Asian Connection + A Recipe: Sri Lankan Chicken Miri Sata
I posted a Sri Lankan Curry a few weeks ago and mentioned that what I love most is the cultural diversity in my office. We have colleagues from different areas of the world; Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Sierra Leon, Liberia, Pakistan, US, France, Japan etcetc, it’s a great selection, I just wish I could convince each one of them to teach me just one dish. That would make a good series for this blog.
Last year my colleague Tomoko, from Japan (she is the one who taught us how to make teriyaki and Karage chicken remember?) suggested that we should make Chinnesedumplisngs, we never got round to it and she again reminded me a few weeks ago, by then Sampathi, from Sri Lanka, had also said she could teach me how to make another dish. I thought it was best to have this two done togather and thus Asian Night was born, we invied most of the ladies in our office and ended up with a mini cooking class. It was very interesting but as usual like in any other class there were students like Liz who were not paying attention who kept coming to ask me what was going on and a few others who came to ask me for my notes at the end of the lesson, it was like Uni all over again.
Apart from the cooking we also did a lot of catching up, photo taking and of course drinking. We had a good time and I hope we’ll do this again soon. The pictures of the night and the recipe follow. HAPPY COOKING!!
All the ladies!
More posing
Don’t they look lovely; Mo and Liz
The lovely Sampathi
Now the recipe ( step by step picture instructions then the recipe), HAPPY COOKING!!
- the pre mixed curry that Sam used
marinated chicken: marinated chicken: Blend all ingredients in curry column and marinate chicken
Put the oil into a pot and add the ginger and garlic . Add the curry leaves, onions and mustard seeds.
Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes and add 1 cup of water. Cover and simmer till almost cooked add the tomatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes, add coconut milk/ fresh milk and simmer till cooked through. Serve over rice
Ingredients
- 1 chicken cut into small pieces ( we used kienyeji but you can use a broiler)
- Curry paste (ingredients below)
- 5 small-medium sized onions
- 2 tablespoons garlic
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 8 tomatoes
- 5 curry leaves (available at ngara, city park hawkers and city markets)
- 2 stalks of lemon grass, cut into 2 cm strips (available in leading supermarkets)
- Chillies
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 cup coconut milk or fresh milk.
- Oil for frying
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 4 tablespoons chillies
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon ginger paste
- 1 tablespoon garlic paste
- 2 tablespoons coriander powder
- 3 cloves
- 10 cardamoms
- 3 pieces of cinnamon
- Some vegetable oil
Instructions
Put all the ingredients in under curry paste into a blender/spice grinder and blend till smooth. If you do not have a blender you can use a pestle and mortar. Put aside. Marinate the chicken in this paste for at least an hour but overnight if possible.
Put the oil into a pot and add the ginger and garlic and fry till fragrant. Add the curry leaves, onions and mustard seeds. Cook for 3 minutes
Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes and add 1 cup of water. Cover and let it simmer over low heat till almost cooked (this should take 30-40 minutes for kienyeji chicken, less for broiler)add the tomatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes then add coconut milk/ fresh milk and simmer till cooked through. Serve over rice
HAPPY COOKING!!
Curry leaves really cannot be substituted as their flavour is quite unique, but if you do not have them DO NOT use curry powder it is not a substitute, try using either basil leaves mixed with a dash of lemon juice or lemon zest.
You can also substitute the lemon grass with lemon zest or lemon leaf.
If you choose to substitute both ingredients I suggest you use the basil option for the curry leaves to avoid a very lemony curry.
If you do not have tomatoes you can add tamarind or lime juice to the coconut milk/ fresh milk
Colleagues Get Together and a Ghanaian Light Stew
So in Kakuma we tend to live for parties and sometimes there too many parties; a farewell party, a birthday, a bridal/ baby shower, just for the sake of it party etc. So at the end of last year we had one of those “just because we can have a party” party. It was the end of the year and we convinced our boss, who is Ghanaian, to make us some fufu.
Now let me explain something about our office just like any office it is divided into sections or us we call them units. So there is; registration, administration, eligibility, field, resettlement etc I work for the Resettlement Unit so when I say “WE” I meant my resettlement colleagues and I enjoy working in resettlement my colleagues are a pretty decent lot. We all tend to like alcohol and the bar and sometimes you’d find every single one of us in the bar including the boss, pretty cool I think. There was even a time last year we kept teasing the boss that we should change our weekly unit meeting to 11pm on Fridays and instead of distributing chocolate we should distribute beers. We are a pretty cohesive unit, like a small family with lots of dramas but we love each other anyway. It’s great.
Anyway, I digress, so we convinced our boss to make us fufu so that we do one last thing before the year ends as a unit. It was a good night. I learnt how to make fufu and a Ghanaian chicken stew from Andrea, my boss. We had good food, laughs and lots to drink. The stew was very spicy and quite different from our stews which most West Africans call bland so maybe you can try this and serve with ugali or matoke once in a while when you feel like a stew with a kick. Andreas said that the fuf we had was not the real thing as it comes from a packet while what they have back home is pounded from yams or plantains so I did not bother to write down the instructions for that not only coz its “fake” fufu but also because the flour is not locally available. HAPPY COOKING!!
marinate the chicken in an onion paste (onion, ginger and garlic)
Once you steam the chicken and your ready to start cooking puree all the tomatoes and half bulb garlic
-Blend the remaining 1 onion. Add some oil in a big pot and add the onion puree. Fry for a few minutes then chillies then add the tomato puree and paste if using. Fry for about 5 minutes. Add about a half a cup of water and let it boil. Once it comes to a boil add the chicken stock that you had earlier reserved. The amount of chicken stock you will use will depend on the amount of soup you want.
-After the soup has come to a boil, taste for seasoning. Add anything you feel is lacking eg chillies, garlic, salt etc. then add the chicken. Reduce the heat let it boil for about 10 minutes.
Bob trying VERY had to make the fufu but he did not succeed, it was too hard for him
then the expert showed him how its done
the fufu
Fufu served with chicken stew
Ingredients
- 1 chicken (preferably kienyeji/ road runner) cut into pieces
- 1.5 bulb garlic, plus extra if needed
- 3 onions
- Thumb size piece of ginger
- 6 tomatoes
- 1-2 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)
- 3-6 red chillies
- Oil to fry
Instructions
Put the 1 bulb garlic, 2 onions and the ginger in a blender and blitz to make a smooth paste.
Marinate the chicken in this mixture for at least 2 hours but up to overnight.
Once you are ready to start cooking, blend the remaining onion to a smooth paste, and also separately blend the tomatoes and remaining garlic together to form a smooth paste.
Place the chicken in a large pot. Some water to it, maybe till half the chicken in covered. Place under medium heat and steam till the chicken is basically cooked. This could take anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on how tough the meat of your chicken is. Once this is done remove the chicken from the stock, reserve the stock.
Blend the remaining 1 onion. Add some oil in a big pot and add the onion puree. Fry for a few minutes then chillies then add the tomato puree and paste if using. Fry for about 5 minutes. Add about a half a cup of water and let it boil. Once it comes to a boil add the chicken stock that you had earlier reserved. The amount of chicken stock you will use will depend on the amount of soup you want.
After the soup has come to a boil, taste for seasoning. Add anything you feel is lacking eg chillies, garlic, salt etc. then add the chicken. Reduce the heat let it boil for about 10 minutes.
Serve hot over matoke, ugali or fufu if available
HAPPY EATING!!
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/colleagues-get-together-and-a-ghanaian-light-stew/
Kenyan Style Kuku Kienyeji Wet Fry (Road runner chicken)
Kienyeji Chicken (Road Runner Chicken) Wet Fry
We Kenyans like our meat. Fried, stewed, choma (bbq), wet fry dry fry, deep fried any way we like our meat. For some reason the best places to get this meat is the bar. I always wonder why. What is this that the cooks in bar know that we do not. No matter how hard you try and remake the food at home it never works.
Here is another favourite Kienyeji wet fry. For me I think the best one is made by my grandmother. No one makes it better than her. I have tried over and over again to do it like her but I keep failing, ooh well maybe one day I’ll get the right formula. This is a basic kienyeji, not too much spice or complications in it. You can also use it as a base recipe and add many other spices like garam masala, fennel etc. HAPPY COOKING!!
Ingredients
- 1 chicken (road runner/kienyeji)
- 1 -2 large onions, sliced
- 2 tablespoons garlic, crushed
- ½ teaspoon ginger, crushed or grated
- 2 large tomatoes, cut, into half, lengthwise
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- Large bunch of Dhania, chopped
- 2 chilies,chopped
- Oil for frying, about a tablespoon or less.
Instructions
Put the onions in a pot and add the oil. Fry till the onions are soft and clear. Add the ginger and garlic. Cook till fragrant and add the chicken. Mix well. Reduce the heat and cover the pot. Let it simmer for about 25 mins.
After the 25 mins add the tomatoes as they are and the chilies. Cover and let simmer for 5 mins, by this time the tomatoes will have “sweated” and you can remove the skin. Once that is done. Mix in tomatoes well and then add the garam masala. Let it cook till the chicken is cooked through adding a little water as needed this should take about 25-35 minutes. Once ready add the Dhania and mix well. Let it cook for 2 mins then add the royco. Simmer for 3 minutes and it’s done. Let the chicken stand for 5 mins then stand.
HAPPY EATING!!
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/kenyan-style-kuku-kienyeji-wet-fry-road-runner-chicken/
