HOW TO PRESERVE AND STORE FOOD

The persistent rise in the prices of food items is something everyone grapples with on a daily. Gone are the days one can plan on weekly food spend or put together a feasible grocery budget before heading to the market. You either get more money to complete your shopping or you head home with whatever you could get with the money you have; and times are getting steepier by the day.

Today is literarily one of the hardest times to have many mouths to feed and it is surely not a time to waste food.

In my new blog series, join me to look at some cost effective food preservation and storage methods for specific kinds of food. Such knowledge will surely come in handy. You’ll either get richer or healthier.

In the first post of the series, let us look at some items you need to have in order to begin an effective food preservation journey. Our goal is keep excess food fresh and uncontaminated with the same taste, flavour and quality. This will enable us buy food cheaper in large quantities while they’re in season since we now know how to store them better. We will also look at some general tips for food preservation and storage.

Hello Foodie!

Welcome to our first blog on your favourite home support platform. You might think we will jump right into, “How to prepare Egusi Soup” or some gossip like, “The Secret why Naija big boys love Poundo”. But no, not so fast. As per Naija, we go first welcome you with kitchen tips on wetin you suppose get for kitchen before embarking on this foodie journey with us. Abi no be so?

As a new Naija wife, there’s one proven way to announce your presence in your new home; I mean, to show your mother-in-law you’re the real deal and this is the way you transform her son’s kitchen before she visits again. If you get this right, fifty percent of your smeh-smeh work don finish. Don’t sleep on it; this na expo.

Naija kitchen starter-pack is a mix of local utensils and, as per tush girl wey you be, some support equipment that has become indispensable in kitchens today.  Let’s quickly jump into seven most relevant starter pack necessary for a trendy Naija kitchen.

1. Mortar and pestle: If this is your number 2, then you no be correct babe. Mortar and pestle is facing the biggest fight for relevance in modern Naija kitchens, but these two wooden items have vowed they’re going nowhere. And guess what, they are winning the fight. From banga soup to bitterleaf soup to oha soup, what do you want to cook without the support of these two kitchen landlords?
2. Ten-litre pot: I mean, the pot that shows your place has graduated from a house to a home. How else do you want to cook the food that will feed your children, your husband as well as his father’s side when they visit? Your mother-in-law go provoke if she doesn’t see a pot that shows you carry her for mind as you de cook. Be warned.
3. Big spoon: Your husband must already have one, but shhh, let me tell you a secret, if he has one, make it two. This tells him you have plans for his tummy. I mean, will the tummy continue to look forsaken with no improvement? Forget six pack joor, one rounded pack feels better.
4. Bowls and bowls: I called you twice because there can never be too much of bowls in a Naija kitchen. Bowls are used for everything. From doing the dishes to storing food to scooping water. One bowl will contain meat, another bowl will cover it. Creativity in the use of bowls never ends in our kitchens.
5. Sieve: your hardworking husband may not have one, but if he does, buy a bigger one. Show him you plan to have children and cook bigger meals. Or don’t you?
6. Kitchen shelves: Guys, after buying her a new box, a kitchen shelf must follow if you want to sleep well at night. Otherwise, she will stop in the middle of something to remind you, “Baby, we need a shelf in our kitchen”. Bet me, you just don’t want that.
7. Plastic buckets and small containers: Guys, if you don’t know, your kitchen is your wife’s lab. She will be mixing, burning, frying and marinating. She’ll need to store her lab items and that’s where containers come in. But don’t worry, those ones are not costly and sometimes you get it for free when you buy stuff from Foodie!

You might have been expecting blender, fridge, mixer and so on. Those ones are important shaa but, believe me, these seven are importanter. They are our Naija kitchen starter pack. The first of our kitchen tips for you.