Pilau, veggies & kachumbari

Hey guys! Its tuesday! God is faithful and lets get cooking!
This week Im blogging on a typical kenyan meal made easy-PILAU!

Ingredients *serves 5*
1 and half cup rice 
300gr Beef chopped in small cubes
4 cloves Garlic
2 Onions
3 tomatoes
Tomato paste sachet
Tropical heat pilau masala spice
1 chilli beef cube
Assorted vegetables
Avocado
Royco
Olive oil

Boil water in sufuria, add a dash of olive oil ,some salt and add meat to cook for approx 20 minutes. This way the meat softens and broth is made which shall be added to the rice later on. After meat is boiled, put aside and do not dispose the broth.

In another sufuria put onions and garlic to cook with some olive oil. As the cook, grate over two tomatoes and mix well. After a few minutes add pilau spice, beef chilli cube and tomato paste sachet. Allow to brown as you stir. Once it is good and brown add the meat that you had put aside and mix well followed by the rice, and then the broth(3 cups which is double the cups of rice) Mix well and add salt to taste and cover to cook.

 Pilau should be ready in approx 10-15 minutes. I usually shake the sufuria *side to side* to make sure the rice doesn't stick or burn in the bottom. That way the water the broth reaches all surfaces. 

Once it is ready, leave to cook with its own heat for about 5-7 more minutes. 

For the kachumbari, chop onions,add salt and water to cover and put in refrigerator for approx 20-30 minutes. You can prepare this as the meat is boiling in the beginning. This helps in having a perfectly salted kachumbari. Chop tomato and avocados in the meantime and once the 20 minutes are up you can pour out the water then mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and preserve in refrigerator till serving time. If you intend on preparing kachumbari a day before, avoid adding avocados until right before the meal since they brown very quickly.

For the mixed vegetables: 
First and foremost I advise you to freeze all your fresh vegetables if you plan on using them at a later time. I usually do that and the minute I defrost them, they still have their original color and taste. Defrosting is easy because all you have to do is to put them below running water and within seconds they are separated and ready for cooking.
I defrosted a pack of mixed vegetables*french beans, peas and carrots* and cooked with some olive oil. I didn't add much spice,* only half spoon of royco with 3/4 cup water* because I wanted them to release their natural and sweet taste. They were ready in about 7 minutes, slightly crunchy yet cooked.

And just like that you have a  healthy and tasty meal! 

STEAK, MASHED POTATOES & ASPARAGUS

Hey yall! First of all I must say that you are all making this quite some fun! I am truly enjoying cooking, blogging and all the feedback I am getting from you guys! Excited to plan a cookout before the year is over! How many would be willing to come over and learn a few quick and easy recipes? Do let me know!

Oh well, this weeks recipe is inspired by my cravings...lol...yes we all have them, and I was craving meat this week more than anything else. Thought about dining out for a nice juicy steak, but I figured I'd stay in and make some myself! Instead of the usual rice/fries I opted for some creamy mashed potatoes and tried out some different veggies I found while shopping.

Ingredients:
-Steak from your local butchery *depends on the number of people being served- 200-250 gram steak per person approx*
-Garlic
-Onions
-Potatoes
-Asparagus
-3 spoons unsalted butter
-1/4 cup milk
-Olive oil
-Royco
-Dried Rosemary
-Black pepper
-Salt to taste



First and foremost, I marinated the steaks with black pepper, rosemary, salt, olive oil and a teaspoon of royco and put aside.

I then put water to boil, peeled and cut up my potatoes in halves and added  to the boiled water to cook.

As they were cooking, I washed up my asparagus and added to the boiling water. *kill two birds with one stone so they say* Asparagus take about only 5-7 minutes to cook so I removed them way before the potatoes were cooked. After that I chopped off the ends and put them aside.

 After the potatoes were ready* test to see if they are ready by poking with a knife, if the potato slides down it is cooked, if it sticks firmly to the knife it is still not ready*
I drained the water, put them in a bowl and added the butter, black pepper and salt to taste. I also added the milk as I mashed them. You can add as much butter and milk as you like if you want it to be more creamier.

I also made some gravy to accompany this meal seeing how you cant have a completely dry meal with mashed potatoes involved. Now the funny thing is that I had run out of onions and tomatoes so I wasn't able to make it how I wanted. To make a quick and easy gravy kenyan style, cut onions and cook, grate two tomatoes and add to cook. Add tomato paste, a dash of soya sauce for color and thicken with a spoon of royco. You can add oregano or parsley to give it a better-less tomatier taste! 

Once I was done with the gravy,  I put about 3 tablespoons olive oil in a pan and added some chopped garlic to cook. Before adding my steaks to cook, I fried the asparagus that I had previously put aside with the same pan for about 2 min and removed them. *there goes that killing of the birds again with one stone-hehe*

I then added the steaks and allowed to cook while turning back and forth until both sides and insides were browned.*I like my meat well done*

And just like that you have a fabulous meal! 

ENJOY!

Lets get cooking!

Cooking made easy!

 

Sunday stir-fry *what to do with leftovers*

Hey guys! Its Monday, God is faithful isnt He!
I trust you all had a marvelous weekend.  Mine was good but short :-( *oh well* Anyway I put something together over the weekend and I made it from the ingredients I found left over in my fridge! You would be surprised what you can make from your leftovers. It was so good that I think its officially one of my recipes now.
So I called it my sunday stir-fry.

Ingredients
1 or 2 slices burger meat
Red pepper*hoho
Green pepper*hoho
Garlic
Olive oil
Cooking cream
Cheese *any*
Parsley
Oregano
Basil
Black pepper
1 chilli beef cube
1 spoon royco
1 packet tomato paste
Spaghetti/macaroni*any pasta will do*


So I first boiled water with 1 tablespoon oil and some salt and added the spaghetti to cook. I then poured out the hot water once it was ready and rinsed it with cold water and mixed it with some oil so as not to stick together while I made the stew. I then cut up some garlic and cooked it with some olive oil in a pan. I then added my peppers, tomato paste, chilli cube, and various spices. After that I added the burger meat which I had previously sliced. When it started browning, I added about 3/4 cup water with one tablespoon royco which instantly thickened the sauce.

Lastly I added about half a cup cooking cream,  grated some cheese*you can put as much as you want* and added the spaghetti that I had put aside. 

At this point you can put the pan aside to mix everything well. Once that is done you can place it over the heat for about 3 minutes and VUALA! 

Note I didnt add any salt seeing the chili cube and the cheese are very salty. 

I also garnished it with some parsley on top! 

ENJOY!

Spaghetti and meat sauce with mushrooms

Hey guys
So for those of you who love pasta like I do, here's a simple italian recipe I learned from a frriend a few yrs ago.

Ingredients
Spaghetti 1 pack   

Minced meat
Olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 onion
2 packets tomato paste
1 beef cube
2 courgettes
1 aubergine [also known as birighanya-hope Ive spelled it right :-) ]
1 red pepper [hoho]
2 tomatoes grated
1 packet mushrooms
cooking cream
Oregano
Basil
Thyme
black pepper
2 tablespoon Royco to thicken sauce
Edam cheese

Wash and chop up mushrooms and put in warm water with a dash of lime/lemon. Put aside. Cook onion and garlic with olive oil.
                                                                          

 

 

                                           

Chop up courgettes, aubergine and red pepper and add to sufuria.

Cook for a few minutes then add tomato paste and beef cube. Once its mixed up well, add meat and grated tomatoes and various spices.

 

Allow meat to cook and for vegetables to release all their juices then add the mushrooms, 1 cup water with royco, and cover to cook for a good 15 minutes. It could take less since the meat is minced so keep checking until brown.

When the meat is cooked and sauce is thickening add some cooking cream [half a cup] or you could constitute with natural plain yoghurt.

Boil water with oil and salt and add spaghetti to cook for 8 min.

 If you've ever wondered how to know when spaghetti is cooked, the italians usually throw one strand to the wall, if it sticks, its cooked. Try it, it works everytime.

Serve the meal and top it with grated cheese.

 Enjoy!!