Marinades

Marinades serve two different functions: as a tenderizer and flavor enhancer. Flat cuts of meat such a fillet or spare ribs, benefit most from tenderizing marinades. Whichever marinade you decide to work with, it's best to place meat in a heavy zip-top bag with the air squeezed out and turn it often to be sure all surfaces benefit from the marinade.Alternatively, a shallow glass or plastic tray will do just fine but keep the meat well covered and refrigerated.

I love the sauce & marinades sections in the supermarket. You will discover a wide range of marinades you can use for various meats. Experiment, Experiment.
It's always good to taste the marinade before you add in the meat so that you can customize the marinade. (which i always do)

I am all for making marinades from scratch, but you must agree that you must have a kitchen helper (cheat's marinade) when you are short off time.

 Here it goes good people............................

                               Spare Rib Marinade
  Ingredients

• Knorr Spare rib marinade (available nakumatt/uchumi)
• 3cm ginger, grated
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Cummin seeds (a pinch)
• Fresh rosemary (a pinch, soaked in a cup of boiling water for 5mins and finely chopped)
• A splash of oil
• Freshly ground black pepper.
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste

Method

• Mix the marinade in 250ml of water/according to the pack instructions
• In a sauce pan, fry the onion,garlic and ginger until the onions become translucent
• Add tomato paste/concentrated tomatoes, spices and fry for 5mins over medium heat
• Add the marinade and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth, and let it simmer covered for 10mins on low heat
• Add liquid if the mixture becomes too thick and adjust the flavours
• Set aside and let it cool.

This marinade can be stored in the fridge for 4 days in an air tight jar ready for use.

Guacamole

 

I live in kenya, and what i love about this country is that the humble avocado is readily available and at a really good price. Go to the market and look out for the various types of avocados. Get your hands dirty and pick out a nice firm, ripe avo.

GUACAMOLE

Guacamole is an avocado-dip that originated in mexico, many years ago.

Ingredients

• 2 large avocadoes
• 1 white onion, finely chopped, set aside and seasoned with a generous amount of salt
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 tomatoes, seeded and cubed
• A handful of dhania/cilantro/Chinese parsley
• A pinch of black pepper/ salt/additional lime juice

Method

• Peel and mash avocados in a medium serving bowl
• Place the onion in a sieve or colander and rinse with water
• Stir in onion, tomato, lime juice, salt and pepper
• Taste and adjust the flavours
• Season with remaining lime juice and salt and pepper to taste
• Transfer in a clean serving bowl
• Chill well covered with cling foil in for an hour to blend flavors

mango and passion fruit fool

I'm currently on holiday down at the coast and as life would have it with all the food sampling that goes down at the coast, i have what is called Acute G.E. This is just a fancy word for, i can't travel and eat as i like for the next couple of days. :-)




It is always good to have quick and easy dessert tricks up your sleeves. These tricks often leave your guests thinking that you are the grand master chef :-)

This menu is was adapted from Good Food magazine but i did a bit of twiking here and there.

                                     MANGO & PASSION FRUIT FOOL  (Serves 4)

Ingredients

• 2 Large Mangoes (firm & ripe)
• 4 Passion fruits
• 500ml  Greek yoghurt/ any good eating yoghurt (chilled)
• Dessicated coconut to garnish

Method

• Peel the mangoes and chop it up into cubes, set aside
• Cut the passion fruit open and spoon out the flesh and set aside 
• Peel the reminder of the flesh that is on the seed of the mango and any that might be left on the peels and add this into blender 
• Add the yoghurt into the blender and pulse it for 1 minute max
• Pour out the blended yoghurt into a martini glass or a shallow dessert glass
• Add the cubed mango, and drizzle the passion fruit on top and garnish with a pinch of dried dessicated coconut.

                                                          ENJOY