Easter delight: Gizdodo Recipe

Hey it’s Easter! Happy Easter! Happy celebration! It’s time for jollof rice and chicken!

In addition to the generic jollof rice or fried rice, why not add something different to eat alongside your rice dish. Expecting guest or you are just serving your household? Make it an Easter to remember. Try out this Gizdodo recipe at home; it’s chewy, yummy, flavorful and totally delicious. You will love it!

Gizdodo a.k.a Dodo-Gizzard.

Gizdodo is just an acronym coined from a combination of gizzard and dodo (fried plantain). Chicken gizzard is commonly used but you can also use gizzard from turkey or duck. Gizzard is an organ found in the digestive tract of these birds. Don’t be surprised that people from some cultures don’t eat gizzard or any animal offal for that matter, some even give to their pets! Imagine o, they don’t know what they are missing whereas offal dishes are a delicacy in some African homes. Gizzard provides a healthy dose of proteins, vitamins and minerals such as iron and zinc. As an alternative to gizzard, you can use other kind of meat, beef, chicken, turkey, etc but then it won’t be Gizdodo again, coin d name together and create something new. Yes o!.

Ingredients

·         Chicken Gizzard

·         Plantain (ripe)

·         Red bell pepper (Tatashe)

·        Green bell pepper

·        Scotch bonnet a.k.a Ata rodo (note its different from habanero pepper and milder)

·         Tomatoes

·         Onions

·         Spring Onions (optional for garnishing)

·         Thyme, curry

·         Garlic

·         Ginger (optional)

·         Stock cubes

·         Vegetable oil

·         Salt to taste

 Preparation;

1.    Firstly, remove the yellow lining and any fatty residue on the gizzard, wash the gizzard thoroughly preferably with warm salty water or with lime/lemon juice, then rinse out thoroughly in clean water as many times as possible.

2.    Put the washed gizzard in a pot, season with stock cubes, thyme, chopped onions and garlic, add some water and salt to taste. Allow to cook for 25-40mins or until soft. Gizzard is tough meat, so you can add more water as needed. Then, remove from heat and set aside. (I usually cook mine the night before and leave to marinate in the stock to allow the gizzard absorb all the seasoning, you can put in the refrigerator overnight.  

3.   Peel the plantain and cut into cubes, add some salt to taste and fry in hot vegetable oil until golden brown, transfer to a plate lined with paper towel to drain excess oil off the dodo.

4.    Cut the gizzard into small bite sizes, about same size as the plantain cubes. Fry in the same oil used to fry the plantain and also transfer to a plate lined with paper towel to drain excess oil. (As a less fat option, you can grill the chicken gizzard in an oven till its brown instead of frying.

*Grilling food is always a healthier option.

5.    Blend the Tatashe ,Tomatoes and Ata rodo together, then heat up some oil (use the remaining oil left over from frying the plantain and gizzard so as to conserve the flavor), add the dry seasoning like thyme, curry to the hot oil, then pour some finely chopped onions, fry and stir continuously for a few seconds (don’t do this if you don’t want your neighbors to rush to your house, LOL! because, a very tantalizing and tempting aroma will fill your kitchen), then add the blended mixture and stir occasionally to ensure the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Add stock cube and salt to taste. Simmer for some minutes until the mixture thickens and oil rises to the top of the sauce.

6.    Chop some onions, green pepper, and red pepper and put aside for garnishing. I also like to use spring onions cut into small sizes for garnishing.

7.    Add the gizzard to the sauce, turn the sauce around it until all part is covered. Reduce the heat and allow the gizzard to absorb the sauce.

8.    Also add the fried plantain and mix together properly, and then remove from heat.

9.    Transfer into a serving dish and garnish by adding the chopped onions, spring onions, green pepper and red pepper to add colour to the dish.

Serve as an appetizer or as a side dish with other dishes.

Tips to serve the kids.

Yes, kids can eat gizzard! In step 5 above, add only 1 or 2 pieces of Ata rodo to the mixture so sauce won’t be too spicy (I always do this less spicy option because of the kids, some kids like pepper though).

Then, make your own simple homemade chili sauce by blending the remaining Ata rodo together with onions, garlic and ginger, add little water and also like step 5 above, heat up some oil, pour the mixture, add stock cube and salt to taste. Simmer until sour taste is gone and oil rises to the top of the sauce. Then, remove from heat.

Serve some of the Gizdodo in a separate dish for the kids and add as much chilli sauce as you want to the original dish. You can serve the kids also as an appetizer, with rice meals or let them dip in ketchup with fries. 

Enjoy!

Note: Scotch bonnet a.k.a Ata rodo is different from habanero pepper. Habanero pepper is commonly cultivated in southern America but the one commonly found in West Africa is scotch bonnet and you may require quite some more to make a hot chilli sauce because it’s milder and believe me sweeter, but with habanero pepper, less may just be wise to use.