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Skylight256

How To Make Delicious Chocolate At Home

~2.5 mins read

Chocolate is a beloved treat enjoyed by people all over the world. While you can easily purchase chocolate from stores, there's something special about making your own chocolate at home.

Not only does it allow you to customize the flavor and ingredients, but it's also a fun and rewarding process. In this article, we'll guide you through the steps to make chocolate locally in the comfort of your own kitchen.

Ingredients:

To make chocolate at home, you'll need a few basic ingredients:

Cocoa Beans or Cocoa Powder: You can either start from scratch with cocoa beans or use cocoa powder, which is readily available in most grocery stores.

Sweeteners: Sugar or sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, or agave nectar to add sweetness to your chocolate.

Cocoa Butter: Cocoa butter is essential for the smooth texture and creamy consistency of chocolate.

Optional Flavorings: You can experiment with various flavorings such as vanilla extract, sea salt, or spices like cinnamon if you want to add a unique twist to your chocolate.

Equipment:

Double Boiler or Microwave: You'll need a way to melt your cocoa butter and cocoa powder. A double boiler is recommended, but a microwave can also work.

Chocolate Molds: These are used to shape your chocolate into bars or other desired shapes.

Spatula: For mixing and scraping the chocolate mixture.

Thermometer: To monitor the temperature during the chocolate-making process.

How to Make Chocolate at Home:

Roast the Cocoa Beans (Optional):

If you're starting with cocoa beans, roast them in the oven at 250°F (120°C) for about 30-40 minutes until they turn brown and fragrant.

Let them cool and remove the outer shells to get cocoa nibs.

Grinding:

Grind the cocoa nibs (or cocoa powder if you're skipping the roasting step) in a food processor or grinder until you get a smooth, liquid-like consistency known as cocoa liquor.

Mixing Sweeteners:

In a separate container, mix your chosen sweetener with the cocoa liquor. The ratio of sweetener to cocoa liquor depends on your taste preferences.

Melting Cocoa Butter:

Melt cocoa butter using a double boiler or microwave until it reaches about 113°F (45°C).

Combining Ingredients:

Slowly mix the melted cocoa butter into the sweetened cocoa liquor, stirring continuously until well combined.

Adding Flavorings:

If desired, add vanilla extract or other flavorings and mix thoroughly.

Tempering (Optional):

Tempering is a process that involves controlled heating and cooling to give your chocolate a shiny appearance and a satisfying snap when broken. It's optional but recommended for a professional finish.

Pouring and Setting:

Pour your chocolate mixture into molds of your choice.

Cooling:

Let the chocolate cool at room

temperature or in the refrigerator until it hardens.

Enjoy:

Once your homemade chocolate has set, remove it from the molds, and enjoy your delicious, locally made chocolate!

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Kirim004

KITCHEN TIPS

~1.1 mins read

KITCHEN TIPS

1. Avoid storing Onions and Potatoes together because both produce a gas that causes either of them to spoil quickly.

2. Put two or three orange leaves in your hot palm oil on the fire. Let the leaves turn black before removing it. By then your palm oil becomes pure groundnut oil also giving your food a nice taste.

3. To avoid feeling a peppering hotness on your hands after cutting pepper with bare hand scrub your hand with salt and red oil then wash it.

4. If you happen to over salt a pot of soup, just drop in a peeled potato. The potato will absorb the excess salt.

5. If your Soup or Stew goes sour while warming it, add little piece of Charcoal and remove after warming, the taste will come back.

6. Never put citrus fruits (oranges, lemon, lime, etc) or tomatoes in the fridge. The low temperature degrades the aroma and flavor of these fruits.

7. When storing empty airtight containers, throw in a pinch of salt to keep them from getting stinky.

8. If your salt is becoming lumpy, put a few grains of rice in with it to absorb excess moisture.

9. To reuse cooking oil without tasting whatever was cooked in the oil previously, cook a 1/4" piece of ginger in the oil. It will remove any remaining flavors and odors.

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Maymay

Checkout How To Cook Nigerian Jellof Rice

~1.6 mins read

Jollof rice.

Ingredients:

bell peppers

tomatoes

1 whole white onion

Note: You can increase the amounts of the three ingredients above depending on how many mouths you have to feed. The only rule being that the number of peppers should be double the number of tomatoes used, and the number of onions used should be a quarter of the number of peppers used)

1 Scotch Bonnet pepper (optional)

1 whole red onion

Half a cup of vegetable oil

A tube of tomato puree (sachet or tin tomatoes)

3 Bay leaves

1 tablespoon of dried Thyme

3 Stock cubes

2 tablespoons of All purpose seasoning

2 teaspoons of curry powder (optional)

Salt (to taste)

Long grain rice (1 cup per person as a standard measurement) The number of peppers, tomatoes and onions above usually work for 6 cups of rice. If you need to cook less rice, then reduce those ingredients as required.

Time to cook!

-Blend together the peppers, tomatoes and white onion. Set aside.

-Chop up the red onion and fry till translucent in half a cup of oil on medium heat.

-Add 3/4 of a tube of concentrated tomato puree to the red oil mixture and fry for 5 mins.

-Add the bay leaves, dried thyme, stock cubes, all purpose seasoning and salt.

-Mix all of this together; Combine both the mixtures you now have, cover and boil on medium heat for 15 minutes.

-Wash your already parboiled rice and drain till the water is clear. This removes excess starch and helps the rice cook better.

-Once the stew has cooked for 15 mins, add the washed rice, and mix together thoroughly.

Cover and cook on low heat, making sure to stir the rice every 20 minutes. -Cook for a total of 1 hour then leave to sit covered for an extra 10 minutes.

You can spice up this recipe by adding 2 well known vegetables to arrive at what we refer to as Mixed Vegetables Jollof Rice.

Serve with fried meat, fish, chicken etc

Foodie

Tofu

How To Prepare TOFU (WARA - SOYA)

~1.0 mins read

Preparation Time

Overnight

Cooking Time

2 Hours

INGREDIENTS

• 1½ cups soybeans (soak in water overnight)

• 4 teaspoons magnesium chloride (substitute 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice)

DIRECTIONS

1. Rinse and drain soaked soybeans.

2. Combine with 5 cups of water in a blender and blend until smooth.

3. Place a sieve bag over a large bowl and pour the blended soybeans. Squeeze the bottom of the bag to release the milk. Discard chaff.

4. Pour sieved milk into a large deep pot, boil on medium heat for 45 minutes, stirring frequently. This resulting boiled milk is soy milk - use as you would any other milk

5. Reduce heat to low; add in magnesium chloride or lime juice (do not stir).

6. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and set aside for 1 hour.

7. Place a sieve bag over a bowl or sink, pour the milk in carefully, fold the bag over and press out as much fluid as possible.

8. Press down on the bag with a flat plate or tray. Place a heavier object on top to properly press down. Leave for 2 hours or overnight to allow tofu set.

9. Remove formed tofu from bag and cut into desired sizes. Tofu is ready to eat raw or used in other recipes.

Culled from Lose it Nigerian (9jafoodie.com)

Foodie

How To Prepare Tigernut Milk

~0.6 mins read

Preparation Time

Overnight

Nutritional information for serving size of 3

Calories: 60

Fat: 2.5 gram

Carbohydrate: 8 gram

Protein: 1 gram

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw or dried tigernut (soak in water overnight)

• 3½ cups water

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Rinse and drain soaked tigernut (ofio, imumu, hausa groundnut).

2. Pour into a blender and add in water. Blend until smooth.

3. Place a sieve bag over a large bowl and pour in the blended tigernut.

4. Squeeze the bottom of the bag to release the milk.

5. Pour milk into a jar and add in salt and vanilla extract. Shake well and store in the fridge for

up to 5 days. Shake well before use.

Curled from Lose it Nigerian (9jafoodie.com)

Foodie

100 gram serving of Shrimps - 85 calories

Pictures: How Much Calorie In 100 Grams Of These Food

~0.0 mins read

100 g

Please see the Pictures attached

Select a category

How To Make Delicious Chocolate At Home

KITCHEN TIPS

Checkout How To Cook Nigerian Jellof Rice

How To Prepare TOFU (WARA - SOYA)

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

How To Prepare Tigernut Milk

Preparation Time

Nutritional information for serving size of 3

Ingredients

Directions

Pictures: How Much Calorie In 100 Grams Of These Food