Kashata
I find that Kenyans have very few deserts or sweets that we can call our own. Unlike the French or English. Now this Swahili sweet will take your taste buds right back to when you were in class 2, you remember those days when you’d save money from your break or lunch so that you could afford to buy either kashata, mabuyu or cool after school? They cost just 1 shilling but those days that was quite something. And they came in all colors and in our heads we thought they were different flavours. Ohhh the good old days of pur innocence.
When I saw people asking for this recipe sometime last year on a facebook group I just had to look around for it. Hope you will love it as much as I did and I hope it will make you feel like a child again. HAPPY COOKING!!
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- ¾ cup water
- 1 cup moist grated coconut (or one desiccated coconut moistened with 2 tbsp of milk or water)
- 1/2 teaspoon Cardamon
- ½ teaspoon food color (optional)
Instructions
Heat the food color, water and sugar on medium heat till the sugar dissolves, continue heating the mixture till it thickens and becomes a syrup, it should be thick and should feel sticky between your fingers and leave a string when you pull your fingers apart. While this is happening add 2 tablespoons of water to your desiccated coconut
Add the coconut to the sugar syrup and mix well ensuring that it is well incorporated, keep stirring and let it cook till it has reduced in size and it begins to clump up together, sort of foaming balls.
Grease a cake pan or line with parchment paper. Using a spatula put the coconut mixture into the pan, patting down to about an inch.
Let this cool for about 8 minutes and slice. Slice using one motion. Let this cool further before your serve
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/kashata-2/Curry Coconut Fish Parcels
It’s amazing how versatile food is. How one basic dish like fish or beef or chicken can be made in 1000’s of different ways. How condiments that you use like honey or a curry paste can also be made in 100’s of ways. All you need is the interest and the time to do a little research or to just try and see what you can discover. Well that is how I came across this dish in one of the issues of GoodFood Magazine.
It uses three basic flavours
I put in some garlic and dhania(coriander) for extra flavor but also because I just love those two ingredients. This dish was fast to fix and it was super delicious. I hope you will love it as much as I did.
Ooh have you heard of the new Hello Food website? It’s amazing for those days when you really cannot be bothered to make even a meal as quick as this one. They have a wide range of restaurants from Italian and Chinese to African and the best thing they deliver straight to your door step. Check them out here.
HAPPY COOKING!!
Ingredients
- 2 large tilapia fillets , about 125g
- 2 teaspoons yellow, green or red curry paste (i used red)
- 2 teaspoons coconut milk
- zest and juice 2 lemons , plus wedges to serve
- 2 tablespoons crushed garlic
- small bunch of dhania (coriander)
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
- 1 red chilli , sliced
Instructions
Heat oven to 200C. Tear off 4 large pieces of foil, double them up, then place a fish fillet in the middle of each.
Spread over the juice of one lime and one tablespoon of garlic. let it sit for about 5 mins then spread over the curry paste. Divide the coconut, lime zest and juice and soy between each fillet.
Crush the dhania leaves with the remaining garlic and spread over the fillets then bring up the sides of the foil, then scrunch the edges and sides together to make 2 sealed parcels.
Put the parcels on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 mins. Serve the fish on coconut rice, drizzle over the chilli sauce and scatter with sliced chilli. Serve with veggies and lime wedges.
You can used dessicated coconut instead of coconut milk
You can also use lemon instead of the lime
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