Rice and Peas

There is Jamaican restaurant by my house that serves delicious food and from eating there so many times I found my new love for Jamaican foods so I did most of my research and I learned how to make some of my favorites....Here's one of my favorites. Goes very well with curry shrimp and curry goat

Ingredients: 

• 3 cups of rice
•  1 cup of fresh kidney beans
•  1 uncut scotch bonnet pepper (1 jalapeno pepper may be used as a substitute)
•  1 tin (or one cup) of coconut milk
•  1 teaspoon of salt
•  1 teaspoon of black pepper
•  2 teaspoons of dried thyme

Method:

1. Wash beans and boil.
2. After 35mins of boiling the beans should be soft to the touch. Take 1 or 2 out if it crushes easily then it's ready 
3. Add coconut milk,salt,thyme,pepper & scotch bonnet.(the pepper remains uncut so as to not make the rice spicy, just give it a subtle peppery flavor)
4. Add rice,stir,cover with foil and allow to cook for about 40minutes

After adding everything to the beans. 

Fried rice

Some will call this vegetable rice but I've always known as just plain old fried rice. Yummy yummy rice!! I love how versatile rice is lol. You can do so much with it.

Ingredients: 

• 4cups of white rice
• 3 carrots
• 3 stalks of scallions (also known as spring onions)
• 1 green pepper
• 2 eggs
• Seasoning salt 
• Soy sauce
• 1/2 cup of oil

Method:

Drying out the rice

1. Cook rice, when it's ready dish it out in a tray or bowl so that it can dry up(need it as dry as possible,you don't want sticky rice)
2. Chop all vegetables. (You can grate the carrots, because sometimes chopping carrots into those tiny cubes can be very tiresome :-) lol)
3. By now your rice should be fully dried up, time to make some fried rice :-) lol
4. In a non stick frying pan/sauce pan(anything big enough that will make the mixing easier), pour a tablespoon of oil. 2 tablespoons of beaten eggs and scramble the eggs, and add a handful of vegetables, stir for a about a minute
5. Add your rice, stir for about 2 minutes
6. Pour in a small amount of soy sauce, stir it till its brown, if the rice is still white, add a little more soy sauce
7. Add a teaspoon of seasoning salt , stir for about 5minutes,taste(if salt isn't enough add another teaspoon more of seasoning salt) , pour in a foil pan or bowl and repeat from number 4 till there is no more white rice and vegetables
8. Enjoy :-) 

Chopped carrots (you can do this if you have lots of time to spare lol)

Grated carrots very fast and easier than the chopping lol

African salad,beer marinated chicken and fried rice

Fried rice using parboiled brown rice (surprisingly it was good lol)

Served with beef sauce and "African" salad. :-) 

Curry Goat

My 2nd favorite Jamaican dish. When I first tasted this dish I wanted to be smart and find out the ingredients that was used for it by just tasting it. Well let's just say I failed LOL but hey that's all part of learning right? :-) Well finally after asking some people and adding my own I got the ingredients right. This goes very well with either white rice or rice n peas, I even had it with fried rice and jollof (YUM!!)

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of goat meat (cubed) 
• 2 tablespoons of curry powder (I like mine with a lot of curry so you can use 2 teaspoons instead if you don't want too much curry)
• 2 diced onions
• 2 scotch bonnet pepper(Jamaican hot pepper)
• 2 teaspoons of thyme
• 4 cloves of garlic (optional for those who are not big fans of garlic)
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon of butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 a pound of carrots (diced)  [Optional for those who would rather not have it in there]
• 1/2 a pound of potatoes (diced)[Also optional but the carrots and potatoes gives it the thickness like in the picture]

Method:

1. Blend all ingredients with the exception of the carrots and potatoes with half a cup of water, adding more water if all ingredients do not mix well enough
2. Wash goat meat very well and add the blended ingredients to it and let it marinate overnight (preferably) but if you want it fast just let it marinate for about an hour or two
3. Scrape off as much marinade as you can, it will be used for later
4. Fry the meat with butter and allow it to brown gently after 15mins transfer meat to a sauce pan add the potatoes and carrots and the scraped marinade and just enough water to cover the meat.



Best way to have curry goat with rice n peas,steamed veggies and some fried plantains

5. Let it boil then let it simmer until the meat is very tender. (this should take about 45mins to an hour)

Mac n Cheese

I was never a big fan of mac n cheese honestly but my little cousins and nephew enjoys it. So for the love of my babies lol, I started doing my research on recipes for it but most of them seemed so complicated and too much work. I found a simpler way to do mine.


Ingredients:

• 1 16oz(1lb) elbow macaroni 
•  6 cups of shredded cheese(can be cheddar, parmesan any cheese you prefer, but ideally cheddar cheese is used)
• 2 cups of cheddar cheese for the topping
• 1 can of evaporated milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1/3 cup butter

Method: 

1. Boil elbow macaroni until its soft
2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C)
3. When the macaroni is ready in a small foil pan mix cheese(not all cheese), milk, butter, egg, salt and pepper.
4. When everything is completely mixed, add the remaining cheese on top. 
5. Bake for about 20mins or when cheese is melted on top. 
6. Enjoy :-)

PS: Some people like to use bread crumbs for their mac n cheese. You can do so by 1st sprinkling some cheese on top then adding your bread crumbs then adding the remaining of the cheese to it. This way the bread crumbs will melt on the bread crumbs

This was for a party that's why its two trays. And plus we had excess cheese :-)

Banana Bread

I had some bananas that were going to waste so I figured why not make something with them. That's when I made this banana bread with the help of other recipes. I combined 3 different recipes and made mine. Do NOT waste your bananas make YUMMY banana bread. :-)


Ingredients:

• Cooking spray(for greasing pan) 
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/2 cup butter (softened)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• Optional - 1/4 cup walnuts(chopped)
•                -1/3 cup chocolate chips (unsweetened)

Method:

1. Preheat your oven at 375 degrees F. (190degrees C)
2. Mash the bananas in a separate bowl
3. In another bowl, cream sugar and butter together till its evenly mix 
4. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, add milk and vanilla extract
5. Mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and mashed bananas. (If you choose to add walnuts or chocolate chips you can add that now)
6. Mix everything till smooth
7. Pour in greased baking pan (loaf pan will be ideal)
8. Bake for about 1hr and 5mins or when you stick a toothpick in and comes out clean
9. Allow your banana bread to cool for about 10minutes before serving it.

Not the prettiest sight but this is without the chocolate chips or walnuts

Mini chocolate chips mixture

Oven ready. Ps: I overdid it with the cooking spray(DONT be like me..lol)

I wanted it plain hence the reason why it's missing the walnuts and chocolate chips

Banana bread with mini chocolate chips

Inside my mini chocolate chips banana bread :-) 

Meat pie

Meat pie is one kind of pastries that you would find at almost every party or occasion in Ghana. I love it. You can add meat,tuna or corned beef in it and it tastes just as yummy


Fill in ingredients:

• For the tuna fill in: all you need is about 4 tins of tuna. 1 onion(finely chopped). salt and black or white pepper to taste. Mix together and just add to pie
• For the corned beef fill in: 2 or 3 tins of corned beef. 1 onion (finely chopped) pepper to taste because most corned beef are already salty. Mix together, add to pie

• Minced meat(Ground beef)
• 1 teaspoon of grated ginger
• 1 or 2 Onions
• A little tiny bit of jalepeno pepper
• 1 table spoon of tomato paste
• 1 stalk of scallions [Not for blending.]

Method for the fill in:

1. Steam the minced meat.
2. While that's steaming, blend the onions,ginger and pepper with 1/3 cup of water.
3. Pour the oil out of the minced meat. Allow the meat to cool down.
4. Put the blended ingredients in a cooking pot, with a tablespoon of oil, allow it to boil for a while. Then mix in the tomato paste. Let it cook for about 15mins [with constant stirring]
5. Mix in the meat[you can add corned beef because the minced meat shrinks & doesn't look a lot and also because the corned beef gives it a different taste.]
6. Mix in the chopped scallions & onions.
7. Season with black pepper & seasoning salt.
8. Allow it to cook for awhile. Taste and season to your taste.  Then let it cool for awhile before adding it to the pie.
9. Brush the pie with eggs before putting it in the oven 

Ingredients for dough:

• 2 lbs butter or margarine [8 sticks for those in the U.S]
• 5 lbs flour [1 bag]
• 2 tablespoons nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons salt.
• Cold water to mix into dough.
• Eggs or evaporated milk (this is for coating the pie)

Method for the dough: 

1. Preheat oven at 375 degrees F(190 degrees C)
2. Mix flour,butter, nutmeg & salt.
3. Add the water slowly while mixing with fingertips till dough forms.
4. If the dough is mixed well it wouldn't stick to surface when trying to roll.
5. Roll till you get about 2in (5mm) thickness
6. Use a small circular bowl or if you have a meat pie cutter you can use that to make round cuts
7. Remove any excess dough on the edges, add your fillin to the center,add  enough fill in that you would be able to close it.
8. Fold one part of the dough to meet the other. Use water on the inside edges of the pie and then use a fork to close edges closely together (Ps: The water is to make sure the pie stays closed)
9. Put into greased pan.

Can make it in any shape you want it. The different shapes represented the kind of meat in there. 

Curry Shrimp

I love shrimp, fried, grilled, boiled no matter how it is cooked, I just love shrimp lol BUT curry shrimp has to be one of my absolute favorites.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds of peeled and deveined shrimp
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of curry powder
• 2 stalks of scallion(also known as spring onions)
• 2 onions
• 1 tomato(optional)
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper(Jamaican hot pepper)
• 1 teaspoon of cornstarch(if none, flour can be used...this thickens the sauce)
• 1/2 sweet green pepper 
• 1/2 sweet red or yellow bell pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Ps: You don't have to use all these bell peppers. They are optional, I used them because i love them :-).

Method:

1. Chop onions,scallions, peppers, tomato and garlic
2. Mix the shrimp in one bowl with one tablespoon of curry powder
3. Melt the butter in a sauce pan, add the other tablespoon of curry powder, fry for about a minute
4. Add the chopped vegetables, fry for about 2 minutes
5. Add the shrimps and let it simmer for about 5 minutes
6. Add water and cornstarch(flour) and let it cook for another 5-10 minutes
7. Enjoy with white rice, rice and peas, jollof or fried rice. :-)