Growing up, my family ate at home far more than we ate out. Even while at kindergarten, my siblings and I took food to school for most parts and when my mom couldn’t make lunch on time, we would be given lunch money. You know when you do something for a long time like eating at home almost all your life and then finally get the chance to eat out it feels quite big. Maybe it’s because I was a kid back then and most of my class mates usually didn’t bring food to school except on vacations. So, whenever, we were given money to buy lunch, it was kind of a big deal.
My parents have always been advocates for eating at home for the longest I can remember. Aside the occasional “I don’t feel like cooking today, so take this and buy food”, my mom’s cooking has been like my best friend since day 1. The funny thing is when we were given the money to buy food, we hardly bought it because it just felt odd. We would rather use it to buy sweets which would paint our tongues all the colors of this world.
The number of times we have gone out to dine is not much. When we moved from Tamale to Volta years ago, we did dine out as a family on a number of occasions but as soon as everyone started growing, it ceased. In my house, we tea for breakfast, then usually a rice meal or yam for lunch and something a bit heavier for supper like banku, fufu, tuo zafi, among others.
It is a shame that for all the years my mom has been cooking, I cannot boast of knowing how to cook a lot of meals. My cooking recipe list is quite limited. If it’s something to do with rice that isn’t rice balls, then I might be your guy. If it’s something that has to do with frying, then hit me up, cos I’ve got you covered. When I boast to my friends of knowing how to fry quite well, they say I am lying because they don’t see me do it quite often. But at home, I do it quite a lot because it just feels more natural at home. I am in the “zone” when I am at home. I am even the self-proclaimed best fryer of my family.
When frying, I always try to cut them into small pieces because it is easier to consume that way. I like to cut what I fry in the form of fries. That way I am able to stir it quite freely, allowing the heat to get to most parts of the foods and really cook it. One of the rice meals I like to make is vegetable rice. I have made fried rice with my mom quite a lot and I don’t see it to be that stressful as some people make it out to be.
Say hello to Ghana jollof. Before you come for me, it's my mother's recipe
For me, fried rice is basically just colored vegetable rice. After boiling your rice, you get your vegetables cut, bring your oil, eggs and other ingredients out to fry. What I normally do is to fry the egg and break them into tiny pieces, then in the same pan, fry the vegetables one after the other in the pan. After that I pour the rice in and stir to my heart content haha. However, you have to regulate the stove so it doesn’t heat the food too much and you get very soft rice. I like hard rice more than I like soft rice.
So, here is my small recipe for you friends. It might not seem like much but maybe, just maybe this will help you hehe.
So, what are some of your family recipes? Do you dine out and stay in more often? Let’s hear it. You can do so by participating in the April Inleo calender.
This is my response to day 10 of the April InLeo monthly calendar. I encourage you to join.
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Thank you.