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
Happy Hour at Onami Kitchen and Bar
So I LOVE Onami. Onami is on the 2ndflour of Westgate Mall in Westlands. I love their food and to be honest they have the best cocktails I have ever had in Nairobi. I discovered them in 2010 and I always try and go there for cocktails when I am in Nairobi. I particularly love their litchi martini. It’s like ORGASMIC, just one glass of those babies gets me giggling and it’s sweet too. Most of their martinis are quite great, I’ve tasted kiwi and banana (not sure they still have this on their menu though) their quite yummy. Their strawberry daiquiri is good and oooh their mojitos, how can I forget that.
FYI I am not an alcoholic, I have not drunk through their cocktails menu, its too long that even my girl Mona who is an alchoholic (pun intended) would have a hard time doing that. I was there a few weeks ago with my girl Waringa. We went in for a drink after lunch and got a surprise that made us VERY happy. They were having a BOGOF (buy one get one free) for their Happy Hour, so that is two drinks for an average of just Ksh 600/= so it comes down to 300/= per cocktail!! how cool is that??. Waringa had the Mai Tai it was mighty tasty, I of course still had the litchi Martini. Went back two weeks with my man, Dennis, who had a Whiskey Sour,
- Whiskey sour
why I never tried it before I have no idea because it was sooooo tasty plus it has a lovely high. Last week I started off with a Frozen Bublegum.
Frozen Bubblegum
It was quite sweet actually it looked like and smelt like a strawberry milkshake, it was a tad too sweet and creamy but funny enough it had no cream (it’s made with Southern Comfort, Bailey’s & Strawberries) but it still does what alcohol is supposed to do. Who doesn’t want that? To be honest though I don’t think I’d order it again unless if I was just having one cocktail at lunch time and I did not want to feel like an alchy so I’d have it and pretend it’s milkshake , I’m bright I know hehe.
I’d forgotten to tell you the last time I was there was on a Thursday so they had salsa night, the music is really enjoyable and for those of us who can’t dance salsa for shit it’s a great people watching experience as there normally really good dancers, another incentive of going on Thursdays?? they have Johny Walker cocktails such at whiskey sour selling for only 450/- OOOH and on Tuesdays there Cocktails are just 500/- Ok I’ve stopped I sound like an over enthusiastic drunkard 🙂
I love the ambiance at Onami, the service is also mostly decent. By that I mean that on the occasions I have been there for drinks and I sat at the bar the service was great, on days that I have been there for lunch the service was great but most times I have been there for dinner their service has been lacking.
There food is also great I’ll write about that later., although they did up their prices when they changed their name and also removed some things I liked from their menu 🙁 But when you can head on over there for happy hour or even if its not happy hour I’ll bet you that by the time you leave you will be REALLY happy!!
Bloody Mary
Our bar tender that night Geof, he was great
Geoff mixing up his special cocktail
I feel like a cocktail just by looking at this bring poured
Final product, Geof’s special cocktail made with Sheridan’s Ciroc Vodka and sugar syrup
HAPPY HAPPY DRINKING!!
