Pottage-like meals are so comforting particularly when they are served warm or hot. The rains are here? Well it seems to have rained at least twice this week. I look forward to fresh lush vegetables , splatter of rains on the roof and the sound of toads crocking , it’s strange how we all look at situations..toads . I am certainly not looking forward to the traffic jams that seems to be a characteristic feature of Lagos.
Banga rice is not new , it’s the way my grandma used to prepare rice on those rare occasions when rice was eaten. According to her rice was bird’s food.
I am not cooking exactly what grandmas use to cook. Mine is a risotto , simply a porridge like meal. So I use jasmine rice or the type of rice used for tuwon.
My other twist is Uziza seeds which has given this dish some character . This dish on its own is simply bland so you will need some good flavours to bring this sauce to life.
I like cooking from scratch , so I made my palm fruit sauce from palm fruits I always have in the freezer. I simply buy a lot at a time , wash and par boil for about 10 minutes, cool and freeze.
I invite you to try this simple but interesting rice dish. Enjoy.
Recipe
3 cups Palm fruit juice
1/2 cup Jasmine rice or the rice used for asking tuwon shinkafa
1/4 cup beef stock
1/4 cup Shrimps
Handful Mussels
1 table spoon ground Crayfish
1/2 teaspoon ground Uziza seeds
1 table spoon chopped Uziza leaves
Seasoning to taste
Pepper to taste
Method
1, Cook and pound the palm fruit . Add warm water and strain out the juice
2, wash the rice and set aside
3, Add the beef stock, shrimps, mussels, seasoning , pepper, crayfish Uziza seed and salt to taste and cook for about 5-8 minutes
4, Add the rice and lower the heat to allow rice cook gently
5, Stir the rice half way through the cooking to get a thick sauce. You may have to do this a few times.
6, Cook rice till very soft but not dry, you want the final dish to be a bit runny.
7 , Add the Uziza leaves just 2 minutes to taking the pot off the fire.
8, Serve warm
Tip: If you do not find mussels you may decide to use other seafoods available to you
Wonderful recipe as always.
But I need your help madam. My husband has been told to avoid oil in his meals by his Dr. and I seem to have exhausted my ideas I would really appreciate if you could post some ‘oil-less’ recipes(or that which won’t need more than a tablespoon of oil) or if you could send to direct to my inbox I would really appreciate it (joyikeji@gmail.com). Thank you
Nice one ma but pls can u show us de picture of what Sorghum leave looks like pls
just type mussel on google, you will see it. i tried to attach the picture but couldn’t
pls disregard. response not meant for this blog!