COOKING WITH JAZ: 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*