Chicken Pilau
There meals that are so typically Kenyan. Meals that you will rarely miss at most gathering. You know those meals that ALL Kenyans think they can cook just by virtue of them being Kenyan. Sort of like the way you imagine all Italians should know how to make great pasta meals or pizza or that a Spaniard should have their paella skills locked down. Well pilau is one of those meals for Kenyans. Its always in every wedding or party but only thing is they do not really make pilau but some version of it where they put meat and some pilau masala and call it pilau, HAA!! What a shame.
Then there my relatives from central who made the term pilau Njeri famous. What we do is add everything we have then some pilau masala and call it Pilau. BIGGER HAAA!! I was never really in this league but in the league of those who just used pilau masala and came out with something sort of, kinda like pilau. That was until a few years ago when my gal Angie’s mum tried to teach me how to make it right. I never really got the measurements right but she did make a mean Pilau and she told me that she would sometimes add pilau masala for the color. Well the knowledge she passed on to me kinda faded away and I forgot all about cooking a good pilau till sometime last year when I discovered Fauzia and begun to try again.
I promise you this is the simplest pilau recipe you will ever come across. And it’s really tasty too each time I make it I have to stop myself from eating the whole sufuria.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken cut up into pieces
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 tablespoon garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
- 500 grams of rice
- 3 onions, chopped
- 3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 4 pieces each
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin/coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground roasted cumin powder
- 3 tablespoon butter
- 5 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic paste (extra)
- a bunch of coriander,chopped
- 1 level tablespoon whole cumin
- ½ teaspoon whole pepper
- 2 sticks cinnamon
- 2 cloves
- 2 cardamom
Instructions
Soak the rice in 4 cups of water for at least 30 minutes
Put the chicken with 1 tablespoon of garlic,1 teaspoon ginger, black pepper and salt. Add the water. Simmer on low heat for 15 minutes ONLY. The chicken will cook later
Put a big pot on heat. Once it is hot add the oil and butter. Once butter is melted add the spices in the spices coloumn. Stir and once they begin to splutter add onions and cook till they are translucent then add in the potatoes, turmeric and cumin/coriander powder. Stir and fru for a few minutes then add in the remaining garlic and the chopped coriander.
Add in the boiled chicken stir well then add the stock ( the ratio of stock:rice is 1.25:1, 1 and ¼ cups of stock for every cup of rice) and some salt. Let it simmer then taste for salt. It should be “too” salty for your liking so that it’s just right when the rice is cooked.
Drain rice and add to the pot, stir well then sprinkle with some coriander on top. Let it cook for about 2-3 minutes then reduce the heat to medium and cover with a lid. Once the water has reduced reduce the heat to very low. Let this cook for about ten minutes then switch off the heat.
Fluff rice with a fork and leave the lid on for about 3 minutes.
HAPPY EATING!!
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/chicken-pilau/Basic Scones
What I love most about the internet is that you meet people in the weirdest forums. There is this scrabble game I play my phone called WordFued. Last week when I was playing at around lunch my opponent told me goodnight and from there we got to talking. Turned out she was from New Zealand, I told her I was in Kenya. Being me I just had to tell her about my blog and the next day I asked her to send me an easy Kiwi recipe and she sent me this scones. Thanks Silvia!!
They are might easy to make and you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry at any given point. You can also add anything to them; bacon, chocolate chips, raisins, other dried fruits. I added about a cup of dried bacon bits to mine. They are best eaten fresh just when they cool down a bit.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Self raising Flour
- 3 Tea Spoons Sugar (Bit more if you bake sweet scones)
- 1 Tea Spoon Baking Powder
- Pinch of Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Butter or Margarine
- 1/2 Cup Hot Water
- 1/2 Cup Milk
- 1 Table spoon White Vinegar
- 1 Egg
- (Raisins, Dates, Cheese, Bacon, chocolate chips etc Optional and use as desired)
Instructions
Pre Heat oven to 200 degrees, put your baking sheet into the oven while pre heating.
Sift First 4 Ingredients into a Large Bowl. Add anything you want to use e.g. raisins etc to the dry flour mix
Add Butter to Hot Water to melt. Add the milk and vinegar to make 1 cup. Mix in the egg.
Form a well in the flour mixture and pour egg and wet mixture in the middle of the well. Using a knife only mix all the ingredients quickly ( the quicker the better)
The mixture will be a bit wet. Use 2 spoons to divide into approx. 8 scones to transfer to hot baking sheet.Bake 15 min
HAPPY EATING!!
you can add chocolate chips, raisins, dried fruits, bacon bits etc
I added bacon bits to mine and they were lovely.
You can serve this plain or with jam (especially strawberry) butter or cream.
Rice Flour and Coconut Pancakes (Vibibi)
I once heard that the best way to discover a new way of making something is to have a kitchen disaster. I never fully believed this until the day i tried making vitumbua.
I got the Vitumbua recipe from Fauzia’s Kitchen Fun and I was so psyked to go try it. I followed the instructions to the letter (or so i thought) and i could not wait to eat the Vitumbuas. I should have known something was very wrong when my batter did not really rise but i ignored that sign, when i put the batter in the pan it did not rise like it should to form a mandazi like snack but it instead made a well risen pancake, and boy did they taste GREAT. I made too many any I ate some gave out some BUT after a few hours they had a funny taste i think from the yeast fermenting.
When I reread the recipe I figure out my mistake, I was using dry yeast I think instead of the instant (or something like that) and I needed to activate my yeast first by putting it in warm water and sugar which I did not so that was why my vitumbuas turned into pancakes and why the yeast tasted bitter later.
Good thing was, I now wanted to try and make pancakes using the same recipe. That idea stayed on my mind then one day as i was shopping for my Foodie Penpal I saw that they had rice flour at Nakumatt so I bought it and made this using a slightly different recipe as the original one from Fauzia used rice that you soaked and blended. The pancakes were to die for. I am sure you will love it.
Do you have any Kitchen distastes that became w discoveries for you???
HAPPY COOKING!!
INGREDIENTS
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice flour (available in all leading supermarkets)
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon cardamon
- 1 cup coconut milk, plus a little extra if needed.
Instructions
Mix the first four ingredients well in a mixing bowl, once well blended add in the coconut milk and whisk to your desired consistency. Not to thin as you want the pancakes to rice well.
Heat some oil in a pan, pour batter into hot pan and spread out to desired pancake size, let the pancake cook till the top starts forming bubbles. turn the pancake and cook for about a minute and remove.Serve hot.
HAPPY EATING!!
If you do not have rice flour you can use about a cup of raw rice. Soak the rice overnightthen blend all ingredients in a blender
