Give Me Spices
Nigerian Spices: picture by Olayemi Adelekan
For the love of Spices used in Nigerian cooking
There is something beautiful about spices. Some are warming, fragrant, woody, hot, sour and others are pungent. They come in the most vibrant colours imaginable, for example saffron. The red colour of the Korean chilli flakes is stunning and the yellow hues of turmeric is captivating.
Travelling is a great opportunity to learn about spices. Visiting the spice market in Israel was a sensational experience.
Today’s post is all about introducing you to a few spices that we use in Nigerian cooking.
Ginger - grown in Northern Nigeria and sold by the Hausa food sellers. Ginger features in most of my pepper blends and I never cook beans without adding ginger
Curry powder - used for cooking jollof rice, fried rice, red sauces and many other food. Curry and thyme are a standard combo in Nigerian cooking
Uda Seed - Grains of Selim - Negro Pepper - these seeds of a shrubby tree Xylopia aethiopica are highly medicinal spice full of antioxidants with anti-inflammatory properties. It is used in pepper soup and to flavour loads of dishes.
Tetrapleura tetraplera - Prekese fruit - is sweet smelling and can be brewed as a tea. It has lots of medicinal qualities with anti microbial properties and eaten by new mothers to help with post partum contractions.
Uziza pepper - Cubeb peppercorns - Piper guineense - is an earthy pepper with a strong and distinct flavour. It contains linalool which gives it the unique pungency. Used in pepper soup
Alligator pepper - Grains of paradise - delivers a floral note with a zing and a warming heat
Olima - Grains of paradise (second genre) - closely related to Cardamom, the seeds are used as spice with a pungency and flavours similar to black pepper with hints of citrus
Cameroon pepper - grown in Cameroonian soils that are dark chocolate in colour which results in a unique smell, flavour and a heat that evolves
Calabash nutmeg (Ehuru) - (Monodora myristica) - from the custard apple family is great used in desserts. It is said to have many medicinal properties and good for insomnia, blood pressure regulation and a brain booster.
A blend of these spices feature in many Nigerian recipes like Pepper Soup which is a complexly flavoured, spicy and hot broth.
Look out for some of these amazing spices in my recipes and experiment with the ones you can lay your hands on.
