Category: Main (Page 10 of 13)

Meatball Tikka Masala

September 22, 2015 / Kaluhi / 39 Comments

I had been thinking about tikka recipes sometime back and I came to the realization that nearly anything can be made into a tikka…Any meat that is! These meatball tikka masala were totally experimental. My dad suggested we make meatballs coz we had not had them for quite some time so I chose that time to try this out. I was so afraid I would mess up not only because I have not tried this recipe before, but also because I was making a large quantity. Nothing hurts more than making a lot of bad food. Ya relate?

But I thank God for whispering in my ear and heart how exactly I should go about it. These meatball tikka masala were a hit with my family. Spicy, juicy and delectable. #MUSTTRY for sure!

Raisin and carrots fried rice

September 18, 2015 / Kaluhi / 15 Comments

Besides sharing make-up secrets, brain-storming on business ideas and combing through our latest fashion finds, among the things my sisters and I enjoy doing are exchanging recipes. Be it from a good meal one of us ate at someone’else’s home or from a recipe we saw on TV, if it is makeable, we always share it.

This recipe was inspired by my eldest sister, Cheredi after she returned home from her friend’s place with a certain book that had the best cooking secrets. The recipe I read had several ingredients which I did not have at hand. This called for creativity on my part and in the process, this baby was born. Its fast, super easy and in the usual KK fashion, very delicious.

Wali Wa Nazi With Whole Cumin Seeds

September 15, 2015 / Kaluhi / 12 Comments

I made this at the spur of the moment after my youngest sister’s complaints that she needs to eat unique delicious food before she returned to college for the beginning of the next semester. LOL There were plenty of accompaniment dishes in the fridge but no main so I decided to play around with a recipe I have been thinking about for some time now. My wali wa nazi turned out great! My other sister’s boyfriend, Kipngetich, was also around during this day and was able to join us for lunch. He loved it.

Wali wa nazi simply means coconut rice. It is a coastal favorite and I decided to add my own twist to it. If my picky little sister enjoyed this, then you, without doubt, shall too :)).

Fish Fingers with Avocado Tartar Sauce

September 4, 2015 / Kaluhi / 14 Comments

One of my favorite humans in this world is my sweet friend Nasimiyu. She is seriously genuinely sweet and always a pleasure to hang around. Whenever we meet for lunch, I always let her decide where we are going to eat. She always seems to know the best places to have a good meal. She is more conversant with great places to eat out than I am. And nothing beats girly musings, mischievous giggles and hearty laughs over a good meal. One of the places she introduced me in 2009 was an eatery that had the best fish fingers ever. I have forgotten it’s name, but never how good those fingers were! Being fresh from boarding school, that was as close to heaven as my tongue could get. I decided to create fish fingers at home but of course with a #KK twist. You will totally love this!

Chicken Tikka Masala

September 1, 2015 / Kaluhi / 14 Comments

Nothing beats a good chicken recipe. And like all other meats, there are several ways of making the same dish. I asked sometime back on Instagram what you, my readers would like to see for the month of September. One of my followers requested more chicken recipes and I remembered I wanted to share a tikka recipe for the longest time. I couldn’t think of a better recipe to kick off September.

Chicken Tikka Masala is a crowd pleaser. It is one of those things if on a buffet, will be the first to be cleared. It is spicy but not in a repulsive way. And because it is chicken it will always be delicious. You will enjoy this just as much as my sisters and I did.

Steamed Carrots and Broccoli with Chili Caramel

August 28, 2015 / Kaluhi / 6 Comments

My mom received some broccoli from one of our neighbors who seemed to have plenty. Because the batch she took never seemed to get finished, this has forced me to be quite creative with it and in the process created some phenomenal recipes. I have totally come to love this vegetable which has so much nutritional benefit.

I was perusing through some of my old Yummy Magazine and I came across a recipe for brussel sprouts. It seemed easy enough to make. Because I did not have brussel sprouts or white miso, I decided to modify the recipe and use broccoli instead. I threw in some carrots and it was even better. The steamed veggies absorbed the chili caramel so well. This sounds so sophisticated, but read through and see how easy it is.

Today being my birthday, this recipe is my gift to you. Allow me to charm your Friday with a recipe I loved so much. :))

Onion and Lime Guacamole

August 21, 2015 / Kaluhi / 2 Comments

There are certain things you know will always upgrade any meal, and Guacamole is one of them. Whether in small bits of huge amounts, guac will always add some excitment to your food. Want to add flavor to your githeri? Guacamole will save the day. Want something to accompany your ugali and nyamachoma? Guac is here for you. Or maybe you want to add something creamy to add to your bhajia…no need to go any further than guacamole. Perhaps you would like something creamy to temper the spice of your chicken wrap..You guessed it! Guacamole is the answer.

In addition to being so easy to make, guacamole is very very healthy. And when you have healthy and tasty in one package, its a win!

Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple Salsa

August 18, 2015 / Kaluhi / 42 Comments

Have you ever made a meal and it turned out so hideous that you are afraid to eat it even if you made it yourself? I know in one way or another you can relate. I had attempted to make a certain pork recipe I found on Daily Mail as it was. It looked good, but when I read through I didn’t quite feel it was right. I tried it nonetheless and developed a disaster of the millenium. LOL!

I decided to try again, but this time with a recipe iI myself developed. Not to brag but, my pork recipe was phenomenal. Sometimes it is just better to trust your gut (see what I did there ;)) and cook how you feel best. Knowing that pork goes so well with sweet flavors, I decided to play this characteristic up and made a really delicious sweet and sour sauce and a pineapple salsa to accompany it. Ready for something super delicious and super easy? Try my sweet and sour pork.

Creamed Garlic Kunde

August 14, 2015 / Kaluhi / 27 Comments

“You must always accompany each meal with some veggies, girls!” Mum would tell us over the dinner table as she watched us serve. As I looked at mum, towering over me and heaping veggies on my plate,the then six year old me never saw the importance. I took the plate, but as soon as she turned her back, I returned a huge chunk back to the serving dish. Years later, I got to appreciate all the veggies mum makes at home, particullarly traditional veggies. In high school, all we had were cabbage and kale. This made me miss all the wholesome, wide variety and bountiful flavor traditional veggies offer. Nowadays, I eat traditional veggies 99% of the time. They are actually very much easily available in the city if you are just observant enough. Today, savor my creamed garlic kunde, a recipe from my mama bear :))

Broccoli and Garlic Penne Stir Fry

August 11, 2015 / Kaluhi / 4 Comments

I get inspiration for my dishes from an aray of sources. One of them being the cooking shows on food network. My current favorites are Pioneer Woman, Siba’s Table, Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, Food Network Star, Chopped and Grandma’s Cookbook. Do you guys watch these too?? This dish was however inspired by Buddy Valastro of Kitchen Boss. I like his recipes because they do not take too long, neither are they too complicated which makes them relatable to me and million others. He likes Italian flavors, as his roots are Italian and incorporates them so well in his cooking.

His recipe used mushroms and macaroni. But I decided to use broccoli and penne pasta. It was outstandingly good. You know those meals you eat so fast because they are so good? This is one of them!

Broccoli and Pea Cabbage Stir Fry

July 17, 2015 / Kaluhi / 10 Comments

We all have those meals we just do not feel drawn to, for no particular reason. I am not a big fan of cabbage, unless it is cooked in a certain specific way. It takes a short time to cook, and that makes it very easy to over cook. Alot of the times I have had it in various places in Nairobi, it is overcooked. And where there is a problem, that is a chance for you to step in and make that dish to be fantastic. That makes cooking exciting.

Cabbage is a very healthy vegetable and I like adding more character to it to make it more wholesome. Today’s cabbage stir fry is one my mom developed. I did not change/add anything because I felt it was just perfect as mom made it. I liked it so much and decided to share the recipe with you. I have a feeling you will like it just as much 🙂

Pan Fried Fish with Sweet and Sour Ukwaju Sauce

July 14, 2015 / Kaluhi / 36 Comments

It was 1999 and me and my best friend Ngina were playing outside. Her cousin,Shena, had just come back from the coast and ofcourse, with plenty of goodies. One of the things she brought were ukwaju (tamarind). To us they looked like dates. And if they looked like dates, and felt like dates, then they had to taste like dates…How wrong we were. After puting a handful into our mouths, it was not long before we spat them out. They were so sour. So much so that our tongues kept zinging. LOL. I vowed never to eat sour ukwaju ever again, and wondered why people even liked them.

Now, older and wiser, I have learnt how to use this sour ingredient. After my eldest sister brought them home after some days at the coast, I decided to give it a try. This totally paid off!

Peppery Hot dog with Lemon and Garlic Plain Yoghurt Sauce

July 10, 2015 / Kaluhi / 10 Comments

Let’s be honest for a second… the whole world loves hot dogs. Or at least in my head, the whole world does. Perfect snack. And depending on what you add to them, you can get all food groups into your hot dog. There are so many ways to have your hot dog. And that gets me excited since it awakens my creative power.

I decided to make my hot dog with the frankfurter sauteed with green bell peppers until they are crispy. I also decided to replace the mustard with a tangy lemon and garlic plain yoghurt sauce. So for my 100th post, savor on this brilliant and delicious beauty.

Garlicky French Beans and Carrots

July 3, 2015 / Kaluhi / 21 Comments

This is one of the most common dishes in Kenya. For me, I like it as an alternative to cabbage, which I am not a big fan of. Also known as green beans or sting beans by different people around the globe, they are still as good by by other name. They are also very very healthy. There are many ways to cook french beans and carrots but here is my take on them. I like mine alot more savory and rich that is why I have them with plenty of garlic. Garlicky is not a word but today it is. If you are looking for an alternative to your usual veggies or a substitute to those you do not like, today is your lucky day!

Pea and Potato Stew

June 30, 2015 / Kaluhi / 38 Comments

Potato stew is rather common in Kenya. Probablly because you can throw in various ingredients and having them cook all at once. This saves plenty of time. Unfortunately for most, this meal falls short of flavor. But in our home, we have found a way to have this taste great all the time. After years of tweaking my mum’s recipe, we finally settled on the best potato stew.

I shared this picture on Instagram and Face book a while back and it received quite a nice reception. I decided to share our family recipe today and I know you will like it. Regardless of what you make, no matter how basic, never ever compromise on how it tastes and looks. For today: Pea and Potato Stew

Potato Salad

June 23, 2015 / Kaluhi / 8 Comments

Among the shows I am always glued to are cooking shows. Recently I have been watching Pioneer Woman which is quite new on food network. It is one of my favorites these days. The host, Ree Drummond, makes her recipes so easy and do-able and I guess that is why I gravitated towards her since it is the same thing Ii try to achieve with my blog. I liked her warm aura too and her show immediately from the very first episode. Plus she lives a life that I hope to mirror one day: She is family oriented, she loves to cook and does it damn well, she lives on a ranch (I want to live on a ranch too :)), and she is so graceful.

Todays recipe was inspired by her. She made this pea salad and I decided to put my own twist to her recipe using ingredients I have at hand and ended up with a potato salad. And it was fantastic! Thank you Ree Drummond 🙂

While we enjoy some sunshine before the July iciness, this you have to try this out guys!

Spicy Beer Beef Stew

June 16, 2015 / Kaluhi / 24 Comments

I am not much of an alcoholic drink drinker. But one of the things I enjoy doing is cooking with some alchohol. During the coking process, much of the alcohol burns off and the food remains with just the taste and depth of that particular drink. I have seen time and time again people making their beef stews with beer and I was slightly taken aback as to why it was so popular. This was until I tried it myself. And all I can say is, the beer+beef combination is a match made in heaven. This author agrees too! I am always for trying out new things and pushing myself beyond what I am used to. And this really paid off. This beer beef stew is the perfect comfort food. I really cannot put in words how good this is. You just have to try it for your self.

Chili and Ginger Githeri

June 9, 2015 / Kaluhi / 19 Comments

I am one of those people who can never EVER miss githeri when it is cooked. It’s almost an obsession. Ask my sisters, I absolutely love githeri. When I tell this to people, I get that look as though I just said I love eating kittens, live ones, in a graveyard, while chanting sacrilegious hymns of an extinct tribe . This may be because majority are yet to have that deliciously celestial githeri-eating experience. But I will give you one..

One of my earliest recipes on this blog was that of githeri, where I prepared it with coconut cream and curry which brought our its softer elements. You can get that recipe here. This time, I am using stronger flavors of chilli and ginger which brings out its more savory side. There is more than one way of preparing anything. And that is what makes cooking very exciting and a constant adventure. Do not allow your self to cook one meal the exact same way for all the days of your life. You will be missing out!

To warm you up as days get colder: Chilli and Ginger Githeri

Cayenne and Red Onion Nyama Choma Dry-fry

June 2, 2015 / Kaluhi / 9 Comments

In my country it is almost an abomination to throw away left overs of any meal. In the Kenyan spirit of resourcefulness, all meals that are left over from the current meal are set aside to be eaten as part of or for the next meal. Wastefulness is totally discouraged in our culture. And I believe that is a totally fantastic thing.

But lets be honest, at times having left-overs over and over can sometimes be monotonous. Hence it is always advisable to change things up and add new flavors to and transform an already awesome meal. Following the Madaraka day celebrations, we had some left over nyama-choma. To make this richer and tastier, we usually turn this into a dry fry. The process of frying it tenderizes the meat further but it still retains that smokey flavor. The onions and the chilli enhance the flavor of the nyama choma meat so well. It is soo good, just typing this made me salivate.

Grilled Cheese Chicken Sandwich

May 29, 2015 / Kaluhi / 6 Comments

Have you ever tried out a new recipe with so much excitement but it turned out way below average? That happens to me too sometimes. I was so excited to make some crunchy drumsticks sometime back but they were not as good as I anticipated. My first and most honest critics, my family ,thought they really could have tasted better. And I agreed. Even though they looked really good, they were grossly under-seasoned. I could not bring myself to post a recipe that I myself don’t stand confidently by. Quality of content trumps quantity of content any day.

So the next day, I decided to use the left overs from the remaining drumsticks and make something else. I decided to make grilled cheese chicken sandwich which was so indulgent and so so sooo perfect. This brought back my confidence after that no-so-good drumstick kitchen experience. And this was one of the tastiest recreation of left overs I have made to date!

I encourage you too to try new things. You will fail…numerous times, just as I do. But do not run away from the kitchen forever. Take it as a learning experience and up your game each time. You will become even better as a result 🙂