Cornish pie crust mess, quiche crust just right!!!

Helloooooo everyone!! 

It has been a while... but we’re glad to have some foodie tales lined up. We’ll do our best to keep up with the weekends.

Yesterday, I attempted something I had never done before: make a Cornish pie crust with olive oil instead of butter or margarine.

I ended up making quiche! And a delicious one at that. But that isn’t the amazing part...

The amazing part is how I eventually got to improvise based on the baking knowledge I already had with the disaster before me... just because I was more motivated to make this work than throw each disaster away.

The oil and the flour combo was a mess: oily, and falling apart. That’s when I remembered that all my caterer friends mentioned to me that they used oil for cakes, not pastries!!! So I added eggs to help bind it up. That helped, but the dough would not roll out without breaking up. My Cornish pies were not happening. So without access to muffin tins, I created small dough moulds to hold the beef filling. That’s when the quiche idea was born, because I couldn’t figure out how on earth I’d be able to create a workable lid for the pie. By then I knew without a proper baking mould, the dough could spread out during baking and not really hold the filling. So I baked only the moulds for some minutes, took it out before it was properly cooked and compressed the bases further before adding the beef filling, the milk and eggs and popping them back in the oven.

I was truly astonished and so proud how it turned out; probably you can tell by my write up so far. The crust was light, flaky and delicious. But I realised even more that determination often makes possible the impossible.

I almost gave up and threw away my dough at each disappointing turn...

Really encouraged by this particular baked goodie. 😁

Now that my excited narration is complete... lol... let’s move on to the video recipe, shall we?

I hope you enjoyed the video and are motivated to try out this recipe! Do let us know what you think of it when you do 😃

And till we meet again, do continue to have delicious foodie experiences 😁



Thank you for reading our post and watching our video today. If you loved it or simply learnt something new, kindly remember to like, comment or share with others.

Warm regards, 

The Ndudu Tales team 

My favourite pepper mix

Hi everyone!

This post was birthed from a variety of feedback from different people. From compliments about how tasty 😋 the overnight-marinated meat was, to what’s that mix that you just took from the freezer through to how did you make this dish so quickly???

So I’m pretty delighted to share my favourite pepper mix with you today. I’m sure you and my other Ndudu Tales partners may have similar versions, but it’s since it’s wonderful to add on tasty knowledge, I hope you enjoy this post and give it a try some time. 😊

Uses

Now before I go into the simple method and ingredients for this pepper mix, permit me to list a few things I use it for:

• Overnight marination of  meat and fish: I tend to poke holes in the meat/fish with a sharp knife and then add some water and salt to the pepper mix. This allows the flavour to affect all parts of the cooked meat/fish. For grilling/baking/barbecuing, I love to allow the meat/fish to bask in it overnight or at least 8 hours. 
• Stewing meat: Adding this and some salt to my meats before placing it on low heat for it to stew is an awesome prep for my fried meats. Alternatively, if these stewed meats were to form the initial stages of making a soup or stew, I would add some blended garlic and onions and some more salt. If you allow the meats to absorb all the fluids from this stage before frying, serving as is, or adding the other ingredients for your soup/stew, you tend to enjoy maximum flavours in your dish. 
• Coating fish for frying: As with the others, this pepper mix scores an awesome flavour point for fried fish. Just add a little salt and if you have some time, allow it to stand for an hour or so. 
• Making stir fries, stews or shitɔ: I tend to always include this at the beginning, either with blended onions and garlic (or just onions) or soon after I allow my chopped onions (with diced garlic at times) to fry a bit. A tip for increased flavour: allow the pepper mix to look like crumbs when frying in a lot of oil, or at least start to taste sweet before adding your other ingredients. 
• For yam/potato based dishes: This tends to bring sweet life to fried or baked dishes like fish cakes, yam balls, shepherd’s pie, etc either by including a bit of the mix in the mashed yam/potato or in the meats/fish used for these dishes. 
• Any other dish that would benefit from the ingredients of this pepper mix: Go wild, have fun and attempt experiments with this pepper mix if your dish requires most or all of its ingredients. When combined properly, it tends to make most foods exciting! 

Ingredients and How to Make it

Because this pepper mix uses  proportions rather than exact weights more often than not, remember you can vary the ingredients as suits you. I tend to use the following because I love sweet but pepper fiery food. However, depending on the dish and how I prefer it, I vary the quantities too... so do feel free to do same... what counts is the ingredients feature. You may opt out on the garlic if you’re not a fan or replace the peppers with milder ones eg sweet pepper. 

Chop: 

• 5 parts onions 
• 4 parts ginger 
• 2 parts garlic  
• 1 part rocoto peppers  

Add a little water, and blend starting from the onions and garlic to introduce more fluid. Add the ginger and then end with the pepper (since that tends to slightly choke you when blended).    

C’est fini, c’est bon... your pepper mix is ready for use or to be stored by freezing.

Benefits

I’ll quickly list a few benefits of my favourite pepper mix: 

• Flavour: need I say more? Lol... 
• Convenience: if made in large quantities, you could store it in the freezer for weeks and use as needed. I would advise you store in small single use quantities so you wouldn’t need to refreeze what remains unused after thawing. Doing so allows you to keep its flavours as fresh as possible. 
• Versatility: a number of dishes benefit from it

Do let us know if you tried this as described or if you have your own pepper mix recipe and would like to share it. Till we meet again, please continue to have awesome foodie experiences.

Thanks for reading our blogpost today. If you enjoyed it or learnt something new, kindly like, comment or share with others. 

With warm regards, 

The Ndudu Tales Team 

Creamy fishcakes and veggie sauce

It’s great to be back to share another first attempt at a set of recipes I’m not familiar with. Achieving this dish made my week, and remembering it, it makes my hour all over again.

I fell in love with fishcakes at the Bathampton Mill; our blogpost on my visit there would give you some indication of how excited I was about my first taste of fishcake. And I decided to create my own... one which was creamy and smooth and comforting but also lightly spicy and full of flavour. Some ambitions are high and require a lot of research but this surely paid off!

I also hadn’t made potato skins ever... I just felt, hey, I could stop waste by converting it into a crispy topping. Also, the sauce... well, was a combination of my first attempt to actually cook with wine and also not waste the milky fish stock I had left over.

An overall success... and having three other people give me lovely compliments that day, I was simply elated! Super thankful I tried. Super thankful I had the support to try, especially from Ariel and Naa Djama. And super excited and humbled that Yassine, Joana and Ariel enjoyed my first ever fishcake dish. I hope when you do try this recipe, people who get to taste your dish would be happy too.

Enjoy the video 😃

Did you notice my mention of my favourite pepper mix in the video??? Well, for the recipe to this mix  in the video, please click here.

Till we meet again, please keep having wonderful foodie experiences and do let us know if you have any questions in the comments below.


Thanks for watching our Creamy Fishcake and Veggie sauce recipe. If you enjoyed this video and blogpost, please remember to share it with others, like or comment.