Oil bleaching saga. Loh #207.

Greetings everyone👋

The day I encountered my very first kitchen mishap could be considered as funny and frightening at the same time. You would think that was the only time or a once in a lifetime thing but nooo, kitchen mishaps occur at intervals and can take one unaware.

I love food, not just to eat it but I love preparing my own meals. I view cooking as an art that evokes happiness in me. The way that different food ingredients are combined to make something pleasing to the eyes, tasty and delicious is truly amazing. So because of my foodie nature, my second best place in my home is the kitchen.

My story

I think I was around thirteen years of age when I was fully laden with the responsibility of preparing meals. I had watched my mom amd aunts cook for a long time and so I felt ready to take on this task. I knew most of the ingredients for most of the dishes by heart, all that was left was for me to work the magic in a pot and bring out a delicacy.

That fateful Saturday afternoon, I was alone at home as my mum had gone out to attend a function. I had some pocket money with me but rather than opt for snacks, I decided to prepare jollof noodles. This was what I called it due to the preparation method of the noodles.

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With the money I had, I went to a shop down the street and purchased the necessary ingredients but my money was not enough to buy vegetables oil. I remembered that there was some palm oil at home which could be used a s a substitute for vegetable oil and so I marched home with the ingredients.

I started preparing all the ingredients by washing and dicing some and blending some. Soon I was ready but I was faced with the task of using palm oil in place of vegetable oil. I then remembered that I had heard a neighbour talking about palm oil bleaching. The process seemed simple to me at the time, "afterall is it not just to pour in the palm oil in a pan, cover it and let it stay on heat for a while?"

In my mind, I thought it would be as simple as ABC but I was not ready for the shocker I got after I acted on my thoughts by putting some amounts of palm oil in a frying pan. I covered the frying pan and placed it on the lighted gas stove. After a few minutes, the whole kitchen was covered in smoke. Without thinking, I hurriedly opened the lid of the pan and before I could scream jack, my palm oil caught up in flames.

There I was all alone with a burning frying pan on my hand. I screamed but was lucky enough not to spill the hot contents all over my body. I quickly droped the frying pan on the ground and put off the gas stove. Before long, the fire quenched and I breathed a hugh sigh of relief. I later abandoned the plan of cooking jollof noodles to making the normal noodles I was used to. I never tried bleaching palm oil again.

The next mishap occurred some few months after the bleaching oil incident. I was asked to prepare okra soup but due to how hungry I was, I didn't calm down to follow due process rather I was just dumping the ingredients one by one without really allowing them to cook properly. The end result was so hilarious that my cousin still teases me wit till date. The okra soup was looking like food for idols. The palm oil was on one side of the pot while the water was on the other part of the pot and the okra itself was in the middle. My siblings refused to eat the food and we settled for tea and bread. In the end, the okra soup was thrown away 😁.

Thank you all for reading.

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