Bell Pepper and Chicken Fried Rice.

It’s been a while since I did a leftover rice recipe. As most of you know by now, I enjoy working with leftover rice. This time round I had leftover poached chicken breasts from my quesadilla recipe. This recipe is pretty simple and you can easy subtitute the chicken with any meat or vegetable you have leftover.

Ingredients:

3 cups pre cooked rice

1 cup leftover chicken, shredded

1 cup sultanas, soaked in water

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

3 spring onions, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

a dash of soy sauce

1 tablespoon paprika

a pinch of salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

the cast of characters

On a heated skillet add the vegetable oil and fry the spring onions.

Once cooked down, add the bell peppers.

Season with the salt and paprika.

Add the chicken shreds.

Stir then add the rice. Since the rice and chicken are already cooked you just need to get them heated.

Finally drain the water and pour over the sultanas.

Sprinkle over a few drops of soy sauce and stir.

Serve and enjoy.

Potato Bhajias

I have received several requests on my Facebook page to post a recipe on how to make bhajias. I have to say I’m no expert in this area but I think I can share a tip or two.

Ingredients:

Potatoes, peeled, washed and sliced thinly

1 cup gram flour

3/4 cup water

2 tbsp dried parsley leaves

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

Oil for frying

I started by making the potatoes. I used a food processor for the slicing. It was very fast and the slices were perfectly thin.

potato slices

Then make the paste that will coat the potato slices.

the gram flour

In a bowl, pour in the gram flour. The spice mix.

spices

Mix the spices with the flour and water.

the paste

Take about a handful of the potato slices and dip then in the paste. Ensure they are coat completely. In a deep pan, heat the vegetable oil. Sadly I don’t have a deep pan so I just used the one I had. Ensure that the oil is hot before you start frying the bhajias. Once hot, you can gently put in the coated potatoes.

bhajias

Cook on both sides till browned then remove with a slotted spoon. Drain the bhajias on a paper towel covered plate.

I made some kachumbari to serve with the bhajias.

kachumbari

Dinner is served.

Verdict:

Delicious.

If I could do it all over again:

Add about a teaspoon of baking powder to the paste and also add chopped dhania/coriander/cilantro.

Fish Fingers – Take 2

Goodness!!! This post has been on my drafts for so long, it’s about time I finalise it.

I cooked this a while back so I can’t quite remember the story behind it, sorry. All in all I know I was in the mood for some fish hence the reason I cooked this.

I tried a different recipe from my previous one here.

I decided to make a paste with different spices to coat the fish fingers.

1 tbsp fish masala, 1 tsp crushed garlic, 3 tbsp dried parsley, 1 tsp coriander powder and 1/4 tsp paprika

In a bowl, add about 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour, mix in the spices then beat in 2 eggs. Remember to add in some salt.

Making the paste

After beating in the second egg the paste will look like this.

The paste

Fish fingers.

finger food

Tip: Sprinkle some little salt over the fish fingers.

This method of making fish fingers is less tedious since you just dip them in the coating once.

Coat the fish with the paste. Let it stand for about 15 minutes before cooking.

In a pan, heat some oil for frying the fish. Ensure the oil gets hot before adding the fish to avoid it from sticking in case you aren’t using a non stick pan like me.

floating fingers

Let them cook for about 7 minutes or until browned on each side. Drain over a paper towel covered plate.

Others browned more than others. O-o

Voila, easy and quick fish fingers.

Served them with some spicy potato wedges and kachumbari.

kachumbari, fish fingers, spicy potato wedges and lemon slices.

Which recipe do you prefer?

Pasta ‘motukanio’

Motukanio – (Embu/Kikuyu) verb: to add everything together.

This is courtesy of my friend Dee. As we were on our way to town from work, I happened to mention that I had intentions of making pasta for dinner. Dee went on and told me of this recipe. You simply make a sauce with whatever you have on hand and instead of cooking the pasta separately, you add it to the sauce and let it cook.

She was taught by her mother and it happens to be the first thing she learnt how to cook. The beauty of this recipe as the name suggests ‘motukanio’ – you just add in whatever you have on hand.

eggplant and bell pepper

Ingredients:

1 medium sized onion sliced

3 medium sized tomatoes diced

1 eggplant diced

1 bell pepper diced

pasta of choice

1 cup hot water

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon rubbed basil leaves

salt to taste

In a saucepan heat about 2 tablespoons of oil. Fry the onions.

onions

Add in the tomatoes, eggplant and bell pepper.

Add in the seasoning, garlic,paprika and black pepper.

Cover and let it cook down.

The sauce

When it got to this part, I was a bit confused on what to put first the pasta or the water. But since Dee had mentioned that the water should be just enough to cook the pasta. I opted to put in the pasta so that I can control the level of water.

Stir in the pasta

Add the hot water.

Just about the same level as the pasta

Cook as per the pasta instructions. I cooked mine for 8 minutes. Sprinkle the basil leaves and stir. Aromatic

Serve immediately.

Pasta ‘motukanio’

The beauty of this meal is that it’s complete on it’s own.

Next time you are in a rush to prepare dinner try this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Onion and Pepper Fried Chicken

Once one gets married you sort of get different kinds of gifts from your spouse. So last week hubby dearest surprised me by buying some chicken legs and fish fillet. Yeah!!! I’m now more excited about chicken legs than chocolate.O-o  PS. He still gets me chocolate.

It had been a while since I had cooked some chicken legs. I was confused on what to do with them. After defrosting them, they lay on the kitchen counter as I tried to invent a recipe.

Still clueless on what to do with the chicken, I chopped up a white onion and sliced a bell pepper.

1 white onion chopped, 1 bell pepper sliced

So after much thought I decided to fry it.

In a saucepan/skillet add 1 tablespoon of oil. You don’t need a lot. Since I was using chicken legs from a broiler. They are pretty fatty. (I even had to trim some fatty off)

Place the chicken legs in the pan. Ensure you’ve sliced the legs to ensure the spices soak in.

Spices:

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon black pepper

4-5 cardamon pods

Salt to taste

Sprinkle the spices on the chicken.

oily!!!

Cover and let the chicken cook for about 15 minutes on one side then flip over for the other side to cook.

I have to mention, at this point the aroma in the kitchen..Heavenly

The chicken…

After 30 minutes, and flipping the chicken twice. Toss in the onions and bell peppers.

all in…

So hubby, peeks and asks;

Hubby: No tomatoes?

Me: Should I add some them? (I reach for the fridge door to take the tomatoes)

Hubby: Yeah add at least one.

Me: I’m not so sure about it. I don’t want the sauce to be runny. (I toy with the idea and decide to just add one) 

1 tomato diced

Cover and let the sauce cook down for about 5 minutes.

Then serve with ugali and vegetables.

onion and pepper fried chicken 🙂

(sorry forgot to wipe the sides of the plate)

Verdict:

Goodness!!! Delicious. Very flavourful.

Hubby gave it a thumbs up and tick.

PS. The addition of the tomato was just the cherry on top. Thanks hun.

Spicy Potatoes

I love me some potatoes.

Some random Tuesday last week I decide to cook some potatoes I’d been given by my mother in love. As usual I baked them. It’s funny how they are called roast potatoes anyway as long I don’t deep fry, I’m good.

This recipe closely resembles this, only that I was aiming for more spice so I used paprika and black pepper plus a little dried parsley.

I peeled the potatoes, washed and wedged them. Then in a sufuria I add the potato wedges and cover with water add a good amount of salt then bring that to a boil.

I also added a sprig of fresh rosemary (from my mom-in-love’s kitchen garden) for flavour

As the potatoes are cooking, prepare the coating. This time I decide to try something different. Instead of coating the potatoes while on the baking tray, I put all the spices in a ziploc bag. In case you don’t have one you can use an ordinary polythene bag. In the bag add 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 2-3 tablespoons of paprika,1/2 teaspoon of black pepper and some dried parley. Then shake and shake.

Once the potatoes are ready, you want them semi cooked, drain, then pat dry with a kitchen towel. Toss the potatoes into the ziploc bag that has the spice mixture, shake some more untill all the potatoes are well coated.

Spicing the potatoes

Remember to pre heat the oven at 350.

Line you baking tray with some aluminium foil, then spread out the potato wedges in one layer.

The flash really brightens up the photo

Let them bake for about 20-25 minutes.

Voila! Spicy potatoes

 

Verdict:

Spicy, crunchy and delicious. Served them with some fish fingers ,chicken smokies. Had my accompaniments all mixed up.

Fish Curry

Since I discovered, the chicken curry recipe, I have modified it to suit different meats. I had some filleted tilapia and I decided to try it out.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 fillets of fish – I used tilapia (cut into chunks)

1 cup plain yoghurt

3/4 cup coconut milk

1 onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped

1/4 teaspoon of ginger minced

2 tablespoons of fish masala

1 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon coriander powder

1 tablespoon curry powder

Salt to taste

3 tablespoons of vegetable oil for frying

Some chopped fresh dhania/coriander leaves for garnish

In a large skillet, heat some oil then fry the onions.

sizzle sizzle

Once translucent add in the spices, ginger and garlic.

The onion and spice mixture.

Add the fish chunks, and coat with the spice mixture.

Add the yoghurt and coconut milk.

Bring the curry to a quick boil, then reduce the heat and let the curry simmer for at most 20 minutes or until the fish is cooked through. The fish will flake easily.

Once cooked, serve and garnish with fresh chopped dhania.

Fish Curry, Yum

We ate this with some ugali and vegetables. The fish curry will also go great with steamed rice.

Verdict:

Hubby loved it, I found it to be ok. I prefer my fish stewed or pan fried.

Tip: To add more flavour, you can squeeze the juice of one lemon over the curry. I didn’t have any on hand.

Indian Chicken Curry

I love chicken, so I’m always on the look out for easy chicken recipes. I decided to search online for some curry recipes, boy did I find many. I eventually settled on one that had easy to get ingredients. Armed with a shopping list I was ready to embark on this new journey of curries.

Upon reaching home I realised I missed some ‘minor’ ingredients (garlic,lemon juice) but that didn’t stop me. The great thing about cooking is even if you miss some ingredients you can still cook. This being chicken curry, then it’s safe to say the must have ingredient is chicken then again you can substitute it for fish. To eat is your own.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
salt and pepper to taste
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into chunks
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup plain yoghurt
3/4 cup coconut milk

In a skillet heat the vegetable oil, then saute the onions.

Sizzle sizzle

Once the onions are tender, stir in the ginger, curry powder, paprika, cinnamon, sugar, salt and pepper.

Stir for about 2 minutes

Add the chicken, yoghurt, tomato paste and coconut milk.

Stir in all the ingredients

The mixture

Bring the curry to a quick boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

The curry thickens after the simmering.

Serve over steamed rice or if you want to go all Indian serve over naan bread.

Tip: As a garnish, just before serving the curry, you can sprinkle some chopped dhania for extra flavour and colour.

Verdict:

Delicious!! Not to toot my own horn but I was shocked that I had cooked the meal.

The great thing with curries is that they taste even better the following day.

Treat yourself, try making this curry I guarantee you it will be a hit.