New Year's Day Lunch

I decided to let someone else do the cooking. It's my first week back in Rwanda and I decided to visit a familiar restaurant on New Year's Day. It's Bourbon Coffee. It's an African Coffee House and Restaurant. They sell the most delicious coffee. Their food is good too. There are two in the United States. My favorite is the one at the MTN Center in Nyarutarama (Kigali, Rwanda). The special for today was a spicy chicken cooked "grandmother style", which is slow cooked with vegetables. For a starter, it was accompanied with a leek and chicken soup with a fresh buttery role. The spicy chicken was served with basmati rice. It was great.

Chicken is not eaten often in Rwanda. Most people eat beef if they can afford it. Beef costs much less than chicken or fish, which seems strange to me, but it's normal here. I've yet to see a turkey, but when I do I'll let you know. Vegetables are in abundance and very cheap. Rice and beans is a staple meal here. It's commonly eaten alone, but I'm about to take the rice and beans to another level. This week I'll be doing the cooking and it will be all vegetarian.

Happy New Year!

A Bahamian Holiday

The month of December is a very exciting time in Nassau. There is more than enough food to eat. Every where you go there is someone offering you a bite to eat. It's only the 11th day of December and I already feel like I've gained a couple of pounds. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but as we would we say "I've been eating like food going out of style!"

Today I baked a spiral ham along with mushroom baked pollock, jasmine rice and steamed cabbage. We started with an apple, raisin and mixed nut salad drizzled with sweet balsamic vinaigrette. We washed that down with Bahamian fruit punch, which is really a Bahama Mama without the alcohol. The icing on the cake was chocolate cake with raspberry filling and vanilla ice cream. That's just today. Yesterday I attended a party and there was unlimited food and an open bar. Wow wee! Friday night, out for "real" Bahama Mamas while listening a fabulous band. Fish Fry was the night before with conch fritters, conch salad and sky juice. Like I said, the month has just started and I don't know how much more my jaws can take. There's more food and fun to come!

Pork? Noodles? In a soup!

As the temperature drops soup just sounds like something good to eat. Now I know it's not really cold here in the Bahamas, but it is cooler than it was in the summer. Yesterday I wanted to make chicken souse, but I didn't have any chicken. So I made a noodle soup with diced picnic pork shoulder. It was so good! Lucky for you I got a picture before we all dug in.

Pork Noodle Soup

Recipe:
2 tbs of vegetable oil
1/2 lb of diced picnic pork shoulder

1/4 cup of chopped onions

2 garlic cloves minced
1/4 cup of white wine
4 cups of water
3 tbs of lime juice
12 oz package of tri-color pasta
2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Season pork with salt and pepper. Heat saucepan and then add oil to hot pan. Add pork. Cook pork allowing it to brown lightly before turning on other side to brown. Once pork has browned on both sides add onions. Allow onions to become translucent and then add garlic. Stir to ensure onions and garlic do not burn. Deglaze pan with white wine. Then add 4 cups of water and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper. Allow mixture to come to a boil. Once boiling add pasta. Allow pasta to cook for 8-10 minutes. Then add mixed vegetables allow to cook for 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Quick & Easy Pumpkin Soup

Winter is approaching and nothing says winter better than a great soup. This pumpkin soup is sweet and tangy at the same time. It will keep you warm and satisfied. 

Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients

1/2 of small onion (minced)

2 tsp butter

1 tsp garlic (minced)

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp ginger powder

2 cups pumpkin puree

1 1/2-2 cups water

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Mince onion and garlic. Set aside. Heat pan. Once pan is hot add butter to hot pan. Then add onions. Cook onions for one minute. Then add minced garlic, curry powder and garlic powder. Cook for two minutes, while stirring. Add pumpkin puree and water. Stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Allow soup to come to a boil. Then simmer for 15 minutes on low heat.

Serves 6

Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's official! My favorite cookie is chocolate chip. After searching and tweaking recipes I finally have the one that I absolutely love. Now that I've keep it to myself for a few days I'm willing to share it with you. 


Enjoy!

Ingredients


2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cups semisweet chocolate chunks
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 - 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chapati... in The Bahamas?

I was first introduced to Chapati in Africa. I was out with some friends in Kigali, Rwanda when I tasted this simple yet delicious, flour tortilla like food. I asked what is was and a friend of mine said, "You don't know Chapati?" Chapati, I'd never heard of it. It looked similar to a flour tortilla, but it was more delicious. You could eat it alone if you wanted to. I did some research and found out that it is an Indian dish. It was so popular in Rwanda though, I think they've adopted it to be one of their own.

While in Rwanda I would walk quite a distance to the market to buy Chapati, which was sold 6 for about $1. It was great alone, but I decided I wanted to "take it up a notch". So I got together with two friends and we made a curry cabbage filling for the Chapati and called it a wrap. It was great.

I've been back in The Bahamas for a while now, but the taste of the Chapati is on my taste buds. I didn't have to make the Chapati in Rwanda because it was readily available already prepared everywhere. I decided I would take a stab at it and make Chapati at home and instead of a cabbage curry I made a chicken curry for the filling.

So here it goes:

Chapati Recipe

2 cups        All purpose flour
3/4 cup      Hot water
1 tsp          Salt
3 tsp          Olive Oil
8 tsp          Butter

In a bowl combine the flour, salt, hot water and olive oil with a wooden spoon. As it comes together begin kneading the dough with hands until smooth. Set aside. Flour a clean surface and divide dough in 8-10 pieces on the floured surface. Allow dough pieces to rest briefly. Set medium skillet on high heat. Allow pan to get extremely hot, almost to smoking point. While pan is heating, flour rolling pin and begin to roll out pieces very thinly. (See photo below.) Spoon 1 teaspoon of butter into hot skillet. Once butter has melted add 1 rolled dough to heat. Cook for 30 seconds on each side. Remove from heat and set aside. Repeat with 1 teaspoon of butter and then 1 rolled dough. Continue to repeat until 8-10 chapatis are completed. Set aside.

Curry Chicken Recipe

2 lg        Cooked Chicken Breast (shredded)
2 tbs       Curry Powder
1 tsp       Chili Powder
1/2 stick  Butter
2 cups     Shredded Cabbage
1 sm       Onion (chopped)
2 clove   Garlic (minced)
3 tbs       Flour
2 cups    Water
              Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large skillet melt butter. Once butter is melted reduce heat to medium and add chopped onions. Sweat onions for one minute and then add curry powder, chili powder and garlic. Mix ingredients together and then add water to mixture along with the cabbage. Cover and allow mixture to come to a boil. Season to taste. In a small bowl add 3 tablespoons of flour and 3 tablespoons of cold water. Mix with fork into a paste. Spoon 6 tablespoons of hot curry mixture (no cabbage) into paste. Make sure no lumps are in the mixture. (Spooning the hot curry liquid brings the paste to the temperature of the curry mixture before adding it the sauce to thicken it). Stir mixture into curry sauce to thicken it. Reduce heat and add cooked chicken. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust seasoning as needed. Serve hot with Chapati.

Chapati Rolled Thin

Cooking Chapati in Hot Skillet

Completed Chapati

Curry Chicken

Curry Chicken

Curry Chicken and Chapati

"All American Breakfast" Steak and Potato Omelet

This morning after a 1 hour workout I was extremely hungry. I wanted something different for breakfast. I looked in the refrigerator to see what was available.  I glanced over the items in the fridge and what caught my eyes were left over steak, potatoes, onions, garlic, eggs, and milk. I decided to cook an omelet. What I consider an "All American Breakfast" Steak and Potatoes Omelet. I came up with the name because I feel that steak and potatoes is so American. Here's the recipe.


Ingredients:

4 oz               Left over Steak (thinly sliced)
1 medium      Raw Potato (cut like French fries)
2 oz               Sliced Onions
1 clove          Minced Garlic
3 large           Eggs
2 tbs              Milk
1 tsp              Olive Oil
2 tsp              Butter

Steps:

First add olive oil to a hot saute pan. Pan fry sliced potatoes, cooking for approximately 3 minutes on each side.  Test potatoes with a fork to see if they are cooked. Once cooked, add sliced onion to the potatoes. Saute for approximately 1 minute allowing onions to soften. Then add the minced garlic. Saute all the ingredients for a few seconds to allow garlic to be incorporated (do not burn garlic) and set it aside.

In a small bowl crack 3 eggs and add 2 tablespoons of milk. Beat the eggs and milk together. In a hot skillet add 2 tsp of butter. Once melted coat the bottom of the pan with the egg mixture. Allow the eggs to cook for about 30 seconds. Once thickened at the bottom, lift the egg and allow raw eggs to drain underneath the cooked eggs. Shape eggs with plastic spatula as eggs begin to form into an omelet. Once the eggs are cooked, add the steak mixture on to half of the omelet. Flip other side of omelet over the steak mixture. Remove from pan and serve immediately.

Here's to my "All American Breakfast", Steak and Potato Omelet.