Category: Side Dish

Stir-Fried Dodo Rice

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

I am always on the unending process of perfecting my dream  breakfast meals and I still have got a long way to go, I believe. This may be another rice dish, but it’s quite a breakthrough for me. Here is why: When I was a young child, I disliked eating vegetables(haven’t we all?) most especially dodo and somehow this ‘dislike’  has followed me to adulthood. But recently I have decided to challenge myself to make eating dodo much more fun. Especially now that it is raining, dodo is springing up everywhere and it is so beautifully soft, lush and tender.  This is one way of preparing left over rice with dodo. You can find the previous recipe here. What you will need:

2 C. Left over rice

Two handfuls of dodo (Amaranthus)

1 Small tomato, chopped

1 Onion

Cooking oil

Salt Method

In a bowl, crumble the rice and set aside. Wash and coarsely chop the dodo.  Chop the onion and set aside. In a hot sauce pan, add cooking oil and wait for it to get hot. Add the onions and stir them till slightly brown. Next, add the chopped tomato and dodo and keep stirring till they turn a bright green. Add the rice and keep stirring for 3 minutes. Finally add the salt and stir for another minute then remove from fire.  Serve hot with a fried egg and a cup of tea or a glass of fresh juice.

How do you prepare dodo? Let’s chat in the comments section below.

🙂

Sophie

Stir-Fried Posho

~ Sophie ~ 14 Comments

We have had our fair share of posho (hashtag uganda). From primary school all the way to senior secondary school. No wonder it has a bad name. There is so much more to posho you guys, especially when you are out of school and have to become responsible for yourself and what you eat. So picture a scenario where you prepare posho and  then a supposedly better dish comes along and everyone goes with it forgetting the dear posho. It ends up in the refrigerator. The next day rolls around and everyone ignores the posho (again) till it goes bad and is discarded of.  I set out on a quest to change this behavior a few years back (…OK, in 2013) and was impressed by the first outcome which you can read about here. This stir fry posho is inspired by the first recipe. It includes less oil, and a wider variety of ingredients especially vegetables. The great thing about this dish is that you can play around with it till you get a desired combination of ingredients.

What you’ll need:

2 Kg. Posho

¼ Kg. Beef/Ground Beef

2 Slices of bread

12 Ntulas/eggplants

2 carrots, diced

1 Onion, diced

1Tsp. Ginger, finely chopped

1Tsp. Garlic, finely chopped

Rosemary flakes

1Tbsp. Royco Mchuzi Mix

½ Tsp. Ground Black pepper

1Tbsp. Soy sauce

Salt

5 Tbsp. Water

Cooking oil

Method

Cut the Posho into 1 inch cubes and set aside. Using a sharp knife, cut the beef into small pieces (½inch cubes), wash well and set aside.  Crumble the bread slices and set aside. Dice the ntulas/eggplants and set aside. In a hot sauce pan, add a little cooking oil and let it cook for 30 seconds. Add the beef, salt and rosemary flakes. Let the beef cook for 15 minutes or until it turns a deep brown color and is crispy. Keep stirring occasionally.  Next, add the garlic, ginger and onions while stirring.  Next add the ntulas/eggplants and let it cook for 5 minutes while stirring occasionally. In a separate bowl, mix the mchuzi mix, black pepper, soy sauce and water and set aside. Add the carrots and cubed posho and stir.  Pour in the spice mix and keep stirring till evenly distributed. Lastly add the crumbled bread and stir. Remove from fire and serve. Garnish with chopped green onions.

At least no posho has to go to waste anymore these ends.  Ha!

What do you do with your left over posho?

🙂

Sophie

PS: Left over posho or posho that has spent a day works best.

Banana Pancakes

~ Sophie ~ 4 Comments

 

Who loves Pancakes? And by pancakes I mean Kabalagala? Better yet,  have you ever tried making Kabalagala? I have many times all the way from my childhood… and I haven’t made the perfect Kabalagala. They are either hard, rubbery, floury or  taste like baking powder. So naturally I would just buy from the experts who  just have the magic touch. I have noticed that these perfect pancakes/Kabalagala are usually found on the streets. There is so much talent on the streets of  this nation food-wise!

So due to my failure to make a perfect Kabalagala, I decided to do it the easier way. The western pancake, Ha!  You know the one with milk and eggs. It was one random day where bananas were available and we just kept adding ingredient by ingredient. The ones that worked, we kept note and the ones that did not work, we still kept note. The first time it was a hit then the second time, it tasted even better. So are you ready to try  this pancake with eggs?

What you will need

4 Medium bananas

2 eggs

½ Tsp. Ground ginger

6 Tbsp. Milk

2 Tbsp.  Cassava flour

1 ½ Tbsp. Baking (wheat) flour

1 Tbsp. Sugar

Cooking oil

 

Method

In a bowl, mash the bananas with a glass. Crack the eggs in the bananas and using a fork, Whisk the eggs in the bananas. Next whisk in the ground ginger , sugar, cassava flour,  and baking flour. Pour in the milk and whisk till evenly distributed. Set aside. On medium heat, add a tablespoon of cooking oil in a frying pan and let it cook for a few seconds. Depending on the size you want for the pancakes, Use a ladle to scoop the pancake mix and gently pour it in the frying pan and cook until some bubbles appear on the top and the underside is golden brown and crisp. Using a spatula, flip the pancake and let the other side cook for some minutes. Make sure it does not burn since it has milk.  Remove from the frying pan and repeat the process till the pancake mixture is done.  Garnish with sliced bananas or serve with Zesta red plum jam.

 

Women’s day is around the corner… and we are all geared up to celebrate in every possible way. By celebrate I mean making the women in our lives feel extra special (because they are special every day of every year!). While there are parties, concerts and banquets happening, you can make this banana pancake for the special woman/women in your life or you could choose to make  any of these dishes for them.

 

What are you doing for  women’s day?

 

🙂

Sophie

 

PS: . If you don’t have non stick pan, butter or margarine (blue band) will work best since it prevents the pancakes from sticking to the pan.

PPS: Also I’m still vigorously trying my hand at the Kabalagala. The day I make edible ones, you’ll know about it here!