Setting Up a Nigerian Kitchen in America: What to Buy First
Cooking Nigerian food on your own for the first time is mostly a shopping problem. You know what the food should taste like. You do not necessarily know which of the forty things in your mother's kitchen were doing the work.
Week one: the seven things
- Red palm oil. Nothing substitutes for it.
- Crayfish. Buy whole, grind small batches. The savoury base of nearly everything.
- Egusi. Most cooked soup in Nigeria, easiest to get right.
- Garri. Cheap, keeps for months, works with everything.
- Seasoning cubes. Pick a side, everyone else has.
- Curry and thyme. Buy them together. Neither works alone.
- Tomato paste. Sachets, so nothing goes furry.
Week two: heat and colour
- Dried tatashe. Why jollof is red rather than orange.
- Cameroon pepper. Dried scotch bonnet.
- Parboiled rice. Not basmati.
Week three: depth
- One fermented seasoning. Ogiri for Igbo soups, iru for Yoruba. Not both to start.
- Stockfish bites. Less work than whole, most of the flavour.
- Uziza and scent leaf. Small quantities.
- Akanwu. One piece will outlive your tenancy.
What can wait
Ugba, ukwa, periwinkle, ofada rice, suya spice. Buy them when you decide to make the dish.
Equipment, honestly
- A blender that handles pepper and onion. The most important item.
- A sturdy wooden spoon. A thin one will snap.
- A heavy pot with a tight lid.
- A spice grinder for crayfish.
No mortar and pestle. Poundo exists and nobody will judge you.
Two shortcuts worth taking
Beans flour instead of peeling beans by hand. The difference between making moi moi occasionally and never again.
The Egusi Soup Starter Box if you would rather not assemble a first order from a list.
The honest first-month budget
Around $120 to $150 gets a properly stocked Nigerian kitchen, and most of it lasts three to six months.
We ship anywhere in the United States, and deliver locally around Dallas and Fort Worth with pickup available.