Meat Stew

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef
2 1/2 Onions
12 small Tomatoes
2 cups Brown rice
1 cup of Cooking oil
1 large Potato
Handful String beans (12 -15)
3 small Carrots
8 hot green peppers (the larger type)
2 teaspoons of Curry
2 Bay leaves
4 clovesof Garlic
1" piece of Ginger
5 Cloves
a pinch of Anise
a pinch of dried Rosemary

Wash the meat, then cut it up into 2" cubes. Try and make them as even as possible, so that they cook evenly.

Blend the half onion, garlic, ginger, anise, rosemary and cloves until very smooth.

Pour over the meat. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, the 2 bay leaves and 1 maggi cube. Toss and make sure all pieces are covered well. Leave to marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. (you could alternatively leave in the fridge overnight).

Place the meat in a pot and steam until it is tender. Add water when it runs low in the pot.

Heat the cooking oil in a pan and fry the meat.

When it turns dark brown it is ready. Remove quickly so it doesn't burn. Fry in batches if necessary.

Pick and wash the rice. Cook as you would regular rice. If you are not sure, better err on the side of caution and use less water than you normally would and only add more, as you need it.

Blend the tomatoes and peppers.

Peel the Potato, scrape the carrots and remove strings from the beans.

Cut the string beans on a slant, about 1" long pieces. Cut the carrots to match the shape of the beans. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then add the carrots and boil for about 3 minutes then add the string beans and boil for and additional 1 minute. Pour off the Hot water, then run under cold water and drain in a colander.

Cube the potato into half inch cubes. If the are too small, the tend to break up in the stew. You want to still have chunks you can bite on.

Slice the 2 onions.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the cooking oil and fry the onions.

When they turn translucent, add the curry and fry until the edges begin to brown.

Add the blended tomatoes.

Fry until almost sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Add the stock from the meat and simmer.

Add the pieces of fried meat,

and the cubed potatoes, plus 2 cups of water,  cover and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer down until the stew thickens and the potatoes are cooked.

Serve with the brown rice and steamed vegetable.

Veggie Eggs

Veggie Eggs

I have been trying to incoporate more vegetables in my meals, so when I fried some eggs a few days ago, I got all the vegetables I had and added them.  I didn't even think of adding it to the blog so I have no pictures of the process. The end result looked so good I just had to take a picture.

 
Ingredients:
4 Eggs
1 Onion
2 Tomatoes
1/4 Squash
5 cloves of Garlic
1 Green pepper
Cooking oil
Salt
Black pepper


Dice the vegetables into 1/2" cubes.

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and then transfer to a bigger bowl, one at a time. I learnt this the hard way.

One time I was about to fry some eggs and had cracked  5 of my six eggs all staright into my bowl and the six egg was bad, I had to throw out the whole mixture and then go out to buy some more eggs.

Heat a pan with 2 teaspoonfuls of oil. while the oil heats, add a pinch of salt and black pepper, and beat the eggs very well, till they are frothy. Rotate the pan to make sure the oil coats every part of it. Pour in the egg mixture and turn down the heat slightly. Flip the egg with a spatula when the underside begins to brown. Turn out onto a plate.

Add a teaspoon of oil to the still hot pan and toss in the vegetables. Stir-fry for a minute or two. Add a pinch of salt  and black pepper to taste.

Pour it out onto the eggs and enjoy!!!!



Dandelion Stew

 Dandelion Stew

Ingredients:

Dandelion (about 2 cups full when boiled and mashed)
1 pound ckicken (already steamed)
6 - 8 large tomatoes
2 onions
2 tablespoons cooking oil
10 -12 Kpakpo shito (hot green peppers)
1 cup chicken stock
1 Maggi cube
Salt

Start off by plucking the dandelion leaves off the main stalk, then washing them. Then boil them in about 2 cups of water until the leaves turn darker and are soft. I know it might be tricky to guage how much raw dandelion you will need .... but you can never have too much. If it is way more, just freeze the rest for another time.

 

Drain off the water and then in an Asanka (or mortar) mash the leaves into a pulp. Do not use the blender, it will make it too smooth. You want to have a bit of texture in your stew. Mash half the peppers into it.

Chop the tomatoes ...

... and the onions.

Heat up the cooking oil and start frying the onions. Fry them until they turn translucent.

 

Add the diced tomatoes and fry until dry and the tomatoes are soft. Dont let it burn, you do not want that bitter aftertaste in your stew.



 

 

 If your chicken/stock is already steamed but frozen like mine was, you might want to defrost and heat it before you use it, just so it doesn't affect your cooking time and speed.

 

Add the ckicken stock and let it simmer down a little.

Now add the dandelion ...

... as well as the rest of the peppers.

Put in the chicken, lower the heat. Check yoursalt and add the maggi cube and some salt if necessary. Simmer for about 5 - 7 minutes until it thickens

Enjoy this with Rice, Yam, Plantain etc