Rayz Kitchen

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Xmas Recipe 4:

Fried Rice

Ingredients

Rice - 3 cigar cups | 750g
Vegetable Oil
Chicken (whole chicken or chicken drumsticks)
Cow Liver (100g)
Plain Yellow Curry Powder – no chilli (1 tablespoon)
Green Beans (a handful)
5 medium sized carrots
Salt (to taste)
Onions - 3 medium sized bulbs
Seasoning – 3 Maggi/Knorr cubes & Thyme (1 teaspoon)


Before you cook the Fried Rice
Cut the vegetables

Wash all the vegetables to be used in cooking the fried rice. Scrape and cut the carrots into tiny cubes. Cut the green beans into small pieces of about 0.7cm long. Soak these 2 vegetables separately in hot water for about 5 minutes and drain. Cut 1 bulb of onion. Set all these aside.


Prepare the liver and chicken

Cook the cow liver till done and cut into tiny pieces. To save time and energy, you can cook the liver with the chicken.

Cut the whole chicken into pieces and cook with the seasoning and 2 bulbs of onions (chopped). When done, grill in an oven or deepfry with vegetable oil. This gives it a golden look which is more presentable especially when you are entertaining guests.

Cooking Directions

Parboil the rice(Wash the rice in cold water (optional) and place in a pot.Wash the parboiled rice and put in a sieve so all the water drains out.


Pour the chicken stock into a sieve to remove all traces of onions, thyme etc used in cooking the chicken. Pour the stock into a pot and set to boil. Once the water boils, add the parboiled rice. Also, add 1 tablespoon of plain yellow curry powder, then add salt to taste. The plain yellow curry powder is merely for colouring so should not contain chilli.


The water level should be slightly less than the level of the rice; at most it should be at the same level as the rice. This is to ensure that all the water dries up by the time the rice is cooked. Stir the contents; cover the pot and leave to cook on medium heat. This way the rice does not burn before the water dries up.


Once the water has dried up, check that the rice is cooked. Perfect fried rice is one that the grains are separated from one another, resistant to the bite but not hard.

Now, transfer the rice to a casserole dish or another pot to help cool it down quickly. This is essential to keep the grains from sticking to each other. If left in the original hot pot, the rice will continue to cook and eventually stick together.


At this point, it is advisable to divide the vegetables into say 4, 5 or even 6 equal parts. The rice will be fried in batches so this number depends on the quantity of rice you can comfortably fry in the pan or pot. Also, divide the cooked rice and the diced cow liver into the same number of equal parts.


Now pour a small amount of vegetable oil into a frying pan. This quantity of oil should be such that it would be absorbed by 1 part of the cooked rice and 1 part each of the vegetables. When the oil is hot, add 1 part of diced onions and stir for 10 seconds, followed by 1 part of diced cow liver, one part each of the diced vegetables, then 1 part of cooked rice.


Add more salt if necessary. More curry powder may also be added at this stage if you need to touch up on the colour. Stir till all the ingredients have mixed well and transfer to a dry pot. Repeat this for the remaining batches of the ingredients.

VERY IMPORTANT:

Nigerian Fried Rice can go bad very quickly. You can avoid this by spreading it to cool it then refrigerate immediately. Otherwise, eat it once you finish preparing it. If you want to serve it at a party, please cook it very close to the serving time, if not, it will go bad! If refrigerated, it can last for 48 hours without loosing its taste.

CLICK TO SEE FULL RECIPE OF NKWOBI

INGREDIENTS
Cowleg
Ground pepper(black, red)
Ground edible potash (called “kaun” or akanwu; used for thickening)
Salt
palm oil
chopped onions
ground crayfish
Sliced ugba (oil bean)
Sliced utazi (bitter native vegetable leaves)
Seasoning cubes

To cook:

First, the Sauce:

To make the “ngo” or sauce, which is the vital part of the dish, some kaun (potash) is first dissolved in a small bowl of water (about a cup).

Ngo is a mixture of kaun and palm oil. It is prepared by gradually pouring the kaun/water mix over gently heated palm oil.

Ensure there are no lumps of kaun in the water! The red oil in the pot begins to turn bright yellow and thickens, so continue to add the kaun water and stir until you get your desired thick yellow sauce.

In place of water, the meat stock can also be used, if cooled.

Cut cowleg into pieces, season with salt and onions. Cook till tender, then leave to cool.

Add “ugba”, ground pepper, crayfish to the “ngo” sauce.

Stir till ingredients are well blended.

Add the cowleg, seasoning and salt and allow to simmer for three/five minutes.

Now, Mix well, and place in traditional earthenware/wooden serving bowls.

Nkwobi may be served cold, or heated a little. However the utazi garnish (vegetable leaves) are not to be cooked but chopped and sprinkled on dish and topped with onion rings.