Hmmm! Foooood!

Today's post will be short and sweet. I am going to let you have a recipe for a bread which people in Sierra Leone and Liberia love to eat. It is called Rice Bread and it is made with rice flour, bananas and sugar.
Bananas are cultivated in West Africa, they produce fruit year round and are a staple of the West African diet. They fry, boil and bake bananas and people can sometimes get sick of them.
Bananas start off with a lot of starch and very little sugar. As they ripen, the starch turns to sugar. As the sugar starts to increase in the fruit, it shows up as dark spots on the skin. So the darker the banana, the sweeter it is. This is why with this recipe, you add the sugar to your taste. The bananas themselves contain a lot of sugar; the riper the bananas are, the less sugar you should add.
Because there are always a lot of bananas available and it is hot, they tend to become overripe very quickly. And also because it is plentiful, very few people eat the overripe bananas. In Sierra Leone, the fruit traders in the market will give away the fruit at the end of the day because no one in their right mind will buy overripe bananas. Even now I still won't eat overripe bananas (I find them far to sweet). I will, however, eat them baked or fried or in fritters. This recipe is one of my favourite ways of using them.
Here we have a recipe which will give you enough mix to bake a loaf of about 20cm x 10cm x 5cm (8in x 4 in x 2in).

A Recipe for Rice Bread
You will need:
6 large overripe bananas
1.5 cup rice flour
3/4 - 1 cup sugar (depending on the ripeness of the bananas)
1 whole nutmeg (grated)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
90ml vegetable oil

What to do
1. Mash or blend the bananas into a smooth paste.
2. Mix in the flour slowly to avoid bumps.
3. Mix in the sugar slowly. Add enough sugar to your taste.
4. Add in the grated nutmeg, cinnamon and oil.
5. Make sure everything is mixed in properly and pour the mixture into a non-stick loaf tin. If you are using a loaf tin that sticks, rub in a drop of vegetable oil.
6. Bake for 45-60mins at 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. You can put a skewer in to check for doneness.
7. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

Now go off and make some rice bread. This is your time to try something new. Enjoy a slice or two of rice bread with a nice hot cup of lemongrass tea or with very cold ginger beer (I'll show you how to make a good ginger beer soon).

Amiexx

Thank God for Weekends!

Phew! It's the weekend and it is a long one! Well when I say long I don't really mean long. What I really mean is that we have one extra day of rest should we wish to take it. A long weekend for me would probably be something like five days but I think that is called a Work Week.
I love weekends because you can avoid people if you so choose, that is if you live alone. During the week, people expect you to get things done and if you don't, they'll think you are lazy. You also feel you should be getting things done because most people are only available to work Monday to Friday.
This week has been quite busy as I moved from one meeting to the next, getting advice from this person or the other. Even for someone like me who loves learning, it can all get a bit too much. I had planned to write this earlier but I was so tired that I couldn't even bring myself to turn the computer on.
I did achieve quite a bit this week. I have decide on the name of the brand. I have secured help with all the food development work that needs to be done and we (myself and the brand guy) have finalised what the logo will look like including the shape and colour. Of course, it is all going to cost money which I currently don't have enough of. I have also managed to put together a PR plan and a market research plan based on advice I got from some very nice people on Tuesday. I then spent most of yesterday (Friday) at the British Library putting together my media list. I love being at the British Library especially now that they have really developed the Business and IP centre. There are always workshops going on which are really useful for new businesses.
Next week will certainly be a lot busier than this week has been because I have to put together a presentation which I will be giving in Rotterdam, prepare some food samples to take with me on my trip and talk to people about things which will happen later on in the year. I also need to do a last edit of a cookbook I've written and must attend a couple of useful seminars; problem is, it is a shorter week.
I have found this one of the 'joys' of working on my own. If there are twenty-two things which need to be done in a day, I am responsible for doing all of them. When I was a child, my parents told me that I could do anything I wanted to. I am beginning to believe them now.
Amiexx

My New Life

I was talking to one of my many mentors today and she suggested I start a blog. Apparently, my story is interesting and she reckons there are some of you out there who would love to read it and may even get inspired by it.
"What is this story?" I hear you ask. Well, I am currently working on a new food range based completely on African recipes. I am trying to make sure Africa is known for much more than debt and poverty. What is so special about what I am doing is that I started making these sauces and biscuits, and catering for people in my kitchen. It has now been transformed into a full-blown food business (www.simplyafrican.co.uk).
Starting a business is not easy and starting a food business seems to be a lot harder. Did you know that there are about nineteen different legislations that food businesses have to comply with? Then there is the branding, development, getting money and just getting people interested. As Beverley Sills, the famous American opera singer once said, “there are no short cuts to any place worth going.”
Bear with me as I find my blog voice and bring you the best and worst of my business life.
Amiexx