Dodo Salsa with Rice Cakes

I had such a good day yesterday, which started from sharing a childhood story of my brother, and all the comments that ensued. I was laughing till 12am, I tell you. You guys make Instagram so much fun. You see, I sold my mixer a few weeks ago, because I had a new one in mind. Me and Kenwood, our love is too strong. I bought a mixer last year with baking in mind, but I never baked with it, because the need to, didn’t really awaken in me until one day, a light bulb came on in my head, or should i call it a small still voice that said, you need to get your baking game on strong if you are ever going to make a lasting impact in the food business. Think of your food heroes and heroines, they all bake and cook really well. For some, cooking may be stronger, but they bake too, so you can’t ignore an entire sphere of cooking, just because you haven’t been successful at it. So, I traded up, and sold my Kenwood Chef and bought a Kenwood Chef Titanium which is the top of the range of Kenwood mixers. Taking it a step further, I made sure i got one that has a timer. My problem with baking is sticking to recipes, especially timing. Baking is an exact science. if the recipe says don’t overwork the dough, trust me, it isn’t just fancy English. So now with my mixer that has a timer, if the recipe says whisk for 5 mins, I just set the time and walk away.

Bowl of Gorgeousness

Why the introductory story about a mixer and baking, for a recipe that involves neither, well ever since I bought that mixer, i am now obsessed with attachments, like OMG!!!!, I check Kenwood every day looking for how I can finally utilise this mixer. The previous mixer, the ONLY thing I did with it was use the blender attachment, so basically I was working with an over priced blender. My logic is, the more I use the mixer, the more I can justify the purchase, and the more I will want to use the mixing bowl, to actually bake, or at least make dough related stuff like pasta. I may as well tell you now, that i bought 3 kenwood pasta making attachments, so be prepared to see pasta made with Nigerian flours. Yes, why not, Bean flour pasta for example is a thing, I have seen it. :). So, back to attachments. Anyways, during my search I came across the Kenwood Dicing attachment. I looked at the promotional video and thought OMG!!!!!!, This is a life saver in the Nigerian Kitchen. WHAT!!!!! Fried rice, salads, giz dodo and all the myriad dishes that we include that involve chopping. Next best thing to having a food processor. I bought it from Amazon, stat and tried it out for the first time yesterday. Before I did though, I shared a story from my brother’s childhood antics with plantain. Read about his story, trust me you want to, it is very funny, the comments too, hilarious. Just click on the picture or check it out on my Instagram page. Don’t forget to follow @dooneyskitchen

I have a love-hate relationship with diced plantains because of my baby brother. I call him baby, because I was 10 when he was born. I already had a sister, so I was excited to have a brother. They don't tell you how annoying baby brothers can be. This one milked his last born status so well, he wrote the book. I swear, he changed my parents, especially my Mum. Our little "prince", liked his plantain cut a certain way. I swear. It was circles or nothing. Wait for it, even the thickness of the circle was specified. Not too thin or too fat, or he won't eat it. It drove me up the wall, because many times I would forget and cut the plantain the traditional way, or forget the thickness "His Highness" liked and he will complain like you are trying to poison him. No child had dared that before. When he starts to wail, my mother would say, "Ola, you just like looking for trouble. You already know how he likes his plantain, stop stressing me. Please make a fresh batch". I would stand there with my mouth open, looking at this woman, wondering who she was and what she has done with my mother, whose mantra has always been "you eat what you are given, no questions asked". Of course I would go make a fresh batch, or else she will make the situation all about you being defiant and not about him making unreasonable demands. Choi, it used to PAIN ME ehn. Haaaa, I would be boiling with anger. Imagine a 17yr old already in Unilag, cooking for a 7yr old who would be smirking at you, with his back turned to Mummy of course. Then he got bored with circle dodo and asked for it to be diced. The Lord just has to forgive me for so many murderous thoughts that I had those times. What of frying, it must be almost burnt. I don't know how a child can like burnt plantain. If you gave him yellow dodo, trouble. So it continued for a long time, until one day, only him and mummy were home and he tried that nonsense with her. Let's just say that was the day he learnt how to cut dodo and fry himself under supervision. He was 10, I think. I laughed ehn, when I got home and saw him almost in tears eating his dodo. He never made such requests again ?. Why the story? #Kenwood has the solution ???

A photo posted by Dooney's Kitchen.com (@dooneyskitchen) on Jun 23, 2015 at 11:11am PDT

So, where was I, this nifty little thing almost gave me a heart attack yesterday. I attached it to the mixer and it refused to come on. I watched the video so many times, and I kept wondering what I was doing wrong. I called Kenwood, they had closed, I wanted to call Amazon to lambaste them for selling me a defective gadget, and by some stroke of intuition, to be honest when i think back, it wasn’t me that pushed the knobby base further inward, i swear, it was as if something else was holding my hands, because i had turned that attached section almost 20 times and it didn’t work, suddenly pushed it in further and BOOM!!! it came on. I wanted to scream.

Kenwood Dicing Attachment. Here it is dicing Cucumbers. It dices in perfect 10mm x 10mm cubes ?????????????? #SalsaLoading. ?? ain't nobody got time for manual cutting ??. Tag your friends and family. We have been saved from the drudgery of chopping. Fried rice, salad, giz dodo, you name it. Your next best kitchen angel is here.

A video posted by Dooney's Kitchen.com (@dooneyskitchen) on Jun 23, 2015 at 11:16am PDT

Then I tried the Almighty dodo, and would you believe it, perfect dices.

Every female member of my family who ever had the misfortune of frying diced plantain for my brother, would have given their right arm for this device. It dices Plantain in seconds, and I mean seconds. From plantains, to cucumbers, to tomatoes, onions, peppers, hard veggies like yam, this nifty little thing is the next best thing to a food processor if you have kids or adults with "special requests". Watch the video. I am bringing some more, because I am maxing a Nigerian-Mexican Salsa with Rice cakes. Stay tuned. It is called a Kenwood Dicing Attachment. You have to have a Kenwood Chef Mixer for it to work. Let me be a traitor, if you have or can buy a Kitchen Aid Artisan food Processor, it also comes with this dicing kit. @feyiolu take note ?? @kenwoodoficial @kitchenaidusa. Tag your friends and family. We have been saved from the drudgery of chopping. Fried rice, salad, giz dodo, you name it. Your next best kitchen angel is here.

A video posted by Dooney's Kitchen.com (@dooneyskitchen) on Jun 23, 2015 at 11:14am PDT

Kenwood Dicing Attachment. Here it is dicing Cucumbers. It dices in perfect 10mm x 10mm cubes ?????????????? #SalsaLoading. ?? ain't nobody got time for manual cutting ??. Tag your friends and family. We have been saved from the drudgery of chopping. Fried rice, salad, giz dodo, you name it. Your next best kitchen angel is here.

A video posted by Dooney's Kitchen.com (@dooneyskitchen) on Jun 23, 2015 at 11:16am PDT

I love, love, love Salsa, but cripes, the preparation makes me run in the other direction. It is something I order a lot when I go to Mexican restaurants, because i don’t like preparing it myself. Now, I can have Salsa any day of the week I want, even after a long day at work. This time, I decided to make a Naij-Mex, see what I did there, taking a leaf from Tex-Mex. I swapped the avocado for plantain, as they have similar sweetness and softness,and I also decided to add Yaji (suya pepper), to season it. It was so delicious, even my Irish flatmate had a generous portion for dinner. If you are #Team Fitfam, Salsa’s are good for you, and very filling too, no cooking involved, well for this one, you have to grill or fry the plantains. I grilled. To even switch things up a little, the idea was to Redefine the classic “rice and dodo”, so I served the salsa on a bed of rice cakes.