Mandazi

Morning guys! I've had an on and off relationship with these little things. There are days I'll eat so many of this and there are times when just the sight of them makes me sick.
Mandazi is one of the types of snack that you can experiment with all ingredients known to man.
The only ingredient I have probably never added are stones...tihihi.
Onto serious matters. This was one of those lazy Sundays where you literally drag yourself around the house dreading Monday, so I did it real simple. I'll start by listing all the ingredients I have worked with before milk, eggs, sugar, strawberry essence, cinnamon, cardamon, dessicated coconut, lemon, cocoa, coconut milk, vanilla essence and more to come.

Note: The recipe for mahamri is the same as mandazi except for one thing though, we use Yeast and not baking powder for mahamri.

In this, I only used Flour, Baking powder, Milk, Cardamon powder, oil for frying. PS: If you use 'All purpose baking flour', you need to add baking powder but if you're using 'self raising flour',  there's no need to add baking powder as it already contains raising agents.

Method:Sieve the flour into a bowl, add baking powder and cardamon powder in a bowl and mix well. Next, slowly add warm milk in small quantities, remember you are not constructing a swimming pool. Knead the flour until you make soft but not sticky dough. Sticky dough will stick to your hands. Sometimes I do add some cooking oil to my dough. When done, cover the dough and let it sit for an hour or more. I use cling film or foil to cover my dough.

When ready to start cooking, make small balls from your dough and roll them to circular shapes. For those who make square rolled out dough, don't worry, no one will know they were not circular unlike chapos where you can spot a shapeless one from a mile away. Use a knife to cut your dough into your preferred shapes. I cut mine in fours.

* Keep in mind that if you roll out very thin dough, your mandazis will turn  out like biscuits or crisps. So let it have some body.

Next, heat oil in a deep pan. Note that very hot oil will only cook the outside and not the inside. To know whether the oil is hot enough, I usually dip a wooden cooking spoon into the oil; if bubbles form, then I know it is hot enough. But if you see your oil producing smoke, it is too hot, reduce the heat and let it cool for a minute or two. I said reduce, not turn off.

Put your dough into the oil carefully to avoid spilling or you'll be eating your mandazis from the hospital bed. You can put as many pieces your pan can hold.

Another point to keep in mind. If you put too much oil in your pan, it is going to spill from the pan and into the fire when you add your dough pieces. I've seen mini bonfires when that happens. I must admit it is a beautiful sight but it's not meant to happen like that. You could suffer from burns as bad as third degree.

Manadazis cook very fast so this is not the time to dash to the television to watch your favorite commercial ad. I prefer  mine just slightly browned which takes a few seconds. When one side is cooked, turn to the other side.

After they've cooked I cover them with a cloth to cool and later put them in a air tight container.


                   

Home made Ice Cream

Who doesn't love ice cream?! I would swim in it!! I would make it my second name!!
Home made ice cream is so cheap to make, you won't believe it. I already had the other ingredients so I only bought the eggs and the milk. That cost me Kshs. 69 only!I made enough to last me a couple of days.
Anyways, there are soooo many recipes for making ice cream. I used the easiest and fastest.
I rarely measure my ingredients; for no good reason really, I just find myself doing estimations. But I'm slowly learning to. But I did measure this.

What I used here is: All purpose home baking flour- 2 tbsp
                                 Sugar-1 cup (which I found too much for my sensitive tasting buds)
                                 Milk- 1/2 Litre
                                 Strawberry Essence - 1 tsp
                                 2 small Eggs

Start by heating the milk or boiling if it's not the pasteurized milk. The reason for this is so that you can use it to beat the eggs separately. The eggs are beaten in warm milk to avoid them from cooking when added to the other ingredients in the pan. We are not doing scrambled eggs here now are we?!

After you are done with the eggs, put the mixture aside and now work on the rest of the ingredients.
On low heat, in a thick based pan, mix the sugar and flour then add some milk slowly stirring to get a smooth paste. Add the egg/milk mixture and keep stirring THROUGHOUT your cooking to avoid formation of lumps. Yes I know, I was bored to my neck too.
I cooked mine for around 30 minutes on very low heat occasionally adding some milk when the mixture started to thicken. The reason I cooked it for that long was to ensure the flour cooked. Believe me, the last thing you want is uncooked flour taste in your mouth. Happened to me with the same recipe; I was too impatient to let it cook.

When almost done, add the strawberry essence, pour in a bowl, let it cool, cover your air tight bowl and put it in the freezer. Make sure to move away from the refrigerator and let it freeze in peace.Voila!

Tumbukiza

Yes, that's the name of this dish and no, I'm not the one who named it; I don't even know it's origin. To be precise, for all those numerous times that I cooked this, I didn't even know it had a name until someone mentioned it.
The advantage of this dish is that so  little effort and attention is required. I actually do get time to take a shower as it cooks mind you, I am those people who spend ages in the shower. In short, you can do your chores as this cooks without having to keep running to and fro the kitchen after every two minutes.
What is needed here is beef, potatoes, and veggies of your choice. In this, I put onions, beef, potatoes cut in half, carrots cut in half, green capsicum (green pepper/hoho) cut in fours, cabbages cut in fours (sometimes I alternate with whole spinach) and water or beef stock.
I will start with how I have seen other people cook this dish.  Most of them put everything in the cooking pan and cook on low heat until everything is cooked. I don't know about you but I tend to think that with this method, the potatoes might end up looking like mashed potatoes or the beef might not cook very well, but that's just my opinion.

Anyway, let's now go to my way. I start by putting the beef pieces in the cooking pan. Note that I have left out cooking oil; I don't add oil to this. Stir the beef pieces to prevent them from sticking in the pan and cover. Let them cook on low heat. I prefer starting with the beef so that it cooks evenly. Let it cook for like 10-15 minutes. You can add VERY LITTLE water to prevent it from burning as it cooks. Add the potatoes and cover. Don't stir. Again let them cook until they are just almost cooked. You can add some little water if the water from the beef has dried up. The level of the water can be half the level of what is cooking. I love my veggies crunchy, so when my potatoes are almost cooked is when I add some water for soup and the remaining ingredients and let them boil for 5-7 minutes on low heat.Serve!
This can be accompanied with ugali, chapati or good old loaf (my favorite).

Chips Masala (Fries)

I don't know about you guys, but the first time I saw Chips Masala, I thought this was a sky rocket kind of recipe but you can breathe easy, it's as easy as it gets. Being a lover of spicy food myself, I do find myself eating this a couple of times and the fact that it's so easy to cook almost makes it a staple food in my house. Okay, what you need for this are cooked fries (you can choose to buy or make your own), crushed tomatoes, tomato paste ( I add this for colour but you can use tomato ketchup as an alternative), sliced onions, crushed garlic, chilii powder, and chopped coriander leaves.

Start by frying the sliced onions in a frying until they slightly brown, add the crushed garlic, crushed ginger and stir for a while. Next, add the crushed tomatoes and cook on low heat for 5-10 minutes stirring occasionally. Once, the tomatoes are cooked, this is where I add the tomato paste, coriander  and chilli. Stir and add the cooked fries. Stir thoroughly but carefully to avoid breaking the fries and  turn off the heat. Let the contents sit for like ten or so minutes so that the paste and spices can set in. Serve hot and eat like the world is coming to and end.