Fish & chips - with a twist

We were surprised with a public holiday last week. So I gave our house-help a day off and went into the kitchen to have a little fun. Thankfully, Mwagala behaved herself and I was able to get lunch ready quicker than usual.

My dear hubby recently had a tooth extracted and had been taking a lot of soup so I decided to make his 'first' meal a special one. I made grilled fish and chips. With a bit of a twist on the chips. So I'll let you in on the recipe. (I forgot to measure but I will estimate.)

Ingredients for fish (Serves 2)

• Fish fillet (4)
• Unsalted Butter/ Olive oil 
• White pepper
• Garlic powder
• Salt 

Pre-heat the oven grill to 210C

With Butter 
Melt butter in pan and add salt, garlic powder and white pepper to taste. 

With Olive Oil
Pour olive oil in a pan and add salt, garlic powder and white pepper to taste. 

Rub the oil/ butter mixture on both sides of the fish fillet and place on baking tray.
Place in the oven grill for about 20 minutes on one side and then turn to the other side. 
Reduce the heat and leave to cook through. You could cover with foil to allow them to cook through without drying out. 

Fish fillet in the oven. I forgot to take a before or during photo :( 

Ingredients for chips (Serves 2)

• 6 large potatoes
• 4 large onions
• 2 large green pepper
• Salt
• White Pepper 
• Sunflower oil/ vegetable oil

Peel, wash and chop the potatoes into chips/ fries. 
Slice the onions into rings and the green pepper longitudinally.
Pour about 2 tablespoons of oil into the frying pan and place on high heat. 
Add two handfuls of potatoes.

Add salt to taste.
Fry potatoes until they begin to brown. (Do not stir them too much as this will make them break up.)
When slightly brown, add some onions and green pepper. 
Add salt and white pepper to taste. (Easy on the salt since you already put some in the beginning.)

Add salt and white pepper to taste. 
Fry for about 2 more minutes and place on a kitchen towel to drain out the oil. 
Serve hot.

So yummy :)

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did :)

Shredded pork & K.A.H.I.N.I Day

A few weeks ago I had K.A.H.I.N.I day. My kahini is Eleanor. We've been friends for a long time and because we're so close and 'sisters' doesn't explain our relationship well enough we came up with a word to describe our relationship:
K - Kindred spirits
A - Accept
H - Hearing (Listening to each other)
I - Intercede
N - Never leave
I - I love you

We were apart for quite a number of years since we were at different universities and she was not in the country so now that are back in the same country we're having Kahini day every month - which is basically a day for ONLY kahinis :-)

And we share a common love for anything meaty so it was only natural that we make shredded pork on our kahini day. It's a recipe I pieced together and I hope that you'll enjoy it too.

Ingredients

• 350gms pork
• 250 gms bacon
• 2 large bell peppers (green)
• 2 large onions
• Soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• BBQ Sauce
• Garlic powder
• Ground mixed spices
• Corriander
• Ground white pepper

Note: The spices, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and BBQ sauce should be used to taste.

• Chop the onions in rings or as shown below and the green pepper in strips.

• Cut the pork into strips. 
• Cut the bacon into bite size pieces. 
• Fry the bacon in a non-stick frying pan.
• Put the bacon in a separate dish and then fry the pork on medium heat in the fat from the bacon, add salt, white pepper and garlic powder.

• When the pork is ready (dark brown) increase the heat and add the bacon, green pepper, onions, mixed spices, corriander, BBQ sauce, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.

Yum yum!!! Especially with the garlic thyme potatoes. This is the recipe for the potatoes.

It was a fabulous day! :-)

Garlic & Thyme Baked Potatoes

Yummy!!!!! The hubby couldn't get enough of these fabulous potatoes. They are so simple to make and absolutely delicious so I will be a doll and pass the recipe on to you :-) You're welcome!

Here goes...
Ingredients

4 medium potatoes
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 level teaspoon salt
1 heaped teaspoon dried thyme leaves
4 tablespoons sunflower oil

1)Peel and wash potatoes then slice them sideways. Dry them with a clean cloth.

2) Mix garlic, white pepper, salt, thyme and oil in a small dish.

3) Pre-heat oven to 180C.
4) Rub oily mixture onto the sliced potatoes one by one.
5) Place them on a baking tray and put in the oven.

 6) Bake for 10 minutes and then turn over for another 10 to 15 minutes or until tender and they're ready. (If you want them to be crispy then you can leave them in the oven for another 10 minutes)

I was not sure if they'd be as tasty as I expected but my oh my! I was so pleased with the result!
My hubby gobbled his food down and went back for a second helping.

I hope you get to try it out. It's delicious.

Weekend recap

This is a good movie.

My husband and I bought it in September 2010 but we had not watched it. And quite frankly, I wasn't looking forward to it. But it surprised me! We watched it on Sunday while we were having lunch. Wonderful acting! Angelina Jolie did a wonderful job! I wonder if there really are people like that in the CIA... hmmmmm....

I got to see my babies too!!!!!!!! Oh I missed them soooooooooooooooooo much! And oh how they've grown. Here they are...

He has 2 teeth!!!!!!

Look at their sweet smiles!

On Saturday evening, we went to see my godmother.

She lived in Uganda for over 40 years and worked as a Maths teacher before she retired. She drove my mum to the hospital while she was in labour with me. During that time, the current government had just taken over power and there were road-blocks everywhere. You could only get past the road-block if you had a green sticker on your car. She did not have one. But she put my parents in the car and made sure she got through all the road-blocks till she got to the hospital. She sends me a Christmas gift every year - it doesn't matter in which month I get it but I get it anyway. I admire her a great deal. Her love for the Lord brought her all the way to Uganda, away from her family and friends, for 40 years, to spread the gospel and to touch the lives of her students. A real inspiration.

And of course, I cooked :-) At my husband's request, I made pilau. Pilau is a rice dish cooked with meat and spices. I did not use meat but the spices are the most important thing in this dish. Here the ingeredients:

• White rice
• Onions
• Pilau Masala
• Hot Water
• Salt
• Oil (vegetable, sunflower or olive - you decide)

*I did not put any measurements because it is all relative. It's just rice - with a twist :-)

Chop up the onion and fry it on medium heat. 

 Fry until the onion begins to get burnt. Seriously. This will hep give the pilau it's brown colour.

 Add pilau masala. This gives the pilau it's unique flavour. don't put too much though otherwise it will make the rice bitter.

 Add the rice and fry for a bit.

 Add a double portion of hot water and cook normally. I put mine in the rice cooker. The water should look brown once you put it in.

 All done :-)

 My husband made the passion fruit juice as usual and demanded that he has his picture taken too :-)

Have a lovely week!!!!

'Creamy' chicken - yum!!

A friend of mine taught me how to make this a few years ago. He came up with it right there and I was glad I witnessed it because he couldn't remember how to make it the next day!!!! Hahahaha! I've decided to call it creamy chicken because it has a lot of cream.

I'm not good at measurements but I tried to take some this time so here goes:

• 250g chicken fillet/ 2 chicken breast fillet(s?????) (How on earth do we measure fillet????.....
• I pack of Streaky bacon (use as much bacon as you want...)
• 1 1/2 large green pepper
• 1 large onion 
• 2 carrots
• 250 ml fresh cream (you can use more depending on how much you want to make - maximum 500 ml)

* You can use some more vegetables you like but they have to be vegetables that you don't have to cook for too long before they are ready to eat. For example; red pepper, yellow pepper.

Marinade

• 3 tbsp powder garlic
• 2 tspn basil
• 1 tbspn ground coriander
• 1 tbsp ground mixed spices
• 1/2 tspn white pepper
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• Soy sauce
• BBQ sauce 
• Worcesteshire sauce 
• Dry red wine
• Salt (a pinch or two - the soy sauce has enough salt most time so be careful)

*I did not measure the liquids. I usually just estimate and you can meausure each according to your taste. Same goes for the spices - if you want more basil go ahead. There are no rules :)

1) Marinate the chicken fillet overnight
2) Cut the chicken into bite sizes (remember that it will shrink when cooked)

 3) Fry the chicken in a non stick pan on medium heat while you chop up the vegetables. Turn it over when it turns brown.

4) Fry the bacon in the same pan to give the bacon some of the flavour from the marinade. Then chop it up.

5) Do not drain the oil from the pan. Increase the heat to maximum. Stir fry the onions, green pepper and carrots. Season with a little salt and black pepper.

6) Add the chicken and bacon.

7) Add the cream and turn off the heat. Stir the cream in.

That's it!!!! Whew! I've never ever written a whole recipe with measurements before (applause) thank you, thank you... heehee!
It's a yummy dish. The vegetables are crunchy and the chicken is tasty. The cream gives it a cheesy, creamy taste. I hope you'll try it out. It's good with boiled rice.

As usual, my hubby made the drinks - passion fruit juice and banana smoothie (the bananas are from the farm :-))

And he helped me do the dishes!!!!! Isn't he sweet?

I made grilled chicken and grilled plantain too.

I really enjoyed this meal. And there was some left over- yum!!!

The eve of Christmas eve recap...

Hi everyone! I feel bad that I was not able to wish you all a merry Christmas but it's the thought that counts right? The internet was really crappy since we were way out of town but I hope you all had a lovely Christmas with your families and you're looking forward to the new year.

On the 23rd we had a full house. My family came over to visit so that they could spend some time with us before we went away for Christmas. My brothers were with us the whole day and my parents joined us in the afternoon. My sister-in-law surprised us too and came to visit with her two kids. Yes, we had a very full house!!!! But it was fun. Take a look at some photos...

Benjy, smile for the camera :)

Food!!! I made chapati (I will post that recipe once I have the correct measurements), rice, minced beef stew and some strange concoction of pasta, minced beef and mozarella cheese - yummy!

Matthew and my sister-in-law

My nephew munching away

My niece

I made brownies for some afternoon tea. I found the recipe here and since I'm not much of a baker I was really hoping it was easy and it was!!!!!!! They turned out great!

My brother, Paul helped me out a little

The brownies ready to go in the oven

Mummy!!!!!!

Daddy!!!! And Matthew

The brownies baking...

All done...

Yum!!!

Two of my favourite guys!!!!!

Brownies and vanilla ice cream

Singing...

'Come on Matthew - SMILE!'

L-R - Hubby, me, Paul, Matthew, Nendel (a friend of the family), Mummy and Benjy

Another photo with Daddy :)

 Christmas weekend recap coming soon!!!!!