Life Lately...

I have been making my own jam for a few months now and I tell you once you start making your own jam or buying homemade jam you may never want to go back to mass factory produced commercial jams...I can assure you of that. So far I have made Pineapple jam, Mango jam, Apple jam...

Blueberry Jam

Red plum jam

And I mastered my absolute favourite marmalade which makes me sooo happy. You see I am not really a jam person like that but you see marmalade...you can kidnap me using marmalade as bait! I absolutely love love love marmalade and it gives me soooo much joy to finally be able to make my own.

Marmalade 

Oh and I even made another favourite mango chutney! Looking forward to making pineapple chutney next.

Mango chutney 

Don’t know what to call this era but I have been in the kitchen a whole lot rediscovering my love for baking, which I haven’t done in maybe three years and in a span of three weeks I have made chocolate cake, carrot cake, these two are my favourite, and banana bread. As a bonus I even made samosas (we call them sambusa) from scratch as in I made the pockets/sheets myself, something I haven’t done in a couple of years I usually just buy readymade sambusas. Whatever this era is I am loving it because I am rediscovering parts of myself that had been lost or hidden away maybe due to trauma and doing things that make me happy and I love that for me.

Not my best work but hey it had been a few years since I made these from scratch!

Sambusa 

As an Amazon Affiliate I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

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;

 

As an Amazon Affiliate I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

 

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!

 

As an Amazon Affiliate I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

 

Rice! Around The World!

I recently embarked on a culinary Sunday dinner journey around the world! For several weeks, I made one pot rice dishes from around the world. Why rice? Rice is the most common base for one pot meals around the world, so it was easier to find recipes that revolved around it. Thanks to YouTube I was able to recreate these recipes some slightly altered to suit the ingredients available locally and to suit my palate while some stayed true to their authentic selves.

So in no particular order I present to you;

Trinidadian Pelau

This is I had heard of several times (my heart lives in the Caribbean), watched several YouTube videos on how to make it but somehow never got round to making it until now. I really liked this pelau maybe because it has coconut milk and I love anything with coconut milk in it. For me this dish felt like the offspring of Caribbean rice and peas and Latin American Arroz con Pollo/Galinhada in terms of the ingredients used. This comparison is also the reason why Arroz con Pollo/Galinhada did not make this list, because minus the sugar and coconut milk used in the Trinidadian Pelau, they are more or less the same dish (one pot chicken and rice). Several Youtubers I watched used Worcestershire sauce or browning in their versions of Trinidadian pelau (and that is absolutely ok to do) but I chose to omit them, one because I am sure their ancestors did not use these condiments and two the sugar caramelized enough to brown the dish to my satisfaction. Would I make it again? Definitely, most definitely.

Afghani Pulao/Uzbeki Pulao

This I have had once before at a previous job when an Afghani colleague brought it in for a pot luck day. So good so so good and quite easy for me to make since I already know how to cook East African Pilau which I must say is a cousin to the Afghani Pilau because they are both one pot rice and meat pilau dishes that use pilau masala. The main ingredients are meat (usually mutton from what I gathered in my research) but it is totally fine to use the meat that suits your needs or is easily available/affordable and local to you, rice, carrots and raisins. Now for this I will include the YouTube videos of the particular recipes that I borrowed from by Afghani chefs/Youtubers. I do this because while scouring YouTube for this recipe I came across so many non Afghani’s who have their own version of this recipe which is totally fine, but most of them had so many extra ingredients that were found nowhere in the videos of the Afghani chefs that I watched. One guy had like six extra ingredients, green vegetables and herbs included which did not feature in any of the Afghani recipes I watched. So I decided to stick to the natives of the dish to make it as authentic as possible. A great tip is to try and watch street videos of whatever recipe you are looking for, shot in the country of the dish’s origin; you can hardly go wrong with street recipes, hardly. I loved the sweetness of the raisins and carrots mixed with the pilau spices so good! This has become a staple.  For recipes that I used click here and here.

Benachin (Gambia) Thieboudienne (Senegal)

This I have made several times over ever since I discovered it years ago, it’s my best jollof yet (sorry Nigerians and Ghanaians), I absolutely love it and is a staple for me. It’s literally the same dish with different names in Senegal and Gambia. From what I noticed on the YouTube videos I watched the Gambians tended to make the meat/chicken version and the Senegalese YouTubers I watched all made the fish version.

Spanish Paella

This was a last minute decision I originally wanted to make jambalaya which I have made before but figured I may as well make its cousin paella instead. Also the most expensive dish on this list because seafood don’t come cheap when you don’t live by the seaside and also because it calls for saffron which costs an arm, a leg and a small kidney, but thankfully we are allowed to substitute so I used turmeric instead of saffron to give it its bright colour. I actually used a street vendor’s recipe from a documentary on Spain and its culture I just happened to be watching, which if I am being honest contributed to my decision to go for Paella instead of jambalaya. Besides I am currently learning Spanish so it just made sense to go with paella instead.

Kenyan Pilau

This is native to me, well by way of Indian/Persian migrants but we adopted it in East Africa and made it our own. A staple at any Kenyan/East African event be it weddings, funerals, birthday parties etc you name it there will definitely be pilau on the menu. This dish had to be included because well as you know charity begins at home and what not.

Kenyan Pilau is eaten with kachumbari a chopped tomato, red onion, coriander and lemon juice salad

My Special Loaded Veggie Mix

This is a bonus addition for all my vegetarians out there. It's a mix of cauliflower, broccoli, corn, beans, carrots, onions, yellow and red bell peppers sautéed with some garam masala, steamed and then the preboiled rice added last.

 

As an Amazon Affiliate I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.