Children Cooking Classes
So I’ve been holding cooking classes in my house for this holiday and it has been quite interesting. This is one of those things that you do once or twice but never take it seriously so this time I said I have to do it. I live in Nyayo Embakasi, lovely estate with lots of young families, perfect place to start. I advertised and got a couple of students and started.
Honestly my experience this time was a bit different, I think mainly because I was dealing with children who were not family and also who did not know each other. I had different age groups; 4-6, 7-10, 11-14 and 15-18. Now the you children are quite nice to deal with, you always start with telling them to wash their hands then sing a nursery rhyme or two or a Sunday school song, you then laugh a little before you get down to business. The first class we made a chocolate mug cake and some sandwiches where we shaped the cheese and veggies like animals
How cool right???? The kids had lots of fun with this but the only mistake I did was trying to show them how to do all the preparation themselves, I should probably have done half of it prior as this is what I did with subsequent classes. Now because I did not do all the prep my class went longer than the stipulated 45 mins to 1.25 hours. We all know how kids below 5 get when asked to do something for too long, jumpy fidgety and they just want to play, at this point you feel like you can place them in a free ads in Nigeria and SELL IT!! OLX style just so that you can get some quiet then buy them back later after they make a tour of Nigeria and play all they want they can come back and cook some more. But since I could never do that my conscience would not even let me I had to be patient, I encouraged them to sing and in no time we were back to cooking. The kids love it, only problem came when it was time to eat the veggies that was a struggle but all in all we loved the experience and the parents were happy too. HERE is the timetable I had this holiday, but I can always do one on a Saturday in my house or yours. Do contact me if you’re interested. I also do classes during chamas or just when you are having a girls afternoon or night call me we can do cakes, cocktails or even just pilau
Adventurous Cooks Club, Cooking Challenge: Chicken Biryani
Adventurous Cooks Club is a club I formed borrowing from the idea of thedaringkitchen.com in the US. I have been following them for a while now and have been toying with the idea of starting a Kenyan chapter for over a year. I thought it was best to start our own chapter other than join theirs as the dishes they make are sometimes quite advance. Thus the Adventurous Cooks Club was born, joining me are fellow food bloggers Gatuiri of Leo Tunapika? and Wendy of wendywahito.com
I sure do hope that you will join in the cooking fun and take up the challenges and other activities that we plan for you. We will have cooking challenges, restaurat reviews, foodie penpals, Cook outs and Potlucks amoung many other foodie activities.
For the Cooking challenges we will have 2 a month on the 1st and the 15th of every month. On the 1st we will have a cooking challenge and the 15th we will a desert challenge. Anyone can join in the challenge, cook and post your pics on our Facebook page : Adventurous Cooks Club
Our 1st challenge is making Chicken Biryani. This recipe is quite easy. I adapted it from Fauzias Kitchen you will love this biryani I promise you and its so hearty, perfect for the weather.
marinate chicken in all whole spices, half the yoghurt, tomato paste, tandoori masala, food color, oil, half the onions for 3-4 hours or overnight
your onions should look like this
add oil, remaining onions, tomato paste, safron, green chillies and yoghurt cook for 5 mins then add marinated chicken. cook stiring occasionally for 20 mins then add potatoes, add also salt, spices or yoghurt if need be.once cooked add garam masala and stir thru.
Once you par cook the rice, drain it and add half of it back to the pot, pour the safron water and food color.
Add the remainder of the rice, cover with foil and place in the oven at 180 degrees for about 10 mins or cook on very low on stove top till cooked
Serve, HAPPY EATING
Ingredients
- 1 chicken, cut up
- 500 gm onions, sliced and fried to golden
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoon garlic paste
- 1 tablespoon ginger paste
- 1 teaspoon tandoori masala
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- red chillies, to taste (optional)
- 500 ml plain yoghurt, or more if you want more sauce (whipped till smooth, you can also use mala)
- orange food colouring
- 2 pinches of saffron (available at Healthy U)
- 8 tablespoons oil
- 5 potatoes, peeled, cut in half then fried until a knife can pierce them easily
- salt to taste
- 1-2 slit green chillies (optional)
- 2 cardamom pods
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 cloves
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 3 cups rice
- 4 cardamom pods
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 3 cloves
- 2 tablespoons oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Marinate the chicken in garlic, ginger, all the whole spices under chicken, half the yoghurt, half the onions, half the tomato paste, tandoori masala, small pinch of orange food color, salt, green chillie, 4 tablespoons oil and saffron. Marinate this for at least 3 -4 hours or preferably overnight.
Heat the remaining oil, then add the remaining fried onions, tomato paste, saffron, green chilli and yoghurt. Cook this for about 5 mins then add the marinated chicken and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to low and cook for another 10 minutes.
Make sure u keep the pot covered stirring every now and then ensuring that the chicken is not sticking to the bottom. Check if the sauce is the amount you like if not add some more yoghurt (not water).
Check the taste of salt and balance of spices add any as required. Add the potatoes and cook for a further 7-10 mins till it’s cooked through. Add garam masala stir thru and set aside
Wash your rice and soak it in water for about 30 mins. Soak the saffron strands in water and set aside
Bring a pot of water to boil and add all the whole spices under rice with the salt and oil.
Drain the rice and add it the boiling. Cook until the rice is about 3/4 done (be very careful not to overcook as the time between ¾ done and cooked is not long) remove and strain out all the water.
Put half the rice back into the pan, drizzle about 2-3 tbsp. of oil and the saffron water. Add a bit of orange colour on one side ( you can add red color on the other side) mix it up a bit with a spoon, put the other half of the rice then cover the pot tightly. Steam this on low heat for 15 minutes or put in a 180 C preheated oven for about the same time.
Serve the rice with the Biryani Masala on top.
Mix it up a bit with a spoon then cover the pot tightly. Steam this on low heat for 15 minutes or put in a 180 C preheated oven for about the same time. Serve the rice with the Biryani Masala on top.
Alternatively, you can layer the two in the pot by placing the cooked masala at the bottom of the pan and the rice on top, then steam as directed, for about 15 minutes on low heat. This tends to infuse the lovely biryani flavour into the rice as it steams.
Rolex (Egg Rolled in Chapati)
There is nothing as interesting going to a new country and discovering their street food. On my recent trip to Uganda I kept asking my girlfriends to take me somewhere I’d eat food that the locals eat on the go and is available right on the streets. I guess for kenyans this would be maindi choma (roasted maize), smokies with kachumbari (some form of sausage with salsa), boiled egg with salsa, mshikakis etcs.
In Uganda rolex is famous, I have heard of it for years and I always wondered why they called olex as there is really no correlation to the watch brand, but its mighty tasty and I suppose that is all that matters. I had this at a street corner near Makerere I honestly do not remember the name of the area. Its quite a fast meal, I was quite impressed by the fact that they add cabbages to their omelet. The process is quite simple. The photos below were taken at the street vendors “kitchen”
HAPPY COOKING!!
1. Make your chapati before hand. mix all the ingredients for your omelet in a cup pour it on the pan . I used; onions, green pepper, red bell pepper, cabbage, tomatoes and dhania, I cooked the omelet in a little oil then once cooked place the capati on the cooked omelet
2. Turn the omelet and chapati and start to roll. For my homemade one I added lettuce, red bell peer and sweet chilli sauce. You can be very creative at this point, add cheese, spinach, any other vegetables
3. Roll the chapati and egg completely
4. Pack it or eat it. How cool is this recycled carry pocket that they use?
5. HAPPY EATING!!!
