As part of a long standing family tradition, Easter always means eating Lamb so this year I decided to cook a very typical East African dish using a boneless butterflied lamb’s leg. In Swahili, Nyama means meat and Choma stands for roasted. It’s a very popular dish in East Africa especially in Kenya and Tanzania. Typically, Nyama Choma is slowly roasted on a grill over a bed of charcoal giving to the meat a particular taste.
African cuisine is a spicy cuisine therefore hot peppers are required to be added in almost every dish. That’s why you will find in almost every African household, whether it’s in Africa and abroad, a can of homemade hot pepper paste in the fridge. This is an unavoidable relish which can be used for multiple purposes; as base for any hot and spicy stew or soup, to marinade meat, fish or seafood, to season a vegetable sauté or as dipping sauce. It’s important to add that there are many variants of hot pepper paste because it’s up to taste. However, this is one of my mother’s versions of hot pepper paste.
Who doesn’t love Nutella? I haven’t met a lot of people who disliked Nutella. I’m among the group of people who would put Nutella on almost everything from bread slices to crêpes, not to mention using it as a dipping for fresh fruits like pear, apple and banana.
Palm cream or palm pulp is a staple ingredient in the African cuisine, especially in West and Central Africa. The cream or pulp is extracted from oil palm fruit. The palm fruit is harvested then boiled to be later pressed to collect the reddish-orange cream. In most African households, people are still making their palm pulp themselves using fresh palm fruits. However, thanks to industrialization, it’s now possible to buy palm cream or palm pulp in a can. And it’s an easy alternative for people living in Western countries, like myself. Canned Palm pulp can be found in most Exotic markets and Asian markets (since Malaysia is the world largest producer of palm oil).
Last week, I went out for brunch with a group of friends, and one had the brilliant idea to take us to L’Avenue Restaurant. To be honest with you, I had previously heard of the place while watching You Got To Eat Here on Food Network months ago, and I promised myself to go there and to give it a try. So I was particularly excited to finally get to eat at L’Avenue. The restaurant is basically a ‘must-stopped’ for anyone in search for a good place to have brunch.
If I was asked to name one of my favorite spices, I would without a doubt choose ginger. It’s an aromatic root that adds additional flavor to basically everything from stir fries to smoothies. Maybe that’s why this ginger cake recipe is one of my favorite desserts. It’s a very simple cake with a lot of flavor thanks to the combination of spices used in the batter. Disclaimer, if you aren’t not an adept of spices or spicy food; you would certainly not enjoy this recipe as much as someone who tolerates spices would. However, give it a try and you will not be disappointed. It’s a perfect cake that goes well with a cup of coffee as well with a cup of tea. But I enjoy it better with coffee.
I’m not an expert in Asian cuisine but I love to eat Asian food especially potstickers. So I decided to make homemade potstickers instead of buying the ones you can get in the freezing section at you local grocery store. And my verdict is: the homemade potstickers tasted better than the ones I buy at the grocery store, mainly because I was able to customize my filling with ingredients of my liking.
I don’t know about you, but there are some days where I’m just not inspired to cook. So for those days, I usually make a simple dish that would require little to no work, but at the same time a dish that would please my palate. This is why I love this Smoked Salmon and Avocado salad recipe. It’s a very simple dish with only three main ingredients, and it’s easy to assemble. For this salad, I use Mâche (also known as Corn salad or Lamb’s lettuce) because of its mild nutty flavor and soft texture. And it’s also a plant with many nutrients and has three times as much vitamin C as lettuce for example, which is a good thing for those in need of vitamin C supplements.
Here is the recipe:
Rita's Notebook 