I am very proud that this blog is influential. Very proud and very pleased. To all of you guys who have implicit trust and confidence in what you read on this blog, and are appreciative of the effort and hard work, I say thank you. It is from you guys that being proud of my blog comes from. Even if something is already out there, if it goes up on Dooney’s Kitchen, it becomes the bog standard, and it is all down to you guys in your thousands scattered all over the world, who give it that validation. Not me, you guys. Pride in your handiwork is what I was raised with. “If you are good at what you do, hold your head proud, because you have earned it. Let that pride be attached to something visible, otherwise you would just be an empty barrel nuisance” – Big Oladunni’s words.
Let me share a brief story. Funmi and I were shopping at our local fishmongers and we came across a woman (roughly 48+) she hasn’t seen in over 6 years. Amidst the hugs and excited voices, she introduced me and said that’s my friend Dunni, she’s a food blogger. This woman screamed you are Dunni of Dooney’s Kitchen, I have been praying to meet you, and she said do you know that the day you posted how to make pounded yam in a blender, I was at a Nigerian food store and all the women there were buying yam. She had to stop and take notice because more women were trooping in and everybody was buying yam. She shops there regularly, but this was an unusual experience, so she asked one of them casually, why she was buying yam and the woman said ha Aunty, I read it on one blog oh, that you can make pounded yam in a blender, I want to try it. She asked the next woman, and the next woman and got the same answer. She said she knew it had to be Dooney’s Kitchen and she trusts what I write, so she too bought yam that day to try it, and it worked. She excitedly called her friends and they called their friends and everyone she told now makes pounded yam either in a blender or food processor (click HERE). Now, that’s influence. She joked that the store should pay me a commission for all the yam they sold that day. Lots of women all over the world have bought food processors, still waiting on the cheque from Kenwood. Hahahahaha. Seriously, who in their marketing department can I email. Hehehehehehe.
Here is another trend setter. I am not even going to go into any traditional vs modern cooking argument. I am proud to be the poster child for 2014 Nigerian Cooking. End of.
You will need
Elubo – amala flour
Water
Pot
Hand Mixer
How To
I made this in the exact same process, I make a mean pot of Amala, using a wooden spoon. I learnt the hard way because Big Oladunni doesn’t play. To prevent lumps she taught me the trick of making it soft at first, be sure no lumps, then add more flour, to thicken it, add a little water to steam it, turn again, bring down on the flour and mix, mix, mix with the omorogun. Now, do this with a hand mixer in half the time and zero effort. Further uses of a Hand Mixer – use the dough hook to make Pounded yam. For amala, I am using the whisk rods. These whisk rods will also work to make wheat flour, the urhobo starch and semovita. Go to town people, the omorogun (wooden spoon) should be made ancient in our generation. Anyone who says otherwise i.e. it is all you need to cook anything, is a dinosaur. Mischief hat firmly on. Tee hehehehehehe.
Let’s Cook.
1. Heat up water in a pot.
Have your hand mixer with the whisk rods attached on standby. See, water is boiling away nicely. I set the timer
2. Add the Elubo to the pot and stir. This took me less than a minute.
3. Take out the spoon, replace with the hand mixer and whisk away. The pot is still on heat
engine running. I had a huge smile on my face.
Look closely, can you see any lumps? Come on, look. As smooth as it can be, with no arm cardio
4. All this happened in 1 minute.
5. As Mama taught me, I added more flour. As this was my first time, I went through the exact same method I make amala traditionally. Next time, I will try it again, adding all the flour I need from scratch and then finishing off with a hand mixer. That is sure to be even mega fast. In scientific terms, this is called Experiment 1.
6. Back to the hand blender
Whizz away
7. Ta dah!!!!! Amala. See how stretchy it is?
but you are not done yet
8. Still keep the engine running
See, it even looks better. See, how glistening it is. Mind you, my timer is still running, and I am looking at it with a mixture of disbelief and pleasure, because of how quick this is.
9. Then I added water to let it steam. Look closely, to the left, you can see water in the pot.
here is proof that the pot has been on heat, the entire time.
10. The amala slid back into the pot easily to steam
you can see it coming down from the whisk rods.
11. I let it steam and I whizzed again. I was skipping this time, playing with the hand mixer at low-speed, medium-speed, high-speed, I was having a blast. It just kept going, and going, and going, all the time, I was giving my omorogun (traditional wooden spoon) major side eye.
12. Amala, done and dusted. Stare at it very well. This amala is light, and fluffy, the kind Dbanj described “mo gbona feli feli bi amala to jina gan gan”.
See, it is stretchy…….
13. Faultless amala. Stare at it as much as you can, you won’t find any faults with it.
I made enough amala for 2 people, but only photographed the one portion. As for stretchy, it is stretchy, stretchy, stretchy.
Hey, a food processor makes stretchy pounded yam doesn’t it, so why won’t a mixer make stretchy amala?
You will also see how cleanly the amala goes off the whisk rods, so as for having any extra wash up, you will be pleasantly surprised that this is not extra work for you. Thanks to Deola, whose mixer this is.
Now, you want to know the time it took to do this? You want to know? Okay, okay, okay, 3 mins 28 seconds. BOOM!!!!!!!!! Now imagine how much faster this will be when I try it again and add all the flour at once. I am eating amala everyday until the weekend. Tee Hee
Here’s video evidence –
Hi Dunni, thanks a lot for this! I was wondering, do you think it will work with a stand-alone mixer? I’ve got the Kenwood stand-alone mixer which I use for cakes, it comes with the K- paddle attachment and the whisk attachment. Perhaps it might work with the K- paddle attachment. Please what do you think? Many thanks!
Bolanle, the amala has to cook at the same time, so I am not sure a stand mixer will be of much help, because you will have to boil water, transfer to the mixing bowl of the stand mixer, and then add the elubo flour, whisk using the whisk or flex beater attachment. Then add extra hot water at the end. It will make the amala no doubt, but the one made in the pot would most likely taste more cooked. You can try it out and see, I am not one to say no to the use of a kitchen gadget
Ok, no worries, thank you very much! 🙂
You are welcome Bolanle
Yaay!! amala for dinner!!!!!
Yup. Amala for dinner every day of the week
So I attempted it yesterday evening and it was fantastic! No lumps, nothing! When I told bros peeps were condemning it, he said ehen….isn’t that how they swore pounded yam couldn’t be made with the food processor and they were proved wrong? I’m a happy lady, thanks to Bola Coker for sharing and to you for endorsing it!
You see, you see, shame to the naysayers. Well done
I don’t really like reading blog but I must confess that you are gifted not just in your creativity of cooking but your story telling skills behind every food makes it more interesting. Keep it up and am sure I will see you on food network soon. Will be trying this soon
Amen Tolu. Thanks for the positive thoughts. Amen and Amen
Hello Dunni, I just found your blog a few days ago and I’m loving it. I love your recipes plus you way of simplifying everything. You make cooking Nigerian foods less time consuming and energy zapping lol . Haven’t had amala in a while because of the stress and also I hate when it has even a few lumps as an Ibadan chick who grew up eating amala without a single lump. I’ll definitely try this out
Ooooh, you will be very pleased. Ibadan standard amala made with no stress
I am the fastest and laziest Amala maker I know. I like mine firm so it is a breeze for me. I now know what to do to make it easier if I have to cook for real Amala eaters.
Dunni, did you say Starch? *Throws down gauntlet and yells CHALLENGE!!!!!!!!!!* I am ready to be a believer because I can’t imagine the starch going through a mixer, since it bakes off the heat from the pan as opposed to the others that steam. The starch will just seize your mixer, being all rude and throwing gang signs, lol.
Yes oooooo Bev, yell the challenge. I am going to try it for starch and Tuwon rice, and see. LMAO @being rude and throwing gang signs. I will try it o, lets hope Andrew James is up to the starch – pun intended. Lol
I tried it for fufu. didn’t quite work out. Maybe I did something wrong.
Tell me what went wrong. I tried it for Plantain Amala and it was perfect. I tried it twice for plantain amala, perfect, each time. SO, for fufu, it should work
Ok since it was for plantain fufu, I mixed the powder and water to form a paste, as if making it with the punishing omorogun stick. but then i used my hand mixer instead. the stuff was a massive pot of koko, had to discard the whole lot. it was not forming properly like in the amala pictures. Do you think I should have let the water boil first.
Hmmmmmmmn, My plantain fufu was also a paste, and i started on number 1, as it was just a paste and no need running the engine at high speed. As it got thicker and thicker, i increased the speed, and it was perfect. Okay, kemi let us agree that you try it again and let the water boil first, and lets see what result you will get. Do you live outside of Nigeria, so you can tell me which brand of fufu powder you bought, so I can try it myself and see. I have tried it with plantain amala, semo will give me the same result. I want to try it with fufu and starch as those two are one of the most difficult to make
I used neat plantain fufu. I followed the instructions on the packet.
Let us be in agreement Kemi, I am trying it out today
Yippeeee. Please let me know how it turns round so I can attempt it again. Thank you.
Oh, you know I will. Blog post and all
Dooney oooo,
Me, I have been a 2020 babe since the 80s. I have always hated the labor and effort that goes into Naija cooking so I would rather do dishes or scrub dirty toilets than cook. If I think of all my teenage hours spent in the kitchen when I could whisk amala for 20+ people with a hand mixer… oh la la… my bride price would probably have been paid by now.
Please don’t get tired of our thank yous and prayers. You have truly renewed my love for experimeting with food. It is heartfelt and I truly appreciate the effort that goes into every post. May God crown all your efforts and answer your prayers.
I will try this with my $5 mixer 😀 😀 :D. I don’t have a lot of room in my kitchen so I am the Queen of tiny gadgets. If you find any beans or ewedu picking machine.. I can’t wait to read it.
Tell me about it LBA. I can’t wait to go home this year and show this to my mum. The day I made pounded yam in a food processor, her eyes almost popped out. We had a battle of wills with this making amala of a thing, she refused to give up till i got it, imagine all that stress, when a hand mixer could have done it stat. Chaaaaaaai. Please try it, amala is quite light duty, so it will work. Beans, or ewedu picking machine. ROTFLMAO. I think that don’t add the stalk thing with ewedu is an old wives tale o. I am going to try it one day and blitzed the entire thing at once, I swear, if that works o pari. Ewedu picking solved. Full stop. Thank you for the compliments
My and my sister have a saying, ‘Dunni don’t play’.
Your ayamase, your buka stew, the pounded yam (we convinced our other two sisters to buy food processors-amazon must have thought I was reselling them!) is all kinds of fab.
Keep up the good work, you really have a talent worth showcasing.
Aaaaaw, thanks Abi. Hugs. Pleased to make a difference in all your kitchens
DOONEY O!!! This one is just too much. I cant wait to try it out on my mother in law, infact I think I’ll hold on till Halloween to trick her with this. My husband says he’ll have to get his camera ready to record her expression – I just she doesnt pass out on us sha.
Thanks for being a naija food modernizer jare.
I read your comment on my way to the bathroom this morning and almost fell with laughter. I was imagining your poor mother in law’s face. Please don’t let her pass out o. hahahahahahaha. You are most welcome. Happy to help
The children call her ‘ Grandma Ibadan’ , so you know why this is going to be a real halloween trick for her. She moans about my small ladle and always buys me proper omorogun.
Hahahahahahahaha, Grandma Ibadan is in for a very rude shock. I beg of you, remind your husband to have a camera ready. hehehehehehe
Dis is absolutely wonderful dooney!
Aaaaaw, thanks Funmi
Thank you so much for this!! One question pls….is it ok to buy a food processor, stand mixer and hand mixer our is all that unnecessary? I also want to experiment with bread recipes. Thank you
Hmmmmmn, ebby the kitchen gadget junky that I am will tell you to buy all, because I have all, but guess what, I use the food processor the most, my stand mixer hasn’t done anything in months. So, start with the food processor, but one that has a dough tool which can also make bread. Hand mixers are relatively very cheap, so you can buy that one. Much much much later if possible a year after, seeing how far you have gone with those two, buy a mixer
Well done Dunni. I have a question the hand mixer is connected to electricity right and the pot is on fire and its metal , are you not worried about electrical glitches??
Well done !
Our foreign chefs cook with hand mixer over a hot stove all the time. The hand mixer is reacting with heat and not electricity
Thank you for the enlightenment. I appreciate . Now that is some easy peezy way of making amala. Welldone
Yes, it is easy peasy. Thanks Sparkles
You know people usually book down for latest versions of phones,I will love to book down for your cookbook. If you think this blog is successful,wait till your cookbook hits hardcover(not sure it wouldn’t av sold out even before it gets to the stores) you will just wake up deliciously rich. Nicely nicely,done. You my Internet friend and role model are a kitchen smooth operator.
Standing ovation FAA!!!
Zurielle, your comments are always a delight to read and very positive too. Thank you very much for the kind words. From your thoughts to the Throne of Grace
Ahh, don’t forget the app as well!!
Ah yes, all that and more. Thanks ladies
This sweatless cooking. Thanks Dunni more wisdom.
Thank you Victoria. happy to help
so the amala lover inside of me… it was soo difficult waiting till the weekend to go buy elubo from the store. I bought it rushed home, made a mean seafood okra pot, and off course i made the amala. You see it was really easy just like you said.. i literally danced inmy kitchen before running off to eat the amala, pass out and then work up feeling like all was well with the world. My one issue was that the amala kept rolling on the whips… so i was having to stop push down the amala and then continue.. did that happen with yours? if so do you have a quick fix for avoiding that? I used a small pot and had amala bits all over my kitchen when i was done.. not that it was enough to deter me.
Thanks so much for the method though.. iv been sharing your link with all my family members.
Okay, that you tried it, very brave of you, well done. It will roll on the whisk rods, that was how mine was, you don’t need to push it down at all, it is working as it should. I didn’t have any amala bits all over the kitchen though, I suggest, you mix for a few seconds with the wooden spoon, then attach the hand mixer. This was your first time, so don’t sweat it, you got it right. By the next time you make it, you most likely won’t have any problems.
I finally tried this and it works well. I also tried it with ola ola pounded yam it was perfect. Thanks
BOOM!!!!!!!!! Well done
Dooooney, I love you #thatisall. I’m not a fan of amala but I would totally try this with lafun.
Aaaaaaw, hugs T4toyin. Thanks a lot. Please try it and you will love amala
dooney!!!!!!, ok I had made my amala before I read this, God bless you real good…Btw the boo is Hausa and I am struggling to always find something he ll like, he doesnt mind egusi and the likes but you know sometimes I feel like I should give him a treat of mia kuka(hausa soup) or something, pls, biko, mbok….help a sister out….
Kuks is definitely on the list to try next. I would publish it as soon as I am able to
Donnie, I’ve seen your various posts and videos on making pounded yam with blender and food processor but none with the dough attachement of a hand mixer as mentioned here. Please can you help with a link or something? Thanks and more grace.
Hi Pearl, my hand mixer doesn’t have a dough hook sadly. If i get one, I will let you know and put it up
Thank you so much Dunni…..Thank you