#Cooking Green green. Snail soup

#Cooking Green green (snail soup)

Ingredients

[#cooking] Fried yam and Chofee

                   Ingredients. 

              Peel and cut yams

         Soaking the yam in salted water

              Cooking the Choffee 

                Frying the yams

     

                    Multitasking

        

            Frying the Choffee

         

             Dinner is served. 

Pan seared steak dinner

            

 2weeks ago i made my first official steak dinner.  I wanted to do something nice for my beau so I decided on steak. What man doesn't love steak right?  So I made steak with a baked potato and corn.  I didn't have steak seasoning so I improvised with what I had in my pantry and everything turned out great.  I was very proud of myself.  However, I wanted my pan seared steak to look... Well Pan seared  but it didn't. It looked steamed. So I vowed that the next time I made steak it would look pan seared with the crust on the outside and all.  So last night was the day I would redeem myself.  This time I got New York strip steaks. 

The Breakfast struggle.

     They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and they're right.  What they don't tell you is that, it's also the most difficult meal of the day to get in, on account of everyone is  always being on the go early mornings.   Its important to have breakfast because it gives you a boost to start your day well and it's great for maintaining a healthy diet.  There's also so many choices of breakfast foods like cereal, fruits, hot beverages, oats, toasts, pancakes, omelette, frittatas, smoothies, the list is endless.  However, many people don't eat breakfast on a daily basis. 

     I for one can confess to never eating breakfast.  I'm not proud of it, but I am aware of it.   Having breakfast is so rare for me; I can say I have a proper breakfast twice a month.   I've just gotten into the bad habit of late nights and very early mornings over the years that breakfast no matter how much I intend to have it, just doesn't make it into my daily routine.   If ever I eat a proper breakfast though, it's on a day off and even that's a struggle because when I'm off  I like to sleep in, so by the time I'm fully awake its lunch time.   For this reason, breakfast becomes a special event for me.  All aspects must be right.  My mood, the time, hunger level and cravings.  Well I was off the other day and decided I would spend half the day relaxing which meant I was going to definitely have some breakfast. 

     Here I had a spinach omelette,  black tea with lemon and some fruits.  I decided to have breakfast in bed so I had my book and remote to keep me company (a special event it was).  A basic breakfast for me consist of tea and some kind of an omelette.  Those are must haves, fruits and a yogurt if I have it.  So that's it for this post guys,  if your like me, try to fit breakfast into your mornings more often. 

Pantry clean out

     Hi guys.  So I haven't cooked in a while and thats because... 1.  I've been busy with work and stuff.  2.  I need to go grocery shopping and 3. Because my pantry is a mess guys.  I mean a hot mess.  It's been bugging me that my pantry isn't organized. And I've been meaning to get it organized for almost two weeks now.  I'm an organized cook;  I like for everything to be in it's place and everything lined up as I need it and I can easily put then back when I'm done.  So when  my pantry, where I keep most of my cooking necessities is out of whack, whats a girl to do? I mean look at this mess.

     It's a crying shame isn't it?  Well yesterday I was determined to clean it once and for all.  The funny thing is, it took me all of 10 minutes to clean and organize everything so it's a shame that it took almost two weeks for me to clean it out.  But anyhow, I did it and now I'm happy :-).  Here  is my pantry after cleaning it out.  Hmm... Now I can see I'm missing so many things.  Next thing I have to do is grocery shopping. 

    For some reason it still looks unorganized to me but I can live with it.  Heres how I organize my pantry.

Shelf 1. Sugar

Shelf 2. Seasonings

Shelf 3. Liquids

Shelf 4. Starches

     Something you don't know about me is that I love pantries.  I really do because it's the walk in closet for food.   I always look at peoples pantries when I go to visit.  I  just love them; it's a big part of why I took my apartment.   My pantry isn't so big but I'm a single girl so that was fine for me.  So that was my pantry guys.

Shrimp Fried rice

I've made shrimp fried rice (my version) countless times and never once thought to blog the process. Mostly because I usually make it in a whim with what ever I have in my fridge, just free styling .  But I've been asked to share my receipe so I'm going to attempt to do so. I say attempt because although its the easiest thing to make, there's too many ways I've made it.  So I'm going to use a combination of pictures I have of the process. So here we go.

Ingredients: 

1. Cold cooked Jasmine rice

2. Shrimp 

3. Peas and carrot 

4. Oil

5. Soy sauce

6. Eggs

7. Onions

8. Shrimp seasoning

9. Peppers(optional)

PREP:

 Veggies- thaw the frozen peas and carrots in water. Then drain and set aside.  

Shrimp- steam or fry lightly seasoned shrimp and set aside. 

Egg- fry eggs until almost done but still a a little runny in the middle (do not flip the egg).  Chop up the fried eggs and set aside

To make the rice spicy- I blend a little bit of onions a 3 hot peppers with oil together.

METHOD:

(You can make fried rice in a any pan but it's best to use a wok pan)

-In a wide heated pan, add a little bit of oil then some chopped onions. 

-Sauté onions until fragrant.

-Then add rice and stir to break apart and warm up a little.

-Add some soy sauce and stir some more.

-Then add more onions, peas, carrots and shrimp. Mix well together

-Mix in pepper blend and shrimp seasoning.

-Taste, then add more soy sauce if needed (your rice should no longer be white)

- Add chopped eggs. Stir altogether. 

- Spread rice evenly in pan and let cook for 2 minutes and your done.  

 

Plate your fried rice and enjoy. 

Attièke with fish.

     

     Hello everyone, so this is going to be a semi long post.  I've recently added a dish to the list of things I can make best and I'd like to share it with you.  Attieke is a couscous like starch made from cassava. Usually eaten by french speaking west africans like ivorians and  senegalese people, but loved by many.     

    Abrief story about my experience with attieke.  Many years ago, one of my friends used to constantly talk about how good attieke was, and how much she loved it.  So one day she bought it and  asked me try some, so I did because she made such a big deal of it.  Well, I didn't like it at all. It had no taste but I do remember there being oil.  I remember being upset in my mind because she raved about it so much hahaha.  After that unsettling experience I never ever tried Attieke again or had the desire to. Fast forward 5years later after seeing it at an African restaurant I was inspired to try it again. I now love Attieke but, I've only come to love it by making it myself.          

     The thing is, attieke is just the starch. But the whole meal is what makes it worth any praises it gets. You can have Attieke with fish, chicken or what ever meat you prefer. And you can have it fried grilled or baked. But this receipe is going to be for attieke with baked talapia. Mmmh my mouth is watering already.

Ingredients:

Box of uncooked attieke/ cooked bag 

Whole talapia 

Onion 

Bell Pepper

Hot pepper

Firm tomato 

Oil 

Vinegar 

Maggie/chicken seasoning 

Salt

Water

Sweet Plantain (optional)

Method: 

Step 1- Make the fish

Clean/gut talapia well.

Make 2 slanted cuts on both sides. 

Season fish (I make a special blend)

Place in preheated oven to bake . 

STEP 2- Make the Attieke

Measure 1 cup of dry attieke 

Measure 1 cup of water 

Bring water, oil, and salt in a saucepan to a boil.

Remove from heat, then add dry attieke starring with a fork mix well, cover and let sit. 

STEP 3- Make the sauce/dressing. 

Chop/dice your tomato, Onion and bell pepper. 

Place in a bowl and

 Add a teaspoon of vinegar and seasoning and your dressing is done. It will taste great. However, I go a step further. 

(Here's what I do different) 

I sauté by veggies in a little oil with the same blend that I season my fish with. And that's what makes my Attieke with baked fish different. I'm assuming. 

 So basically once your fish Is done all you have to do is plate your food and enjoy.