A week ago, I stumbled upon a package store in the small town I live in, that carries Amarula. I was so giddy I almost broke out into spontaneous dance right there in the aisle! For those of you who don't know, Amarula is Africa's answer to Bailey's Irish Cream. It is made from the fruit of the Marula, or "Elephant" tree and is distilled in South Africa. Besides crude oil, this stuff is Africa's liquid gold. I hardly ever drink liqueur, but this bottle I knew I had to get. I had plans for it. Plans that involved brownies, chocolate and whipping cream. Do I have your attention yet? Yes, I was going to use it to make a dessert! So a trip to the grocery store two days later, and I had all I needed to make a decadent bread pudding that was divine. Not overly sweet, yet very comforting to the palate. The warm Amarula cream sauce that I drizzled over it dressed it up beautifully! So let my creation take your taste buds on a culinary safari-no passport or visa required. Don't forget to pack your appetite. Enjoy the ride :-) PS: WILL NOT GET YOU DRUNK-THE ALCOHOL IN THE AMARULA COOKS OFF DURING COOKING ;-) SERVING SIZE: Feeds 8 sufficiently EQUIPMENT:-9x13 inch oven-safe baking dish that has been buttered. -3 mixing bowls (one medium, one small and one large). -Whisk. -Sifter (sieve). -Cutting board and serrated knife (to cube your bread) -Small cooking pot. -Aluminium foil.
INGREDIENTS FOR PUDDING: -1 loaf stale French bread, cubed (I bought mine and let it sit in it's package for 3 days at room temp. You want it dry, but not moldy. The drier your bread, the better it will absorb the pudding). -6 Oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 cup). I used Ghiardelli brand. -1 heaped teaspoon of instant espresso coffee powder brewed in 1 cup of water and cooled. -1 cup granulated sugar. -1/2 cup light brown sugar. -1/4 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder. -1 teaspoon ground cardamom. -1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. -1/4 teaspoon salt (I use Kosher salt). -1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (for pudding). -2 cups heavy whipping cream. -1 cup evaporated milk (I used carnation brand. Please do not use sweetened condensed milk). -1/2 cup Amarula cream liqueur. -5 large eggs, lightly beaten. -2 fudge brownie squares broken into small pieces (optional).
INGREDIENTS FOR THE AMARULA CREAM SAUCE: -1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (for cream sauce) -1 7 Oz. can of table cream (I used Nestle brand. You can find this in the international aisle of the grocery store in the Hispanic food section). -1 1/2 tablespoons of Amarula cream liqueur. -2 tablespoons of granulated sugar.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE BREAD PUDDING: -Begin by preparing your baking dish by applying butter to the inside to prevent your pudding from sticking. Place the cubed bread and distribute the chocolate chips evenly in the bowl and set aside. I had made fudge brownies the day before and thought they would make a great addition to the bread pudding. I broke two brownie squares and added them in with the bread and chocolate chips (I'm glad I did!). This is an optional step.
-In the big mixing bowl, combine the evaporated milk, cooled espresso, whipping cream and Amarula. Whisk together well.
-In the medium mixing bowl, combine the sifted cocoa powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix well. -Combine the wet and dry ingredients and whisk well to combine.
-In the small bowl, combine the eggs and 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract and whisk well. Add the eggs/vanilla to the rest of wet/dry ingredients and mix well to form a custard.
-Pour the custard over the bread and chocolate in the baking dish. Turn the pieces of bread around in the baking dish gently to ensure that they are well coated with the pudding. use a spatula to press down the bread in the baking pan.
-Cover the bread/ pudding mixture with aluminium foil and put it in the refrigerator for at least one hour so that the bread absorbs the custard (I let mine sit for 3 hours).
***PREHEAT YOUR OVEN TO 325 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT AFTER THE PUDDING HAS SAT FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR***
-With the aluminium foil still on the baking dish, place it in the middle rack of the oven and let it bake for 45mins-1 hour until a knife or toothpick inserted in the middle of the pudding comes out clean, and not wet (I let mine bake for 1 hour). In the last 15 minutes of baking, remove the aluminium foil from the baking dish and let the pudding cook uncovered. Once it's done cooking, remove the bread pudding from the oven and let it sit for 10 mins before you eat it. It will be hot.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE AMARULA CREAM SAUCE: -In the small cooking pot, combine all the ingredients for your Amarula cream sauce and let simmer on medium-low heat on the stove for 10-15 minutes as your bread pudding cools. Stir occasionally. -Once your Amarula cream sauce is done cooking, serve in individual bowls and drizzle the hot cream sauce over the bread pudding. Close your eyes and let your senses indulge. Mmmm! Here's a South African music video from one of my favorite groups to help complete the experience :-)
Being a Kenyan, the love of tea is in my DNA. Like my mother likes to point out, any time is tea time. So this week on a particularly cold afternoon, I was sipping on a cup of masala chai (spiced tea), and I had an epiphany! If it tastes this good when I drink it, I wonder what it would do to my food if I cooked with it. Well, maybe not exactly "cook" with it, but marinate my food in it. The only way to find the answer was to try it out. And experiment I did. Well, I am here to tell you that the results were awesome and the recipe is a keeper. There were no leftovers and that was all the confirmation I needed that my little experiment had worked. Sometimes you have to think (and eat) outside the box. Do I always know if my little experiments in the kitchen will work? No. Do I not fear ruining perfectly good food? Yes. But there's no fun in living if you're not willing to step out on a limb sometimes. Life will be the same ol' same ol' if you don't try new things. So here's the recipe...live a little :-)
SERVING SIZE: 5-6 EQUIPMENT: -Medium cooking pot with a lid. -Cutting board. -Knife. -Cooking spoon. -Medium bowl with lid. -Cling foil if you don't have a bowl with a lid. -Sieve/strainer.
INGREDIENTS: -1 cup of water (for making the chai). -1 teabag. -3 pods of green cardamom (bruised). -3 whole cloves. -1 stick of cinnamon bark. -2 peppercorns -1 inch ginger root (peeled and thinly sliced). -Three skinless, boneless chicken breasts, washed and cubed to bite-size pieces. -1 teaspoon curry powder. -1 teaspoon red pepper flakes. -1/4 teaspoon turmeric. -1/2 teaspoon ground cumin. -1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper. -1/4 teaspoon paprika. -1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves. -1 teaspoon salt (I use kosher). -2 tablespoons of cooking oil (I use Canola). -1 small onion, finely diced. -1 teaspoon garlic paste or 3 cloves of garlic, minced. -1 teaspoon ginger paste (can be found in produce section of grocery store). -3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (you can buy at the grocery store or make your own). -1 cup water (for cooking chicken). INSTRUCTIONS: -In a microwave safe cup, place the teabag, water, cinnamon bark, cardamom pods, cloves, peppercorns and ginger and heat for 2 minutes. You can also do this on the stove on medium heat until the tea comes to a boil. Set aside and let the whole spices steep in the tea as the tea cools down.
-Once the tea has cooled down, run it through a strainer to remove the whole spices and tea bags. Discard these (you only want the tea). -Place the chicken in a medium bowl and pour the cooled, strained tea into the bowl. Cover the bowl with a lid or cling foil and allow to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour (I let mine sit for 3 hours).
-After it has had time to marinate, remove the chicken from the refrigerator and drain out all the liquid marinade. Set the chicken aside. -On medium heat, heat the cooking oil in your pot and add the onions. Stir frequently until they become translucent.
-At this point, add the garlic and ginger paste and stir (you want your garlic to look golden, not uncooked-yuck!) -Add your chicken pieces to the pot and stir until the chicken does not have a pink appearance. -Now add the turmeric and stir. Let it cook for 2 minutes. -Add all the other spices and stir. If it appears to be getting stuck to the bottom of the pan, add 1/4 cup of water, stir and continue cooking.
-Add the peanut butter and stir to make sure it coats all the chicken.
-Now add the cup of water and stir. Cover the pot with it's lid, reduce the heat slightly and allow the chicken to simmer for 25-30mins. -Check back frequently to ensure that the sauce does not all evaporate. You want there to be some sauce, but a nice thick sauce and not too much of it.
-After 25-30mins, your stew should be ready to serve. Delicious! I served mine with some potato and cumin rice, accompanied with lots of vegetables. Karibu (welcome)!
I played with my food today. I had cooked some spicy chicken stew and I needed a rice dish to go with it. I had some basmati rice and knew that I wanted to cook the rice in a way I never had before. So I set to work. Going through my pantry, the first thing that caught my eye was a bag of golden raisins. I decided to build the rice dish around this. Since the chicken that the rice would accompany was spicy, I decided to make the rice dish subtly sweet for the sake of balance. And I came up with a rice dish my whole family enjoyed. Needless to say, there was no leftovers :-) The recipe follows: SERVING SIZE: Feeds 6-8 people. SPECIAL EQUIPMENT: -Medium sized pot. -Cooking spoon. -Oven-safe deep dish. INGREDIENTS: -1 cup basmati rice (washed several times until the water runs clear, and soaked for 10minutes before you begin to cook). -2 tablespoon cooking oil (I use Canola). -1/2 of a star anise (a star-shaped cooking spice used in Chinese cuisine. Readily found in the international section of the grocery store. See picture below). -4 inch cinnamon bark. -2 whole cloves. -2 pods of green cardamom (can be found online or at any Indian grocery store). -1/4 cup golden raisins. -1/4 teaspoon salt (I use Kosher). -4 tablespoons brown sugar. -1/4 teaspoon yellow food coloring. -2 1/2 cups hot water (to cook the rice).
INSTRUCTIONS: -In the saucepan on medium heat, add the oil and whole spices. Stir the spices in the pot occasionally (The objective is to infuse the oil with the flavors of the spices).
-Once the spices start to splutter in the oil, it is time to remove all of them except the cinnamon bark. -Now add the brown sugar and salt. Stir.
-Drain the rice and add it to the pot. Add the raisins as well. Gently stir and coat the rice/raisins with the oil/sugar mixture.Let cook for 2-3 minutes. Make sure to stir gently so that the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pot. -Now add the hot water.
-Add the food coloring and gently stir. -Reduce heat slightly, cover the pot and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.
-Check back after 15 minutes to see if the rice is still hard. If it is, add 1/4 cup hot water to the pot and cover again. ***AT THIS POINT, PRE-HEAT YOUR OVEN TO 250 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT *** -Cook until here is very little water left in the pot and the rice is done. -Gently transfer your cooked rice to the oven-safe dish and insert into the oven on the middle rack. Allow the rice to "dry" uncovered for 8 minutes. -Your rice is now ready to serve. Remember to pull out the cinnamon bark prior to serving your rice. It's purpose is to add aroma to your rice. Your rice should be fluffy, aromatic and subtly sweet. Enjoy!
This has got to be the longest January on record. At least it feels like it to me. The temperatures in my home state have been all over the place. One day the temperatures are in the low 30's and raining zoo animals, and the next it's in the mid 70"s. Even the poor trees are confused! As I type, I am looking out my kitchen window at the tree in front of my house. The poor thing is budding! That's normally a sign that Spring is in the air. That is music to my ears being that I am not a cold weather type of gal. But until Spring comes around, I will bear the Winter cold and rain. I, however, will make the most of it by cooking up something to comfort my Winter blues whenever I get a chance. This Saturday I made some masala tea and mandazis to chase away my Winter blues. The aromatic smell of the mandazis and masala chai took me back to growing up in Kenya. I would wake up on many Saturday's to the smell of my mother's fresh mandazis wefting into my room. That was my cue to wake up :-) Somehow, this always seemed to brighten my day, no matter the weather outside. Fast forward X years later, those mandazis still have the same effect.
What exactly is a Mandazi, you might ask? A mandazi if a form of fried dough that originated in East Africa in the Swahili coastal areas of Kenya and Tanzania. It is popular in the region as it is affordable and convenient to make. There are many types of mandazis in East Africa. The one whose recipe follows has a bit of a crunchy exterior and an almost cake-like, fluffy interior (that is why it is referred to as a half-cake mandazi). You can eat your mandazis by themselves as a snack, or you can enjoy them with some fruit juice or masala chai. Whichever way you opt to enjoy them, they are delicious but not cloyingly sweet. SERVING SIZE: Makes around 25 small mandazis. SPECIAL EQUIPMENT: -Wok or any deep pan for frying. -Measuring cups. -Measuring spoons. -Rolling pin. -Mixing bowl. -Sifter. -Knife or cookie cutter of your choice. -Paper towels & a colander (to drain any excess oil off of the cooked mandazi). -Paper bag (I used a paper lunch bag).
INGREDIENTS: -2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. -3/4- 1 cup granulated sugar, depending on how sweet you want the mandazis (I used 3/4 cup). -2 teaspoons baking powder (not baking soda). -1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. -1 teaspoon ground ginger. -1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom. -1/4 teaspoon yellow food coloring (optional). -1/4 teaspoon salt (I used Kosher). -Grated fresh nutmeg (about 1/4 teaspoon). -1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract. -1 large egg at room temperature, slightly beaten. -1 cup milk. -4 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cubed. -1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (for garnishing). -1 tablespoon powdered/ icing/ confectioner's sugar (for garnishing). -4 cups vegetable oil for frying (I used Canola). -Medium bowl with 1/2 cup all purpose flour in it (for dusting your work surface). -Slightly floured baking sheet (to place the cut out mandazis before frying) INSTRUCTIONS: -In a mixing bowl, sift all the dry ingredients-flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, food coloring, salt & nutmeg. -Add the cubed butter into the mixing bowl, combining it with your fingers until you achieve a fine crumb. -Create a well in the middle of the flour and add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix well. -Add the milk, a little at a time and mix well until everything in the bowl is well combined. The dough should be soft and pliable, but should not stick to your clean hands. -Form the dough into a ball, place in a container with a lid and cover. Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes.
**AT THIS POINT, HEAT UP YOUR OIL IN YOUR WOK/FRYING PAN ON MEDIUM HEAT*** -After 30 minutes, lightly flour your working surface and place the ball of dough onto the floured surface. Shape it into a disc. -Lightly flour your rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking to it. -Use the rolling pin to spread the disc to a sheet of dough of about 1/4 inch thickness. -Dip your cookie cutters in the medium bowl with flour in it, to prevent them from sticking to the rolled out dough. -Now use your cookie cutter to cut out shapes on the sheet of dough. Place these cut-out shapes on the floured baking sheet. Gather the scraps of dough into a ball and re-roll and cut shapes out of this. Repeat until all the dough is used up. -To test your oil for readiness, use a small scrap of dough and drop it into the oil. The dough should stay at the bottom of the pan for at least a minute before rising up. If the dough comes up immediately you drop it into the hot oil, the oil is too hot. In which case the outside of your mandazi will cook, but the inside will be doughy (yuck!). On the other hand, if your oil is not hot enough, the mandazi will absorb a lot of oil as they will sit at the bottom of the pan for too long before rising (yuck!). You want your oil to be just right. -Once you have confirmed that your oil is ready, gently drop the shaped dough into the pan one at a time. Place the mandazi in the oil AWAY from you. This will prevent the oil from splattering on you and burning you. Do not overcrowd your pan. Six mandazis cooking in the pan at a time is ideal.
-The mandazis should cook for at least 4 minutes on each side. Once they have a nice golden brown color, use your strainer to remove them from the oil, and transfer them to the lines colander to drain excess oil. Repeat this until all the mandazis are cooked. -In a paper bag, add 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of confectioners/powdered sugar. Shake the bag lightly to combine the sugar and cinnamon. -While still hot, place 6-8 mandazis in the paper bag, close the opening and shake the contents vigorously to coat the mandazis. Repeat this until all the mandazis are coated (you might have to add more confectioner's sugar and cinnamon). Alternatively, you can give the mandazis a slight dusting of just confectioner's sugar or eat them as is. The choice is up to you. Either way, they are delicious. Enjoy!
