Tag: appetizer
Chicken Suya
Chicken Suya
Suya is the standard in Nigerian street food; considered by many to be the national dish. Traditionally, small skewers of meat are heavily seasoned with the suya spice(cayenne, ground peanuts, garlic, onion, paprika, ginger, and maggi bouillon) and are grilled over an open flame. If you don’t have a grill, the skewers can be broiled. Beef, chicken, and shrimp are common proteins used. Liver, tripe, kidneys, and heart are also used. Nothing gets wasted.
Equipment
- mortar and pestle or spice grinder
- metalskewers
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs cut in half
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
Suya Spice Blend
- 3 tbsp cayenne pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp roasted peanuts ground
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 2 cubes maggi bouillon ground
Instructions
- Mix all of the suya spices together.
- Season the chicken with the suya and let marinate for an hour.
- Skewer up 2-3 pieces of chicken thighs.
- Prep your grill. Once the charcoal is grey, add the skewers directly over the flame.
- Grill for about 12 minutes, turning every few until cooked through.
Cottage Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
Cottage Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
This isn’t just your basic bacon wrapped asparagus. I’m not a fan of bundles of asparagus wrapped with a thin piece of bacon. I upped the meat to veggie ratio by using a single sheet of cottage bacon to wrap a single asparagus spear, parallel. Thicker asparagus spears work better than thin ones. They will only take 15 minutes in the oven for the bacon to cook through, still leaving the asparagus slightly al dente.
Equipment
- toothpicks
Ingredients
- 12 spears asparagus tough ends chopped off
- 12 slices cottage bacon thinly sliced
Instructions
- Wrap each spear of asparagus with a piece of cottage bacon, lengthwise. Secure in place with 2 toothpicks. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place on a rack on a baking pan lined in foil.
- Bake for 15 minutes until bacon is crispy.
Tuna Kimbap
Tuna Kimbap
Koreans love tuna salad, and frequently use it in kimbap. Tuna kimbap has a few different ingredients from the traditional recipe. Obviously there’s the tuna salad in there, but it also has crab stick, cucumber, pickled radish, and perilla leaves on a bed of green lettuce. I specifically used a higher quality brand of canned tuna (Dolores yellowfin) because your basic everyday canned tuna is crap. Not in my kimbap. Tuna kimbap is best when served immediately. Over time, the tuna salad will make the vegetables soggy; and you want them to be crunchy.
Equipment
- sushi rolling mat
- serrated knife
Ingredients
- 1 can yellowfin tuna drained
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp celery finely diced
- tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 leaves romaine lettuce
- 4 perilla leaves
- 3 crab stick
- 1/4 cup cucumber seeded and julienned
- 2 strips pickled radish
- 1 1/2 cups steamed short grain rice
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 sheets nori
Instructions
- Mix together the tuna, mayonnaise, dijon, lemon juice, celery, and black pepper. Set aside.
- Mix together the sesame oil, rice, and salt while the rice is still warm.
- Lay a piece of nori shiny side down on a bamboo sushi rolling mat. Spread 3/4 cup of rice in an even single layer across the nori.
- Place a large leaf of romaine lettuce on the bottom of the rice, creating a bed. Place 2 perilla leaves across the center of the lettuce. Then starting from the bottom up, arrange the ingredients in the following order: crab stick, tuna salad, pickled radish, and cucumber.
- Carefully roll the kimbap tightly with the rolling mat.
- Unroll it. Bring the roll towards the bottom of the mat and roll tightly again.
- Using a serrated knife, slice 1” pieces off the tuna kimbap roll.
