down is not healthy and is full of uncertainty. The tension, pain, frustration, or even numb that you feel is not okay.
If you see yourself starting to view your spouse as the enemy, please get professional help. A therapist can help you both identify ways that you are contributing to the overall problem areas of the marriage. Yes, you both have responsibility in where your marriage is now and where it goes from here. You can continue to view one another as the enemy, or you can choose to rebuild your friendship.
About the Author:
Christy Fogg, LCSW is a therapist at Imagine Hope Counseling Group.
Imagine Hope Counseling Group provides marriage, couples, individual and family counseling for adults, children and adolescents. Imagine Hope is based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. Imagine Hope’s desire is to inspire hope for life and relationships, understanding that Hope is one of the most important things a person needs in order to keep pressing on when life gets tough. Christy has specialized experience in helping others in the areas of anxiety, depression, ADHD, stress management, and faith based counseling.

2013-04-12T05:24:00.003-07:00

Make Relationship Resolutions!

by Natalie Chandler in Relationship

Every New Year’s we decide what we want to change for the year. Unfortunately, for most of us, it’s almost become a joke to make a New Year’s resolution. People plan to lose weight, get their finances in order, and promise to spend more time on a particular interest, only to find them forgotten mid-January.
There are important steps you can take to make your resolutions stick. While you are at it, why not make some resolutions this year as a couple? These steps are geared towards helping you make a better relationship this year.

Step 1. Change “New Year’s Resolutions” to “What do we want to see happen this year in our relationship?”

As I said, resolutions have become a joke, so I want you to become more visionary as a couple here. How do you want the relationship to look this time next year?
Do you want to be spending more time together, having more fun, or taking/planning trips? Perhaps you would like to be doing a hobby together or having fun working out a couple times a week. Have fun with this and discuss it together.

Step 2. Imagine what your relationship would be like if you made these changes.

Imagine what would change in the relationship if you made these changes. How would you feel emotionally and in some aspects, physically? Would you feel closer to each other? Imagine what that would be like.

Step 3. Decide what you need to do specifically to make these changes to your relationship.

What do you need to do personally to make these changes? What about as a couple? If you want to spend more time together, do you need to find a regular babysitter for the kids? Create a goal of how often you want to go out and even go ahead and put it on the calendar. Think of other creative ways to make it happen to.
If you can’t go on a date every week (this might be unrealistic if you have children) create an at-home date night with no TV, computer, phone or ipad. Just the two of you talking, playing a game, feeling a little frisky! Set these up as well. If you write things down, you are more likely to actually follow- thru.

Step 4. ALWAYS write down your goals or changes. Always!

I suggest writing these in a journal together or in your phone where they are going to be accessible. If you put them on a mirror or something you see every day, you get used to it and don’t notice it anymore. Put it somewhere that you can access it but that is isn’t right in front of you.
I like to keep my goals in my phone, my journal (for review), and on my clipboard at work. I don’t see it every day but I can look at it when I need to if I am at work.

Step 5. Review your changes and goals often.

The challenge with New Year’s resolutions are that we usually only create them in January. If we had them or reviewed them, say every 3 months, we may have more success in keeping them. Why not do that?
Every 3-4 months check in with each other and see how it’s going. Are you keeping your commitments? Are you creating more time together? Don’t be discouraged if you are not. You can always start right then!
It may be helpful to set a reminder on your phone for every 3 months. It’s amazing how fast 3 months go by and it’s easy to forget. With modern technology these days, there’s little excuses to forget!

Step 6. Find an accountability partner.

This is the best tip I can give you. If you have someone who knows you well, has your best interest at heart, and knows you want to work on your marriage- tell them about your changes you are making. Ask them to hold you accountable and ask you from time to time how it’s going.
Be sure this is a person of your same gender and share with your partner who have chosen as your accountability partner. That way they can agree if they feel emotionally safe having that person know the goals. You may decide to not share every detail of the goals but just be general.
For example, if one of your goals is to have more sexual intimacy, perhaps you could tell your friend that you are just hoping to make some changes in your relationship and you would like them to ask you if you are doing your part to make it happen. That is keeping it general and safe for your partner.
These steps have tested tried and true both with my clients and in my life as well. I used to make New Year’s resolutions, only to find them forgotten as well. Now I make life changes, see it differently, and create action steps to get there. It has changed EVERYTHING in my life! You can use these steps for anything in your life, not just relationships.

2013-04-12T05:24:00.001-07:00

What is Sex Addiction?

by Renee Segal in Sex

The wife of a client of mine came to therapy for a session after she recently found out that her husband was a Sex Addict. She didn’t believe it!
She asked me to explain how I knew that he wasn’t just a narcissist and this was a way to excuse his bad behavior. In fact, she asked a very important question: What exactly is Sex Addiction?
The images that come to mind when Sex Addiction is mentioned can vary; a smooth talking famous person, a person addicted to pornography, a person who goes to bars and has a lot of one night stands, a Peeping Tom, prostitution, sex offenders like pedophiles, the list can go on.
Sex Addiction, Love Addiction, Sexual Dependency or Sexual Compulsivity can encompass many behaviors. In fact, the mental health community itself is not in complete agreement about what is considered problematic and none of these terms are included in the new DSM V.
Although the mental health community is not in agreement, there is such a thing as Sexual Compulsivity and Addiction. As I explained to the wife of my client, this label was not meant to “excuse” my client’s behavior but to help her understand what was happening to him. He is responsible for his behavior and needs help to stop it.

Origins in Childhood Trauma

The seeds of sex addiction are usually planted in childhood. The person had unmet emotional needs from having a parent that was consistently unreliable in some way, like an alcoholic parent or a parent with a chronic illness. This same person, as a child also experienced some sexual injury.
Examples of sexual injuries can be experiencing sexual innuendo which felt confusing or seeing pornography during early childhood, or to the extreme experiencing childhood sexual abuse.
However, not everyone that has childhood sexual trauma and has an emotionally unavailable parent turns into a sex addict.
A child who grows up with a lot of invalidation or parents and adults who are not emotionally available can learn that having needs is not ok. Since all people have emotional needs, the child has to learn to suppress these needs by numbing out and not feeling them or by pushing them away, thus learning how not to depend on others for support.
The person learns to do this controlling themselves, and their emotions. The confluence of these events causes an addiction to be born.

How Can Sexual Behavior be addictive?

Sexual behavior becomes problematic when it is used to numb inner pain and avoid feelings.
This is not unlike any other addiction in which the person uses a substance or behavior to avoid uncomfortable situations or to change or alter his or her mood. Or a person uses sexual behavior as the only way the individual can relate to or connect with others.

The sex addiction cycle

Preoccupation with Sex
Fantasy and preoccupation with the next sexual encounter be it porn, or cyber-chatting or going to the bar, induce the addict to avoid feelings and produce a numbed-out state. This becomes the beginning of the addiction cycle. The person is thinking about the next encounter constantly.
All thoughts are consumed with sex. Everything becomes sexualized and is twisted into a sexual context; one client told me that when a woman would even smile at him or show any interest he thought she wanted to be sexual. This is the beginning of the high.
Sex then becomes a ritual
The addict then develops special routines that intensify the experience. This adds to the excitement. Examples of rituals can be: cruising, drinking, flirting, or catching a glimpse of an eye. The rituals are more distractions from bad feelings. The high continues.
Acting out
“Acting out” is the terminology for the addictive behavior itself: affairs, compulsive masturbation while fantasizing or using porn, peeping, exhibitionism, strip clubs, prostitution, non-consensual touch or anonymous sex.
Bad feelings
Once the sexual acting out is over sex addicts report intense shame, hopelessness, fear and sadness. One client told me that every January 1st he told himself that he would stop his acting out and by mid afternoon the same day he was back on the computer using porn again.
These bad feelings start the cycle again and the addict starts thinking about it to escape. The cycle becomes self-perpetuating.
These behaviors become compulsive and self-destructive because the need to alter the mood is more powerful than the consequences of the behaviors. Sex addicts have tremendous guilt and shame and are unable to stop their behaviors in spite of negative consequences.
There is some tolerance created. Sex addicts report needing more and more stimulation to get off, and they report more risky behaviors.
Once client exclusively used free internet porn, then started to pay for porn and shocked himself by hiring an escort which eventually got him arrested and led him to recovery.
Although sex addiction includes a high, out of control behavior and tolerance, sexual addiction is not considered a true addiction, because it does not induce a physical “withdrawal” per se. Most addicts report early in their recovery that they continue to have recurring compulsive sexual thoughts.

Treating Compulsive Sexual Behavior

Since compulsive sexual behavior is viewed as a psychological problem and not a will power problem, it is treated like other behavioral addictions.
As mentioned above, people with sexual compulsivity tend to have a past with sexual trauma and abuse, it is important for partners and family members to know that shaming and humiliating their loved one makes the problem worse.
A supportive non-judgmental approach is recommended. This is very difficult for partners of sex addicts because the acting out behaviors can feel personally violating to the non-addicted partner since sexuality is shared.
• Individual psychotherapy is recommended to provide insight into the causes and to help with any childhood trauma. Individual therapy can help with triggers and alternative coping strategies. It also helps people explore healthy sexual behaviors that are consistent with their values.
• Couples psychotherapy: To help the partner understand the nature of compulsive sexual behavior, to reduce shame, to improve communication, and to cope with any other relationship issues that emerge.
• Psycho-education: Since sexual compulsivity and sex addiction not well-understood reading about it can help people learn about their dynamics and the recovery process.
• Group psychotherapy: Used for shame reduction, group support, and to practice new interpersonal skills. Participation in: Sex Addicts Anonymous (SAA) or Sexaholics Anonymous (SA) or Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA) and Co-dependents of Sex Addicts Anonymous (CoSa) are important to create new healthy friendships, establish support, enhance spirituality and reduce loneliness.

2013-04-12T05:23:00.003-07:00

So You Can’t Get Your Spouse to Therapy. . .

by Rod Louden in Counseling

Let’s face it. When it comes to getting men to go to couples counseling, it’s often a battle that leaves a lot of women pulling their hair out in frustration.
Its seems that a lot of men react to the word therapy in the same way they react to the word vasectomy; squirming, as images of pain and suffering flood their minds. The writhing is very similar to the reaction one sees when men hear those four dreaded words, we need to talk.
When my telephone rings regarding scheduling an appointment for couples counseling, 90% of the time it is the wife or girlfriend calling. Often, the woman states that she is having a hard time getting her husband/boyfriend to agree to go to counseling. After answering her questions, she states that she’ll talk to her husband and have him give me a call.
Rarely do I ever receive that call. Or, she will make the decision to schedule an appointment. Often on the day of the appointment, she’ll call to cancel the appointment stating that her husband just called and “has to work late and he can’t make it.” I may or may not ever hear from her again. In order to help you get your mate to session, here are some strategies to use to try and solve this problem.
1) Approach your partner at a time when he has some free time and research therapists together.
The majority of my clients find me through the Internet. There are quite a few referral sources out there. Look at potential therapists together. Talk about what you hope to get out of therapy and what you hope that a therapist will provide you. Should the therapist be male or female? What would be the best time to go?
Does the therapist have weekend appointments? Try to be as specific as possible in order to give your man a sense of equal participation. This will help him to buy into the concept that going to therapy may yield positive results and won’t be the torture that he imagines.
2) Once you have agreed on a therapist, make the call together.
Most therapists use an answering machine or service, so you’ll be leaving a message. Leave your mate’s cellphone number as the number for the therapist to call. In this way, he is now going to be asking the questions and deciding when to make an appointment.
If after talking to the therapist he states that he didn’t like the way the therapist sounded, go back to step one and start the process again. Don’t let time pass. Do it as soon as he lets you know. Continue this process until he schedules an appointment.
3) The day before the appointment, remind your partner of the session.
As you remind your partner of the up coming session, let him know that you’re interested in solving problems;not in complaining about him. Let him know that you’re going to be looking at your own issues as well, and that you really appreciate the fact that he is doing something that he may not be looking forward to doing.
4) If he does have a legitimate reason to cancel, have him call the therapist.
If your man really can’t make it to the session, insist that he call not only to cancel the session, but to reschedule as well. Let him know what times you have in the next few days and reiterate how you are looking forward to working to make your relationship better, not to complain about him.
I hope that these strategies will help you to get that resistant partner in to therapy. It has been my experience that a lot of the men who had been resistant to coming were excited to see that I was on the side of the relationship and not either individual; that I was vested in solutions and not looking for who was to blame. At the end of the session, he was the one asking, “when can we come back.” I love to see the look on the wife’s face in that moment!

2013-04-12T05:23:00.001-07:00

Falling Back in Love

by Dr. Steve Rockman in Relationship

Having been a therapist for over thirty years, I am always pleased to find new ways of helping couples. A few years ago, I discovered a treatment approach by Willard Harley that’s short term and practical. Combined with other techniques that I use, this approach has proven effective. Furthermore, it offers hope to relationships that seem hopeless.
I’ve had several successful cases where one member had fallen out of love, ready to leave the relationship. If you’re interested, read on.

We Really Do Keep Score: the Love Bank

In relationships, we really do keep score. The way that we “keep score” is not necessarily a conscious one. Our mind automatically keeps an account of how well our partner is meeting our emotional needs. Our partner has a Love Bank of us too. The way it works is simple.
When we act in a way to please our spouse, we gain points in their Love Bank. When we act in a way to displease them, we lose points.
Most of us are not aware of our partners needs let alone our own. We frequently give to our mate what we need but often miss the mark in meeting their needs by not giving them what they want.
There are two ways to increase Love Bank scores:

a) Increase behaviors which meet our spouses important emotional needs
b) Stop behaviors that make our partner unhappy.

The latter is called Love Busters.

a) When we have accumulated a plethora of points, we fall in love.
b) When there are less points coming in than are going out; when we are bankrupt or overdrawn, then we fall out of love.

Love Busters

Love Busters are the things that we do to negatively affect our partner. We lose points in their Love Bank when we exhibit these behaviors. The most common Love Busters include the following:

Angry Outbursts
Criticalness
Dishonesty
Annoying Behavior
Selfish Demands
Other “bad behavior”

I have often found that stopping bad behavior (Love Busters) is often as important as starting good behavior (meeting our spouses Emotional Needs).

Emotional Needs

We all have emotional needs. Furthermore, we have expectations from our partner to meet these needs. Men and Women generally have different emotional needs. Duh! The most common emotional needs for men are:

Sexual Fulfillment
Attractive Spouse
Admiration
Domestic Support
Recreational Companionship

The most common emotional needs for women are:

Affection
Conversation
Openness and Honesty
Family Commitment
Financial Support

How We Fall In and Out of Love

When we meet someone who makes a favorable impression on us, they will earn points in our Love Bank.
For example: Bob is attracted to Jan. She gets 200 points in his love bank just for being pretty. He asks her out. She says yes. She gains another 100 points. They have a good date. She gains another 100 points. After the date she kisses him. It is a very passionate kiss. She gains another 150 points. You get the idea.
Now, what goes up can also go down. Let’s assume that they have been dating for a month and Jan cancels a date with Bob at the last moment. She loses 50 points but already has a score of 1000 so the reserves cover the loss and the relationship is good.
If she was to continue to meet Bob’s emotional needs in a meaningful way, then she will have earned a high Love Bank score with Bob and he will fall in love if the score is high enough.
Now, let’s assume that Jan and Bob keep doing a wonderful job in meeting each others needs. They have romantic candle light dinners, great sex and good conversations. Basically, they don’t want to be out of sight of each other. They are crazy about each other. Their Love Bank scores are high and they get married.
Now, let’s suppose that they have been married for several years and have three children. Bob has a new job that requires him to work late so he is not as physically and emotionally available.
The children are demanding more of Jan’s attention. She is frequently too tired to have sex and is not as emotionally available to Bob’s needs. Over a period of time, the couple’s emotional needs may not be getting met.
Furthermore, there may be bad habits that may be stealing points from their Love Banks. If their scores drop too low score (in the red, over drawn) they will fall out of love. Bob may develop an interest in an attractive female co-worker while working late and Jan might invest all of her emotional needs into her children. These patterns may lead to an affair or a divorce.

So, How Do We Get Back in Love?

First off, many romantics do not think that it is possible to recapture love. Love is like an illusive butterfly. Once it is gone, it is gone and you can’t get it back. Of course, I do not agree with them. If you think of the Love Bank Concept, Just as it is possible to fall out of love, it is possible to fall back in love.
Falling in love is achieved by getting a high enough Love Bank Score so that your partner falls in love with you. Gaining points by meeting the partner’s emotional needs can do this. Stop losing points by changing the Love Buster behavior (angry outbursts, dishonesty, etc.).

Treatment

Couple’s are made aware of their partners emotional needs. After learning about each other’s needs in detail, they discuss ways to meet these needs. With the help of the therapist, strategies are developed for each partner to meet the other’s needs. Progress is discussed weekly in treatment and revisions are made as needed. This approach used with communication skill building has proven effective