I have to apologise for being gone for so long. I KNOW it has been an inordinate amount of time, and I want to apologise for that. I have had a few health-related issues in my family, which are (thankfully) all sorted now.  I am back and better than ever, however, and I’d like to get started with a NEW series to mark my first new post coming back. I want to start this series because as you start to learn to cook, you don’t have to rely on recipes as much. In fact, you start thinking more about the individual ingredients. I am very lucky to say that I think I am starting to get the hang of it, and so I am using spices more and more in my cooking – and I’ve developed some favourites I wanted to tell you about.

The first spice I want to talk about is Paprika. I’ve always had paprika, but you’ve never HAD paprika until you’ve had fresh Spanish paprika. It’s divine. I discovered it, and I’ve been using it to spice up — just about everything. There are two varieties of paprika, dulce (mild) and picante (hot). My favourite (probably because of my Caribbean heritage) is the hot, spicy variety. My favourite way to make a very simple, delicious chicken is to:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Fresh chicken breasts
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• Paprika picante
• Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 7
2. Cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces
3. Drizzle with olive oil
4. Spice the chicken with the paprika, salt, and pepper
5. Cook for 20 minutes, or until the chicken’s juices run clear when poked with a fork (instead of a milky colour)
6. Serve with vegetables and enjoy!

More time (‘goodbye’ in Jamaican)!
Naimah

I’ve had a change of heart! I want to be a good cook, I really really do, and I feel like I’ve been falling down on the job just a little bit. I must admit I’ve been posting a lot about cakes, and eating lots of takeaways. I even went to….. several fast food establishments last week. I will say I’m not proud of myself, but there you go.  I want to get back on the wagon and have some home cooked food this week, but I must admit that I’m still hankering for red meat (what is going ON?!?!)

Anyways, here is a soup I’ve tried (and LOVVVVVED) from one of my favourite websites which is foodnetwork.com. I’m back, people! I’m back!

Love you,
Naimah

Ingredients

• 1 large butternut squash, about 3 pounds, halved, seeds removed
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage, removed from casings
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage, plus 12 whole leaves
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh marjoram
• 6 cups light chicken stock or broth
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar or lemon juice
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, or more to taste
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Lightly coat the squash halves with 1 teaspoon of the vegetable oil.
3. Season the inside with salt and pepper and place cut-side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake until very tender, about 45 minutes.
5. When the squash is cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and reserve. Discard the peel.
6. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add the remaining vegetable oil and, when hot but not smoking, add the sausage.
7. Cook until golden brown, about 4 minutes.
8. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until the onions wilted and starting to caramelize, about 6 minutes.
9. Add the garlic, sage and marjoram, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
10. Add the cooked squash and chicken stock, stir well to combine, and bring to a boil.
11. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
12. With a hand-held immersion blender, or in batches in a food processor or blender, puree the soup. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a clean saucepan.
13. Add the cider vinegar and stir to combine. Add the cream and adjust seasoning, to taste.
14. In a small saute pan, cook the butter over medium-high heat until it begins to turn brown around the edges. Add the whole sage leaves and cook until crisp, 1 to 2 minutes.
15. Transfer the leaves to paper towels to drain.
16. Serve the soup in bowls, garnished with the crispy sage leaves

[Image reproduced with permission from unertlkm's photostream on Flikr.com]

image: ehow.com

Here’s a really simple recipe for grilled cheese that I learned as a teenager and still cook now! I like to serve it with a salad of baby salad leaves, olives and tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Yum!

Ingredients:

• Wholegrain bread (I like mine with nuts and seeds)
• Mozzarella cheese
• Cheddar cheese
• Oregano
• Garlic powder
• Basil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil

Preparation:

1. Put spices on the bread
2. Put cheese on the bread
3. Heat a frying pan on medium low heat
4. Add olive oil to the frying pan
5. Cook the sandwich on medium heat until the bread is golden brown and the cheese has melted

When I think of veggies I love, seaweed is definitely one of them. It’s dark green, tastes similar to spinach, looks like grass, and is a little chewy. You can find dehydrated spinach at your local health food store — it’s usually called arame or wakame. It might sound foriegn and difficult to cook with seaweed, but here is an example of a really simple salad you can make with seaweed and cubumber.

Ingredients

• 1 small cucumber
• 1 cup wakame seaweed (softened)
• 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preparation:

1. Cut softened wakame seaweed into about 2inch-long pieces.
2. Slice cucumber into thin rounds.
3. Put salt over cucumber slices and set aside for 20 minutes.
4. Squeeze cucumber slices to remove the liquid.
5. Mix vinegar and sugar in a bowl.
6. Add wakame seaweed and cucumber slices in the bowl and mix well.

Love you!
Naimah

[image: rakuten.co.jp]

This week’s post isn’t about me, it’s about another cool black chef — Coolio! I’ve included a hillarious video below where he shows us how to make a simple, healthy and delicious Caprese Salad– with attitude!

Love,
Naimah

image: indianfoodforever.com

Lentils are one of the dishes that are hardest for me to cook. Well, beans in general, even though they’re so cheap and sooo good for you. I always hear that I should make from my vegetarian relatives who can cook and who have lots of time on their hands… basically, the opposite of me.

I’ll tell you a little disaster story that I had with beans a few years ago, which mas made me think twice about cooking any sort of legume. I got some random beans from the shop because I was going to make … something… and I boiled them for a while, till they seemed done. Then, I drained them, added some spices and ate them. They were OK I guess.

Then, my sister came into the room and said: “Oh, you made beans! Funny I didn’t see you soak them overnight!” I stopped in mid-bite and looked at her dumbfounded. I said, “Well, I didn’t.” She laughed at me and said, “Naimah! You aren’t going to feel very well tomorrow!” And boy, was she right…

I’m interested in cooking lentils because I want to eat less meat, and I keep hearing from vegetarians far and wide how great they are. So here goes, I’m going to learn to cook them. Dal Shorva is the easiest lentil dish I could find. It sounds tasty (I like cilantro, tumeric and ginger), and you don’t have to soak anything. Hopefully it will work, so… here goes… something.

Dal Shorva

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups red lentils
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 (1-inch) piece ginger root, peeled and chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 yellow onion, finely shredded
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• Fresh-ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, optional

Preparation:

1. Rinse lentils thoroughly and place in a deep pot.
2. Add the chicken broth or water, turmeric, ginger, and tomatoes bring to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, 25 minutes until the lentils are soft.
4. Remove from the heat and, working in batches, puree in a food processor fitted with the metal blade or blender until smooth.
5. Return the soup to the pot, stir in the milk and salt, and heat until piping hot.
6. Simmer gently over low heat while you finish the recipe.
7. In a skillet over high heat, melt the butter.
8. Add the onions and cumin and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes until the onions are brown.
9. To serve, ladle the soup into warmed bowls and sprinkle generously with black pepper.
10. Divide the onion mixture among the bowls, sprinkle with cilantro, and serve at once.

[recipe via about.com]

image: flikr.com

I think it’s important to remember and celebrate Haitian culture at this tragic time in the country’s history. I wanted to write a post with a whole Haitian meal. The dishes included are: Squash Soup, Fried Cubed Beef,  Picklese Vegegtables, Sweet Potato Bread, and Sweetened Fried Plaintains for dessert.  To drink, we will make some Mango Juice… Let’s get started!!

Squash Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb. cubed beef stew meat
• 1 lb. chicken
• 1 frozen squash
• 1 boniata
• 1 spinach
• 1 malanga
• 2 onions-sliced
• 3 large carrots
• 6 medium potatoes
• 1/4 lb spaghetti or noodles
• 3 tbsp seasoned salt
• 2 limes cut in half
• 2 tsp. thyme
• 2 tsp parsley
• 1/2 cup scallions
• salt, black pepper, and hot pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Clean the meat with hot water and lemon ans set aside in a bowl.
2. Add seasoning salt and set aside for 2 hrs. Boil meat in stockpotwith 3 quarts of water until tender (about 1 1/2 – 2 hrs).
3. Add more additional water if necessary and remaining ingredients except noodles. Cook for 20 minutes and add noodles.

Fried Cubed Beef

Ingredients

• 2 lb steak or goat cut into small cubes
• 1/2 cup of chopped shallots
• 1/2 cup of orange juice
• 1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• salt, pepper to taste
• 1 tsp of parsley

Preparation

1. Put all ingredients except the oil in a large pot and marinate at least 4 hours.
2. Transfer meat mixture to medium saucepan or pressure cooker and add water to cover.
3. Heat to boiling and reduce heat . Simmer covered until meat is very tender.
4. Fry meat in a large pan until crisp and golden brown.

Picklese Vegetables

Ingredients

• 6 Scotch bonnet peppers
• 2 cups thinly sliced or shredded cabbage
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced or shredded carrots
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced or shredded onions
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 to 10 peppercorns (optional)
• 3 cups vinegar

Preparation

1. Snip off the stem of the peppers, cut each into 4 pieces, and keep the seeds. Place hot peppers, cabbage, carrots, onion, cloves, salt, and peppercorn in a quart size jar. Then add vinegar.
2. Close jar tightly and let sit at least 24-48 hours before serving.
3. Serve with meat or fish.

Sweet Potato Bread

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. white sweet potatoes, peeled and cut
• 1 large banana, peeled and cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup seedless raisins
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1/4 tspn salt
• 12 oz evaporated milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Rind of 1 lemon, grated
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
• 3 tsp butter

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Grate sweet potatoes into mixing bowl and mash the banana into sweet potatoes.
3. Add all ingredients (except 1 tbsp brown sugar) mixing each ingredient at a time until each ingredient is fully blended into the mix.
4. Spread evenly into 9×13 inch baking pan and sprinkle remaining 1tbspn brown sugar over the top of the pudding.
5. Bake for 1 1/2 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Sweetened Fried Plaintains

Ingredients

• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 medium-sized green plantains, peeled and sliced

Preparation

1. In a heavy 12-inch skillet, heat the oil over moderate heat.
2. Add as many plantain slices as you can without crowding the pan and brown for about 2 minutes on each side.
3. As they brown, transfer them to paper towels to drain.
4. On a board, using a spatula, press each slice flat and round, about ¼-inch thick and 2 inches in diameter.
5. Heat the oil and fry the rounds again for about 1 minute on each side.
6. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.
7. Serves 4.

Mango Juice

Ingredients

• 4 cups water
• 3 cups orange juice
• 2 mangoes
• 1 cup sugar

Preparation

1. Boil the sugar and water together until sugar is dissolved; let mixture cool.
2. Scoop out the mango flesh and combine with orange juice in a blender.
3. Add the sugar water with puree and continue to blend.
4. Pour into a pitcher filled with ice cubes and serve.

As a Caribbean woman myself, my heart goes out to my fellow islanders. I hope we all do everything we can to help these people because the truth is, this could have happened to any one of us or our loved ones.

Mesi (“Thank You” in Creole),
Naimah

image: cookiesbycartier.com

OK, so I do consider myself as a ‘Happy Go Healthy’ type… but once and a while I do have my cake, and I do in fact eat it (all!). Whenever I go out for dinner, I’m usually the one who would love to “skip straight to dessert,” and I mean that in the literal, non-sexual sense! That being said, I do believe I may be more healthy than I actually give myself credit for… I love chocolate covered cherries, pumpkin pie and apple atrudel, all of which contain one of my 5-a-day!

This evening, I intend on pushing the boat out and attempting to bake a cake. After extensive research, I believe I’ve found the recipe which best suits me; it’s a decadent chocolate carrot cake, which will give me some veggies, as well as what we all really want… CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!! erm, excuse me… here’s the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

For Cake Layers:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon each baking powder and baking soda
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 4 medium carrots, shredded coarse (about 2 cups)

For Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ or powdered sugar

For Chocolate Glaze:

• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 ounces fine-quality BITTERSWEET chocolate (not unsweetened)
• 6 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup confectioners’ or powdered sugar

PREPARATION

For Cake Layers:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. and grease and flour two 9 by 2-inch round cake pans, knocking of excess flour.
2. Into a bowl sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
3. In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together eggs and oil on low speed until combined well.
4. Add flour mixture and beat until just combined.
5. Stir in carrots and divide batter between pans.
6. Bake cake layers in middle of oven 45 to 50 minutes.
7. Cool cake in pans on a rack 10 minutes and invert onto rack to cool completely.

For Cream Cheese Frosting:

1. In a bowl with an electric mixer beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth.
2. Add vanilla and confectioners’ sugar and beat untl creamy.
3. Spread frosting on top of 1 cake layer and top with 2nd layer.

For Chocolate Glaze:

1. In a small saucepan combine glaze ingredients and cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until chocolate is melted and glaze is smooth.
2. Remove from heat and cool glaze slightly.
3. Spread glaze over top and sides of cake and chill 1 hour, or until set.

Thanks Blisstree.com! As you can see, this is much more complicated than those I usually go for, but I am a believer that yummy chocolately goodness requires a bit of effort.

Love to all,
Naimah

I’ve been wild recently about sugar. I know! It’s not an ideal way to live your life, but I just can’t help it! I just want to eat chocolate all the time!!!!!!!!! But not just dry cookies and biscuits. I’ve had a taste for warm, soft chocolate and Gu makes the best!!!!! They have chocolate souffles, chocolate puds, chocolate mascarpone, melt-in-the-middle chocolate, everything!!!!!! Of course, they’re quite small and they are also expensive, so I decided to try and find a simple-ish recipe to get my chocolate at home, and to maybe burn some calories cooking over a hot stove before piling on the pounds eating goodies… :O I found this really straightforward recipe on deliaonline.com:

Ingredients

Preparation

1. First of all place the broken-up chocolate, along with the butter and brandy, in a large heatproof bowl, which should be sitting over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
2. Then, keeping the heat at its lowest, allow the chocolate and butter to melt slowly; it should take 6-7 minutes. Then remove it from the heat and give it a good stir until it’s smooth and glossy.
3. While the chocolate is melting, place the sugar , whole eggs, yolks and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl, place it on a tea towel to steady it, then whisk on a high speed with an electric hand whisk until the mixture has doubled in volume – this will take between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on the power of your whisk. What you need to end up with is a thick, mousse-like mixture that, when you stop the motor and lift the whisk, leaves a trail like a piece of ribbon.
4. Now you need to pour the melted chocolate mixture around the edge of the bowl (it’s easier to fold it in from the edges) and then sift the flour over the mixture. Using a large metal spoon, carefully but thoroughly fold everything together. Patience is needed here; don’t be tempted to hurry it, as careful folding and cutting movements are needed, and this will take 3-4 minutes.
5. Now divide the mixture between the pudding basins (it should come to just below the top of each one) and line them up on a baking tray. If you like, the puddings can now be covered with clingfilm and kept in the fridge or freezer until you need them.When you’re ready to bake the puddings, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6, 400°F (200°C).
6. Remove the clingfilm and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for 14 minutes if they have been chilled first, but only 12 if not; after that time the puddings should have risen and feel fairly firm to the touch, although the insides will still be melting.
7. Leave to stand for 1 minute before sliding a palette knife around each pudding  and turning out on to individual serving plates. If you’re cooking these puddings from frozen, give them about 15 minutes’ cooking time and allow them to stand for 2 minutes before turning out.
8. Serve absolutely immediately, with some chilled cream to pour over.

umyumyumyumyumyummmm (that’s my full of chocolate face noise).

The best thing about chocolate is that it is great to share.

Enjoy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Naimah

[image: culinspiration.files.wordpress.com]

Ingredients

• Left over cooked turkey 
• Left over stuffing
• Cranberry sauce
• Hellman’s Mayo
• 2 Cooked rashers of Bacon
• Uncut loaf of whitebread from the bakers
• Lettuce
• Tomato

Preparation

1. Cut the loaf of bread into 2cm thick slices.
2. Butter the first slice of bread.
3. Add a thin layer of mayonaise.
4. Place generous amounts of turkey on the bread.
5. Spread cranberry over the turkey.
6. Add a layer of lettuce.
7. Add a second slice of buttered bread.
8. Add the bacon.
9. Add thin layer of tomato.
10. Cover with a layer of stuffing.
11. Top with the last layer of buttered bread.

Insert bad auntie Christmas joke here: ‘Well, it’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas!!!!’

Naimah xoxoxo