One of my readers, Blessing asked me for a recipe for Pizza. A gigantic challenge for sure. In fact, I can say she threw it down. Pizza, oh dear. You all must know by now that baking is not my forte, and what a way to scare me shitless than Pizza. I mean, conquering Pizza dough is enough to make even experienced chefs, break a sweat. My response to Blessing was “I’ll think about it”, and that’s all I thought about for the next few days, almost obsessively. I was thinking about it, and the idea started taking a deep stronghold in my head. Yes people, I am going to make Pizza, and not just a Pizza, but a truly authentic, wait for it…………..Nigerian Pizza. Move over Italians, yes you guys will always be the Kings of Pizza, but Dooney’s Kitchen is about to throw down the gauntlet with a Nigerian Pizza, which I hope will pick up and become popular. You don’t want to take a peep into my head right now, cos it’s full to bursting with ideas.
The base for every pizza is cheese. I am going for authenticity here, so foreign cheeses will not work. Nigerians have our own local cheese called Wara. In Benin Republic, it is called Woagachi. Its Western substitute is Cottage Cheese, its Latin American substitute is Queso Blanco and its Indian substitute is Paneer. I have spent hours and hours pouring over articles, even to the extent of reading through Journals, and I can finally report that I have the recipe for making our very own Wara. No joke, I found it. The other chesse’s are made with lemon juice or vinegar, not so for our local Wara which needs an extra special ingredient. Wink, wink, I found it, and it has been ordered. I’ll stop with the teaser there. There’s one more thing needed for a truly authentic Wara. Don’t ask me, not telling. Just stay tuned. Lol
As a tester experiment, since the ingredients for making Wara are quite expensive, I decided to start with a safer and inexpensive trial. I made Cottage cheese or Paneer. It was so simple, I couldn’t believe it. Which has led me to research further on how to make homemade Ricotta, Mozzarella, Mascarpone. Imagine me listing all these out in an Italian accent. Oooh, I forgot Parmigiano Reggiano (parmesan) and Pecorino Romano. Don’t I just loooooove the Italians. Their cheese are the only types I can manage to tolerate. I absolutely detest the rest. Cheddar ugh, Swiss cheese ugh, Gruyère, double ugh, Brie, triple ugh. Let me stop there now, before I offend entire countries. Lol
You will need
Lemon juice – or vinegar
That’s all. Wara is slightly more complicated, and I don’t want to give it away yet till I try it myself. You can go along with me, with this experiment too, so that you are good to go to re-create your own Nigerian Pizza once the recipe is up.
1. Pour milk in a pot and bring to a boil. This was an experiment, so I didn’t measure anything, but it was roughly two cups of milk from the fridge
2. When the milk comes to a boil, turn off the heat, add lemon juice in teaspoonfuls and keep stirring until you see the milk start to curdle. I used 3 teaspoons of lemon juice.
You will observe floating curds begin to separate from the whey which has a light yellowish colour
3. Pour the entire mixture into a fine white cloth (you should use a cheese cloth preferably), and let it drain out the whey. Once the cloth holding the curds is warm enough to hold, rinse it under tap water, and leave it for 30minutes to completely drain.
……….I made cheese. Creamy, crumbly and yummy. I really loved it. 100% homemade, no chemicals
Oh, I am also making a Nigerian Lasagne from scratch. Using Jamie Oliver as my inspiration, I have ordered his brand of Pasta Machine to boot. No store-bought Lasagne sheets from me. Lol. Once I get this and the Pizza right, I am definitely going to be selling it commercially. Watch out for my exciting Menu up for purchase very soon.