I hope you all had a happy Sunday filled with rest and relaxation, I did. I made lunch for me and my daughter and we played for most of the afternoon until I decided I wanted a sweet treat. I decided to try my hand at baking a marble cake. I had never made a marble cake before today. This however wasnt going to be any ordinary marble cake because I was coming up with the recipe and measurements as I went along. The cake turned out marvelous and I enjoyed it with a nice cuppa. If you want to try your hand at it here is how I did it. Ingridients 1.5 cups cake flour 1.5 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt Just under one cup white sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla essence 3 eggs 1 cup milk 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup cocoa powder Preheat your oven to 180degrees 9 inch greased cake tin. Method. Sift together all the dry ingridients, then stir in sugar. In a separate bowl lightly beat the eggs, and oil then add the vanilla essence and milk. Pour the wet ingridients into the dry ingridients all at once and mix. Imagine your hand is a hand mixer and mix at medium speed just until combined. The mixture will be lumpy to start but eventually smooths out. Do not over mix unless you want a dry cake. A dry cake is a crap cake, every good baker knows this.4 minutes is enough. Then pour half the cake mix into a different bowl. Sift in the cocoa powder and mix until the cocoa is blended in, remeber not to over mix. Now you are ready to pour the two cake batter into the cake tin. Do this by alternating the two until allmthe batter has been used. Take a knife and swirl the batter just once. Bake for 30 mintutes lr until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cut yourself a slice and enjoy..x I wish you peace, love and good eats!

How to cook the perfect beef liver stew.

A lot of people I know shy away from cooking beef liver and yet it is choka block full of nutrients, minerals and vitamins we all need to maintain healthy bodies, and well being. Cooked right it is very tasty cooked wrong it just tastes like what it is, liver! I do my own cooking, my maid simply chops what needs to be chopped and washes what needs to be washed. This is because I am allergic to poorly prepared food, no seasonong, too little seasonong, food cooked on high heat it doesnt cook through, food swimming in oil, the list is endless. To avoid all that malaky I decided I will be the belle of the kitchen. I love it anyway so why not? Today I have prepared beef liver, and nkhwani wotendela, I must say I am looking forward to digging in. Here is how I did it. Dice the liver into nice pieces and rinse it in cold water. Put it in a sauce pan and add 2 teaspoons of garlic, this will neutralise that raw liver taste as it cooks. Bring it up to the boil and reduce the hest to about 4. Never think that boiling your meat makes it cook nicely. It only warps(kuwawula)it and the result is tough meat that has not been cooked on the inside. Keep some boiling water to hand so that as water evaporates in the pot you can add on to it. Do not be tempted to use cold water because this reduces the cooking temperature in the pot thereby slowing down the cooking process and toughening your meat. Once all the water is gone add some oil, not too much though because good food is not about grease but rather the technique and method employed. Brown your liver slightly, and then add your chopped onion and let it cook through until it becomes translucent. All this is with reduced heat. Should it catch add a little bit of water to deglaze the pan and then throw your tomatoes into that mix and let them cook through. Dont be in a rush to add water because the tomatoes need to cook properly. It is never a good thing to see tomatoes and onion that have not meshed well in a dish, NEVER!!! For some color, but this is optional I addded a tablespoon of tomato puree. Let that cook through before adding water otherwise it will be sour. Add one teaspoon of brown sugar to bring out the flavours. Then I introduced the aromatics to my liver stew. I added a teaspoon each of curry, paprika, and chicken masala, and half a teaspoon of chilli flakes for some heat.Yes chicken masala. Do not feel restricted by the spice labelling some spices work well with most meats. I then melted a chilli beef stock cube in 250 ml(1 cup) of water and added that to the party. I brought that to the boil and reduced the heat to 3 so that it simmers nice and slowly for thirtynminutes. Do not boil your meat, never ever!! I served this with nsima and veg. The liver stew was to die for, my pslate was all sorts of excited. It was succulent, and very tender; as any well prepared stew should be. I wish you peace love, and good eats.

A clean kitchen is a good kitchen

Maintaining a clean kitchen is very important, if there is a room in your house that needs to be given a lot of attention it is the kitchen. If I visit a home where the kitchen is not in order, I will think twice before I eat there. Yes! I have visited homes and thought my word I must leave before I am offered anything because the kitchen was that dirty. Your lounge could be messy after all we chill out in there but make sure that the kitchen for obvious reasons is kept clean. If you have house help, induct them on the standards of cleanliness that you expect them to follow because if you do not they will not clean, after all they have no guidance tool to work with. I have an all white kitchen, this is my way of sending a message to anyone that works for me or visits my home. They will not see a speck of dust, not a dish out of place, why? How? Because I hate a dirty house, especially a dirty kitchen. There are a few basics that need to be follwed in order to maintain a neat and squicky clean kitchen. As a rule of thumb do nor mix your dish cloths. Have separate ones for saucepans and plates because the ones you use for sauce pans are likely to get dirty quicker. Make sure you have hand towels atleast two, so that when one has been washed there is one on the hook lest people wipe their hands with dish cloths, I have seen it happen and its just gross!!! Have a cloth for cleaning and wiping surfaces. And some handy andy, this is a must have in all kitchens. It is not that expensive so dont even trip. Be sure to ahow your help how to use it because used wisely it will last up to one month. Also invest in some hand wash for when you need to wash your hands, it doesnt have to be expensive The next thing is cleaning the fridge. Keep the fridge clean at all times, yes some people do not clean their fridges and smells start to build up as left overs go off and what not. You walk around thinking boy does it smell funny up in here. Maybe you need to clean dont you think? Keep rubbish where it belongs, outside in the trash can. Never go to bed without taking the rubbish out. I personally dont have a bin in my kitchen because I cant stomach it. I put my rubbish in nylon bags which I take outside periodically. A pretty kitchen it nice to work in and encourages you to cook and just hang out in there, I have two glasses of pot pouri on my window seal that just add to the ambience in my kitchen,yes ambience doesnt only have to be in the bedroom or lounge it needs to be everywhere!! Get yourself some cute kitcheny looking curtains while you are at it. The effects are amazing I tell you. For that extra home feel a bowl of fruit on a counter top will add to the beautynof your kitchen, and you can eat it up too. Try this and you will thank me later when you are able to let your guests hang out with you as you prepare a nice meal for them.

Apple sausage casserole with chunky mash and gravy

Hello, hello , helurrrrrrrrrrr. It has been a while since I blogged. This is because I have been rather busy as a mother and a young professional. But there have been a lot of recipesin between which I will share over the next few weeks. So you might be wondering where inspiration for this here post came from. Well STEAK! A lady posted in a facebook group wanting help on how prepare t bone steak, being the foodie that I am I responded. How I hope my adcive helps her with positive results. My cooking is usually fool proof but the technique is where some fail. Oh well c'est la vie! On Sunday my friend Olly came over for the day. We spent it laughing, watching telly and being mothers to our children. When it was lunch time I decided to whip up some bangers and mash.( sausage and mash.) I peeled white potatoes and chopped them into medium sized squares. I then topped the sauce pan with cold water for even cooking. Added a bit of salt and oil. I wasnt quite sure what I was cooking but I knew the night before my meal on Sunday would have that half apple in the fridge. At 80 MK an apple there is no room for throwing food away in my house, no sir!! Anyway I chopped half an onion, one small green pepper and one courgette( bought from Limbe market) looks like cucumber but is not. Amwricans call it zuccini. I defrosted some leftover sausages and chopped them up too. Once the oil was hot I sweated out the onion, added the green pepper and courgette. When these cooked for about 5 miutes I added the sausages and chopped apple which I had peeled. For the aromatics I used a one teaspoon garlic powder and quater teaspoon sweet paprika. I then added some soy sauce( a staple in my spice cabinet or fridge). I let this cook on medium low heat for another 5 minutes while cover aomthat the steam created helps it cook while at the same tims de glazing the pan and lockingin all the juicy goodness. I added one dessert spoon of tomato paste for that rich tomato colour because no tomatoes went into this dish. I let this cook without adding any water to get rid of thw sourness of the tomato paste. I then added one teaspoon of brown sugat to bringout the sweetnessof the paste, and some salt to bring out and balance the flavours. Finally I mixed two teaspoonsof royco with cool water and added to my casserole fpr some sauce and thickness, nobody likes thin sauce! I mashed the potatoes with some white pepper, stork and milk and set aside. I was feeling rather lazy so I opted to use Robertsons brown onion gravy powder for gravy, prepared according to packet instructions. We dished mash first topped with sausage casserole and then the gravy. I hate to beep me own horn but it was delish! Delish! Deliiiiish! Try it, I wish you peace,love and good eats!

Constipation vs Hemorroids

Hello darlings, I hope you are all well. I am better now. You will appreciate why I was not at the end of this post. I came home from work and Izzy was having her afternoon siesta. I looked over into her crib, she was sleeping so peacefully. I waltzed into my room, threw my bag on the bed my body right along with it. When my daughter woke up I had to change her, I love that little girl but boy oh boy did that poo smell. Lol. Anyhuuu I was gonna do what I had to do so I set to it. I broke out the diaper, changing mat, wipes, the barrier cream and the toy for distraction. Nappy change takes longer since my baby learnt she can move by herself. I picked her up and lay her on the mat and loosened the flap thingy mijigs. Wiped her and she let out a cry so loud my heart sank. I did an examination and saw what looked like a small tag, just hanging there. I was FREAKING out big time. I continued to change her and when I finished it was oooooon! I was all over google and on the phone to granma. My heart was in pain but Izzy was now happily running around, playing and calling out mimiiiiii..(mommy). So anyway I decided I was taking her to the Doctors tomorrow, and I was going to watch that thing like a hawk. However by late afternoon I was on my phone asking my friend to take to the Doctors. Thank you Olly, I owe you one! True to my mothers words the Doctors first question was is this your fist? I looked him dead in the eye and said yes to let him know I wasnt embarrassed I came. He said no wonder. It's nothing serious it will go. I'm sure he could read my I don't believe that demeanor and he prescribed a gel for me to apply on it. It was en external hemorrhoid. We got home and she had her bath, dinner, a song, and story. When she slept I was back on google trying to understand what hemorrhoids were. My baby had STRAINED her Rectal muscles doing a number two. Take it easy this does soon link into my blog. I realized after doing the reading that it is something to do with her diet. Possibly not enough fiber and more foods that can cause constipation such as yoghurt, bananas, carrots. So I've decided to go out tomorrow and get foods high in fiber to correct this problem by making a few changes to her diet. Hemorrhoids are painful, that is my I am sharing my experience because a problem shared is a problem solved. Want to incorporate food in her diet that will soften her stool, so she doesn't strain and hurt herself. Sometimes you will see blood in the toilet for children who can use the loo. It's nothing major but you can correct it by changing your the little ones diet. Sometimes we think we are doing thing right when something happens as if to say woman your best is not good enough!! Foods to include to avoid constipation are sweet potatoes, apples, homemade vegetable soup, prune juice, bran cereal, pumpkin, beans, green leafy vegetables, soy milk because it is less constipating than cow milk. Make sure they drink plenty of fluids as well. This is why we as mothers should pay CLOSE attention to our little ones. They are not anaPhiris kids, they are our sons and daughters. Doctor was right because when I was dressing her after her bath, it was gooooooone! But now I'm prepared, I'm hemorrhoids smart, Boooooooom! * blowsongun* I wish you peace, love and good eats!

Flavour- full baby

Good morning darlings, what a beautiful day is is today. So I got to thinking how can mothers avoid raising fussy eaters?? My baby has one of the healthiest appetites I have come across, well maybe the only healthy appetite next to mine, I love love love my food it's amazing how I stay tiny. Raising Izzy, I bought your baby and toddler magazine from the day I found out I was with child until a few months ago. This magazine has taught me a lot especially where feeding is concerned. I want to share some of the insight I got. The first thing to remember is that our babies are people too, they feel, they cry, they laugh and smile and get frustrated just like we do. Feeding time should be a joyful time, a time when we bond with our little one, but for some, it is frowned upon, wonder why?? Maybe baby is BORED, maybe the food is not appetizing, it is bland and tasteless, no wonder the little being refuses to take another spoon of that mess,yes I said mess. You won't eat bland and/or tasteless food why should your baby? Raising children requires time and patience love and a lot more, a lot more that nannies will probably not go that extra mile for. You want something done properly? DIY! That old saying applies to feeding and preparing meals for our children. Izzy is asleep but when she wakes up there is a fresh beaker of sweet pea squash and some homemade bread fingers waiting for her, as long as she does not wakes too close to lunch time. We have to do some of these things ourselves and being tired from work I'd just not a good enough excuse. Make the time, everyday to prepare the food you want your baby to eat, nsima ndi ndiwo, ndi Phala just won't cut it. For the squash I diluted two parts orange squash in the water from the boiled peas that I used for my vege patties. Why?? Because all the nutrients from the peas are in that water. So I let it cool and used it now, yes it tastes good. Remember to always taste what you want your baby to eat or drink chances are if you hate it they will too. I toasted a slice of brown bread and spread stork and sprinkled it with a lit bit of cinnamon, then cut it into fingers, let it cool and put it in her container. There you have it a simple, healthy mid morning snack. You let your nanny take over you will lose control over what your child is isn't fed, and don't want that do we. You can prepare the fingers the night before work and store in an airtight container so the crunch is not lost. This snack is suitable from 7 months onwards. More later my darling. I wish you peace,love and good eats!!!!

Something vegetarian

Good evening darlings, I just finished having my dinner and my my was it delicious. It is safe to say I out did myself on those there vege patties. I've thought about making them since my trip to the market but I just couldn't get my thoughts around what I wanted to use, so I brushed it off until I was ready to COOK! What better day to do this than Sunday, when I have my place all to myself. Ok maybe not all to my self but you get the idea, maid is off so I'm the lady of the house on all levels, cooking, cleaning, bathing and feeding Izzy, the whole nine yards. Any way as soon as Izzy was down for her morning nap I shot off into the kitchen but not before switching my Telly to DSTV audio. I like my beats when I cook. I was in my zone. I made it up as I went along grabbing 1 carrot,1 potato, 1 white onion,1 red bell pepper,1 tablespoon garlic, 1 green pepper, 1/2 cup boiled peas,1/2 cup green olives, chopped, :these add that salty bite to the dish, 1 tablespoon parsley, 1 table spoon sweet paprika, 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 eggs, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour(i used whole wheat for the nutty flavor and as a variant to bread crumbs), 1 slice toast(crumbled). Finely chop the onion, red and green pepper as well as the olives and set aside. In a separate bowl grate the carrot and set aside, mash the cooked peas and set aside. Then working fast, peel wash and grate the potato. Heat some vegetable oil in a sauté pan, and add all the vegetables and sauté until tender. Create a bit of steam in the pan by adding a few drops of water. Don't add too much, remember these are patties. Remove from heat and put into a bowl.Add the flour, bread crumbs and egg and mix well. Put some flour in your palms so the mix doesn't stick. Form into patties and then refrigerate for 30-35 minutes so that they set and do not fall apart when you fry them. Shallow fry your patties and serve with knorr creamy garlic gravy over a bed of white rice. With patties your world is your oyster you can use whatever vegetables you like. I even added beans to mine although I wasn't too keen on them, the did work well. This is a perfectly nutrious patty that can be served as part of a wholesome meal or on it's own as a snack, just whip up a quick dip of mayonnaise and ketchup. You could even put this on a roll with onion and tomato rings and cheese and voila!!!, a vege burger. My daughter enjoyed this very much, to the last bite! I wish you peace, love and good eats!!!

Baby love breakfast

Good morning darlings, what a beautiful Sunday it is in Malawi. Birds chirping, sun is shining I am alive and well. What more can I ask for. A friend of mine was kind enough to add me to a group on FB called for moms and dads with little babies. I quite like being on this group becaue even though I do not post on it much I enjoy knowing that I am not the only mommy who feels she might be getting it wrong sometimes,that there are many like me enjoying their journey in parenthood-ville. This post is dedicated to moms who are not sure about what to feed their baby after the introduction to solids. I have one tip, IMAGINATION!!!! Think outside the box. In fact think as though there is no box. To get you started let me tackle breakfast. This is the most important meal of the day. It gives us the fuel we need to face the day head on. While babies don't do much they too have an active life full of exploration, so it is vital that they have a very nutritious breakfast. From the day Isabella, my daughter was introduced to solids, she has had Likuni Phala as her main porridge of choice. This is because it is not only cheap, but it is choka block full of vitamins and essential nutrients. Now to feed a child just plain Likuni phala would after sometime become boring and the child will refuse to eat, the keyword is imagination here. So cook it as instructed and add either peanut butter, stork, chopped soft fruit such as banana, avocado, peaches, the list is endless. Because I do not give my baby sugar, for me the sugar comes from the fruit, but that is a personal choice up to you as a mother. But it is highly recommended that babies are not given sugar. To give her a break from Likuni I let her have natural yoghurt with chopped fruit for breakfast. Another cereal that I always have for my little one is Purity baby cereal and I prepare it as instructed but go the extra mile by adding chopped fruit for texture so that she practices and develops her chewing skills. Alright I must go now because the little madam is reaching for the iPad making it rather difficult to type. I wish you peace, love and good eats!!!!

Light meal

Hello, I sure hope you all had a wonder day of R&R, I sure did. As the time fast approached dinner I started thinking about what I was going to make, like I told you before I do not take kindly to eating the same food twice. I'm in my room talking to a few mates of mine on BBM and I'm about to go to the kitchen to hook up my dinner. It's nothing too hectic, just a simple egg fried rice in two kinds of soy sauce with a side of cool cucumber salad. Here are the recipes for both. 2cups cold rice, 2eggs lightly beaten, ground black pepper, light, and thick soy sauce. Fry the eggs and scramble. Set aside when done. Add a bit more oil and fry the cold rice, this is just to heat it up. Be sure to use cold rice because it's the secret to good fried rice. If the rice is hot it will stick together and be one pile of mess, you do not want that. You want food thats screaming eat me, you know you want to. When the rice is heated through add the eggs and then two table spoons each of the light and thick soy sauces. These add layers of flavor and salt so do not add more salt unless you want salty food you can't mouth. For the cucumber salad I'm using english cucumbers, these are the thin, long ones and they are devine in salads. Wash and slice them as thinly as you can, slice half a red onion, I hate uncooked onions so I'm going to tweak it a bit by frying the onions. Then toss these together and add a dessertspoon full of vinegar, toss together and sprinkle with salad sprinkle and then add some mayonnaise. Toss together and refridgerate. Serve when very chilled for that burst of freshness. If you have no vinegar you can use lemon juice to substitute the acidity. And voila that's my dinner tonight my darlings. I wish you peace, love and good eats!!

My rainy adventure

What a day what a day. I realized last night that I was out of fresh market produce, my fridges salad crispers were almost empty. So I called my friend Marica and asked her to accompany me to the market. When I do my shopping I buy all my greens from the market,I find that they have everything that is in the supermarket but it's so much cheaper and fresher, I just love cooking with fresh ingredients. Limbe market is a very big market and it stocks a wide variety of produce, from vegetables to aromatics such as sweet paprika which I got some of. The aroma and rich color of it was just to die for, and did you know they have sweet paint as well. If you have had colored meat or malambe that's the stuff they use. It was pouring as we did our shopping but we were not going to let the rain deter us, we were two women on a mission!!! We went from one end of the market to ther other,picking up this and that, interested in knowing what I bought? Just you wait coz tonight I'm cooking up a storm and I'm going to tell you just how my experiment goes. Ladies don't be too saddidyto go to the market it's a fulfilling experience each time because I get a chance to interact with the tomato lady, the paprika guy, the carrier bag boy, who all enrich my life in one way or the other! What I bought sweet paprika Fresh red bell pepper Sweet potatoes(not for tea but I'm doing a bakes sweet potato salad) Malambe Green beans Red onion Juicy red tomatoes Potatoes Red kidney beans Fresh ground nuts(it's that time of year and I'm love them) Extra ripe bananas for cornmeal fritters(zitumbuwa) Ground nut flour Dried mfutso wa chitambe local is lekker!!!!! English cucumber(long and very green) this is beautiful in salads and sandwiches So you see I shopped up a storm and I'm set for good eats!!

Chicken fillet and avocado sammich

There is nothing that bores me more than eating the same food every day. ok so maybe there is, that thing that people type that kikikiki, my Malawian friends know exactly what I am talking about anyway back to what I was saying, yes the same food all the time. It is monotonous so much so that I decided that every day I will cook something new. Last week for lunch I made what I called a beast of a sammich so here is the recipe. It does need patience though. I am never too strict with the quantities. I tend to eyeball it depending on how many people i am feeding. If feeding five thousand do increase the ingredients, you are not Jesus! You will need Chicken fillet Onion Garlic and herb mix Olive oil or vegetable oil( I like olive oil because it adds flavor but vegetable oil is equally good) Cucumber rings White or red onion strips Mayonnaise Marmalade Light soy sauce, about one tbsp(tablespoon) Few pinches salt to bring out the juices of the fillet as it cooks Avocado strips Method Cut the fillet into thin strips Add about a teaspoon of the garlic and herb mix(if you don't have this use fresh garlic and mixed herbs) add the soy sauce and mix with a wooden spatula Add a little bit of salt Let this marinade at room temperature for up to two hours so that the spices infuse nicely into your meat While you wait chop the onion into strips and fry it in a little bit of oil on low heat for 20 minutes. Here we are trying to caramelize the onions so that we bring out the sweetness of the onion. If you cook on high heat it will burn and taste crap! Once the onion wilts a bit sprinkle with some brown sugar to start the caramelization process. Create a bit of steam in the pan by adding a little bit of water. Once done set aside. Before you fry the fillet add just a bit of oil to it and stir to prevent it catching in the pan Heat some oil and add your fillet. Cook for no more than 10 minutes, stirring only twice. Cover the pan to lock it moisture which also aids the cooking process. When it is done transfer it into a bowl and let cool. Add as much mayonnaise as you want and mix. For the marmalade mayo sandwich spread simply add two teaspoons marmalade to your mayonnaise and spread on your baguette instead of regular margarine Now you can build the sammich Spread mayo on both sides of baguette or bread Layer on the cucumber Then top with avocado, sprinkle bit of salt to Then top with the chicken fillet filling Lastly top with your caramelized onion Note: if you over coom chicken fillet it drys up and tastes rubbery so don't be tempted to over cook it. Sit back break your your drink and maybe a side dish of fries and enjoy Grab a coke, sit down and devour that beast!!!!!!!!

First things first

This is my first blog so excuse me if I'm somewhat clueless as to the goigs on here. How do the buttons work, what to to click to do certain things or what not to click. How do I put a picture and such other things I decided to start a blog about food because with time I have accumulated a lot of recipes and have been asked by many family and friends to share these recipes. I needed a fun and exciting way of doing this so I decided to blog! Take this journey with me as we explore various cuisine both local and international but using ingredients that are almost always in ones kitchen. Whether you are cooking for one, entertaining or simply wanting to experimentmwith a few bits and bobs, IzzyCooking will definitely do it with you!