recipes for starchy sides
Pilau is a signature celebration dish in our East Africa. It can be made with chicken, beef or lamb, but the most loved is made with goat. I’ve tried making it in the past and failed miserably, with a charcoal base in every pot and hardly any flavour. This time I got an expert to teach me. So, now you can make the best pilau at home too. Read on to learn how…
Been thinking I’m about due for another baby food post. Will be weaning my little one soon so there are plenty more coming. I learned this one from my friend Joy, hope your baby will love it…
One of my favourite things about living in a mixed culture environment (yes, Nairobi is very mixed!) is all the different foods you get to enjoy. Very evident in all the different kinds of restaurants that are thriving. Another is learning how to make the foods you love from other cultures so that you can have them on demand, in the comfort of your home! Yum yum! When it comes to the most loved and made foods from the asian community I would say Chapatis are number one, Maru Bhajias follow closely behind for me, they are just awesome!! I’m so glad I can finally make them at home too, on demand! Read on to learn how…
Looking for something with a good mix of colour that’s fun to serve and delicious? This is sure to brighten up your spread and delight your guests! Make a note to try it this weekend.
I make bread and porridge and all the other good stuff for breakfast but I really like potatoes. I like that they last longer in the belly, if I eat at 7 I’m not hungry by 10 — I’ll still take that snack though!
This is an old recipe that I dug up and refined for this special #onja post. Click on to learn more about #Onja and how to make this very delicious casserole.
Y’all know, I like to bake bread at home. In fact, I don’t buy white bread anymore, only wholemeal/wholegrain. But I’ve been wanting to start making that at home as well. It can’t be that much harder, right?
Finally, my first recipe post of the year! Thank you for patiently waiting (^_^) As you can see I’ve been busy getting the ball rolling on other things. How do Y’all like the new look of the website? I would love your feedback. For now, let’s get on with how to make these yummy looking potatoes…
These were not easy to select, I was very picky about what I posted this year. I’ve been deliberate on making sure each post was worth your time and tastebuds! If you’ve been looking through the site and wondering what to make first, this post is for you, definitely start here.
The goodness of fried potatoes/french fries/chips without the frying!
Just letting you know now, if you taste one before serving you might eat your portion of potatoes before they reach the table. They are delicious!
The sweet+sour+chilli combo is well loved, so why not with plantain? They are already sweet, so just add a bit of sour and chill and you’ve got dynamite bites!
As far as baked potatoes go, these delicious specimens rank very high. They look great and are so easy to customise to your palette! Have a look and give them a go!
Here are two more ideas for the plantain lover! These require a little more work because of the size but still worth it I think…
Hello! 🙂
Yes, I’m still around. August has been a quiet month for me. Oh I’m still cooking, experimenting and so on, just haven’t been online very much. It has been quite nice actually. Sometimes there’s just too much to see, and the more you consume, the more you want and before you know it your head is so full of clutter and you just can’t think. So I guess you could say I’ve been clearing my head. How has your August been?
fruits & nuts, we all like them in chocolate, but have you tried them in rice? It may just be better…
This is an easy one to make. Like many rice mix dishes, it’s a great way to refresh leftover plain rice. So you can plan ahead and make lots of rice today, and do fried rice the next day, cutting prep time for a meal. A big part of making quick meals can be planning ahead with the meal you’re making today. Just make a little extra to use a different way tomorrow.
Isn’t that a beautiful specimen of a pumpkin? My mother sent it to me, it is from her garden. One day when I own my own home I’d love to keep a garden like my parents do. It’s not just pretty with flowers, there’s plenty to eat. I remember when we were growing up there was always something you could snack from while in the garden, or pick to cook with. Mango, avocado and guava trees; rosemary and gooseberry bushes between the flowers; a few edible greens; passion fruit vine intertwined in the live fence,… Not all at the same time but there was always 3 or 4 things. Doesn’t it sound awesome though?
So earlier this year hubby treated us to some take out for dinner. One of the sides he brought was coconut rice. I have never tasted coconut rice that good before. It was sweet, packed with a burst of savoury flavour and creamy all at the same time. It was so good I’ve actually thought about it regularly since I had it, specifically how to recreate it in my own kitchen. So here it is, have a look…
Sometimes making a meal is a bit like painting… or at least I think about it like I’m painting. When I think a recipe I imagine the colours served on a plate and are they working? Making this potato salad was very much like that.
You don’t always have to come up with a whole new dish. If you’re bored with what you’re cooking, switching out a few ingredients and adding an extra one can really refresh a dish, sometimes make it brand new. Check out how I refreshed this simple pasta dish…
Been making an effort to serve whole meals, with all three parts, veggies, starch and protein. But potatoes with cauliflower on the side did not sound appetising. Too much white on the plate. So I mixed things up a bit…
You roasting that butternut yet? Well, time to spice it up a little…
Have you ever roasted butternut? No? you should. If you like them you’ll like them even more. If you don’t like them at all, you might change your mind. Here’s a recipe to get you started…
For when you want savoury without the fuss! You will need to have some spaghetti sauce handy though, or my home made tomato paste which doubles as a spaghetti sauce. The store bought kind will do but nothing beats home made.
Delicious all in one recipe! Requires quite a bit of prep work in the beginning. Cutting, chopping etc. But once all that is done the rest is easy. Most of the cutting can be done ahead of time too.
Sometimes experimenting doesn’t require a lot of thinking and planning, just mix two of your favourite things and see what what happens…
There are some things I have made in the past that I just haven’t been able to recreate, something we all experience. But I’m so glad I started this blog because now I record everything. But the things I did before the blog will clearly take some time to recreate…
Meat balls are a great item to cook and store for later use. When you make them, make more than you need then store the extra in the freezer, bagged in your preferred portions per meal. Had some extra ones stored away, here is how I used them…
For this meal I was going for something easy, aromatic and colourful. The easy and aromatic came through nicely, but the colour was a flop! It was still good to eat though (^_^)