Love at first taste

Recently, while on my usual roam on the Internet streets, I came across an interesting page with food photos that will leave your mouth watering.

Chef Kennedy Miriti is a recent culinary graduate, whose passion for food impressed me. I sent him a request to invite me into his kitchen and when he did, I took a back seat as he combined his passion for photography and cooking.

He tells me that apart from taking pictures of good food and making cooking videos, he also has interests in music and the arts. He turns on the music to set the mood and pace.

“I loved cooking so much that when I was in college, I started getting jobs from small restaurants and bakeries.

Also, young and energetic people who desired to showcase their products on social media came to me for assistance,” he says as he puts some rice into boiling water. “I love wali wa nazi (coconut rice) since the first time I had it at Coast Dishes restaurant in Ukunda.

It was love at first taste,” says Miriti, and it’s what he decides to cook as he combines that with his photo skills to wow me. 

He is using a DSLR camera with strobe lights and a variety of props to spice up the images. Anything he uses can be eaten. He explains that he doesn’t like using inedible hacks.

His client base is basically hotels, restaurants, food manufacturing and processing companies, bakeries, caterers, food bloggers and other food related or hospitality establishments. 

The USIU graduate of Hotel and Restaurant Management tells me that smoked chicken sausages salad with coconut rice is a simple meal that takes less that 30 minutes to prepare.

I’ve never known how to make chicken sausage tasty. I once bought them from the supermarket and ended up regretting, as everyone at home was mad that I wasted cash on something that tasted horrible.

The chef explains that to have a perfect taste, sauté the sausages before pan-frying with ingredients such as onions, garlic, coriander, chicken curry, capsicum, red chilli, black pepper, salt and tomato purée. He added parmesan cheese to top it all off.

Smoked chicken sausages salad and coconut rice (serves 2)

FOR THE COCONUT RICE

INGREDIENTS

1 and a half cups of rice

1 cup of coconut milk

1 cup of water

Half a teaspoon of salt

METHOD

Soak the rice for 10 minutes and rinse.

Mix the salt, water and the coconut milk and boil.

Put the rice after the mixture starts simmering and let it boil for around 15 minutes on medium heat.

FOR THE SALAD

INGREDIENTS

6 to 8 smoked chicken sausages

2 red onions

1 bundle of dhania

1 red capsicum

1 yellow capsicum

1 green capsicum

1 tablespoon of tomato puree

1 teaspoon of salt

Spices; half a teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of chicken curry

Cooking oil

2 teaspoons of parmesan cheese

METHOD

Chop the sausages, onions, dhania, and the capsicums and put in separate containers.

In a saucepan, sauté the smoked sausages for five minutes on high heat till they turn golden brown, then remove from heat.

In a different saucepan, put cooking oil and sauté the onions, then put the tomato puree, dhania and the chopped capsicums, and let them sauté for three minutes.

Add the sausages, and stir as you add the salt and spices until everything mixes well.

When plated, you can sprinkle the cheese on top of the salad, and serve with coconut rice.