Hi there ladies…..hope some of you tried out the doughnut recipes they all looked so tasty.
This time I thought of giving you a complete Kenyan meal right from how to present it down to the shopping list and of course the recipes.
I would love to hear from you all. Send me your favourite recipes and get them posted in the African Kitchen.
Well here’s to a fantastic meal and have fun .
How You Can Present a Kenyan Dinner
There are two suggested menus from which you may choose.
The first is the dinner featuring Irio (which follows). This should be a sit-down dinner. Each course is dished out in the kitchen and served directly to each person. The Oysters Mombasa, should be presented piping hot on dinner plates, or if you can get rock salt (you’ll need about 2 Ibs.), heat it in a metal dish in the oven and make a bed of the hot rock salt in large soup plates, setting the oysters on top. These plates will require underliners.
Steak and Irio-the green mounds filled with steak fingers in sauce- makes a dramatic entree. Sauce dishes of salad relish, and Pilli-pilli accompany the Irio.
The dessert, Coupe Mt. Kenya in wine glasses, plus tea or coffee served in the usual manner, makes this a dinner people will talk about for a long time.
The second is the Abaluhya menu, which should be a buffet.
Each dish is a gem. If you decide (or serve Maziwa Ya Kuganda, purchase skimmed milk and let it stand out of the refrigerator overnight. Once it has soured, chill it. Be sure it is cold when served. It will not clabber, as it would if there were cream in it. Try it. You may like it more than you think. However, have tea or coffee available as well.
Shopping List for Eight
Meat, fish, etc.
3 Ibs. filet mignon or lean steak
3 dozen oysters (smallest available)
Dairy
1 Ib. butter
1/2 pint heavy cream
1 Ib. margarine
Beverages
1 bottle Chablis
1 bottle white rum
Fruits and Vegetables
1 bunch parsley
6 lemons
2 oz. fresh garlic
1 small cabbage
1 Ib. Bermuda onions
1/2 Ib. green pepper
1 bunch carrots
4 or 5 mangos
1 fresh pineapple
Groceries
1 16-oz. can peas
1 16-oz. can kernel corn
1 package instant potatoes (large)
1 package onion-soup mix
1 can condensed milk
1 16-oz. can pineapple juice
1 packet pistachio nuts.
Recipes.
OYSTERS MOMBASA
Baked with a Wine Garlic Sauce
Yield: 8 portions (4 oysters per person)
Nowhere are oysters more delicious than on the east coast of Africa
In Kenya, the oysters are opened and each one goes on its own tiny china ramekin or tiny container which looks like a miniature coaster. Twelve of these little dishes are placed on a large platter with a bowl of dark, dark-red cocktail sauce and slices of lemon. Mombasa, that lovely city on the coast of Kenya, boasts the very best of these small oysters.
Open 32 SMALL OYSTERS (Bluepoints or Olympias if possible).
Leave them on the half shell and place on baking sheets.
Wine Garlic Sauce:
Combine: 1/2 cup MELTED BUTTER
4 cloves GARLIC very finely minced
1 cup CHABLIS
4 Tbs. CHOPPED PARSLEY
1 tsp. SALT
1 tsp. FRESHLY GROUND PEPPER
few drops TABASCO
Method.
Ladle half of above sauce (1 tsp. per oyster) on each one.
Bake at 350′F. for 6 to 8 minutes.
Ladle the remaining sauce uniformly over the oysters again.
Serve immediately, four per person, with LEMON WEDGES on a 9 inch plate (or on hot rock salt if available).
NYAMA NA IRIO
Steak and Irio
Yield: 8 portions
The Irio:
Drain 1 16-oz. can PEAS and measure the liquid.
Put the peas through a vegetable mill or sieve to make a puree.
Drain 1 16-oz. can KERNEL CORN and add the liquid to that of the peas.
In a 2-quart saucepan:
Prepare 4 cups INSTANT MASHED POTATOES following package
directions and using the vegetable liquors as part of the required
liquid.
Add: 3 Tbs. BUTTER
1 tsp. SALT
1/4 tsp. PEPPER.
Blend the puree of peas into the mashed potatoes until a smooth green color results.
Fold in the drained kernel corn.
The consistency should be that of firm mashed potatoes.
The Steak:
In a large skillet:
Cut 3 Ibs. FILET MIGNON (or any steak) in a 2 x 1/2 x 1/2-inch strips.
Saute in 4 oz. MARGARINE OR OIL, until lightly browned.
Remove the steak from the skillet.
Blend in 6 Tbs. FLOUR to make a roux.
Add 2 cups ONION SOUP made from a packaged mix and cook to medium-sauce consistency.
Correct the Seasoning with salt, pepper, and a little Tabasco.
Return the steak to the sauce.
Make a large mound (about 1 cup) of Irio in center of dinner plate.
Form a hole in the center about 2 inches in diameter.
Fill the hole with 1/2 cup of the sauteed steak and gravy.
Smooth around edges of the Irio so it looks like a volcano.
SALADI.
East African Salad Relish
Yield: Relish for 8 salads
This salad relish is added to and mixed with the hot spicy food by the guest a little at a time to “cool” the spiciness of the dish and change its texture. If the hostess feels that her dinner is not “hot” enough, a small hot chili pepper is added to the relish.
She may also serve individually or in a bowl additional pilli-pilli or hot red pepper dissolved in lemon or tomato sauce.
For your Kenyan dinner you might have a cruet of a white French dressing on the table for those who might want to add it to their salad.
In a 1-quart bowl:
Combine: 2 cups CABBAGE, finely shredded
1/2 cup CARROTS in very, very thin slices
1/2 cup SWEET ONIONS (Bermuda or Spanish or scallions)
1/4 cup GREEN PEPPER in fine strips.
Fluff the mixture up.
That’s it. There is no dressing or seasoning.
Fill small sauce dishes, allowing about 1/3 cup per person.
Pili-Pili Sauce
An easy-to-make hot sauce. Pronounced “pee-lee pee-lee”, also spelled pilipili. From the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, this word is used throughout tropical Africa to refer to hot red peppers, sauces made from them, and foods cooked with these peppers or sauces.
What you need
several chile peppers (i.e., hot red peppers!), cleaned and finely chopped
juice of one lemon
a few cloves of garlic, minced
several pieces of parsley, minced (optional)
a few tablespoons of cooking oil
a pinch of salt
What you do
Mix all ingredients by hand or with a blender, food processor. Cook in a hot skillet for a few minutes. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.
Serve with everything.
Instant pili-pili: Mix cayenne pepper or red pepper powder, garlic powder, and onion powder with a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce.
COUPE MOUNT KENYA.
Mango Ice Cream
Yield: 1 quart ice cream
Any fruit ice cream will serve for the Coupe Mount Kenya, especially peach ice cream. Fruit sherbet may also be used. Canned pineapple may be substituted for the fresh, but it does not have the same zing.
Mash 4 or 5 RIPE MANGOS, peeled and pitted. There should be 2 cups.
Whip: 1 cup HEAVY CREAM with 1/2 cup SUGAR until stiff.
In a 2-quart bowl:
Combine: 2 cups MASHED MANGOS
2 Tbs. LEMON PEEL cut in tiny ribbons
1/2 cup CONDENSED MILK
1/2 tsp. SALT.
Fold in the whipped cream.
Pour into freezer trays or a 6-cup mold and freeze.
PINEAPPLE RUM SAUCE
Yield: 1 quart sauce mixture
In a 1-quart sauce pan:
Simmer: 1 cup PINEAPPLE JUICE (canned) and 1 cup SUGAR until it dissolves and a syrup is formed.
Add 1/2 cup WHITE RUM. Cool.
In a 2-quart bowl:
Cut 3 cups FRESH PINEAPPLE in 1/2-inch dice.
Pour the Pineapple Rum Sauce over the pineapple.
Marinate for several hours.
Place 1 scoop MANGO ICE CREAM in a 6-oz. wine glass.
Top with 3 to 4 oz. PINEAPPLE RUM MIXTURE
Garnish with 1 Tbs. PISTACHIO NUTS, coarsely chopped.
