HOW TO PREPARE DORO WOT(Red Chicken Stew) - ETHIOPIAN DISH

Doro Wot (Red Chicken Stew), is one of the most popular dish of Ethiopia. The first time I tried this stew was when my cousin returned from Ethiopia and believe me when I say I nearly bit my tongue off! That is one spicy stew I have ever taken in my life.
 
Measurements and Ingredients (serving for 10) 5-8  pounds of chicken drumsticks and thighs skinned and cleaned
8    large onions fine chopped
2    cup of vegetable oil
5    teaspoons minced or powdered garlic
2    teaspoons minced or powdered ginger
1/2  cup of authentic Ethiopian Berber(more to make spicier)
1/4  cup of  Paprika for redness

2    teaspoon Koreima
2    teaspoon Wot Kimem
2    teaspoon salt (as needed)
1-3    cup of water

Preparation Method:In large pot, simmer onion, garlic and ginger with vegetable oil till lightly brown. Add Berbere and Paprika, continue to simmer for about 15-20 minutes at low heat stirring occasionally by adding a touch of water as needed to avoid sticking. Add chicken and simmer until chicken is done while adding the remaining water as needed. Finish of simmering by add salt, Koreria, Wot kimem (Mekelesha). Serve hot with Injera (Ethiopian flat bread made of teff).

 Watch the video of its preparation from an Ethiopian chef and learn more..... ENJOY

HOW TO PREPARE OKRO/OKRA STEW

Okra Soup is one of the most famous dishes in Africa. Many variations of this soup can be found throughout  Africa (Nigerian, Liberian, Ghanaian  and many other).
It is usually served with rice, banku, akple, koknonte or Fufu. It can be made with beef, lamb, fish or any meat.
This recipe calls for red palm oil but if you can not get i,t you can substitute with peanut oil.

Cooking time: 40 min

Preparation time: 15 min

Ingredients:

• 300g okra (gumbo), cut finely 
• 300g beef, cut into small( lamb, chicken any other)
• 1 fish
• 150ml palm oil
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 bouillon cubes or Maggi
• 3 fresh chilies (optional)
• Salt
• 1 l water 
• Making okra soup:
• If you are using fresh okra, wash and cut them finely. Then reserve.
  In a deep pot put the beef or your chosen meat (Lamb, mutton or any meat).
  Add in the fish and 2 cups of water.
  Bring that to boil for 10 to 15minutes or until the fish is cooked.
  Remove the fish from the pot and let it cool down. Then remove it bones and reserve.
  Add the okra with another cup of water and let simmer for 15 minutes.
  Add the onions, the palm oil and the bouillon cubes. Then add chilies and salt.
  To finish return the fish in the pot and cook the sauce 15 minutes or more (there must be no water remaining). Make sure to stir the sauce regularly in order to avoid the sauce to burned.
  Serve with rice, banku, akple, kokonte or fufu and enjoy.

How do the citizen journalist using the social media affect the activities of traditional media production and how are and have the media houses strategised to meet the changing trend in mass media work. (ASSIGNMENT)

  In the ever-expanding and fast-paced of new digital world, new media is rapidly gaining complete ascending over traditional media. The interactive platform it provides for widespread discussion and news postings which can occur instantly seems to attract a large mass of users by the minute.

Jay Rosen defines citizen journalism as;” when people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possessions to inform one another”. A very simple definition by Tony Rogers says; “citizen journalism is when private individuals do essentially what professional reporters do, report information”. The concept of citizen journalism is based on public citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information. The emergence of modern technology in this face-paced system of things requires citizen journalists to employ new and powerful platforms for communication to foray into the competitive world of information. An effective method that has been widely embraced by citizen journalists to fulfill these demands is the use of social demands.

One may ask, what is social media? Well, social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share and or, exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and network. It could also be defined by the personal computing glossary as the collective of online communication channels dedicated to community based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.  Examples of these social media are; facebook, twitter, blogs, google+ and the likes. New media technologies, including the increase prevalence of digital phones have made citizen journalism more accessible to people all over the world. Due to the high availability of new media, citizen journalists can report breaking news more quickly than traditional media reporters.

Traditional media refers to the old way of spreading information.  It may also refer to the media used before the advent of technological advances like the internet. Mostly, media that are often referred to as the traditional media are; the press, radio and the television. New media on the other hand is what many of us enjoy using this day. As soon as you log in to the internet, the acquiring and disseminating of information begins. It is digital and therefore it allow unlimited number of people to connect at the same time. This is why new media is such a powerful communication tool in our age. New media also expands our need as a business owner to the world and allows other people to be fellow marketers though social networking tools

New media as an alternative media to the basic media presents a massive change to the professionalised and institutionalised practise of the mainstream media.  Unfortunately for traditional media, strategies used by them have been adopted, polished to a maximum advancement and being used by the new media. This makes the traditional media very colloquial when using it.

 Also the social media used  by citizen journalist provides unlimited freedom of expression of one’s views and more opportunity to explore than the traditional media. With this new diversity of the spread of information, traditional media houses are highly threatened by the rise of new media because it can lead to the close down of these traditional media houses.

The evolution of social media has therefore kept every media house on the edge of their toes. It has made the market very competitive where by media houses struggle amongst one another for the maximum attention of audiences. Seeing this, most media houses adopted some strategies that will still keep them in business and not wear off like an old sticker on a wall. Some of these strategies are; the use of new technologies such as a touch pad flat screen television which can also be connected to the internet, an electronic note book or tablets and a laptop in the dispersion of news. The use of these technological artefacts by the media houses make audiences believe or accept everything that is being given to them in the news. This is so due to audiences now trusting the new media than the traditional media. A vivid example can be the broadcasting of the evening news on both TV3 and GTV. Although they are doing similar things, the presentation of information differentiates them. TV3 news broadcasters come full equipped because they are endowed with new technologies that make broadcasting easier in this new age. Whereas GTV, ‘the nation’s pulse’ has just upgraded itself to a flat screen television and sometimes a laptop.

  Also media houses realised that if they do not use the social media to their advantage, they may not have information at their finger tips. Now, most media houses have created websites, twitter accounts, facebook accounts and the likes to get and disperse information faster just like the a citizen journalist.  They now use the social media to inform audiences on new and up-coming activities they have. For example, Visat1, a private owned television station in Ghana, really use the social media to their advantage. It used the platform provided by facebook to sell its programmes to audiences. Although it can be described as an infant in the midst of media houses, it has the most effective facebook page and also one of the most effective websites comparing to other media houses.

   Another example is the Cable News Network popularly known as CNN. This media house is known for the provision of news24/7/365-66 throughout the world. It is able to survive this new age because it employs the social media. Whilst news is been broadcasted live on television, the same news is being twitted, shared on facebook, their personal websites and other known websites. This is to help target people who are always glued to the internet. Currently on twitter, CNN has 13.7M followers around the globe due to its frequent update of news. Not leaving out media houses which practice printing, graphics and magazines like the New Yorker, Times magazine, and the Ghanaian Daily Graphic also adopt some social media such as; emails, websites, twitter and facebook accounts and enhance their image through them.

 Now, media houses have improved on the provision of credible news because they have realised that audience are not as passive or dormant as they used to be. Therefore provision of credible information is one of their biggest priority. This is in order to keep their audiences, gain more audience and win their trust in them.

References:

Retrieved from www.twitter.com by Mercy.S. Tsar- 22/10/13
Retrieved from www.facebook,com by Mercy.S. Tsar- 22/10/13

HOW TO PREPARE BUFF LOAF (GHANAIAN)

     Buff loaf,one of my favorite African pastry. I vividly remember my mum making it behind the kitchen using our indigenous food cooker;the coal pot and a huge locally made frying pan filled with hot oil. those days were a lot fun to me. There was never a day that passed by without me having two buff loaves in my lunch box when I was in nursery and kindergarten.
    The reason for choosing the buff loaf is because it is simple to prepare, a delicious pastry which can serve as an appetizer for a main course and as mentioned above,one of my favorite. Buff loaf, I will say is a pastry prepared by Ghanaian women but has gradually spread to other African countries on the western side such as Nigeria,Togo, Cote D'ivore, Benin amongst others. The people of Ghana nicknamed it 'buffroat' and Nigerians call it 'puff puff'.
    As stated earlier ,the preparation is simple. I will provide the required ingredients and its preparation and with the help of the video provided above, you will be able to pick up the steps of preparation quicker.
    The ingredients needed are: three cups of flour, one cup of sugar preferably brown, three seven grams(7g) sachets of dry yeast, one and a half  teaspoon of ground nutmeg, a table spoon of butter, a teaspoon of salt and one cup of lukewarm water depending on how you want your buff loaf to be, either heavy or light. To begin, get a deep ball and pour your three cups of flour into it,add your sugar, dry yeast, ground nutmeg, butter and salt,and begin to stir or mix the butter into the mixture. Make sure the butter mixes with the other ingredients well and gradually add your lukewarm water to the mixer. As mentioned, the water must be added slowly because you do not want to lose the value of the yeast in your mixture. If you think the mixture is too light for you, you can add a little amount of flour.
     Now that the mixture is done, it is advisable to leave the mixture covered with a napkin for about twenty to thirty minutes. This is to make ingredients like sugar and salt dissolve completely in the mixture. You must note that the mixture is suppose to be sticky. Now we heat our oil, and the oil must be very hot and the method of frying our 'bufroat' is the deep frying method. When your oil is hot,you will scoop our mixture in your desired quantity into the hot oil. You ether use your hand or a small ladle to scoop the mixture into oil.
       Finally,leave 'bufroats' on fire till they turn golden brown. Take them from the fire into a sieve or a colander to drain oil on it  then your self prepared delicious buff loaf are ready to be consumed. Buff loaf can be taken with cornflour or wheat flour porridge. These are also African dishes which are taken as breakfast and it is highly common in the western part of Africa. It can also be taken with roasted groundnut, fruit juices and some non-alcoholic drinks like Coca Cola and Sprite.

        Special  acknowledgment  goes to AdomHomeFoods' beautiful documentary on buff loaf. I hope you enjoy the video and you can check out other African food prepared by AdomHomeFoods on YouTube....ENJOY!!

Brief about African dishes

  There's this common saying that;"you're what you eat". We Africans can manifest to that quotation. Most people see Africans as strong willed people,very vibrant and good looking as well. All this is to the help of our healthy delicacies passed on by our ancestors. We Africans adore food especially our tasty spiced up dishes made from our indigenous cooking utensils. Hahaa... Yes we love it simple. No matter how other people view our cooking techniques,we still love to keep to the old fashion way of cooking to preserve our culture and the unique taste we get from the food.
   My part of the African continent,Ghana is a very beautiful country with various amazing delicacies whose pleasant aromas  can bring an almost dying hungry man back to life filled and with happiness. Foreigners experience the unforgettable touch of an African dish and fall completely in love and always yearn for more.
   Aside how palatable these dishes are, almost every African dish has a history behind it. This gives an exciting feel to what you're eating. History means a lot to we Africans because it represent some kind of authenticity. This even shows how African dishes are extremely unique  comparing to other continents.
    

   Also African dishes are filled with colors which people admire Africans for. These colors presented in the dishes helps in boosting irresistible cravings. Beauty means a lot to us so we try to represent a touch of beauty in everything we do including our foods.

  The purpose of creating this blog is exhibit African dishes to the world,the history behind every dish, I will talk about,how it's prepared and its health aspects.  You'll get to know what the north, south east and west of Africa eat and what sort of dishes they all have in common.