Ajuangs Kitchen: 2016

Brown Ugali

I struggled with blogging about this because cooking brown ugali is a hard skill to teach, especially using the English language. When my mom taught it to me she would use words that i do not have a direct translation but makes sense in vernacular language so allow me to use both. Ugali requires a very visual and instinctual recipe, so here is my attempt at a lesson. Bring water to a boil and add your millet (I accompany my mom to have the millet ground at a posho mill, I don't know why we do not just buy it from the supermarket, in my language we call the flour bel) . Point to note, the heat should be on high, I add enough flour to make it form a soft paste (med mogo nyaka obet modhiek).

Fold the soft mixture on high heat until it hardens (dwal kuon nyaka o chiek), this will take a while, keep folding and covering the pan with a lid for about 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the ugali. Serve with vegetables of your choice. Variations of this are made by adding ground sorghum flour and maize flour to the millet flour.

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, by lindaogallo

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

Cream your butter and both sugars together preferably using a mixture. Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix. In a separate bowl mix your dry ingredients, the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together. Add to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Add in the oats and raisins. Bake at 180 for 10-12 minutes, until ready.

Ingredients

1 cup butter/margarine (room temperature)

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tbs vanilla extract

Pinch of Salt

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup raisins

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, by lindaogallo

Chocolate Chip Bran Muffins

This is my go to lazy day healthy breakfast muffin. I say lazy because I use the red hill muffin mix.

The ingredients for this are on the packet, place one egg, one cup of molasses(or honey) and quarter cup of olive oil and mix. Add two cups of the muffin mix and whisk till smooth. Add, chocolate chips, i generally use chopped dark chocolate because I usually have some around.

Place in a muffin cup and bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

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, by lindaogallo

Brown Rice

Brown rice is cooked a lot like white rice with the addition of extra water. Use one cup of rice to two and a half cups of water(i usually opt for coconut water) and season with salt. Bring to a boil then reduce to low heat, cover and let simmer. Once ready feel free to adopt andy fried rice recipes of use as is.

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, by lindaogallo

Chocolate Lava Cake Recipe

This recipe is an adaptation from howtocookthat.com and I highly recommend it to my fellow chocolate lovers. The recipe is in two parts, the brownie and the chocolate ganache. To make the brownie mix molten butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and cocoa. I added nuts to this mixture. Add to your greased baking tin and bake at 180 C. When ready, use a mold to cut in cylindrical shapes. Use a smaller cylindrical object to cut out a hole in the center of the cylindrical brownie.

Pour molten chocolate over tin foil and spread till it forms a thin layer. As the chocolate begins to dry, use the same mold as above to draw out cylindrical shapes with a knife. Cover with foil and a hard surface(like a book) and leave for an hour or until completely dry.

To make the ganache, melt chocolate in a bowl and add hot cream slowly while mixing until its soft and smooth. Place the brownie in a saucer, pour some ganache in the brownie, cover with the thin layer of chocolate. When serving, pour some warm ganache on the chocolate for the lava effect.

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, by lindaogallo

Vegetable Spring Rolls

I love veggie spring rolls, even though I generally keep away from fried foods, this is one of those exceptions. I buy the pastry/wrapper from the supermarket because it saves time, I usually leave it in the freezer until I'm ready and it is usually enough for multiple uses. For the veggies, I say eye ball it, depending on how many spring rolls you want to make.

Boil noodles as per package instructions. In a separate pan, fry onions, green peppers, shredded cabbage and carrots, chopped french beans and bean sprouts (add as many veggies as your heart desires) in vegetable oil. Keep cooking until veggies are ready (usually until all the liquid has evaporated). Add soy sauce and stir, then add the drained noodles and mix it into the vegetables. The mixture should be dry so as not to make the pastries soggy.

Make a paste with flour and water, place about one big table spoon of veggies into the pastry and seal with paste. Fry in very hot oil ( give the oil time to get hot or you will have soggy spring rolls).

I love the sweet and sour sauce with my rolls. To make it, place 3/4 cups of sugar, 1/3 cups vinegar, 2/3 cup water, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 tbs ketchup and 2 tbs cornstarch in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Stir continuously until the mixture has thickened.

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, by lindaogallo

Fondue Party

Happy New Year!

Fondue parties are a fun way and easy to entertain. To make the chocolate for the chocolate fondue heat 1/2 a cup of heavy cream and bring to a boil, remove from heat and add vanilla and 100 grams of chocolate and whisk till all the chocolate melts( add more cream if the mixture is too hard. I made one batch with white chocolate and the other with dark chocolate. You can add some brandy to make it a grown up fondue but i kept it simple this time.

Accompaniments can be whatever you wish it to be. Fruits I used were strawberries, grapes, and apples. I soaked the apples in ice water that had one lemon squeezed in to prevent it from oxidizing and turning brown. I also served sponge cake, mash mellows, banana chips, biscotti , pretzel, wafers and crackers.

I have to say that of all the accompaniments I served, I had no fruits left over, next time will probably go big with the fruits and dial back on the junk food.