Poulet rôti et sa jardinière de petits pois et champignons au chorizo.

This is a simple meal, don’t let the French name fool you. It’s a roast chicken with peas, mushrooms and chorizo fry.  The inspiration for this meal was, the sight of a little piece of chorizo in my fridge. It was about 3cmby 2 cm in dimension. What could I possibly do with it?

INGREDIENTS.   

• Chorizo 50grams.
• 6 closed cup mushrooms.
• Half a diced onion.
• 2 garlic cloves.
• 2 handfuls of peas.
• Celery stick.
• 2 chicken thighs.
• Black pepper and salt.
• Half a tea spoon of oregano.
• Tea spoon of olive oil or vegetable oil.

METHOD. 

1. In a heated pan, pour in a tea spoon of olive oil, then add the diced onions. When onions, are translucent, add chopped garlic.
2. In a separate heated pan, pour a tea spoon of olive oil, then using a kitchen paper towel, rub it all around the pan surface. This is because, chicken skin is fatty, and will produce its own oil. 
3. Lightly salt the chicken and add black pepper, then place them, skin side on the pan, on high heat. About 9/12.

4. Dice the chorizo and add it into the pan with onions. Stir.

5. Cut the mushrooms into slices and then add them into the mixture. stir and try and coat the mushrooms into the chorizo sauce. The Colour should be orange.

6. Add a pinch of salt. Chorizo is cured meat and thus has a high content of salt, so a pinch of salt should be just fine.

7.Stir in the oregano followed by the chopped celeray stick then  cover for two minutes.
 Finally follow with the frozen peas. They take the shortest cooking time, since they simply need to thaw in the pan.

8. Check on the chicken, and turn it.

9.The meal should be ready in 5 minutes.

10.Serve and enjoy.

One more bite....

 Yours,

Madame Lacour.

PILAU RICE with LAMB.

Recently, I went to a restaurant with the Mister, and I ordered the pilau (pilaf) rice. I regretted that decision for the simple fact that it did not taste like my mother’s pilau! For me it felt under seasoned but for the Mister, it was well executed. This week, I decided to make pilau based on my mother’s recipe, albeit with a little twist. My mother, pre boils meat, while I decided to sear it. Additionally, while my mother uses vegetable cooking oil, I opted to use butter. So, as you can see there are various ways to go about this but here how I did it.

SERVES 2 PEOPLE.

INGREDIENTS.

·         250g basmati rice.

·         Pinch of saffron.

·         2pieces of lamb chop (or beef).

·         Table spoon of ground garlic.

·         1 diced onion.

·         4-6 cardamoms pods.

·         Rosemary leaves.

·         2 table spoons of Sultanas (raisins)

·         Handful of peas (frozen are better)

·         Table spoon of Pilau Masala.

·         Tea spoon of powdered cloves.

·         Salt.

  For the guacamole

·         1 avocado.

·         Chopped parsley (coriander is better though), scallions 

·         Pinch of salt.

·         Juice of half a lemon.

·         Tea spoon of olive oil.

·         Pinch of paprika.

METHOD.

1.       In a pot boil about 3 cups of water, and drop in the saffron strands.

   2.    Wash the rice, and then leave to soak, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

   3.     Lightly salt the lamb and add some black pepper.

   4.     In a heated pan, drop a stick of butter and rosemary leaves, then drop the piece of lamb, one at a    time, in the pan and sear each side for 1.5 minutes.

   5.Put aside the lamb.

   6.    In a sufuria  or a deep pan, put a stick and a half of butter, followed by garlic. Cook the garlic until it’s translucent and then add the chopped onion. Cook until translucent, by this time the garlic should be a golden brown colour. 

   7.    Chop the lamb into pieces. Then add into the pan, and stir. Cover for 3minutes.

   8.    Add the cardamom and sultana into the mixture. Stir again.

   9.    Add pilau masala and the clove powder into the mixture and a tea spoon of salt.

   10.    Stir the mixture, and leave the pan closed for five minutes on moderate heat. its important to let the spices cook into the lamb.

   11.    Drain the rice. Then add it into the pan. Stir, and try and coat the rice into the mixture. Then add the peas.

   12.    After, add the hot, pre boiled saffron water into the mixture. Approximately 2.5 cups. Stir, and leave the rice to simmer on moderate heat.

   13.    Check on the rice, to see the water level. When reduced, turn the rice and then cover.

   14.    The rice should be ready.

   For the guacamole accompaniment, in a bowl combine all the ingredients, and mash with a whisk.

   Add tomato slices for aesthetics, though no harm will come to you if you eat them!

Serve and Enjoy.

Mr Lacour had his with a savoury tomatoe sauce . I will feature it in a different blog post.

   Yours,
   Madame Lacour.

MAHAMRI DELIGHT; coconut beignet from East Africa.

Mahamri is a form of beignet from the  East African coastal region. It is originally, usually accompanied with Mbaazi (pigeon peas) in coconut milk for a meal, either lunch or dinner. None the less it has not stopped people from having it as an accompaniment with tea for breakfast, or as a dessert treat. 

For, this post, i decided to present it as a treat , which could be eaten as a dessert.

INGREDIENTS.

1. 2 Cups flour
2. Half a cup of coconut milk.
3. 1 Egg.
4. 5 table spoons of Sugar.
5. 1 Table spoon Crushed Cardamon
6. Half a Tea spoon of yeast.
7. 1 litre cooking oil.
   
   

METHOD.

1. Sieve the flour.
2. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and yeast while mixing with a wooden spoon.
3.  Crush cardamom in a pestle and add it into the flour.

flour, sugar, yeast and cardamoms.

crushing my own cardamoms. 

4.     For those using a bread making machine, add the coconut milk and egg first then pour the flour mixture. Press the settings for DOUGH.

5.     For those kneading by hand, pour in the egg, and mix with a wooden spoon, then slowly, pour the coconut milk little by little, as you work your way into a dough.

6.     Leave the dough to rest for 3 to 4 hours.

The dough in the bread machine. Reduces resting time from 4 hours to 80minutes.

 7. Check the dough’s readiness by cutting into it. It should have risen and when cut,               should have porous holes similar to those you see in bread.
8.  In a deep fryer or a deep pan, pour the cooking oil and heat it.
9.  Cut the dough into 4 parts. Then take one part, are roll it into a circular shape. Role           from the centre, outwards.

10.    Cut into four, and put into the now hot oil to cook. 

11.     Once one side popes, keep turning the mahamri in the oil, every 3seconds so as to            ensure each side cooks evenly with an almost golden brown colour. Total cooking time      for the four should be between 3 to 4 minutes. 

12. Repeat process with remaining batch.

13.   Wait for them to cool, before biting into one. 

Dusted some powdered sugar on top. 

Enjoy with a cup of tea, or as is.

Madame Lacour.

Qui est Madame Lacour?

Madame et Monsieur Lacour

I am at a loss for words, when asked who I am. Who is Madame Lacour? For now, i will share the much that I can and hopefully, you will join me every week on this food journey that I have undertaken.

I love cooking as much as i like eating out! So does my husband, Monsieur Lacour, and I married him, mostly because of his cooking skills.(I may be in trouble for this) Its safe to say, that both of us, cannot be in the kitchen at the same time, for that is how fights at the Lacour house hold begin. One of us is always tempted to add something into the others pot! However, on a rare chance, we invite each other during meal preparations, we get to learn a lot about food and wine and Porto and whisky.... basically, if it can be consumed.... i hope you get the gist. Tongue and tummy tales will invite you into our kitchen and share with you how to make simple and affordable meals. We cannot guarantee that they will be healthy always (I choose to live a little) but we can guarantee you will salivate, even when its just a salad. Occasionally, i will do a restaurant review, when we eat out and hopefully your eyes will join me!

On a more personal note, I am a proud East African, my folks are from Kenya and Tanzania, while Monsieur Lacour is from France and we met in Japan!! Therefore a week in our house, feels like the United Nations of cuisines! I hope we can bring this variety into the blog, and encourage you to make the meals by yourself.

I am not a chef by profession and never have been to culinary school, I do this purely for the love of food. 

My top 10.

1. My favourite sea food is shrimp. (especially in garlic )
2. I prefer to oven bake my veggies.
3. Favourite herbs are oregano and rosemary.
4. If i could, i would put coconut milk in EVERYTHING.
5. I use garlic in 90% of my meals. 
6. My cheese pick are Irish matured cheddar, Roquefort (blue cheese) and Swiss Gruyère. 
7. My favourite cut is T-bone.
8. Favourite Kenyan food is Mukimo.
9. Favourite french foods are crêpes, foie gras and croissants.
10. Favourite Desserts are sticky toffee pudding and Sticky toffee pavlova!!

So, welcome, to Tongue and tummy tales!

Madame Lacour.

PAN FRIED SCALLOPS ON SPICY PEA PUREE.

The English market in Cork - Ireland is a tourist site to behold, especially if you are a foodie like me. I can get meats and fish here not only at a reasonable price, but also fresh catch of the day. I went in ready to buy some shrimps, but immediately i saw the scallops, i was sold! They were fresh, already cleaned and ready for cooking.

English Market in Cork .

For dinner, i pan fried the scallops with garlic and olive oil, and accompanied them with some rice and a puree. The scallops were delicous and sweet!! yes SWEET! They would have been awesome for scallops sushi, which would have been awesome.  However,that is a meal for another day.

Ingredients.

1. Scallops
2. Rice
3. Carrot 1
4. 1 Cup of Peas (cooked)
5. 2 Potatoes
6. Garlic 
7. Curry powder 1tea spoon
8. Royco 1 tea spoon
9. Mixed spices 1tea spoon

SCALLOPS, RICE AND PEA PUREE. (40 minutes)

METHOD

1. Cook the rice, the way you know how.

A lot of people have different methods, mine comes in a bag that i put in hot water for about 12minutes, and then drain.

2. After cutting into pieces, steam the potatoes, carrots and peas until they are cooked.

my carrots and potatoes chopped and steamed 

3.Mix Curry powder, royco and  Mixed spices in a cup, then add chicken stock. ( You can also use warm water)

4. In a large bowl, mix the steamed veggies and the spice mixture. Blend the mixture into a puree.

5.In a hot pan, pour a table spoon of cooking oil, add 4 cloves of ground garlic. cook the garlic for about 30 seconds, and then add the puree. Stir the mixture, and leave on the stove at moderate heat (8/12) for about 8 minutes,

6. Pat dry, the scallops using, a kitchen towel. Then sprinkle a little flour on both sides of the scallop. (This makes them crisp up in the pan.)

7. In a different pan, add one table spoon of olive oil, then add the scallops. Cook for about 1.5minutes.

8.Turn the Scallops and add 2ground cloves of garlic. Cook, for 1.5 Minutes.

9. Food is ready to serve 

I added the scallions for aesthetic purposes.

Bon Appétit
Madame Lacour.