How to make Jollof Rice without a blender! (New Recipe)

Hey Guys,
This has been a long time coming, but I've literally been too lazy in getting this out here, but it's  finally here now.
As a student, I didn't have a blender the whole of first year and for most of second year so I had to get super creative and one of the ways was in making Jollof rice. As you may know, you usually need a blender for making Jollof rice, but the truth is that you can actually make it without one and taste wise there is little difference. Does it taste much better with a blender? Of course it does, but when you just don't have one, this recipe is a fast and alternative way to enjoying the food you love.

Cooking time: 1hr
Feeds: 4 people (average)


INGREDIENTS
A cup of Rice
1 Onion
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 small spicy pepper (Ata Rodo for my Nigerians)
1 tablespoon of Tomato puree
1 tablespoon of oil
Seasoning-(MAGGI, Parsley, dried pepper, jumbo all purpose seasoning, all purpose seasoning, a little curry powder, Jellof seasoning and a dash of salt)
** I haven't really put measurements for the seasoning as I'm the type of cook that likes to play it by taste but a half a tablespoon of everything should be fine but always taste to make sure it's to your liking.

RECIPE
1. Put the rice to boil, you only want to parboil the rice, not fully cook it, so make sure you don't cook it until it's completely soft, take it off the fire once its almost cooked but still resistant to your bite.
Sieve out the remaining water if there is any and wash the rice with cold water then leave to the side.


2. Next, in a different pot, put the oil in the pan, and once heated, fry the chopped onions and chopped spicy small pepper. (this is really spicy so be sure you can handle it befoe you mess with it) You can also fry this along with some chopped fresh tomatoes.

3. After 2 minutes, open the can of chopped tomatoes and pour into the pot. Use the wooden spoon to break the bits up into as small pieces as possible and allow to start cooking.

 After about 10-15 minutes, start adding your seasoning, it doesn't really matter what order you add them in, but make sure you taste it regularly to make sure it's not too salty or too spicy etc.










4, Leave to continue cooking for about 10 minutes, then pour in the rice. Stir in the rice, adding tomato puree if the  consistency is too watery. The tomato puree may not be needed. The rice should not completely fill up the tomato sauce as this will leave you with light orange rather than bright orange rice and the tomato should not be too much otherwise the finished product will be  too soggy. Consistency is essential with this method.

 5. Leave the rice to boil, cover with a piece of foil to allow it to steam, make sure to check it regularly to avoid it burning to the bottom of the pan and to avoid it being overly soggy.

**You can use any type of rice  you wish but from experience (and I have had a lot of failed attempts believe me, long grain rice usually works best with this method.) You can of course use basmati also but there is risk of the rice becoming mushy if cooked for too long. (Under no circumstances must you use cheap 40p rice  from morrisons/asda, it will be the worst mistake of your life)

     

Hope you guys enjoyed the recipe, Let me know how it turns out for you. Remember to comment below, subscribe to the channel and share!

Until next time,

Blessing. xx

How to make a Spicy Chicken Wrap with red pepper and tomato salsa

Hey Guys,

So I'm bringing a new recipe to my fellow adventurous cooks!
This one is one I stole from the madre, if you know her, you know her food be slaying. She made me one for lunch for my Law firm event and I fell in love so got back to Manchester and decided to make my own spin on it.

INGREDIENTS:

Tortilla Wraps (If you want it more healthy, get whole wheat ones, they taste just as great)
Chicken Fillet/ Breaded Hot and Spicy Chicken
One Red Pepper
1/2 Tomatoes
Half an Onion
Lettuce
Dollop of Mayonnaise
A tablespoon of oil
A teaspoon of tomato puree
Seasoning (All purpose, parsley, chilli powder, maggi)

RECIPE:
First, if you are using a breast fillet, season the chicken and put it in the oven. Personally I preferred the Iceland breaded hot and spicy chicken, it tasted great and brought the whole meal together but if you feel the need to know exactly what goes into your mouth then you can season a breast fillet as well, I would advise coating it in bread crumbs for the added flavour though.

2. Chop up your onions, tomatoes and red pepper.

3.  fry them in as much oil as you feel is required, I suggest about a tablespoon. Add a tiny bit of tomato puree to thicken it then season. My choice of seasoning was a Maggi cube, Parsley, a tiny bit of curry powder, the good ol All Purpose seasoning and a lot of chilli powder.

3. Lay out the Tortilla, cut the breast fillet into about four portions and assemble 2 on each tortilla wrap or if you are using the Iceland breaded chicken use 2 to a wrap.

4. Place the tomato and pepper mix on top. Then add your lettuce to the mix and smear on a little mayonnaise.

5. Pop back into the oveN for about 5 minutes to cook the tortilla. Take them out, cut in half and Enjoy!

This literally took me under an hour to make so whenever you're feeling a little peckish and want a quick healthy bite to eat. You know what to do!

5 Things Life at Uni has taught me!

Hey Guys,

In case you weren't aware I'm a current Law student and I am in my second year. I have gone through fresher's week, first year, faux freshers week (when 2nd years pretend they're freshers to get free stuff but shh) and I'm going through probably the hardest education period of my life. Nevertheless Uni has been very very interesting and this is 5 things that life at university so far as taught me.

1. You will miss your parents like crazy!
I really don't know how to make you understand how much you will miss home! During the  first few weeks when you're having the time of your life (or throwing up your internal organs depending on how you get down) you'll love the freedom and vow to never go home again. But as you start to settle in you realise there's no mum to cook for you, no one to help you out. No family that you're used to and it starts to dawn on you that you are living with virtual strangers.

Me and my mum weren't that close before I came to uni but 2 years in I literally have no qualms about saying I see her as my best friend. In first year we spoke on the phone almost every day. She was giving me advice about Friends, laughing at me when my jollof rice flopped (this happened a couple times) and just generally being a listening ear. Even my brother the big tough lad admitted that he missed home and wished he could stay longer when he came back for the weekend.

2. Learn to hide your food!!!!!

Why? you may ask...because there will always be a rat like person living with or somewhere near you. My thief story is a funny one because not only was our food going missing every night, (crumble, bottles of wine, eggs, MILKY BARS (MY milky bars ill have you know, and you know how much i love my chocolate) but the perpetrator was our next door neighbours who had been using the adjoining fire escape to break into our flat every night. Needless to say we didn't know this and blamed  a fellow housemate who then stopped talking to us for the rest of the year and eventually moved out. (I don't blame her)

Be creative in hiding your stuff, if it doesn't need to be in the fridge I#d say you should put it in your room. People get hungry and when lazy ass people see free food, they wont be afraid to help themselves.

3. University is NOT easy!
You're probably thinking well of course! But hold on let me explain, before coming to Uni, all everyone said was Uni is easy! It's easier than A levels blah blah, yeah all that rubbish is WRONG! Uni is soooo hard and if you don't put 110% in you will fail and it will not be funny because your resits are capped at 40%. So don't come with the mentality that you can chill. I mean you can but you would be chilling with a fail so...

4. You will not find your husband or even a serious relationship at Uni!
If you're reading this and you're in a serious relationship at uni then lol, Just ignore this post but I know a lot of girls come to uni with the mentality of oh yes this is my chance to be in a serious relationship. Me and my boothang will be chilling, watching movies, I'll be cooking for him! LIES! upon arriving at Uni, you will realise Guys don't want to settle down. They wanna watching movies, but with as many girls as possible and 'watching movies' doesn't mean watching movies. You'd be wrong if you went to a boys house expecting to watch movies, It means a WHOOOOLE other thing. I won't get into that here. On the other hand if you go for much older men or post grads you may have a slight chance of relationship status,

5. You will find human beings without the ability to feed themselves.
Yes somehow there are a loooooot of individuals who are unprepared for the real world. They cannot cook! Common cooking to feed themselves they are unable to do. Hence the race begins to get as many girls to cook for them as possible! watch out! Don't be one of the many chefs who are trekking to asda to come and cook for a guy who's thinking about what the next girl will cook him tomorrow, Be wise and stingy with your food!!!

What did you learn at Uni?? Drop a comment, and don't forget to subscribe and share!!