How To: Cook Rice in a Microwave
I usually make this on days when I have soo many dishes too cook, when all my stove tops are being used for other dishes. Or on days when I want to do other things and not necessarily watch my rice. All you need to do is put the rice in a microwave safe bowl, cover it with a lid that allows air to escape and that’s it. I was taught this by my cuz Cynthia one day when we were visiting her house. I bet she can not remember. But thanx girly. One of my readers, Wachu Wanjaria also suggested adding coconut oil or powder to make coconut rice. Have to try that next time.
Rinse the rice at least three times
Add the water ratio 2:1 water: rice
measure your water ration of water to rice is 2:1, then add all the seasonings and oil or butter
Recipe:
Recommended times: 1/2 cup rice, 9 minutes 3/4 cup rice, 12 minutes 1 cup rice, 16 minutes 1 1/4 cups rice, 20 minutes 1 1/2 cups rice, 23 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 cup of rice
- 2 cups water or stock
- salt
- butter, oil (optional)
- Coconut oil or powder (optional)
Instructions
Rinse your rice under cold water a few times. If you’re using brown rice you might want to soak it for at least 30 minutes to make it easier to cook.
Mix the water and the rice in a microwave safe container in the ratio of 2:1 water:rice (2 cups of water for every cup of rice).
*Another way to do this is to put your rice in the container then pour water in till it covers the rice by about an inch, you can measure by putting your clean finger in the pot so that the tip of your finger touches the top of the rice, the water should cover up till your first knuckle
Season the water. Add salt, pepper, olive/ vegetable oil, butter, aromat or any other seasoning you usually use then stir the rice. Cover your rice BUT DO NOT USE an air tight lid, set the lid on the container. If the lid has vents to let out steam open those. Alternatively cover with cling wrap twice then poke holes on it to let out steam. Put in the microwave and set the time. Once done let the rice sit for about 3-5 minutes so that it finishes cooking then fluff it. EASY
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/how-to-cook-rice-in-a-micowave/
Bacon Bouquet
Have you joined Pinterest?? It’s soooo AMAZING you find the coolest stuff there like these beautiful and creative bacon bouquet. HOW COOL IS IT????? I mean don’t you think your man would love to get a bunch? I thought this would be a perfect surprise valentines present for your man/hubby/fiancé or even that guy you’re trying to bag hehehe.
I showed the photo to a few guys and the reaction was all the same I WOULD LOVE THIS. And the best thing about this is that you do not have to limit it to just Valentines. Use it for his birthday, father’s day, X-mas, to say thank you or I love you, or just because you’re trying to bribe him into buying you that pair of overly expensive shoes or even to move into that house/ neighborhood you want to move into or better yet get him to agree with your choice of school for the kids. CLEVER haaa!! Of course you need to add to the bag of goodies if bribing is your intention though, but if you just want to make him smile this will work. Ooh and men this is easy enough for you to make for your woman too. And best thing she will REALLY appreciate the effort that you made to make them so you definitely be getting bonus points.
I got this tutorial from Our Best Bites I followed it bit by bit. I added nothing changed nothing. Don’t think there was anything to add she did such a fantastic job. People have brilliant creative minds don’t they??? Go on over to that site she has amazing craft tutorials.
Edit 2015: I lost my data when moving from foodieinthedesert.com to africankaya.com I have therefore had to get step by step photos from Our Best bites. The 1st and last photos are mine though.
What you need
- Bacon, preferably streaky
- Toothpicks
- Plastic flowers
- Baking sheet lined with foil.
So start with a packet of bacon. I used 200gms got about 10 big flowers but I doubled them up so you can get 20.
Roll a strip of bacon up. You want to have the meaty side of the bacon on the top of the flower and the fatty side at the bottom. I rolled two strip. So I rolled one then the other on top to make a larger flower.
Using two toothpick poke through the bottom of the roll (fatty side). Try as much as you can to get very close to the end as possible. This helps the bacon hold shape and also to sit flat on the baking tray.
Put the bacon on a foiled baking dish. Pop then in the over at 200 Degrees for 25-30 mins but keep checking from 20 minutes depending in your oven
Then you end up with this beautiful babies.
As they cool, take the cheapest plastic flowers you can get. Make sure the flowers can come off and leave you with a stalk to set your bacon on. Remove the red (flower) parts and remain with the stalks.
Place the bacon on the stalks and voila you are done.
Give them to someone special and see how big the smile on their face will be
How much love and appreciation you will be shown.
Never EVER Buy This Brand of Coconut Milk
Cheap is expensive.
VERY EXPENSIVE.
How many times have you been told that? But do you listen? NO.
I know cheap is expensive. In fact most time I will not buy cheap brands but sometimes the Kikuyu in me just can not resist what SEEMS like a bargain. The key word there is SEEMS.
So a couple of months ago as I was doing my usual shopping for coming back to Kakuma. Remember when you would shop before boarding school? Yes it’s more or less the same, 2 soaps, 3 tissues, quencher juice, tooth paste, blueband etc. Anyway I digress back to my shopping. I always get coconut milk so when I got to them I noticed there was a new brand. As we all know coconut milk is not cheap some go for as much as 350 a can. For a girl who needs at least 5 that adds up to at least 1500 shillings. So when I saw one that cost about 200, do not remember the exact price just that it was around 100 shillings cheaper than most, I got very curious.
So in my head I wondered why it was so much cheaper. But again I rationalized that coconut milk is coconut milk. You know the way canned sweet corn is canned sweet corn and canned mushrooms is canned mushrooms. I told my self that it can’t be that bad maybe just a little bit lighter but boy was I wrong.
So I picked my 5 cans of KENTASTE coconut milk. WORST MISTAKE EVER!! GOSH!! First time I cooked with it my food tasted funny, so I said maybe it the spices second time same thing and the smell was also not that appealing. So I decided to open one can and just look at it and when I smelled it, it smelled like chemicals. So I opened a can of another brand don’t remember which one and the difference was ALARMING. So I poured out the Kentaste. I put the thought at the back of my head till a few months ago when I was visiting a friend. I was going to cook so I carried my ingredients and found that they had Kentaste but thank God I had carried my own coconut milk on explaining the difference and showing them my friend agreed.
Now yesterday, after like 4 months, I decided to make Mahamris. I remembered the Kentaste and thought that maybe I could use that coz the flour, sugar and cardamom would surely mask the taste. I opened a can and felt sick immediately. I was a punget annoying disgusting eeeew smell with a hint coconut. So what I decided not to use it. I opened a can of Royal Umbrella Coconut milk and WOW what I got was a nice rich coconut smell that was pure white.
If you look at the photo below closely you can actually see the difference in colour.
Royal Umbrella is a rich white color while Kentaste looks diluted. To be honest the smell of Kentaste on its own and in food is really disgusting so I poured it out.
Do not buy it. Yes it cheap. Yes it Kenyan. We would love to support local industries but they also need to step up and give us good quality products that compete well with the rest.
PLEASE NOTE
I am not marketing Royal Umbrella it is not the coconut milk I always use, its just what I had yesterday. They have not paid me to advertise them nor has anyone paid me for this review. I am not saying you should use Royal Umbrella just that you SHOULD NOT use KENTASTE. The opinions on this post are MY OWN
