The Taste of Easter

Recipes: Deviled Eggs
Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide. It  traditionally use to be dyed and painted chicken eggs, but today I want to introduce you to a special egg recipe, Deviled eggs.

Servings; 4

•  4 eggs
• 1/5 cup mayonnaise or yogurt
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sweet relish
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• sweet paprika for garnish

Boil the eggs: Place the eggs in a medium (2-3 quart) saucepan and fill with enough water to cover the eggs by 2 inches. Cover and bring to a boil, then remove from the heat and let rest, still covered, for 8 minutes.

Fill a large bowl halfway with ice water.

Drain the eggs and shake gently in the pan to crack their shells.

Place the eggs in the ice water bath and let sit for 5 minutes before peeling.

Peel the eggs, then cut the eggs in half and gently scoop the yolks into a mixing bowl.

Make the filling: Mash the yolks with a fork, then stir in the mayonnaise, relish, mustard, salt and pepper. Transfer the yolk filling to a zip-top bag or a nylon, seal and refrigerate.

Place the egg whites in an airtight container and refrigerate.

To assemble: Place the egg whites on a serving platter. Snip a corner off the still-sealed zip-top bag and use the bag as a piping tool to fill the egg whites.

Sprinkle with paprika and serve.

Main course meal; Shrimps Coconut rice

Ingredients

• Rice – 3 cigar cups | 750g
• Vegetable t oil or coconut oil
• Coconut Milk 600 mls
• Coconut
• Chicken (whole chicken or drumsticks)
• Pepper – to taste
• Salt (to taste)
• Onions – 2 medium sized bulbs
• 4 Seasoning cubes &
• thyme(1 teaspoon)
• 3 cups Shrimps
• Vegetables: carrots, red pepper (optional)
• Butter
• Crayfish(optional)

Pre-cooking Instructions;

1. Grate the coconut, and squeezes out the milk in it. You could also blend it with a good blender as grating could be tasking.
2. You could also supplement it with canned coconut milk. The liquid one is preferable and helps you when the natural coconut milk is not enough.
3. If you will use whole chicken, wash and cut the whole chicken into pieces. Place the pieces in a pot; add water till it just covers the pieces of chicken, add the chopped onions, stock cubes and thyme and start cooking.
4. Cook until its done and add salt to taste. Put the pieces of chicken in a sieve to drain, then fry with vegetable oil. You can also grill it in an oven. This is to give it a golden look which is more presentable especially if you have guests for dinner.
5. Parboil the rice. However, make sure it’s not too soft before you cook.
6. In a separate skillet, saute the shrimp in a small amount of butter and precook the carrots, and peas (or other vegetable of your choice) until they are about half done (5 minutes).
7. Drain the vegetables and add to the chicken pot along with the shrimp, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

Cooking Instructions

1. Use a big pot that will accommodate the rice till it is done. Because the rice will normally rise by at least one quarter of its quantity from the parboiled state to the done state.
2. Put on boil the pot that has your chicken broth, coconut milk and the tomato stew, carrot, shrimps, peas.
3. You don’t need to put water; you can just use the coconut milk alone depending on the volume of rice.
4. Add the drained parboiled rice, salt and pepper to taste. If necessary, top up with water to bring the water level to the same level as the rice. This is to ensure that all the water dries up by the time the rice is cooked.
5. Add your seasoning cube, thyme and crayfish. Crayfish gives it a fishy flavour.
6. Cover the pot and leave to cook on medium heat. This way the rice does not burn before the water dries up.
7. Bon appetite, ready to serve.

Recipe; Spicy Chicken Curry

Recipe by Matse cooks.

Servings; 4

Ingredients:

1/2 part of Chicken
4 large sized carrots
1/2 medium sized cabbage
2 big onions
2 large green bell pepper
8 fresh red chilli pepper
1 tablespoon blended dried pepper
2-3 tablespoon of flour
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 seasoning cubes of your choice
2 cooking spoons of vegetable oil
Salt to taste

To cook the chicken, season with;
1/2 Large onion (sliced)
1 teaspoon of ginger powder or a tiny piece of crushed fresh ginger
1 teaspoon of garlic powder or 4 cloves of crushed fresh garlic
1 teaspoon of curry powder
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
2 season cubes of your choice
salt to taste

Preparation:

* Cut, wash and cook the chicken in water and the ingredients above till done and set aside, saving the stock.
* Slice the green bell pepper and chilli pepper vertically into 1cm stripes (remember to remove the seeds).
* Shred cabbage into stripes in harmony with the size of the peppers (remember to scrape off the outer skin of the carrot).
* Slice onions vertically.

In a deep frying pan or wok:

*Add the vegetable oil and allow to heat. Pour in the Onion, carrots, green bell pepper and chilli pepper. Stir for 1 minute and add the cabbage. Mix in properly.
* Add the seasoning cubes and mix.
* Then pour in the cooked chicken and the stock. Blend in nicely and add the blended dried pepper. Cook for 3 minutes, adding more water if needed.
* Add the curry powder and mix.
* Sprinkle in the flour bit by bit to check consistency. Adding more flour if needed or thinning it a bit with water.
* Check for salt.
* Cook for a few more minutes and your spicy chicken curry is ready.

Dessert; Easter Cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• Marzipan 225 g, finely chopped
• Butter 75 g, unsalted
• Caster sugar 100 g
• Eggs 3, beaten
• Milk 15 ml
• Almonds 100 g, ground
• Flour 150 g, all-purpose
• Baking powder 10 ml
• Almond extract 5 ml

For the frosting

• Icing sugar 250 g
• Water 30-45 ml, hot

For the decoration

• White marzipan 225 g
• Food colouring orange and green, as needed
• Apricot jam 15 ml

Info box

• Preparation time 40 m
• Cooking time 25 m
• Recipe category Dessert
• Recipe yield 8
• Recipe cuisine American

Preparation

For the cupcakes
Heat the oven to 180°C, gas 4.
Place paper cases in 10 bun tins.
Beat the marzipan, butter and sugar in a miming bowl to a smooth paste.
Whisk in the eggs gradually, whisking constantly until the mixture is smooth.
Gently fold in the almonds, flour and baking powder until well blended.
Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and springy to the touch.
Bring it out and leave it to cool.

For the frosting
Sift the confectioners’ sugar into a bowl and stir in enough hot water to give a thick coating consistency.
Spoon the frosting over the cakes, allowing it to run down the sides.
Leave to set.

For the marzipan carrots
Reserve 1/4 of the marzipan for the leaves.
Knead orange colouring into the larger piece of marzipan until the colour is even.
Roll the dough into small balls and roll the balls between your palms, elongating them into thin tubes and tapering one end, so that they are shaped like carrots.
Using a cocktail stick, make horizontal indentations all along the length of the ‘carrots’ to create slight creases.
Knead the green colouring into the smaller piece of marzipan.
Flatten small pieces and mark into leaf shapes.
Attach to the’ carrots’ with a dab of  jelly.
Place the ‘carrots’ on the cakes.