Meal Upgrade: Bread and Eggs

Hello friends, How are you all doing? I am great :D

Now lets talk about breakfast. And specifically the all time classic; Bread and Eggs! I don't know about you but I find the basic omelette with tomatoes and peppers quite boring. So at every installment, I try to switch things up a bit.

So without further ado, Bread and eggs: my way.

For the Bread, I toasted them same way I did Here and cut them in half into triangles.

And now for the eggs; You'll need the following ingredients 

Ingredients:

• 3 Large Eggs (Cant have an omelette without eggs now can we? :D)
• One Small white Onion sliced
• Celery: About two sticks sliced
• I medium carrot, peeled and cut into half inch cubes
• About a quarter of a stick of Leeks, thinly sliced
• One Sausage, diced
• One Clove of Garlic finely chopped
• I Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• I Teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
• Salt and Pepper to Taste 

Cooking Instructions

Start with a nonstick pan on medium heat. (also turn on your oven as you will be needing it shortly) Add your vegetable oil and when hot, add the sausages and allow to brown for a few minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper for some flavor. Once browned, remove the sausages and set aside. Add the sliced onions to the pan and allow to soften, add the rest of the vegetables leaving the garlic for last. Stir continuously and season. Remove from the pan.

Reduce the heat to the lowest and pour your beaten eggs into the pan and top with your vegetables and sausages making sure to spread evenly. Optional: Top with about a table spoon of chopped parsley.

Pop into the preheated oven at medium heat for about 5 minutes and you've got yourself an omelette.

I like to cut min up into pizza style wedges. This recipe serves two and the serving in the picture is actually half of the prepared omelette.

Give this a try, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Until next time, remain blessed.

Love, Preye

What I Ate: Watermelon Hearts

Hi Everyone,

A couple of weeks back I saw a picture of some watermelon hearts on a friends profile so next time we were having watermelons, I dug out my cookie cutters and proceeded to make a fun presentation of watermelons :D

 

 I started out with this.

Then played around a bit

Decided to garnish with some chopped mint.

And then for the man who inspires me (DH), a special edible message :D

I think the watermelons tasted better with all the love in the air ;)

Until next time, God bless and complements of the season.


Love, Preye.

And Dinner is Served!

Hello People,

Its been one busy week (or two?) for me. Yeah I know...my weeks are always busy but these past two were at an all time high. I had loads of sewing to do and was also appointed as part of an electoral committee for a professional organisation. So I was combining work, out of office meetings, sewing and of course the "constants" like traffic, "no light" (power outage) and inefficient shop attendants (story for another day); its been an interesting period.

Did I mention this past week was our Thanksgiving week in church! "HALAL" Week. Basically one week of awesome praise and thanks to God for His goodness in our lives...and I sure do have a lot to be thankful for...Well I danced my heart out (and my leg into a sprain lol) and had an awesome week of praise and thanksgiving.

Ah yes, back to the post. For dinner today, (which started out as lunch actually), I decided on Braised Chicken with boiled ripe plantains and a cool cucumber salad to cleanse the palate afterwards.

Here's a list of the ingredients and cooking instructions

Ingredients: Braised Chicken
Chicken Laps (Or any cut you prefer - 2kg)
Fresh Tomatoes - Chopped ( about 1kg)
Onion (1 Large Bulb)
Cameroon Pepper - Ground (1 Tablespoon)
Herbs - I used Fresh Rosemary, Basil, Mint and Parsley
Ginger
Salt and stock cube
Spices (of your choice)
Olive Oil
Dark Soy Sauce
Lemon Juice
Ketchup (Optional)

Directions
Rinse the chicken and drain/dry off water; Heat about a quarter cup of olive oil in a pot and brown the chicken in it to get the caramelized flavor.
Once the chicken has browned on both sides, add your chopped tomatoes, onions, grated ginger, seasonings and spices. Tie the herbs with a clean cotton rope (this makes it easier to pull them out later) and add to the pot. Add just enough water to cover the chicken and bring to the boil; put on the lid, reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about 40 mins.
Take off the lid, add the juice of half a lemon, about 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce and a squirt or two of ketchup (I actually added the ketchup to mask the rosemary which I was a bit heavy handed with :P).
Simmer and reduce until you have a thick sauce and take off the heat. Fish out your bouquet of herbs and dispose.

For the plantain I basically cut each piece in three parts and boiled them until a fork slid in smoothly without any resistance. I then drained out the liquid and salted.

And now for the salad.

Ingredients: Cucumber Salad
1 large cucumber
2 Large Tomatoes
1 small Onion
A sprig of mint leaves
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
Salt and Black Pepper to taste.

Instructions:
Cut and remove the seeds from the cucumber; slice (about half an inch thick), sprinkle with salt and place in a colander to drain excess liquid (about 30 minutes should do)

Chop tomatoes, onions and mint leaves. Combine all ingredients and mix well. refrigerate and serve cool.

Dinner was delicious and filling (Is it just me or is boiled plantain more filling than fried plantain? - same quantity).

I've got quite a bit of catching up to do (a long line up of posts) and I'm actually typing this up while getting my hair braided (yayy for multitasking :D)

So until next time, "BeThankful"

Love,

Preye

What I Ate: Ukwaka

A couple of weeks ago a colleague told me about a great food blog and I wasted no time in checking it out.

I love to cook...a lot! DH can testify to that :D. The only thing I love more than cooking is sewing...

So I checked out Kitchen Butterfly and wow! is all I can say. I decided to check out the Naija food section of her blog and I found IT. "IT" being a recipe for Ukwaka AKA Plantain Pudding (I actually danced for joy when I saw it...lol)

You see, I grew up in the Island of Burutu and as a child, I used to look forward to the weekly market for two reasons.

1. Goods were "Traded by Barter". I think we had just learnt about "Money" and its history at school and I was intrigued that the old system of Trade-by-barter was still in use.

2. Secondly and more importantly, there was a lady who sold Hot Ukwaka at the market. I would beg my mum to take me to the market just so I'd have an opportunity to ask for Ukwaka (or "Kwoka" as I called it back then)

A couple of years later, we moved out of Burutu,  and through my different life experiences I always remembered that stage in my life and the smell/taste of Ukwaka.

So you can understand my joy at discovering the recipe. I wasted no time and actually bought some ripe plantain on my way from work that same day and left them to get "over-ripe" as called for by the recipe. I had everything else at home so all I had to do was wait for the plantain...and a long wait that was.

After a week, I gave up and figured they (the plantains) were soft enough and set to work preparing the dish.

It all started out very well with my reading the recipe and measuring out ingredients, and then my impatient streak set in (I don't do very well with cooking by the book...something to do with upbringing I guess...work in progress). I basically eyeballed all the ingredients and then added some ginger to balance some of the sweetness of the plantain and of course lots of pepper for some heat.

And voila, my very own Ukwaka...the first of many I should say.

It turned out a bit dry but totally delicious. Next time, I'll try sticking to the recipe (with some minor changes of course-lol). I had neither Banana Leaves or Ramekins so I used some small disposable plastic plates with lids (I make Moin-Moin same way so I figured it would work) and I don't know if this affected the moisture level as well.

I wanted something very savory to go with it and I thought, tomatoes would be great, so I made a little sauce with tomatoes and some chopped gizzards and sausages. And to crown it all, some roasted chicken glazed with a honey/lemon/dark soy/ginger mixture.

DH loved it and as a testament to that, gave me a new pet name "My Plantain Cake" :D

Here is a link to the Recipe: Ukwaka Recipe. Now off to eat the left-overs.

Later...

Love, Preye