RED VELVET

Hey lovely people,

Hope you're enjoying this holiday season! Here is a little something to brighten up your day.

If you love cake, then you must love red velvet. The following is a timeless recipe, one that  I've used countless times and its never failed me.

The good news is that its very easy to make.

Also I'll have you know that you can make this recipe in two ways, baked into a cake, or into 24 cupcakes.
What I love the most about this cake is that its not an overly sweet cake because it has a slightly sour taste. Most people mistake red velvet with just any ordinary red cake. I especially hate going to some coffee shops that claim to serve red velvet but it ends up being a stale red cake. Red velvet is not just about the color but about the taste and texture and here's how to make it.

Ingredients:-

For the cake
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons vanilla essence
2 teaspoons soda bicarbonate
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup maziwa mala (buttermilk)
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tablespoon red food color [either bright red or tomato red]
Margarine [blueband] to grease your tin before baking

For the icing
200 gr Cream cheese
100 gr Icing sugar
200gr Unsalted Butter
4 tablespoons Milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the cake
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
So start of by beating the eggs in a large bowl. Beat for about 1 minute. This enables the eggs to trap in the air which will help the cake in rising. Follow by adding the sugar and oil and beat well.
In a separate bowl, sieve the flour and mix with the cocoa powder and put aside. Once that is done, add the vanilla essence, soda bicarbonate and the apple cider vinegar and beat well. In a cup, mix the red food color with a tablespoon milk, and then add the rest of the milk and maziwa mala and add to the mixture. I have found this to work well as opposed to adding the color directly to the mixture which makes the cake bitter.
Finish of by mixing in the flour at a low speed until the entire mixture is blended well. Do not overbeat.

Use margarine to grease your baking tin and dust with flour before adding the batter to bake for 30-35 minutes. If you're making cupcakes, spoon the batter into the cupcake liners and bake for 12 minutes.
Note: Do not open the oven unless to remove the cake once it is done, since the air will escape and your cake might not cook well in the center.

For the icing
Beat the butter and cream cheese together in a bowl. Add milk, vanilla essence and the icing sugar and beat well until smooth.

Remove from oven. Insert a toothpick or knife in the center and if it comes out clean then you'll know that your cake is ready. Place on a rack to cool down. [Do not refrigerate]

Once the cake or cupcakes have cooled down, ice them with the cream cheese frosting.

You can also serve with fresh strawberries. Enjoy ;-)

Shout out to I6 Photography for taking the cupcake pictures a little while ago. Like I said, its a timeless recipe.

As always, I'll have you know:-

-I'm up to 15000+ pageviews-thank you Jesus! and thank you all for following and trying out my recipes.

-I'm now on Youtube, you can subscribe and check out the video here: CookingwithJaz

-I am officially on twitter on this account (@cookingwithjaz)

-I am also on facebook on this page "cooking with jaz"
-You can also find me on instagram under the handle, "cookingwithjaz"

-If you want to be featured on the "GUEST AND RECIPE OF THE WEEK" email me on "cookingwithjaz@yahoo.com"

-If you have tried any of my recipes, do tag me or send me the pics on any one of my social media pages

Have a lovely week :)

Sincerely,

Jaz.

CHICKEN COCONUT CURRY

Hey guys! 

Its 3 days to Christmas. Hope you all have your trees and decor up! I certainly do. I love how glorious Christmas is. I love celebrating Christ daily and a holiday to do just that is truly a plus. I'm super excited to spend my first Christmas married to the hubz. I'm thankful to God for life, salvation and for each and every one of my loved ones. I'm also extremely thankful for the growth of this blog and for open doors and all the closed ones that God has guarded us from.

So yes on to food things! I have been meaning to make a meal using coconut milk. I love how diverse of an ingredient it is, used in indian food, swahili dishes, and even thai cusine! I had some chicken thighs and a can of coconut milk so I decided to make a spicy meal yesterday together with some rice and steamed veggies. I also asked the hubz to buy some nans from one of our favorite Indian restaurants that complimented this meal perfectly.

Ingredients [serves 4]

Chicken [6 thighs/ 4 breasts cut in big chunks]

2/3 can coconut milk

140 gr tomato paste [two packets tomato paste]

1 onion

4 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon chopped ginger

Dhania

1 tablespoon royco

Olive oil

Salt

Black pepper

2 tablespoons chicken masala

2 tablespoons curry powder

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 yellow/red hoho/ capsicum

1 courgette

1 1/2 cup rice

1 packet mixed veggies [sliced carrots, french peas, brocoli]

Start of by cooking your rice. [Remember its double the cups of water per cup rice so in this case 3 cups of water for 1 1/2 cups rice] I used a rice cooker with a steamer so I used the lower part to cook the rice and the to part to steam my veggies. Season veggies with olive oil, black pepper and salt and leave to cook with rice.

For the chicken, peel and chop onions, garlic and ginger and cook them with olive oil in a sufuria.

Add the chicken masala and curry powder and allow to cook. <Use a few tablespoons water just incase the spices start to stick to the bottom of the sufuria.> Add the tomato paste and also allow to cook with the spices. Wash and chop the yellow pepper and courgette and add to the sufuria. 

Shortly after, add the coconut milk, a hint of salt and allow to cook with the spices and veggies.

After a few minutes, add chicken and leave to cook.

Mix 1 tablespoon royco, cayenne pepper, black pepper in a 1/4 cup water and add to the sufuria. Finish of with adding the dhania/coriander and seal with lid. <By adding it in the end it gives the curry a boost of flavor>

Allow to cook for another 15 minutes. Note that white meat tends to cook very fast. Make sure that the sauce is thick and light brown color.

 Remove from heat and serve with rice, nan and steamed veggies.

Enjoy.

As always, I'll have you know:-

-I'm up to 15000+ pageviews-thank you Jesus! and thank you all for following and trying out my recipes.

-I'm now on Youtube, you can subscribe and check out the video here: CookingwithJaz

-I am officially on twitter on this account (@cookingwithjaz)

-I am also on facebook on this page "cooking with jaz"
-You can also find me on instagram under the handle, "cookingwithjaz"

-If you want to be featured on the "GUEST AND RECIPE OF THE WEEK" email me on "cookingwithjaz@yahoo.com"

-If you have tried any of my recipes, do tag me or send me the pics on any one of my social media pages

Have a lovely week :)

Sincerely,

Jaz.

DATE NIGHT: ROMANCE & THREE COURSE MEALS

Hey guys, 

Hope you're all well in the Lord :-)

Before I start, I'll have you know that our wedding video is up on Youtube. If you weren't able to attend our wedding, we thought we'd share a clip about how the day went.
Thank you to everyone who made the day extra special. We truly bless God for each one of you.
You can find the video on the link below:
Jasmine + Daniel

Back to food, thought I'd write a post about dining in on those special date nights. Husbands, this is the part you start taking notes ;-) If you're looking to spice up your love life over a romantic dinner without it costing you an arm and a leg then this is for you.

Last night was our weekly date night. Me and the hubz vowed to make an effort every single Wednesday or basically once every week to go on a special date. It could be dinner at a new restaurant or dinner at one of our favorite spots or a movie, etc but yesterday we decided it was going to be indoors since we couldn't decide where to go. I told the hubz to take me home and we'd still make it extra special by me making a nice three course meal. 

We started of with a simple snack of roasted chicken potato crisps and macadamia nuts. <Just a small portion, the idea isn't to fill up before the appetizer>

Ingredients:-
Fresh bread/ Baguette <I usually buy a fresh loaf/ roll at The Bakery at the Shell Petrol station in Westlands for about 120 Ksh>
Steak slices <Preferably the tenderloin, ask your butcher to give you softest part of the cow>
Fresh salad in a pack <retails in Nakumatt and Uchumi for 80 Ksh>
1 can Sweet corn <retails at about 130 upwards depending on the brand>
Balsamic vinegar <retails at about 400 upwards>
Extra virgin olive oil
Vegetable oil
2 Tomatoes
Sandwich cheese sliced <retails for about 230 upwards depending on the brand>
Pesto <retails for about 300 upwards depending on the brand>
Plantain < large bananas commonly used in West Africa>
1 Zucchini <also known as courgette >
Dried parsley
Black pepper
3 garlic cloves
Fruits < I used watermelon and nectarines>

Note: Remember that these are ingredients you can use more than once so it would be very good investment for your kitchen.

For the Appetizer: Pesto bites  

Heat oven to 180 degrees.

Cut bread and tomatoes in slices.  Apply pesto on the slices and put cheese and tomatoes on the top. Sprinkle some parsley and olive oil and put in a oven for 5 minutes.

 

For the main course: Steak, fried plantain & zucchini with a garden salad

Start by peeling the plantain and slicing it. Wash and slice courgette.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan and once it is hot, fry plantain and courgette slices. Once they're cooked, remove them from the oil and place on a plate with kitchen tissues/serviettes to drain out the oil.

Wash salad greens and put aside.

Follow by slicing steak in large strips. Peel and chop garlic and put to cook with olive oil on a grill plate/ pan. Add steak slices and season with salt and black pepper.
Bonus tip: Steak is cooked last because meat tends to dry up when kept for long before serving, serve when juicy and hot>

For Dessert: Fruit platter
Wash and cut up the fruit.

Plating
Place pesto bites and fruit neatly on two separate long plates.
Sprinkle some olive oil on the pesto bites before serving.
On a fancy plate <cause remember its date night> place fried plantain and courgette on top. Follow by placing the salad greens with a handful of sweet corn on top and drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Lastly place the steak slices and serve. < Optional-You can sprinkle some sea salt on the top of the steak before serving>

For the married, enjoy with some well lit candles, some music, a good glass of wine or juice and finish it off with the fruit platter.
Above all, enjoy each others company, take time to discuss your passions and plans together. You may be married but you can still date your spouse until you're old and grey.

For the singles, this could be an awesome meal to impress your friends or it could serve as practice for the future :-)

As always, I'll have you know:-

-I'm up to 13800+ pageviews-thank you Jesus! and thank you all for following and trying out my recipes.

-I'm now on Youtube, you can subscribe and check out the video here: CookingwithJaz

-I am officially on twitter on this account (@cookingwithjaz)

-I am also on facebook on this page "cooking with jaz"
-You can also find me on instagram under the handle, "cookingwithjaz"

-If you want to be featured on the "GUEST AND RECIPE OF THE WEEK" email me on "cookingwithjaz@yahoo.com"

-If you have tried any of my recipes, do tag me or send me the pics on any one of my social media pages

Have a lovely week :)

Sincerely,

Jaz.

MY SATURDAY GRILL

Hey lovely people,

Its a sunny Thursday and God is good, so why not have a good meal to finish of this week on a 10!

So since I got married, I'm all about cooking for the hubz daily. I have so many recipes that I want to try out just to make him happy since he absolutely enjoys my cooking. Although I'm also trying to be careful with the content of fat in the meals I make. I'm incorporating a lot of vegetables, fruit and fiber in our diet. We both love fruit and veggies so its easy when I throw a whole bunch of them together for supper because we really enjoy them. My aim though is always to make my meals flavor-full no matter what ingredients I use. If you're a Kenyan like me, you most probably grew up eating watery stews and are probably not a believer that veggies can actually taste good. THEY CAN but only if they're cooked right. I always look for ways to cook them well, either by stir-frying, grilling or steaming them. The aim is not to overcook or over boil them because they loose their nutrients and taste in the process. I also try to get spices and sauces that don't overpower the natural sweetness of the veggies. So here's a recipe to a meal the hubz and I enjoyed a few days ago. I basically threw in just about everything.  I used white meat, lots of veggies, and opted for olive oil instead of vegetable oil so healthy is an understatement. We are pretty blessed to live in a country where we can enjoy a large variety of fresh vegetables all year through. So visit your local market before the weekend, stock up and try this at home.

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts/ thighs

4 garlic cloves 

1 red onion

ginger

1 courgette

1 green capsicum/ hoho

1 yellow capsicum. hoho

1 celery stick

3 carrots

2 fuji/ pink lady apples

6/7 potatoes

Coriander/ Dhania

Olive oil

Salt

Black pepper

Cayenne pepper

Oregano

Parsley

Worcestershire sauce

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Peel and slice onions, garlic and ginger. <Put garlic aside> Peel, wash and slice apple, potatoes and carrots.Wash and chop up celery, capsicums, courgette and coriander. <Put coriander aside.>

Cut up the chicken breasts in half. Grease an oven tray with olive oil. Mount all the ingredients together and sprinkle oil, salt, a generous amount of Worcestershire sauce and spices over them. Finish of with placing chicken breasts scattered on the tray. Add the chopped coriander on top of everything.

Make sure the veggies and chicken are smothered in a bit of oil and spice. Put in oven to grill in the middle of the oven for well regulated heat. Time 40 minutes and allow to grill.

Make sure to check and turn ingredients every 10 minutes so that they can cook evenly. 

15 minutes into cooking, add the chopped garlic on top to give the grill a boost of flavor.

Serve with white rice.

Its really that simple! The sweetness of the vegetables and the fruit and the spiciness of the chicken blend perfectly.

Enjoy

I'M BACK & MARRIED NOW!

Hey guys,

I know its been months since I last posted but I've been so swamped preparing for my wedding with my love, Geegee which happened on the 4th of October :-) Four good months checking out decor, sampling food, looking for tents, etc. 

I missed blogging and more-so I missed cooking. I hardly did either these past months. There were days I did takeout and days I just got home and slept cause I was too exhausted. It was challenging but thankful for all the grace God provided to strengthen us during the whole process.

I've seen God move in this wedding process. From restoring my family to providing exceedingly and above all our expectations. God gave us so many amazing people to stand with us who prayed and gave of themselves so much that we can't even think of ways to repay them enough. I must say that God is the mater planner of weddings. He is faithful to the letter and He really does grant us the desires of our hearts. His will for us is beautiful and good and He can do the impossible simply because He is God. BE ENCOURAGED. Whatever you many be planning or believing God for right now, trust Him to make a way. Don't lose hope. Believe Him in spite of all the odds. 

Soooooo, its a lot different now, I'm married and now making my home. I love being a wife to Geegee. I honestly can't imagine doing life with anyone else. I love taking care of him. I keep finding myself automatically cleaning and tiding everything and whenever that happens, we usually say "wife mode!" is loading. Lol. Also I'm super excited to take this blog to the next level since I have so many recipes I'm looking to make for the hubz and to share with you guys so that we can all enjoy cooking a bit more. I also plan to make this an official blog with my own domain.

I'm excited to start new segments for all the newly wed wives/husbands looking to learn how to cook healthy, quick yet tasty meals for their spouse and to top it all off GIVEAWAYS, because who doesn't love freebies :-) So bear with me guys, it might take a couple of mths but I guarantee you cooking with Jaz is just getting started.

So before we get to all that, below I have a few pics of the BIG DAY and a few pics from our South African honeymoon and of some of the food we encountered on our adventure there. These are not the official pics from our photographer of the day but great shots taken by friends and fam who attended the wedding :-)

 Pic with my father before leaving for the service :-)

Can you tell how excited I was! No nerves or anything! Thank God!

Pic with my best maid Joy before walking down the aisle.

 

 Above: My gorgeous matrons aka my sisters, my beautiful nieces, two as my junior bridesmaids and one as my flowergirl. Yes I have that many nieces, the fourth one was one of my bridesmaids :-)

Below: Some of my bridesmaids, Sheila, Susan and Ruthy. 

The bridal party getting ready to dance down the aisle to one of my favorite tracks "make up by Pompi"

The groomsmen walked down with numbers counting down to me walking down.

Below: our handsome pageboy with the GAME ON card.

Walking down with both my parents.

 The reception decor before placing the centerpieces. Exactly how we wanted it, simple and elegant.

The wedding service area. Heavenly.

The stretch tent! Absolutely loved it.

me ;) and my gorgeous bridesmaids in the background.

US!!!! Married!

First breakfast married :-)

 At the airport ready to check in

 Geegee goofing around

The sunrise as we left Kenya.

They had the new Marymary album on the Ethiopian airlines! Shocked!

After an hrs transit in Ethiopia and a 4 1/2 hr flight we landed safely in Johannesburg South Africa!

After chilling at a guest house in Joburg and at another hotel on our first night in Durban, we discovered and settled at the most beautiful boutique hotel, the concierge and they had they had the most amazing gourmet food ever, even for breakfast. I'd recommend them any day if you're looking to visit SA.

Sweet potato fritters and poached eggs

Carrot cake any day

Dinner out at Spurs with some friends

Ushaka Marine world! the pier was beautiful.

Its only right to have rainbow cake when youre in the rainbow nation :-)

I'm in love with Eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce.

And you can't possibly leave SA without hitting Mcdonalds!

Now this was sooooo good yet so filling. Its basically bread and mutton curry they call it a bunny.

Best Mocca ever with coconut and melted white chocolate at Mugg and Bean.

 

Travelling back  home after a week of adventuring ;-)

So those were just a few pics from our amazing time there with the hubz. Think of it as a sort of summary. Its been such a beautiful season and I'm so glad to enjoy this new phase with him.
I promise that my next post will be about food, lol! For real!
Thanks for being so patient with me during my short hiatus!

As always, I'll have you know:-

-I'm up to 11,700 + pageviews-thankyou Jesus! and thank you all for following and trying out my recipes.

-I'm now on Youtube, you can subscribe and check out the video here: CookingwithJaz

-I am officially on twitter on this account (@cookingwithjaz)

-I am also on Facebook on this page "cooking with jaz"

-If you want to be featured on the "GUEST AND RECIPE OF THE WEEK" email me on "cookingwithjaz@yahoo.com"

-If you have tried any of my recipes, do tag me or send me the pics on any one of my social media pages

Have a lovely week :)

Sincerely,

Jaz.