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Bhajias - East African Version!

 

Bhajias or Bhajis/Pakoras came to East Africa (specifically Kenya and Tanzania for this post) from India thanks to colonialisation, trade and migration.  We adapted them and made them our own. Here are some variations of bhajias that I like to make. All vegetarian friendly but deep fried so you may want to burn off the calories the next day.

Potato Bhajias

Sometimes referred to as Maru bhajias (Kenya). These are thinly round sliced potatoes coated in seasoned gram flour (chickpea flour) batter; I like to season mine with salt, cumin seeds, coriander leaves, cayenne pepper and sometimes turmeric. You simply coat the potatoes in the batter and deep fry. This recipe also works well for sturdy vegetables like aubergines, cauliflowers, courgettes, onions, sweet peppers etc. Simply slice the vegetable if it needs slicing or coat it whole if it doesn’t require slicing in seasoned gram flour and fry.

Here’s a link (Kenyan Maru Bhajia) and link (Indian aloo bhajii) to a recipe you can follow. Served with a chutney or salsa of your choice

Potato Bhajias

Courgette/Zucchini Bhajias

Bhajia za Kunde (Cow pea/Black eyed pea fritters)

These are exactly as the name suggests. Somewhere in the Indian sub continent these are called Lobia Vada/Alasanda Vada. If you are West African these are like rough ground Akara because the recipe is similar; soak cow peas/black eyed peas overnight or for at least 10 hours or more if you have the time. Grind them; add spices of your choice and fry major difference is these are ground to a rough finish not smooth like Akara. You may or may not choose to remove the skins it really doesn’t make much of a difference to me. For these ones I added chopped red onions, ginger paste, coriander leaves, red chillies and salt.  Traditionally these were ground using a good old mortar and pestle which I still use if I am making a small quantity and need an arm workout, otherwise you can just use an electric grinder. I say grinder as opposed to blender because with a blender you would need to add water which you will have to strain because otherwise the mixture will be runny, I prefer to use a grinder much easier.  Just drain all the water before grinding. To the western world these are similar to Middle Eastern Falafel. The major difference is that Falafel is made with chickpeas in the Middle East.  I also suspect that in addition to India, Middle Eastern traders who plied the trade route between the Middle East and the East coast of Africa and ended up settling in East Africa may also have contributed to the adaptation of this dish in East Africa. If you make them bigger, they make for a great sandwich filling.  Here’s a link (East African) and link (Indian) to a recipe you can follow.

With skins peeled

With unpeeled skins

Bhajia za Dengu (Chickpea fritters)

These are made using gram flour (which is basically chickpea flour). In the regional name varieties found in India these would be called Pakoras/Pakodas but in East Africa we call them all bhajias and specify which variety it is. In Trinidad and Guyana these would be similar to Pholourie. A batter is made using gram flour, water and whatever else you want to put in them and then deep fried. I added chopped red onions, coriander leaves, cumin seeds, paprika. dried chillies and salt to these ones. Most times I also like to add mashed/chopped pre boiled potatoes to the mix and then fry. You can add baking powder or yeast to help them rise if you want puffy ones. These also make for a great sandwich filling. Here’s a link (East African) and another link (Indian) to a recipe you can follow.

These come out in all types of shapes and textures depending on the ingredients

And a bonus video with several bhajia recipes;

 

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Homemade Paprika!

 

I was inspired to make my own paprika thanks to the video below. I already dry my own fresh herbs so this was a no brainer; the goal is to grow my own herbs as soon as I get ample growing space. A dehydrator is also in my future just putting it out there.

Step 1: Wash sweet peppers you can use a mix of sweet peppers and red bell peppers.

Step 2: Deseed and chop into tiny pieces – I ended up chopping them into thinner strips about three days into the drying process which is what I ought to have done in the first place.

Step 3: dry the peppers. You can sun-dry them in a dust free environment, you can use a dehydrator to dry them or use an oven as shown in the video below. These were sun dried and heat dried when I decided to smoke them as well.

Step 4: Grind them in a grinder/coffee grinder. One of the best investments I made in kitchen appliances was to buy a blender set that came with two grinding jugs as well. Best decision ever I grind whatever needs grinding in them.

I overdid it with the smoking hence the darker hue

The video that inspired it all!

 

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WORK FROM HOME ROUTINE (PANDEMIC EDITION)

 

Before I get into what the post is about I just wanted to mention a tweet I read a couple days ago on twitter that resonated with me. Someone tweeted that work should be outcome based and not time based and in one of the replies, someone commented how the pandemic had shown them that it didn’t make sense to go into a physical office for 8 hours, to do work that can be completed at home in 3 or 4 hours. I have never related to a tweet and its comment like I related to this one. I totally agree with both people. Of course there are exceptions for people in customer facing roles, healthcare, engineering etc you actually have to be present at work to see the outcome for most of these roles. My thoughts are that this pandemic should if anything change how we work going forward. The time spent on commuting alone could be used doing something else, organisations that can, should really consider working from home full time  going forward or at least have a part time work from home option where employees only come into the office twice or thrice a week on a rotating basis. I mean some of us have been doing just fine working from home, meetings still go on as scheduled work still gets done. But as humans we also need social interaction every now and then so I actually think the part time work from home option, could actually be a viable one going forward for most organisations. Perfect work life balance if you ask me. My organisation still has what is considered essential staff, the finance, IT and administrative team, who go into the office about twice a week, but never more than three people at once. Appropriate masks are provided and there is a sanitizer station every few steps on the floor. You can’t exactly transfer all of an organisation’s systems especially sensitive confidential material or financial stuff to a home office set up, so these staff members come in once or twice a week for that purpose.

Image courtesy of pixabay.com 

Ok so on to the post. So my work day is typically 8 am to 5 pm but I prefer to do a 9 am to 6 pm routine unless I have an 8 am meeting or something. The reason being, that I am usually still taking work calls, sending emails or in a meeting or webinar that runs over past five pm usually until 5.30 pm sometimes. So I figured 9-6 works better for me most days. So this post will be based on a 9-6 work day.

8 am - 9 am

I do personal stuff. A quick 10-15 minute light workout while listening to a TED talk. Followed by a 15 minute Spanish lesson on Duolingo as I drink herbal tea, juice or some sort of drink it all depends on my mood and the weather that morning. I spend the rest of the time before 9am watching a short vlog on YouTube. I actually choose what vlog to watch based on the minutes I have free before 9 am.

9 am - 1 pm

Work day officially starts so I check on any emails and respond to those that need responding to. Take action on those that need action taken. Then I proceed with whatever tasks I have set up for the day. I usually take a 15 -20 minute breakfast break in between usually around 10am, which I eat at my desk.

1 pm - 2pm

Lunch break. I try to take my lunch break between midday and 2pm as much as possible, because most afternoons are either filled with a meeting or two or some webinar or the other and since I am home, I am either preparing a sandwich, reheating leftovers or making fresh food and I don’t want that process to interfere with my afternoon schedule. Besides I don’t want to make a habit of eating lunch at my desk while working (yes I can log off an hour earlier if I do this), but that one hour eating lunch and watching something on YouTube is a welcome break.

2pm – 6pm

Like I mentioned above most afternoons are filled with a meeting, webinar or something of the sort. Once these are done I continue with my daily tasks and log off at 6pm. My last task for the day is filling in my timesheet which we do online, I prefer to do mine daily since my tasks are still fresh in my mind. it’s just easier than waiting until the end of the month to fill in everything. And that’s it work day done.

Of course I take short five to ten minute breaks throughout the day to stretch my legs, give my eyes a break from the computer screen or when the weather is good get a few minutes of much needed sunshine.

It’s a good thing I have a personal laptop and a work laptop, so once I log off I don’t touch my work laptop until the next day. I don’t touch it at all over the weekend, once I log off on Friday evening, the next time I log on is Monday morning.

I go for a 30minute to an hour evening walk thrice a week, I try to make it Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so I can get some fresh air and human interaction. These walks usually coincide with a grocery run that I do on the way back. Nothing too heavy, usually a few fruits and vegetables that I can easily carry back home.

 

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THRIVING IN A PANDEMIC!

At the beginning of the pandemic sometime in late March for me, when all the news that came out worldwide was tragedy after tragedy, I told myself I was not going to let the negative news affect me, but instead I would thrive in this pandemic. I even sent a message to one of my friends to this effect screenshots below. My timeline was full of tragedy, loss and despair at the start of the pandemic, people were being furloughed, taking massive pay cuts, businesses were closing down, people lost jobs and loved ones. I found myself absorbing too much of this negative news and it was starting to affect me, so I took a short social media break. When I came back the negative news was still there on my timeline, but in the midst of all the tragedy going on in the world, I would come across the odd person who had signed a new contract, got a new job etc. It was such a crazy time for some and a blessing in disguise for others. Of course we all know that industries like aviation took a beating and tech and healthcare sectors thrived. So I choose to focus on the positive, I told myself that I would thrive amidst the chaos. And thrive I did. In June I self published my very first book, which you can find at the end of this post. I had been sitting on the idea to write a book for years, but never did anything about it because I didn’t quite know what I wanted to write about back then.  Every time someone would ask me a personal question that I didn’t feel like answering, I would always say one day I will write a book about it, and never thought much of it after that. And then one night when I couldn’t sleep I woke up a few minutes to three o’clock in the morning and started writing and didn’t stop until five o’clock in the morning. I wrote 2000 words in two hours and that was the beginning of my career as a published author. I started my YouTube channel around the same time.  A couple of weeks later I signed a short term contract with a multinational non profit organisation and also got some work from home online opportunities, that I did on the side. Deep down I believe all these opportunities and blessings that came my way did so, because I not only spoke them into existence but believed without a doubt that I would thrive regardless of the negative circumstances in the world at the time. The power of the tongue and manifestation was definitely at work here. My motto was “thriving in a pandemic” (still is) and believing that I would and I did. 

Edited to add: I actually drafted this post after my interview and before I got the offer and signed my contract! Ask, believe, receive! I just knew deep down in my heart that this contract was mine so I went ahead and wrote this post before signing the actual contract!

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HAVE YOU SUBSCRIBED TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL?

My history with YouTube goes back to when YouTube first started in 2005; I was watching YouTube when most people didn’t even know it existed. I actually came across footage from an old digital camera from 2008, where I was recording my housemates with the then new camera, to test it out (vlogging before vlogging became a term) and telling them to mind what they said because I was going to upload that footage on YouTube! Of course it never made it to YouTube but the seed was planted, I almost started the channel three years ago but my life then was tumultuous to put in mildly so that idea was quickly shelved. So in the midst of the pandemic with nothing much to do and practically nowhere to go I figured I may as well start my channel. I had my phone camera, my ten year plus digital camera and internet connection. It was a “start where you are with what you have” kind of situation. Knowing myself I knew that if I didn’t upload something I would never upload anything. So I uploaded a 16 second footage of a plane taking off that I took from the rooftop of my building months ago, that was just sitting in my gallery taking up precious storage space. My initial plan was to have a channel that was a hodgepodge of sorts and upload any and everything that came to mind. But then I found myself rereading a lot of my old books, because again, nothing to do nowhere to go, and decided to review them and upload those reviews on my channel. And that was how an idea that I had had for years came to fruition. So please subscribe, like and share my content, channel link down below, thanks everyone.

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