The Diary Game [12-08-2025]: Welcome To My Kitchen Corner.

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Hello and Welcome to my kitchen corner!. Today I am so excited to be sharing with you one of my favorite meals I love to prepare. It's simple but yet a delicious rice and tomato sauce. This meal is perfect for weeknights dinner or a perfect weekend meal. It's a greatly versatile meal, in that aspect. You can easily adapt it to your test, using whatever ingredients you have and still obtaining the same results. So feel free to substitute ingredients as you see fit.

On this faithful morning, I visited the market and purchase a few ingredients of which I will be using to prepare this wonderful meal. At the market I was able to make a number of purchases As you are going to see on the image below. It's a simple meal and I am sure you would recognize a majority of the ingredients used.

^{All ingredients purchase}

For heads up, the eggs are not part of this but just an additive to the market purchased as they were already exhausted in the house and need replacement. So we focus on whatever is on the bag.

Step1: preparing ingredients.

The first thing I love to do is to get my ingredients ready, so that when I start preparing I don't need to catch up with one or two things before using them. When I start everything is a go ahead and no stopping. For this meal I will be using:

• Rice: 3 cups of long grain rice, completely rinsed with tap water until the cloudy water runs clear.

• Onion: One large onion, finely chopped

• protein: 1 kg of chicken cuts into bite size pieces.

• spices: garlic, Ginger, seasoning cubes, salt, seasoning powder, chicken seasoning paste, curry powder, green pepper, white pepper, cloves.

• vegetable oil: a good amount necessary for deep frying.

step 2: Cooking Rice

To begin with, I will start by cooking the rice if you haven't rinsed as mentioned before, you do so immediately. I proceed by adding four cups of water to a pot and bring it to boil. While the water is boiling, I bring the three cups of rice and add to they already boiling water.

Equally, this is followed by a pinch of salt and tiny drops of oil. The oil is to make the rice sparsely and not clogged together. Equally it will prevent it from burning quickly. I proceed by stirring the mixture completely one time and allow the pot to boil for at least 20 minutes. Once the rice becomes puffy, I taste it and if not ready I act a half cup of water and allow it to boil for at least five more minutes. Once the water completely runs dry, and the grains become tender and puffy, I will turn off the fire at this point.

^{Boiling rice}

The sauce

step 3. Steaming and frying the chicken.

Most often some people will decide to fry the chicken right away. My style is to season the chicken for a bit, spices and equally some green spices. After which I allow it to boil at least 20 minutes or more. Once this is complete, I will proceed by removing the chicken from the boiling water and allow it to drain for a bit.

^{Steaming chicken}

In a separate pot, I add a good quantity of vegetable oil in the pot. The oil is allowed to warm for at least 5 minutes before I could add my seasoned chicken slices into it for frying. I fry until the chicken slices are all looking golden brown on the sides. This step is very crucial as it gives the appetizing look and taste of the chicken.

After all the chicken has been fried, I will remove it and put in a separate dish before continuing with the sauce preparation.

^{Fried chicken ready}

Step 4 : Making the sauce

Occasionally, I would usually slice tomatoes and put in the freezer in such a way that anytime I want to prepare I would not need to visit the market often. Removing two bundles of tomatoes chopped piece, I put them in water to defrost for a bit.

^{Frozen tomatoes.}

After which I add them in the pot for them to drain the acidic salty water of the tomatoes. This will take at least 30 minutes for the water to completely dry. After which I add a little bit off vegetable oil and continuous daring onto all the water have completely dry. The vegetable oil prevents the tomatoes from burning while it is draining .

^{draining tomatoes}

Step 5: Simmering and seasoning.

With our tomatoes ready, I add chopped spices which are onion and green pepper. Equally I add some of the oil I used to fry the chicken with it in the tomato paste. This will help maintain the test of the sauce. I stir For at least 3 minutes before adding blended spices; Ginger and garlics, white paper cloves all blended into a paste.

^{chopped spices. Green pepper and onions}

More to that, I add some seasoning powder and equally seasoning cubes and a bit of salt. I taste the combination right away to be sure everything is in the right proportion. Stirring for a bit, I add the water I used to boil the chicken in the sauce and allow it to boil for at least 10 minutes.

Finally, I add the fried chicken to the combination and stir. The pot is allowed to boil again for another 3 to 5 minutes. This allow the chicken to absorb all the delicious ingredients of the sauce and equally become tender. And there you have it. Our sauce is ready.

I love serving with some vegetables, however, that is not available for the moment. In that case, I decide to accompany it with a glass of red wine. Bon appétit. 😋.

^{Our Meal is Ready and Served}

What is one of your favorite dishes to prepare at home? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

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Best regards to @rafk.

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