Chicken Curry Jorj’s Way Featuring Kitchens of Africa

Chicken Curry Jorj’s Way Featuring Kitchens of Africa

Face Your Foodie Fears

Spice up your dinner tonight with this extraordinary chicken and cauliflower recipe, featuring North Carolina’s Kitchens of Africa. Treat yourself to a taste of adventure by indulging in fried chickpeas and light yet creamy lime-avocado yogurt!

Hubby and I are embarked on an African adventure!

Besides the shots, mosquito repellent, neutral-colored clothing, and hats, the one thing I’m happy to pre-plan is the food!

Although springing up in several cities, African fare is still a unique meal to find.

It just so happens that when reading several of the MUST-HAVE holiday gift guides, I came across Kitchens of Africa, a company with a mission to bring the diverse and exotic cuisine of Africa to the rest of the world. 

Originating in Raleigh, North Carolina, Kitchens of Africa offers a variety of sauces that we can use to bring the flavors of Africa to our home kitchens. 

Of course, I bought a box from Kitchens of Africa and received four different jars with recipes to go along with each. 

 

I decided to start with the Zanzibari Curry Simmer Sauce. I chopped some veggies and chicken and simmered them in the sauce. It was delish! 

If you have a craving for curry, and you haven’t placed your order from Kitchens of Africa, do not worry. 

I’ve included a recipe from Canvas and Cuisine that will hold you over until you do!

Chicken and Cauliflower Curry
With Lime-Avocado Yogurt and Fried Chickpeas

Servings

Serves 4 as a Main or 6 as a Side

 

Ready In:

60 Minutes

Good For:

Dinner

Ingredients:

2 tablespoon olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 2-inch pieces
1 medium onion, peeled and diced, about 1 cup
4 garlic cloves, peeled and diced, about 2 tablespoons
2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated, about 2 tablespoons
1 medium jalapeno pepper, seeded, veins and stem removed, finely diced, about 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 tablespoons garam masala
1 cinnamon stick
2 cups homemade chicken stock or prepared low sodium broth
1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets
1 (15-ounce) can of diced tomatoes
½ cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon coarse black pepper

For yogurt:
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 ripe avocado, peeled, seed removed
2 small green onions, thinly sliced
Juice of 1 lime, about 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

For chickpeas:
1 (15-ounce can) chickpeas
½ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Zest 1 lime, about 1 teaspoon

Heat olive oil in a skillet with deep sides over medium-high heat. Place the chicken pieces into the skillet and cook until golden brown on all sides. Season with some salt and pepper. Transfer the chicken to a platter.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, tomato paste, curry powder, garam masala, and cinnamon stick to the skillet. Stir and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

Your kitchen should begin to smell like curry! Stir in the chicken broth. Add the cauliflower to the skillet and cook until tender, about 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sautéed chicken, and coconut milk. Cook for 5 minutes more. Reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the cauliflower tender but not mushy, about 15 to 20 minutes more. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Use a hand mixer, blender, or immersion blender to blend the yogurt and avocado until smooth. Stir in the green onions, lime juice, and cilantro. Taste and season with salt.

Rinse, drain and pat dry chickpeas. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place the chickpeas into the oil and fry until golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. If your pan is not very large you can do this in batches. Remove the chickpeas to a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Sprinkle with paprika, salt, and lime zest. Toss to coat.

Serve the cauliflower and chicken curry in a bowl garnished with a spoonful of lime–avocado yogurt and sprinkled with fried chickpeas.

Tried it? Tag it!

I would love to see what you did with this recipe.  Share your creation by tagging #inthekitchenwithjorj and with Scrumptious Possibilities With Jorj, my free private home cooking group.

Lots of CHIPS! Easy Chocolate Chip Recipe Ideas

Lots of CHIPS! Easy Chocolate Chip Recipe Ideas

Chocolate chips are meant to be celebrated! Enjoy this deliciously chocolatey morsel with this quick and oh-so-easy recipe to treat yourself.

Can you believe it’s National Chocolate Chip Day! Yay o yay!

Since chips are one of the things that are always in my pantry, I’m so happy to celebrate this deliciously chocolatey morsel. There are soooooo many dishes that use chips, I can hardly decide which ones are my favorite.

Here are just a few:

Shall we start with the hallowed cookie? Chocolate chips are the favored add-in for chocolate chip cookies. But don’t stop there.

Any chip works,  as do nuts and dried fruit.

Mini-chocolate chips are perfect in coffee-dunking biscotti.

Chips are great on an ice-cream sundae bar.

Let’s mix these chips into brownies and bread, like chocolate chip banana bread.

Sprinkle a handful of chips into your homemade trail mix or bake them into your granola bar.

Just a few chips add a great bit of fun to your dessert bread pudding.

Ohhhh, and you can melt chips into things.

I once won a chili cookoff when I added dark chocolate chips to my chili base.

You can make a super mole sauce by adding in some chocolate chips. Chocolate and spice are everything nice!

Melting chocolate chips produces a rich chocolate fondue or a fabulous fudge sauce. Speaking of fudge sauce.

How easy is this?

1. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a deep pot over low heat.

2. Add 1 (14-ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk.

3. When the butter melts and the mixture is warm, remove the pot from the heat and stir in 2 cups of dark chocolate chips.

The result is a richly, chocolatey mound of chocolate fudge sauce that you can use to top ice cream, smush in between two cookies, spread onto a pretzel, or just dip your finger into when you need a dose of chocolate. It’s all good!

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Go Nana Bananas!

Go Nana Bananas!

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When you want something homemade to gather grandkids around the kitchen…

Join me in the kitchen for more memories and recipes with our featured ingredient: BANANAS! 

I will show you how to whip bananas into delicious homemade delights, from breakfast (or anytime!) bread to donuts and finally my one-of-a-kind Banana Pudding Ice Cream!

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Best Steak Kabobs Recipe With Bonus Cucumber Tzatziki

Best Steak Kabobs Recipe With Bonus Cucumber Tzatziki

Summer will be here before you know it, but why wait? Serve these steak kabobs with a fabulous sauce and enjoy something on a stick when the mood strikes!

The revival of kabobs has begun. At least for me, it has.

I remember my mom threading beef and tomatoes on skewers and grilling them over a charcoal flame. The results were a bit charred but just FUN enough for everyone to giggle over.

Kabobs are terrific when you are hosting a crowd. You can prepare everything in advance and then grill them in minutes.

You can also vary the skewers so everyone can choose their own. What a FABULOUS solution for your picky eater or diet-restricted guest!

In my earlier catering days, I would thread bite-size nibbles onto short skewers for a terrific display of appys.

I still do this with sweet tomatoes, marinated tortellini, and small balls of mozzarella. Yummm!

Here’s a recipe from my upcoming book for beef kabobs. That’s right, book #8 is WELL underway! 

The secret to beef kabobs is to make sure that everything you thread onto the skewer is equal in bite-size and that the skewers are not over-stuffed.

You want things tightly fitted together, but not squished! Give these a try!

National Something On a Stick Day:
Tenderloin Steak Kabobs With Mushrooms, Peppers, and Onions

Servings

4 – 6

Ready In:

30 minutes ‘til it’s ready

Ingredients

1 bell pepper, three different colors
1 large red onion, peeled
12 baby portabella mushrooms
3 (4 to 6-ounce) tenderloin steaks
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

Cut each pepper in half (from stem to bottom) and then in half again. Remove the stem and seeds. Cut each piece in half.

Cut the onion in half across the center, leaving the eds in place. Cut each half down into 6 wedges, trying to keep the pieces connected by the stem.
Pull the stems from the mushrooms.

Cut the steaks into 1-inch pieces.

Thread the skewers starting with 2 pieces of pepper. Thread 1 chunk of beef, followed by a wedge of onion and a mushroom. Thread another chunk of beef and repeat with peppers, onion, and mushroom. End with another chunk of beef. Continue threading skewers until all the ingredients have been uses. You should have about 6 skewers.

Heat a grill pan over high heat. Season the skewers with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil. Lay the skewers (as many as will fit) onto the grill. Cook for 2 minutes. Turn a quarter of a turn and cook for 2 minutes more. Continue until all sides of the beef have been browned, about 6 to 8 minutes total. Test for doneness. Rare to medium rare works great for this steak.

 

Do you know what would be really FUN?

Serve these kabobs with a fabulous sauce like this one for cucumber tzatziki sauce.

Peel and slice a medium cucumber. Lay the slices onto paper towels and sprinkle with salt. After 5 minutes, wrap the cucumber in the paper towels and squeeze out the excess moisture.

Place the slices into the bowl of a food processor. Add 4 peeled and ⅓ cup fresh dill. Pulse to combine. Add 2 cups plain Greek yogurt, the juice from ½ lemon. Pulse again. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce into a bowl and serve with kabobs. Oh! Let’s add a couple of pitas to make things really authentic.

Chips and Dip For All Occasions: Party Dip Recipe Ideas

Chips and Dip For All Occasions: Party Dip Recipe Ideas

mardi gras king cake donuts

Chips and Dip Day celebrates all things crunchy, gooey, dippable, shareable, snackable, and delectable! Get inspired with my best party dip recipes, whether it’s for one, two, or a whole crowd.

 

I have made my fair share of chips and dips over the years, every which way and for just about every occasion.

From appetizers to party take-along to afternoon snacks, the versatile chips and dip dish strikes a satisfying balance of keeping us just the right amount of full before a big meal (or in-between them)!

Chips and dip are a staple in my household, and maybe yours, as well!  But I know you must be wondering…

Are chips and dip healthy?

The wonderful thing about home-cooking is that you have control over your ingredients and preparation process.

I have made both potato chips and veggie chips in my oven with great results and prefer this extra step over store-bought when making chips and dip fresh for my family and friends.

Get my “Oven Baked Seasoned Potato Chips
with Caramelized Onion Dip” recipe for National Chips and Dip Day, or try these fun recipes from my archives!

Roasted Red Pepper Cheese Spread

Servings

1 Cup Dip
2 tablespoons per serving size

Ready In:

15 minutes

Ingredients

1 (3-ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese
2 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chopped roasted red pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
4 ounces reduced-fat grated cheddar cheese (about 1 cup)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Place the cream cheese, mayonnaise, red pepper, parsley and cheese into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until combined. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with assorted cut vegetables and homemade potato or veggie chips.

 

Peace, Love and Far Out Recipe for Chips n’ Dip

Jorj’s Kale Chips

Servings

6

Ready In:

12 – 18 minutes

Ingredients

1 pound fresh kale
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

Line a cookie sheet with a Silpat liner or parchment paper. Prepare the kale for baking by using a sharp knife to remove the leaves from the thick stems; tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces.

Wash and pat dry the kale. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle generously with the salt and pepper. Add a few sprinkles of red pepper flakes.

Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, between 12 to 18 minutes.

Peace, Love and Far Out Recipe for Chips n’ Dip

Southern Super Supper Book Club Menu

Southern Super Supper Book Club Menu

It’s “Read An eBook Week” and my recipes and read are available for immediate download! Host a Southern-style book club supper with “Almost Sisters” by Joshilyn Jackson and my “Sunday Best Dishes” menu.

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission. 

Last year I discovered author Joshilyn Jackson and devoured every book she’s written in record time.

For me, her characters, strong Southern women, strike a chord with so many attributes I aspire to. Her heroines face challenges that we can identify with, although hopefully in not such a dramatic manner!

For this book club, I’ve chosen the book “The Almost Sisters”.

This is not her most recent book, but I find it to be very current given our present political climate. And although this book is in no way political, it does deal with issues in the headlines.

Here is a summary from Amazon:

“With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of gods in Alabama pens a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality—the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.

 

Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs’ weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.

 

It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She’s having a baby boy—an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight-year-old’s life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel’s marriage implodes.

 

Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she’s been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.

 

Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother’s affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she’s pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she’s got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie’s been hiding.

 

Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family’s freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.”

There’s a pivotal scene in the book that serves as the catalyst for bringing Leia home to Alabama and her grandmother. Birchie and her caretaker, Wattie attend a potluck supper after Sunday church. It’s Birchie’s out-of-character outburst in front of the parishioners that sends a distress call to Leia.

Sunday after church potluck suppers are a tradition in the South. I must have been on the same wavelength with Ms. Jackson when I wrote an entire chapter of the potluck recipes in my book, “Sunday Best Dishes.”

This book is the perfect one for recipes for your book club menus. Buy one and share it with all of your book club members!

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission. 

Here’s a menu that will work perfectly for your book discussion of “The Almost Sisters”:

Pretty Potluck Beans

Sunday Best Dishes, page 73

Southern-Style Chicken Pot with Okra and Collards

Sunday Best Dishes, page 79

Scalloped Potatoes with Ham and Green Onions

Sunday Best Dishes, page 83

Trio of Picnic Salads

Sunday Best Dishes, page 123

#RecipesAndReads

 

Here are a couple of book club discussion questions to get you started:

  • There are multiple relationships in the novel that fit the title The Almost Sisters description. How did the title take on new meaning to you as the story developed?
  • Despite her worsening dementia, Birchie is still a strong character throughout the book. How would you describe her lifelong friendship with Wattie? Did your impressions change throughout the novel? Why do you think Birchie chose to keep their true relationship a secret even as times changed?
  • Leia makes the decision to hide her pregnancy early on and keeps her secret throughout much of the story. Do you think Leia made the right decision? Were you surprised by the characters’ reactions when her pregnancy was revealed?

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