Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Charlotte Okparaeke and her family who live in London and cook a lot of traditional West African food.
What’s a Real Foodie?
A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.
We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.
We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.
This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Okparaeke Family
We have 5 chooks; there were 6 but the fox got one.
This week I’m featuring Charlotte Okparaeke who lives in London with her family. Her husband is from Nigeria, and they cook a lot of traditional African food.
I asked Charlotte to share a bit about traditional Nigerian cooking. This is what she wrote:
African food is big on soups and stews. The whole animal is used, even the bones are chewed right down. When I first went to Nigeria they thought I was very wasteful in not eating all the meat, soft tissues and cartilage and leaving this and the bones uneaten on my plate. I have learned to enjoy all of this now.
The classic starter is Pepper Soup which is a collection of fatty meats usually including tripe and intestine cooked in a clear broth with a special mix of spices. This is usually followed by a ‘soup’ which is more of a stew consisting of a mixture of meats (goat is popular) and quite likely fish as well, the fish may be dried (sometimes smoked) or fresh. Ground shellfish may also be added, e.g. shrimp and crayfish.
The soups have local spices and herbs added and often have some green leaf vegetable in them as well. The popular egusi soup is thickened with ground ‘egusi’ which is a type of melon seed. The soup is red in colour as plenty of palm oil is added. Palm oil, which is highly nutritious is the traditional cooking oil. Sadly, imported vegetable oil is nowadays widely available and a popular substitute. The soup is eaten with pounded yam or cassava. This stiff starchy side dish is moulded into a ball in your hand and dipped into the soup (no knives and forks!).
The traditional ‘seasoning cube’ is called ogiri. It is made from fermented melon seed (ground egusi) and cutely packaged in dried leaves. The smell (when unwrapped) is reminiscent of a strong cheese or miso. It lasts a long time, you will see some hanging up in my kitchen above the stove. It upsets me greatly that in many cases these type of seasonings are being replaced by MSG laden seasoning cubes such as Knorr or Maggi by Nestle.
Babies are typically weaned onto ‘pap’ or Ogi which is a fermented porridge made with millet or maize (it’s not just a baby food; adults eat it too). I am more familiar with the maize version which is a bit like custard but has a sourer taste. You can find the recipe (using millet) in both Nourishing Traditions (p.459) and Wild Fermentation (p.117) cookbooks. Of course Nestle have brought out their own low nutrient version of pap called Cerelac. Nestle is BIG in these developing countries, bringing out cheap and nasty imitations of nutritious local foods. Since they are a large and well established company, their products are popular and trusted. Well, it is of course what has already happened all over the western world, cheap processed foods replacing nutritious local traditional foods.
Black eye beans are another popular food which has many variations in the way it is prepared. See below for a sample recipe.
There are no desserts that I am aware of, but plenty of delicious tropical fruits including mango, oranges, banana, soursop (custard apple) and many more, some of which I’ve never seen outside of Africa. Some snack foods that are widely available are roasted corn on the cob, roasted groundnuts (peanuts – much tastier than KP and not coated in vegetable oil and salt), boiled egg, fruits, fresh or dried coconut, and ‘suya’ — a barbecued kebab of seasoned meats threaded onto a skewer. This may be dehydrated and would then be rather like jerky.
It is hard to think of a recipe to share as so many of the ingredients and preparation techniques will be strange to people in US/Europe and you might only find them at specialist African stores. Even now I don’t know what many ingredients are as DH only knows the local names for them and I do not know if there are English names/equivalents.
Here is a great website however with lots of tutorials for West African delicacies. The recipe I’m linking too is for a delicious snack or side dish called moi-moi. It goes very well with a salad of lettuce and tomato. Not all the ingredients on this website are ‘real food’ so make your own adaptations if you try anything. Corned beef is optional in moi moi and my favourite addition is boiled egg (see comments). Anyone adventurous enough to delve into African cuisine will find some lovely things to try on this site.
Thank you so much, Charlotte! That was fascinating! I know that folks out there will enjoy reading about African cuisine as much as I did.
Blog Name: I don’t have a blog! I don’t feel I could find the time. If I did I would share grain free recipes as I love experimenting in the kitchen and converting recipes to fit with our diet choices, maybe one day. Meanwhile hats off to all you ladies who do have helpful and inspirational blogs.
Me:Charlotte Okparaeke, wife to Kevin and mum to 14-year-old DD and DS1 13, DS2 11, and DS3 3yrs.
Location: South East London, UK
House or Apartment: House
Size of Kitchen: If I could find a tape measure I’d tell you, it’s a very reasonable size as it doubles as a diner (we don’t have a separate dining room) and it’s oblong in shape.
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: I love the size, the light coming from the windows, my hanging rail for utensils, my shelf for recipe books, the sturdy kitchen table, scars and all, I could go on….
Things You Would Change: Well it would be nice if the sink actually looked out into the garden, also I would rather like to extend my kitchen into the utility area (by the back door) and be able to walk straight into the garden.
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: My big kitchen knife, Vitamix, Excalibur dehydrator, Pyrex jugs, juicer.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: Keeping up! Feeding a family of six without relying on convenience foods certainly keeps you on your toes. Currently we are transitioning onto the GAPs diet as my 11year old son has autism and most of us have some issue or another that we hope the GAPs diet will help with. So even more of a challenge.
Current Family Favorite Meal: The kids love the typical kids favourites: spag bol, meatballs, burgers, etc. All these can be made healthily and I sneak in organ meats such as liver and heart, and hide lots of veggies in the sauce. We all love the West African dishes from Eastern Nigeria where DH comes from. They eat ALL parts of the animal in their cuisine, and ferment and prepare everything properly.
Favorite Cookbooks: Just like mother used to make by Tim Norrington-Davies, Levi Roots’ Reggae Reggae Cookbook, Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache by Harry Eastwood. I also have files full of recipes from my favourite blogs, most recently I have a file full of recipes from the Reversing Food Allergies online cooking class which I have just completed, and I’m making lots of things from there.
Here are some photos of Charlotte’s kitchen (with her comments in and quotes and mine not in italics):
Kitchen from the doorway
“We have a larder in the far corner which is great for storing much of our foodstuffs.”
Love the kitchen and chairs! Your kitchen is small (by American standards anyway) but it looks super-functional and I love the modern look.
Another view of the kitchen
“Probably my favourite part of the kitchen. I love my hanging rail, little tea cupboard (I’m English; I have about 10 different varieties of tea in that corner) and my whistling hob kettle. In front of the tea cupboard is an almost finished jar of ghee. I get Berkeley Farm butter from Abel and Cole (for those in the UK). It’s such a rich colour and makes the most amazing orange ghee. Just looking at the colour makes me happy. We get through a jar or 2 a week. The white corner cupboard just houses the gas meter.”
Kitchen clean up
“My son’s turn to clean up the kitchen.”
Ahhh… I can’t wait until my daughter is old enough to do chores! I’m thinking maybe I should start now with easy things… she is 4.
Catching a chicken!
“Chickens do not belong in the kitchen so out they must go.. (My son doesn’t generally choose to wear clothes around the house so since these pics are being posted online I have blurred out as appropriate). The juice pulp in a pot on the table will go to the chickens today. Sometimes I save it and use in baking.”
Cookbook shelf
“My husband put this shelf up for me a few weeks ago. Very handy!”
Garden view
“Looking out into the garden (you can just about see the chicken coop and trampoline in the background). Various ferments on the worktop.”
Grain-free granola with banana and almond milk
Yay! So excited to see one of our recipes from the Reversing Food Allergies class. What a beautiful breakfast! Can I post this photo on our new Reversing Food Allergies Facebook page?
Kitchen helpers
Your sons are adorable!
Popping broad beans
“‘…and the broad beans are sleeping in their blankety beds’, well not any more as my little guys are helping to pop them out ready to cook them for dinner.”
Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Holistic Kid
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Artistta
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Nourished & Nurtured
Real Food Kitchen Tour: May All Seasons Be Sweet to Thee
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Horting Family
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Hybrid Rasta Mama
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Granola Mom 4 God
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Devotee
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Forager
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Leftover Queen
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Health Home & Happiness
Let Us Tour Your Kitchen
Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?
Please email me at annmarie AT realfoodmedia dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.
Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).
As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.
Some ideas for photos:
- Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
- Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
- Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
- How about a lovely herb garden?
- Kids or pets are always cute!
- Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen
And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.
Photo credit: A warm welcome Project365(3) Day 10 by Keith Williamson, on Flickr and photos by Memories by Michelle
Disclosure: cmp.ly/4 and cmp.ly/5
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Very interesting. Thank you!
Very cool. I love seeing other kitchens especially abroad and I love hearing about other cuisines of the world. Fascinating. Thank you for sharing. Your kids are very handsome.
Great as always, thanks for highlighting kitchens from different cultures, it’s always interesting to see how others live and do life !
I love seeing the contrast between your modern London kitchen and my old American farmhouse. Of course, great food comes out of all sorts of kitchens, and little boys are little boys no matter where they are, so maybe things aren’t really all that different! My little guy shuns clothes around too, LOL!
This was so interesting learning about Nigerian cuisine! Nice to have so many helpers in the kitchen! Funny – I so wanted to get an Omelet chicken coop from the UK – but it cost too much to ship! Do you like it?
I love the Omlet chicken coop, it is very practical and easy to maintain. What a pity they don’t have them over there (US?). Maybe the company will branch out in the future.
ahh yes, of course. I remember now you are in the US as your kitchen was featured earlier in the series.
Thats a vivid and detailed description of Nigerian delicacies by an African oyibo. I love the write up.
Didn’t she do a great job writing about the Nigerian cuisine? I thought it was so interesting!
Great post. My husband is Nigerian as well, and unfortunately when I met him he was eating processed American foods but we have gotten rid of most of them (the boullion cubes, soda, chips, etc.) but he will sometimes still buy processed food “behind my back.”
He makes really awesome African food, though,
It is very interesting to learn more about other cultures. Thanks for opening up your kitchen to us Charlotte.
We have friends from Algeria living in France and I enjoyed it very much to visit them. Their food was wonderful. They just cooked they way they knew and it was all fresh. They butchered the chickens in the backyard. They kept their traditions and passed it on to their children.
how nice! And so recognizable your son without clothes. All of my three kids did the same when they were younger:-)
I am always a bit jealous when I see kitchens so big that there can be a table inside it. In the Netherlands (where I am from) it is not common to have a kitchen with a table nor a separate dining room and my kitchen is even for our standards really tiny:-(
Great post, very interesting, thank you for publishing it. Love your site
Thanks for all the lovely comments. Ann Marie of course you can use the granola photo on the facebook page. My 3 year old LOVES helping in the kitchen, yes they can do little jobs at that age like chopping with a not so sharp knife (a small serrated knife works well), popping peas and beans, stirring, etc. It’s a pity that by the time they are old enough to be a lot of help their enthusiasm has waned considerably!
I am interested in your comments on bones. When I was a little girl, my mother made neckbones (pork) and saurkraut. The soft ends of the bones were my favorite part. When I make bone broth from leftover chicken bones from roasted chickens, I notice that most of the bones are so soft, I can smoosh them between my thumb and forefinger. I save them for friends’ dogs (the dogs go crazy over them). I’ve often wondered whether they could be incorporated into some dish. Any suggestions on this? Is there some nutritional advantage we are missing?
I must say I’ve never heard of a specific recipe for using bones apart from marrow bones (which sound delicious but i haven’t tried them as i haven’t been able to obtain any from a trustworthy source). I think eating softer bones/bone ends and bone marrow and boiling bones in bone broth are all great ways to get the nutrition from bones. I’d be interested to hear any other ideas though.
I love this! I wanted to submit pictures of my son in my kitchen but couldn’t find any of him with clothes on. Guess I don’t need them ;o)
Hi Ann Marie,
Didn’t know of any other way to send this to you!
Hope you don’t mind, but thought you would be interested in this!
Annie
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Dust Flying in Countryside Over USDA Animal ID Proposal Farmers and Ranchers Appeal to Vilsack for Adequate Time to Respond
Animal ID act is being shoved down our throats again…keep gagging until it is purged. My guess is it will not be purged until America wakes up and purges Washington completely…Guts it and re-instates our constitution, limits the Alphabet Governments power (IRS,CIS,FBI,USDA,FDA etc…) and limits the different branches of Government from infiltrating other branches (attorneys and judges can not be members of the other branches of government unless they have been out of the ‘business’ for 10 years minimum). Right now, most of our executive and judicial branch of government are run by people who are members of the judicial branch of government.
Side note… Are all aware that over 50% of our countries GDP is related to Wall Street? Trading paper…Wow.. now you know why USA was down graded (higher fees paid to brokers and traders), interest rates are held artificially low (no one has safe place to save $’s), and why the bail outs have taken place (steeling our money labor… do all in this blog understand the relationship of money,interest labor,slavory?), laws are passed… including below.
Below animal ID act alert is about controlling wealth and money. Cattle are money, as they have been through all human history. So is Gold and Silver. Did all catch our treasury secretary testimony to congress a couple wks ago when he said that gold and silver are not money….he thinks the only money is a ‘Note or IOU’.
About 4 years ago i sat on a panel at a wapf conference and was asked if i thought the animal id act would pass. I was blunt in my reply ‘ yes…it will be shoved down our throats and i don’t think we have the ability to stop it. I still think this is the case. The issue will not die until it passes. It will keep comming back until it goes through. Wall Street and company will not allow it to not pass. And we the people are not ready/hungry enough to do what needs to be done to change coarse.
Emails do nothing in the long run. Until we are ready to be inconvienienced and park millions of butts in the streets of Washington nothing will change.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 31, 2011
Dust Flying in Countryside Over USDA Animal ID Proposal Farmers and Ranchers Appeal to Vilsack for Adequate Time to Respond
Austin, TX: Forty-nine advocacy groups representing the interests of family farmers, ranchers, and consumers have formally requested that USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack extend the public comment period for a controversial new proposal that would require livestock producers in the U.S. to incur significant expense tracking animals that cross state lines. The comment period on the proposed “Traceability for Livestock Moving Interstate” is scheduled to end on November 9, and the organizations have requested an additional 60 days.
“The period for public comment coincides with the fall harvest and comes during the worst drought ever recorded in some major livestock production regions,” said Judith McGeary, Executive Director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance and vice-chair of the USDA Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Animal Health. “Our farmers and ranchers are struggling to get their crops in and save their animals, and they need more time to assess the impacts of the proposed rule.”
The groups’ letter to Secretary Vilsack pointed out that many farmers and ranchers are not online, slowing the speed of communication. “According to the 2007 Census of Agriculture, more than 40% of farms do not have internet access,” stated the letter.
“We have a significant number of Amish and Mennonite members, who can only be contacted by mail or through print publications,” explained Mark A. Kastel, senior farm policy analyst at The Cornucopia Institute. “They, in turn, will have to mail their comments to USDA. If the agency actually wants to hear from these livestock owners, it needs to extend the comment period.”
Some groups have questioned the agency’s willingness to respond to producers’ concerns.
“A coalition of cattle groups presented USDA with a reasonable plan for cattle identification, but the agency persists in proposing unworkable rules,” contends R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. “The least the agency can do is extend the comment period so that the cattlemen can comment on the proposal when they’re not in the middle of the calf-weaning and shipping seasons.”
The proposal has raised concerns about the economic impacts on both livestock producers and related businesses.
Gilles Stockton, a member of the Western Organization of Resource Councils said, “It will take a significant amount of time to pencil out the true costs of this proposal. Livestock producers, sale barns, and states deserve adequate time to figure these costs and give comment.”“All of our farmers and ranchers are deeply concerned about animal health,” concluded McGeary. “They work hard every day to keep their animals healthy, and the agency needs to take the time to understand their concerns about this new proposal and address them.”
The organizations’ letter is posted at http://farmandranchfreedom.org/ltr-Vilsack-extension.
The following groups signed the letter: American Agriculture Movement, American Grassfed Association, Ashtabula-Lake-Geauga Counties of Ohio Farmers Union, Buckeye Quality Beef Association, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Cattle Producers of Washington, Citizens for Private Property Rights (MO), Colorado Independent CattleGrowers Association, Contract Poultry Growers Association of the Virginias, The Cornucopia Institute, Dakota Resource Council (ND), Dakota Rural Action (SD), Empire State Family Farm Alliance (NY), Family Farm Defenders, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Food and Water Watch, Freedom21, Idaho Rural Council, Independent Cattlemen of Nebraska, Independent Cattlemen of Wyoming, International Texas Longhorn Association, Kansas Cattlemen’s Association, Land Loss Prevention Project, Mississippi Livestock Markets Association, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Rural Crisis Center, National Association of Farm Animal Welfare, National Family Farm Coalition, National Farmers Organization, Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Association, North Country Sustainability Center (MA), Northern Plains Resource Council (MT), Oglala Sioux Livestock and Landowners Association, Organic Consumers Association, Organization for Competitive Markets, Peach Bottom Concerned Citizens (PA), Powder River Basin Resource Council (WY), R-CALF USA, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Rural Coalition/ Coalicion Rural, Rural Vermont, Rutland Area Farm and Food Link (VT), Socially Responsible Agricultural Project, South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, Sovereignty International, Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, Western Organization of Resource Councils, and Weston A. Price Foundation
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For more information, contact:
Judith McGeary, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, 512-484-8821 Bill Bullard, R-CALF USA, 406-252-2516 Gilles Stockton, Western Organization of Resource Councils, 406-366-4463 Mark Kastel, The Cornucopia Institute, 608-778-2038
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I love, love, love that chart that is hanging underneath the cookbook shelf!!! Any ideas where I could get one? I’ve considered making my own, but just never got around to it!
I love this series Ann Marie! They are so much fun. If my kitchen wasn’t so run down and out dated, I’d totally submit it … maybe some day when we have enough money to remodel …
The chart is by Liz Cook, she does a whole range of them and they are really lovely. The downside is Liz is vegan and there are some dodgy foods on the chart like margarine and soy milk. I’ve been making some small alterations and additions to the chart to include animal products and cover over the few things i would never eat or recommend! Her website is: lizcookcharts.co.uk
I Like your Kitchen and your Chicken Coop.
I’m trying to figure out a chicken coop at the moment, so the wild animals in our
area will not rip it apart to get to the chickens
I live in the mountains in California, USA.
Your boys are Adorable, and I like they way they help you..
You live around the world from me, and we basicly all live the same, although your
recipes seem different .
Ann Marie,
Love all these Kitchen:-). Gives me allot of Ideas.
I too love viewing kitchens, cuisine, and lifestyles abroad. I love watching HGTV International and always found it interesting “for a lack of a better word” that the washer and dryer are in the kitchen, and that a oven has no back, just a flat range. Kitchens are also generally much smaller, we very spoiled here in the states, makes me appreciate the space I have and reminds me focus on what I have and not what I don’t have. The boys are adorable and great to see them helping out and the little one with no clothes on reminds me of my daughter at that age, she did not like clothes, I have a pic of her stirring juice, it also brought a few tears as she passed away 4 months ago due to breast cancer that was widespread when dx. Anyway thanks for sharing and posting.
I too love viewing kitchens, cuisine, and lifestyles abroad. I love watching HGTV International and always found it interesting “for a lack of a better word” that the washer and dryer are in the kitchen, and that a oven has no back, just a flat range. Kitchens are also generally much smaller, we very spoiled here in the states, makes me appreciate the space I have and reminds me focus on what I have and not what I don’t have. The boys are adorable and great to see them helping out and the little one with no clothes on reminds me of my daughter at that age, she did not like clothes, I have a pic of her stirring juice, it also brought a few tears as she passed away 4 months ago due to breast cancer that was widespread when dx. Anyway thanks for sharing and posting.
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