*This is from an email from our Vice President. The original email is from the Ijesa Ladies Union International to the "Nigerians in Diaspora", another umbrella organization for our people. They are marking up an effort to fight childhood obesity in our children, a leading cause of adult onset diabetes, by encouraging us to go back to the basics of home cooking using fresh vegetables and minimal preservatives in our food - much like our mothers of old did. Enjoy!
HOW TO PREPARE EFO RIRO:
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| Eba and Efo Riro, Obe a je, pon 'nu la, hm, hm, hm! |
Have you ever thought of using a portion of that little flower bed in front of your house or even using small plastic containers with some potting soil to plant some tomatoes, pepper and efo tete organically? I do that most summers with my teenage kids as our past time and the joy that planting gives when they start to come to fruit cannot be quantified.
If you cannot plant, then go to your neighborhood store to purchase the fresh ingredients below.
Ingredients:
I bag of fresh or frozen greens of your choice ( tete, spinach, collard green, ewuro (bitter leaf), water leaf etc).
Fresh tomatoes about 5 lbs,
One big bell pepper
Half medium sized onion.
2 cubes of maggi and seasonings of your choice
Fish, beef, saki, abodi, snail, panla or assorted whatever you like.
small teaspoon of salt
Iru (locust bean) if you like it
Cooking Directions:
Wash and cut your meat (beef, goat meat, bushmeat, snail, fish, panla etc)
Wash, cut and blend the tomatoes, pepper and onion with just enough water to keep them from getting stucked in the blender.
Pour the mix into your cooking pot with the meat, cover and bring to boil for about 10 minutes or until the meat is tender enough, brown and free of any red spots. Note FOR BEEF ONLY: If you are cooking the beef first before pouring the ingredients, do not add water, it will generate its own water to boil it.
Add maggi, your seasonings and salt to taste.
(Optional) Add about 2 serving spoons of oil (ororo or epo pupa) ( If you have high cholesterol, you do not need oil, the beef will generate enough and it will taste equally great).
Add your cut,washed and strained greens to the mixture
Bring all to boil for about 5 more minutes.
Your highly nutritious efo riro free of unnecessary preservatives is ready in minutes .
Can serve 4-5 people.
Call your family to the table and serve them with Eba, Iyan, Amala, Rice, Eko riro, Lafun, etc. and a bottle of drinking water or fresh juice (not soda or fanta). The eating together itself also has its own advantage of bringing the family closer, another way of encouraging healthy living.
Original article authored by Ms Olugbemiro Odunmbaku.
*Edited for posting by the blog editor.
*Edited for posting by the blog editor.
Thanks to Mrs Popoola for forwarding this.
Funke Abolade
S/P/Sec
Now, I'm really hungry.
ReplyDeleteSame thing I said! You can almost smell and taste it... Makes you want to go out and cook your very own efo riro right away.
ReplyDeleteWa o .
ReplyDeleteWho ever prepared the Eba and Efo is in deed "olowosibi". I believe our way of cooking is healthy. Just remember , no palm oil and serving a bit less of Eba or Iyan. More importantly;I think the efforts put in growing your own greens , prepare your own chicken and pounding yam with sweats would go a long way in burning up the calories .
This is an excellent presentation . Thanks .
A fi Olowo sibi naa. Thanks for the support by posting your comments.
ReplyDeleteTalking About Food.
ReplyDeleteThe Yorubas regard food very seriously and that is while we traditionally respect the farmers(awon agbe). It is also among other reasons why we love large families.(many hands needed for food production, cash croppings and wars).
So; a few sayings of our people would go a long way to throw more light on the importance of good food.
The preeminence of food security: Ohun ta a je lagba ohun ta a se.
( seeking what we are going to eat is more important than what we are going to do)
Eru Inu la a kodi ka to di tode( one must pack his or her stomach full first before packing the luggage)
ALL FOODS ARE NOT EQUAL
Iyan lonje (Panded yam meal is the true beffiting food),
Oka loogun ( Heavy starch cassava meal (oka) is strong like energy drink),
A i ri rara la a jeko( Eko (corn meal ) is only the last resort )
Ki enu ma dile ni ti Guguru.
( Guguru(pop corn) is mere snack )
Quenching hunger is the first step toward success. (Ti ebi ba kuro ninu ise, ise buse.)
fantastic sayings! more of that pls!
ReplyDelete