u're welcome Lucabrasi. Also next time you attempt the puff-puff, make sure that the flour is not expired cos that would affect it's ability to rise  or respond to yeast. The cinnamon or nutmeg is for taste. Some people (like me) , even add a little ginger extract for that extra spicy/tangy flavour.

I am SORRY Lucrabasi, I dont really know the recipe you followed for the puff-puff, but did you add yeast/baking powder to the dough and leave it for some time - like 1 hour so it can rise before you season with nutmeg and cinnamon?? Am sure it will rise further in the oil if you do it this way.
For the meatpie, did you grate the vegetables you used i.e carrot, and potatoe? The grated potato must be poured in boiling water and sieved before adding to the minced meat and carrot. These will be fried in a little frying pan and seasoned with salt and maggi or knorr cubes befoe filling the rolled out dough with it.
I hope this helps - am not really a pastry expert.

This is for CATY47. I seem to have erroneously hit the delete button and lost the recipe Ijust wrote out for you for akara and red stew/meat. Here goes again:

Akara

2cups white black-eye beans,( not peas.) or 50grams dry ground beans.
salt
1 medium onion
2cayenne peppers or fresh pepers ( optional if you dont like it spicy)
1/4 cup dry crayfish or 20 fresh shrimps
vegetable oil for frying

Soak the beans in water for 1 hour and peel of skin by rubbing together continuosly. Keep at it until all the skin is off, the beans is also soft enough to grind. cut half of the onion, wash and add to the beans with the peppers and washed dry crayfish. Blend in a blender until smooth. Turn into a mixing bowl , add a little water,and season with salt while mixing until
the consistency is like light oatmeal or light custard. If using fresh shrimps, boil lightly and pour into a small bowl ready to use. Heat up the oil and when ready, take a scoop of the mixture with a desert spoon, throw in one shrimp and pour in one by one untill you fill up the fryin pan or deep fryer. Allow to fry for about 3 minutes depending on size of akara balls and temp of the oil. Continue until the mixture is finished, Serve with pap, custard, quaker oats , eko or garri ijebu. Enjoy.

For red stew and beef

1/2 kg beef
12 red cherry tomatoes
3 red tatashe (ripened green pepper)
3 cayenne pepper
4 red fresh pepper
1 large onion
salt
1 knorr cube, 1 maggi crayfish, curry, thyme, celery salt, 1 small de-rica tomato puree
100ml vegetable oil or groundnut oil or your preference of cooking oil

Remove all fat and tendon from beef and wash thoroughly. Cut 1/4 of the onion into pieces and add to the meat in a pressure pot. Season with salt, knorr cube, curry and thyme. Cook for 20 minutes. Blend the tomatoes, peppers and remaining oinion  and cook for 10 minutes to remove water. Fry in the heated cooking oil for 5 minutes in a saucepan.
Pour the beef and sieved stock in to the saucepan and mix together. season with celery salt, maggi crayfish and simmer for 10 minutes or untill thickened to preferred consistency.  
Serve with rice, and / or plantain. ENJOY
p.s.
If you have the e-copy of the maggi family menu, please forward to my mailbox at annaddeh@yahoo.co.uk, thanks.

This is for Lucabrasi, if you have the maggi family menu, please send it to me.
To answer you, ofada stew is pretty much like you make red stew (which I just wrote out for caty47).
Instead of vegetable or groundnut oil, you use bleached red palm oil . In other words, heat up the red palm oil till it is bleached i.e smoking hot. Also, instead of red cherry tomatoes, you use half ripe tomatoes, blend with onion, cayenne pepper, and dried pepper. instead of using  maggi cubes or knorr cubes, you use native spices like iru (locust beans)and dry ground crayfish to season. Instead of red beef, you use cow skin, kidney, liver and entrails- cut up into small pieces. So you follow the recipe and conclude by pouring the blended vegetables into the meat and stock, stir , season with salt, iru, ground crayfish and tin tomato. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes. Serve with ofada rice. Enjoy.

Hi All,
am new on this forum and quite happy to have found this website through google during my search for maggi family menu/nigerian recipes. They say necessity is the mother of invention.

Please can anyone be kind enough to forward to my mailbox the e copy of maggi family menu ? I will be grateful to receive it. I want to treat my french friends to naija dinner.
The gurus like Amaka1 should give us the recipes for entree and deserts, not only main course.

My e-mail is annaddeh@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks