Monday 31 August 2015

From The Garden Of Uzo's Food Labs...

Our garden is doing all sorts of  wonderful things. What started out as a hobby in January this year has become  a growing business and another part of the Uzo brand. We sell our produce once a week and we now have 2 garden sites expanding everyday.
 
Here are some of the gorgeousness from our organic garden over the past few weeks
 
 
 
Sweet banana and jalapeno peppers

Turnip greens



Curly kale - the variety available in Lagos, We offer vegetable pots for sale like this kale pot so you can have a steady supply of kale for a few months

Forage premier kale

Experimenting with growing cauliflower. We have a head forming. Fingers crossed

Fresh basil dried and stored

Lima beans

Long rod okra

Curly kale pot on the way to its new home



Harvested lima beans



Cherry tomato coming through



Yellow pear tomatoes





Green bean flowers

Italian basil pots

Butter crunch lettuce

Black beauty egg plant

Carrot ready for harvest

Dill

Green beans ready to be picked

Sweet basil

Broccoli florets

Mixed produce basket for a client

Green beans

Interesting white and black speckled moth on zucchini leaves

Purple tomatillo plant growing

I am putting together a series of videos for the Youtube channel on gardening which will be fun, fun, fun.
 
I would love to hear from you - questions about the garden and produce. Please send emails to uzosfoodlabs@gmail.com
 
 
Enjoy!!!

Sunday 30 August 2015

Poulet Yassa and some rambling...


How do working wives and mother do it? I mean really? I really want to know. Actually - let me rephrase...How do mogul wives and mothers do it?  I have been working so very hard building the brands, being a wife and mother and I honestly cannot remember my name a lot of the time. I have decided to ramble on the blog now and again and see if that provides some relief....

Now on to Chicken Yassa .....

This is a dish that is very very common in Senegal and The Gambia. Some websites even claim that it is the national dish of Senegal. I stumbled on this dish when I was searching for recipes to use up an over enthusiastic purchase of onions. This dish gets its flavor from a lot of onions. I mean a lot of onions. Some would say an obscene amount of onions. It also uses lemon juice which is not a very common ingredient in meat dishes here in Nigeria. I tried one of the more popular versions of this recipe and decided I like it enough to tweak the recipe and voila...a new family favorite.

To make Chicken Yassa that feeds 4 people, you will need:
  • 1 chicken cut into 8 pieces
  • 6 large onions - thinly sliced
  • 2 yellow or red scotch bonnet peppers - finely diced
  • Juice from 4 large lemons
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 cup green olives
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
  • 2 stock cubes
  • Salt & black pepper to taste
Directions:
  • Add all the ingredients except for the oil, mustard and olives to a bowl and mix together. Marinate overnight in the fridge
  • Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and grill or fry until brown and set aside. Save the marinade
  • Heat the oil in a large pot . Remove the onions from the marinade and add to the pot cooking until they begin to brown - about 10 minutes. 
  • Add the rest of the marinade and the browned chicken pieces to the onions and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the mustard and olives and cook until chicken is cooked through. 
  • Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with rice, yam or potatoes.
Enjoy!!!