Smoky kitchen, blazing hot fire from the cooker or stove, charred pots etc all goes to show how much we love to turn the heat up and cook food to death in the kitchen. Our love for cooking in Nigeria is usually matched with our cooking methods and skills. Here is a list of the top four most overcooked foods in Nigeria.

1)Vegetables
The first thing on the list is of course our most beloved vegetables. Most cultures in Nigeria have their own peculiar vegetable recipe or their way of adding vegetables to dishes. Funnily enough, we do observe the 'add the veggies last' principle(in most cases) but usually we just leave the vegetables to go die alongside other ingredients in the pot. Our carrots, leafy vegetables, okras etc are usually cooked for too long and usually become soggy at the end of the day(as in the case of carrots). I believe most of us don't have terrible teeth conditions so why not enjoy the crunchiness of these blessed foods and the nutrients they have to offer. I mean, we eat foods like roasted corn, coconut etc right?

2)Eggs
Yes, most of us like our eggs dry and browny. If it's possible to fry eggs till its crunchy, some of us would. I remember one time I went to a 'Mai tea'to eat noodles and egg... At the end of the burial of the egg, the egg didn't look too different from the brown plate he used to serve the food. Eggs are supposed to be moist after frying as the heat from the frying process still continues to cook the egg even after the stove is turned off. The frying pan that most people use to fry egg sef...

3) Fish
Who doesn't love the smell of fried fish especially with garri on the rocks. However, fish is one of the things we tend to overcook. Some people will first boil fish to make fish broth(wonder what you want to use it for) or maybe it's parboiling they are doing and then now transfer the fish to hot oil for deep frying. Why do this to the poor fishes? That's like 3 death sentences even some murderers are not given such severe punishment. If you have been cooking fish for more than 10 minutes and using bread knife to cut fried fish, please change.

4) Tomato stew
Alright here is how my mum does it(and she has refused to change). While blending the peppers and tomatoes using the big blue grinding machine that is locally used for grinding anything and everything, she would tell the operator to add water so that none of her peppers or onions would be left in the machine. Next, we pour the grinded mixture into a pot and then put it on a lit stove and let it boil for at least 20min in order to reduce the water content (what irony). After, we use the now thick mixture to cook the typical Nigerian beef stew which would take another 15-20 minutes. And then we re-heat and re-heat and re-heat whenever the stew is needed. How many of us are guilty of this grievous crime?
Let's take note of how we 'cremate' our foods and work on better cooking methods. Feel free to add your suggestions. And yes I know, that's how our ancestors cooked and nothing happened to them... they at least made up with the lost nutrients with fruits and if that's how they did it, then we should do it better.

the tomato sauce story though.

Dannan:
the tomato sauce story though.

I know right?