Most times when i make soy milk, i make it traditionally in my kitchen from scratch. Luckily for me, the soya bean seed is always readily available whenever i need it. It's mostly used as a beverage which can be sweetened and served hot as tea for breakfast or cold. Please take note that soya bean milk and soya bean powder are totally different. 
Soy milk is the most nutritious and best protein source because it has well balanced amino acid levels than other vegetable sources. it's rich in essential fatty acids, amino acids like lysine and methionine, fiber, vitamins and minerals. This is one drink which is highly essential for kids due to its nutritious benefits and can also be taken by diabetics. 

Homemade Soy Milk Recipe
•Prep time: 6hrs 30mins
•Cook time: 20 mins

Utensils Needed:::
• A pot
• A sieve with handle
• A Cheese/Pap cloth

Ingredients:::

•1 cup Soya beans

• Water - As desired

• Sugar/ Honey - As desired

• Flavor essence - Optional

Directions:::

Step 1: Soak the Soya bean seeds in water Overnight or for 6 hours

Step 2: Drain and rinse the seeds with clean water. Rub the seeds between your hands to de-haul it till the skin removes(Just the same way beans is de-hauled for moi moi ). This process is very important as the skin is more of fiber and insoluble.  Sieve out the chaff and rinse with clean water several times. Pour the washed seeds into a blender, Add some water and blend till smooth.

Step 3: Place the Sieve with handle on the pot and place the pap sieve cloth within. Gently pour the blended soya bean slurry into the pap sieve. Squeeze the Liquid filterate into the pot. The chaff can be reused by placing in the blender again with water, blending and squeezing till all the milk is extracted.

Step 4: Place the pot with the filtered soya milk on fire and cook on low heat for about 15-20mins till it starts to boil. While it cooks, keep stirring because it has the tendency to curdle if you don't. Sieve once more (Hot filteration) to remove the insoluble soy pulp fiber (Okara)and leave to cool.

Step 5: Add your sugar and flavor essence and mix. Serve warm or Refrigerate and Serve Cold

Kitchen note::: 

Soya needs to be given heat treatment before use. This is done to destroy the soya bean trypsin inhibitors that has unfavourable effect on growth and utilization of soya as well as sterilize the milk. If not given heat treatment before use, it could retard growth and lead to death due to toxicity. Heat treatment could be done by boiling or toasting to ensure the heat penetrates into the seed. it's only after heat treatment that you can now dry, grind or process into any edible form of administration. By giving heat treatment, your main aim would be to destroy the inhibitor but not denature the protein therefore you have to work at an optimal temperature between 120-150°C or probably boil for about 15-20 mins (Chinadi O, 2014)

Egusi soup (Melon Soup) is Unarguably the most popular Nigerian soup everyone loves. It's quite versatile too as it's prepared by every single tribe in Nigeria though the methods of preparation might differ slightly. No matter how it is prepared, the end result still remains the same good old tasty soup. In the north it's known as Miyan Gushi, in the east it is known as Ofe egusi, in the west it is known as efo-elegusi. It could also be prepared with different leaves such as Ugu leaf "fluted pumpkin leaf", Onugbu "Bitter leaf, Afang "Wild spinach", water leaf e.t.c View full list of Nigerian leafy vegetables here - A different leaf means a different flavor. 

One of the reasons why i love preparing Egusi soup with bitter leaf is, with bitter leaf the soup tends to last longer without the taste changing while being refrigerated but when prepared with ugu leaves, it's best eaten within a time frame. Also, bitter leaf makes it fingerlicking good. 

How to make Egusi soup with bitter leaf

• Prep Time:  30 minutes

• Total Time: Over 45 minutes

• Serves :       6

Ingredients:::

• 2 Cups Melon Seeds "Egusi"

• 600g Red beef

• 1 medium sized Stock fish

• 2 Medium Smoked fish

• 1/2 Cooking spoon Cray fish

• 5 chili pepper "Shombo"

• 3 red scotch bonnet pepper "Ata rodo" 

• 1 medium sized onion

• 1½ Cup palm oil

• 1 Cup Bitter leaf - Pre-washed

• 3 Seasoning cubes

• Salt to taste

Directions:::

Step 1: The first step is to peel the egusi by removing the white Egusi seeds from the brown shell. Place the peeled Egusi in a dry mill (The smaller grinder that comes with the Cup blender) and grind till smooth. It might start to cake up but never mind, that's not a problem.

Step 2: Bitter leaf is always sold pre-washed in the Nigerian market. To be on the safer side and to avoid making your soup extremely bitter, it's always advisable to Boil and re-wash the already washed bitter leaf.

Place the pre-washed bitter leaf in an empty pot and add some water. Cook on medium heat for 10mins. Strain and rinse about 2-3 times more. Squeeze out the excess water and set aside for later use. Please taste it before adding to the soup (There's no remedy to Bitter Egusi soup - If you've got, please share below)

Step 3: Wash the chili pepper and scotch bonnet. Dice or blend into a puree - Set aside. Click here to view steps on how to make pepper puree

Step 4: For the Stock, you could use any type of meat or fish you choose to. For this particular recipe, i used a mixture of Stock fish, Smoked fish & Beef.

Wash the Beef, Stock fish and Smoked fish (remove the bone). Place the beef in an empty pot, add the blended pepper puree and Chopped onion (you could also blend the onion), Crushed seasoning cubes and just enough water to cover the content of the pot. Cook on medium heat for about 25 minutes. Add the salt, washed stock fish and smoked fish, Cook for another 5 minutes. Turn off the burner and set aside.

Step 5: In an empty pot, pour in the palm oil and ground Egusi. On medium heat, stir fry for about 3 minutes till it starts to dry up but don't let it burn. 

Step 6: Pour in the meat & fish stock in step 4 above, add the ground crayfish, Stir and cover the pot. Leave to cook for about 15 minutes till the Egusi swells and cakes up a little. By this time, the oil would have settled on top.

Step 7: Add the washed bitter leaf, stir and cover the pot. Leave to simmer for 5-7 minutes before turning off the burner. 

Serve with any "Swallow", Yam or Rice.

Recipe by www.dobbyssignature.com

Spring roll is a light, Simple yet elegant snack which could be placed in the Nigerian Small chops Category. For the filling, you could use just about anything such as vegetables, chicken, beef, noodles e.t.c. If you are making vegetable spring rolls, you could lightly steam the vegetables to be filled into the pastry. For me, i prefer slicing my vegetables very thinly and filling it into the spring roll pastry before frying. This is because i like my vegetables fresh and not soggy as is the case with most pre-packed springrolls. Here's a step by step guide on how to make springrolls at home with Homemade spring roll wrap.

Homemade spring roll recipe
Prep time:  40 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Makes:        25 spring rolls

Ingredients:::

• 1 Small Carrot

• ¼ Small Cabbage

• ¼ Small bunch Spring onions 

• 5 Green runner beans 

• 25 Spring roll pastry

• Vegetable oil for deep frying

Directions:::

Step 1: Scrape the back of the carrot, rinse and grate thinly. Wash the cabbage and dice thinly. Wash the spring onions and dice thinly. Wash the green runner beans and dice thinly - Set aside.

Step 2: To assemble, take one spring roll pastry (you could also use the pastry like that without cutting it into squares), place a very small amount of each vegetable on it. Placing a small amount of vegetable helps prevent the spring roll wrap from breaking. 

Step 3: Roll it up gently making sure it's firm and not loose. This is to prevent it from loosening in the hot oil.

Step 4: Once you get to the end of the spring roll pastry, seal up the contents permanently by rubbing a mixture of flour and water liquid at the edge. you could also dip your hand in water and rub at the edge for the same purpose.

Step 5: Deep fry the Spring rolls in Pre-heated oil till golden brown.

Step 6: Drain on a wire sieve or paper towel....Serve!

Recipe by www.dobbyssignature.com

Nigerian Beef Suya is a popular street delicacy enjoyed by everyone. To describe it in layman's terms, it is simply barbecued skewered meat prepared with a special spice known as suya spice. Originally from the Northern part of Nigeria, "Suya" has now been adopted as a main staple across Nigeria. The secret to this popular meal has a lot to do with the specially prepared spice which is usually coated around the meat before roasting on the barbecue grill. Suya spice is made from a mixture of different ingredients which includes pepper, groundnuts and a host of others. During my street foodie waka through the North, i also noticed to my amazement that it's sometimes prepared in open flame as shown in the pictures. i had never seen it done in open flame before that day and my curiosity got the better part of me. Though i couldn't speak Hausa language, i was able to get the ingredients from the "mai suya" by going through the Hausa-English conversion Language book i was given at the camp :D. It could be made with beef, chicken, ram or Inner parts such as kidney, liver and tripe (Sharki).

Ingredients for Suya spice:

• ½ cup roasted groundnuts "peanuts"

• ½ cup Small Dry cayenne pepper “Ose Nkiri” , powdered

• 1 tsp. Salt

• ½ tsp. dry ginger, ground

• ½ tsp. dry garlic, ground

How to make Suya spice:::

Step 1: Peel the skin off the roasted peanuts by rubbing between your hands. place the roasted peanuts on a flat tray and blow off the skin leaving the bare peanuts.

Step 2:The next step is to extract the groundnut oil because what you'd need is the paste. To do it locally, Place the peeled peanuts in a dry mill and grind into a paste. Add a little hot water and pour the paste through a pap sieve. Squeeze the paste and  gradually the oil would begin to come out leaving the groundnut cake behind in the sieve. This is then left to dry a little before frying.

Step 3: After the groundnut cake has been fried, add the cayenne pepper, ground ginger, garlic powder and salt, blend some more to incorporate.

This can now be used to coat the meat you intend roasting

Ingredients for Beef Suya:::

• Beef

• Suya Spice

• Vegetable oil /Groundnut oil

Tools you'll need: 
Skewers

 Directions:::

Step 1: Slice the beef into thin strips

Step 2: Insert the skewers through about 3-4 strips of beef from the middle

Step 3: Dip the beef skewers in the Suya spice making sure you coat every part generously

Step 4: Drizzle with vegetable oil and place on the barbecue grill. In the north, Suya is sometimes prepared in open flame. 

Step 5: Once in a while, brush some more vegetable oil over the meat to prevent it from burning and drying up.

Serve with chopped chunks of Raw onion, Tomatoes or Cucumber. 

Recipes by www.dobbyssignature.com