Show me a bigger salad lover than I? I’m waiting. I absolutely love salads. The different textures and flavours at play just make me so happy. I learnt of an online business that sells organically grown vegetables and I bought some supplies from them. I got the curly kale and beets from them. As soon as I’d seen the kale I knew exactly what I wanted to make. Here’s a haul video I did on my Instagram. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Leo tunapika? (@leotunapika) The only time consuming part of this salad recipe is the preparation of the beetroot. You can choose to either steam ..read more

Jump to Recipe Jump to Video One of my favourite ways to enjoy oxtail is by making this very hearty ragu. It requires just a handful of ingredients and the results are simply amazing. Just as the name suggests oxtail is a cut of meat from the tail of cattle. By nature, oxtail is a tough cut of meat which is gelatin rich due to a large amount of collagen in the bone, thus it needs to be cooked low and slow for best results. Growing up, I mostly had oxtail in form of soup that my mother used to make. The soup is very rich and gelatinous and oh so glorious when some chilies are added to it. In m ..read more

Print Recipe Jump to Video Jump to Recipe Vanilla sister to the black forest cake. The white forest cake is made of spongy vanilla cake layers with sugar syrup and decorated with whipped cream and strawberries. The result is a delicate, tender and moist cake. Absolutely delicious. For this edition of “Baking with friends” I hosted the talented Zaituni Wambui. Zaituni is a singer/songwriter who describes her style as Urban taarab. You can listen to her single, Ananipenda, here. White forest cakeThe cake is best enjoyed chilled. Print White Forest Cake Ingredients 230 grams all purpose flo ..read more

Jump to Recipe Jump to Video There’s something about a rich and fudgy chocolate and this one is just delightful. Decorated with a rich dark chocolate ganache and topped with toasted almond flakes, you’ll definitely want to try this recipe. This cake month, I’m ‘Baking with friends’ and my first guest is Kodo. He is the creative behind Sanaa kwa Sana, where they highlight, document and critique Kenyan arts and music. We discussed a bit of his about his work as I showed him how to bake this cake. It was his first time baking. I have also partnered with EAGM for cake and I have a baking basics ..read more

A friend was in Zanzibar back in August and I managed to send her for some vanilla bean pods. Vanilla is one of most expensive spice in the world. Locally it’s pretty hard to come by and costs so much more. To make the most of the vanilla bean pods it best to make vanilla extract. I also used the vanilla beans to make some vanilla sugar. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Leo tunapika? (@leotunapika) For the other vanilla bean pods, I used them to make homemade vanilla extract. I made both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. The extract is pretty easy to make with the only hard thing ..read more

Did you know that you can use grated zucchini in cake? Oh yes, you can. Zucchini or courgette is a great addition to cake batter as it adds moisture to the cake. Essentially one doesn’t really taste the zucchini. This loaf is very easy to make and yields a mildly spiced moist and tender cake. It’s similar to a carrot cake, in texture and taste. For this zucchini loaf I use oil instead of margarine or butter in the batter as oil yields a moister cake. I also opted to use brown sugar instead of granulated white sugar. The molasses in the brown sugar give the cake a darker colour and adds to the ..read more

It’s my birthday! 33! Jesus year. Excited to celebrate another year and keeping with my tradition I’m baking my own birthday cake. I’ve made a mixed berry cake based off my vanilla cake recipe which coincidentally I shared last year for my birthday. This cake is the perfect combination of sweet and tart. The pairing with the white chocolate ganache is just divine. I used a mix of three berries, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. If you have mulberries and blackberries, you can add them in. This year I’m making my birthday all about family and good food. I’m looking forward to a fun o ..read more

Originally the Black Forest Gateau or Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte as it’s called in German is a cake made up of chocolate sponge layers filled with whipped cream and cherries then covered with more whipped cream and chocolate shavings. In Germany for it to be called Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte , it’s law that the sponge cake layers must be fed with kirschwasser, a type of cherry liqueur. In Kenya, Black forest cake is much loved and quite a popular. Locally, cherries are not readily available and when you find them they can be quite pricey so strawberries are a good substitute. In place of the kir ..read more

Leftover spaghetti from dinner? Let’s make a quick fix. I used the ingredients I had on hand. I included the leftover french beans and carrots stir fry from the same dinner. What I loved about making this was that it was ready in 5 minutes. Essentially everything is already cooked so the gist is to combine and heat everything. One caveat I’ll give is not to add salt. Remember the leftover food had been previously salted and the addition of soy sauce and peanut butter means more sodium levels. You can however add freshly cracked black pepper or some red chilli flakes. Some roughly crushed pean ..read more

Rolex is a popular food in Uganda. It’s basically an omelette and veggies wrapped with a chapati. From my little research the name rolex is a play on rolled eggs. Albeit knowing about rolex, this was my first time making and eating it. I absolutely loved the outcome. Typically cabbage is used but I didn’t have any on hand so I used arugula. I also added cheese to the mix. I particularly loved the combination of the two with everything else. This cheesy arugula omelette is the perfect fix for just about any meal and is very easy to whip up. A key ingredient is chapati. I used leftover chapati ..read more