From left: Ida Odinga, Esther Passaris, Jackie Nyaminde (Wilbroda) and Linet Munyali (Size 8)
Whatever
you and your family plan to do tomorrow, chances are that food will be a
big part of it – in our society, a celebration is not a celebration
unless there is a lot of food and drink.
If you plan
to have a quiet Christmas at home with your family, or are entertaining
guests but haven’t figured out what to cook, take a look at what these
four women plan to make tomorrow – you might just get inspired!
Ida Odinga
Tomorrow
will be a big day for the wife of former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga.
There will be a big family celebration at their rural home in Bondo,
where her husband, her children, their spouses and their children, will
gather.
Ida says she looks forward to entertaining her
family tomorrow, something she has done for many years. But it is not
just those closest to her she will be entertaining.
“I
look after several orphans, and also care for some relatives and other
dependants, so they too will be part of the celebrations, as well as all
our farm workers and their families,” she says.
Mrs Odinga expects about 100 guests at her home tomorrow.
Ida says they will start off with breakfast, a buffet that will include the following :
Tea
Cereals
Porridge
Sausages
Eggs
Fresh fruits
Sweet potatoes
Boiled corn
White and brown bread
Fresh juice
For lunch, there will be plenty of meat for her guests.
“I
plan to slaughter two sheep for a barbeque. There will also be lots of
beef, which I like to season with spices such as rosemary, ginger and
garlic.”
Ida will also serve turkey. She likes to stuff
the bird in the early morning, so that she can have enough time to
grill it slowly.
In addition to the turkey, she also plans to prepare some “wet fry” chicken for her guests.
Besides this, the one dish that will be in plenty is fish.
“I love fish, a popular dish in my home.”
Here is how Mrs Odinga prepares hers
Ensure the fish is well-cleaned
Make a cut on the side
Set aside ginger, cumin seeds, salt and some lemon
Stuff them into the fish, through the side slit you made
Turn the fish over, and let it sit for at least 30 minutes to allow it to drain
Fry until well-cooked.
Mrs Odinga assures us that she gets compliments from everyone who eats her fish.
“You will lick your plate clean, lick your fingers and possibly even eat your nails,” she jokes.
Here is what will accompany the meat she will be serving:
Ugali (brown and white)
Rice
Chapatti
Roast potatoes
Salads and kachumbari
A wide variety of fresh fruits
Soft drinks, including fresh juices and soda
This
will definitely be a big party, but she has enough helping hands:
“Since it will be a family affair, my children and their families will
help to prepare the food.”
Esther Passaris
Unlike
other Christmas celebrations, this one will be somewhat subdued for
Esther Passaris, since her 92-year-old grandmother is admitted in
hospital.
However, she plans to prepare roast turkey, a common family tradition among the Greek, (her father is Greek)
Here is how she does it.
Beat an egg and add salt and pepper to season - the beaten egg will hold the stuffing (below) together
Stuff the turkey with onions, and garlic fried in butter
Add sage, sultanas, dates, stuffing of beef sausage and rice fried in butter.
Grease the turkey with olive oil and wrap in foil.
Roast the turkey
She often serves her roast turkey with roast potatoes as an accompaniment.
This is how she prepares the roast potatoes:
Boil them slightly
Fry with oil until brown
When the turkey is almost ready, add the potatoes so that they can brown together
She
also serves various salads. her favourite is a mixture of peas, carrots
and potatoes mixed with mayonnaise. She then decorates with sliced
eggs.
Since desserts make a big part of Greek celebration, Esther will be serving her guests various biscuits and puddings.
“Greeks love sweets,” she says.
She will also serve some cake for her guests; specifically selmonila cake and a rich English fruit cake.
Esther
plans to share this sumptious meal with her parents (now in their
seventies) her teenage children, 15 years and 18 years, her sister, and
her child.
Jackie Nyaminde (Wilbroda)
For this popular actress and MC, Christmas is all about bringing family together, and celebrating the goodness of the year.
Tomorrow, this mother of one will host her relatives at her Nairobi home.
“I
usually invite my mother, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles
for Christmas lunch, I even encourage them to bring their friends along,
especially the single ones, who do not have a ‘plan’. Good friendships
have been forged at my place, courtesy of my Christmas lunches,” laughs
Jackie, who adds that she is a match maker.
Last
Christmas, she hosted about 30 guests at her house, and expects a bigger
number tomorrow. Tomorrow morning will therefore be a busy one for
Jackie, as she will be up and about preparing lunch for her guests.
While
she says she prefers to eat a full meal for breakfast, she has planned a
lighter menu for those who will be at her home in the morning. The menu
will include:
Sweet potatoes
Arrow roots
Cereals
Bread
Sausages
Eggs
Fruits
Tea
Juice
Lunch will be more elaborate, and will include her favourite dish: brown ugali.
The flour she uses is a rich mixture of groundnut flour, muhogo (sorghum) flour, terere flour, wimbi and whole meal flour.
“Brown ugali is actually my son’s favourite dish,” she tells us. Her son, Xolani, is four.
While Jackie does not eat white ugali, she plans to make some for the guests who prefer it.
One
other dish that is in Jackie’s list tomorrow is chapatti. But she does
not just make plain old chapatti. She first boils pumpkin, mashes it and
then kneads it together with the flour. She assures us that the result
is the most mouth-watering chapatti you have ever tasted.
In addition to the ugali and pumpkin-flavoured chapattis, Jackie will also serve the following:
Fried kienyeji chicken
Mbuzi fry and mbuzi choma
Pilau
Fried potatoes (chips) and roasted whole potatoes especially for the children. There will also be plenty of sausages for them
A wide range of traditional vegetables (mboga kienyeji). Jackie’s favourite one is sagaa.
Kachumbari and different types of salads
Since
she plans to go all the way, there will be a long list of drinks to
choose from – tea, juices, soda, as well as alcoholic drinks, “Strictly
for the over 18!”
A lot of work awaits her, but she looks forward to it, pointing out that she has a small helper.
“Xolani, though still young, is like me, and enjoys having people around, and is eager to help me.”
For
instance, as Jackie prepares the meals, he collects the peels and other
waste, and takes them out to the dustbin, and when the guests are
through with their meals, he enjoys clearing the table.
“Allow your children to help out this holiday, they will enjoy it,” she says.
Linet Munyali (Size 8)
Celebrated
gospel couple Linet Munyali (known by her stage name, Size 8) and her
disk jockey husband, DJ Mo, recently celebrated their one year
anniversary. For this young couple who don’t have children yet,
Christmas Day will be spent with their extended family.
While
Linet may not have control over the meals that will be prepared
tomorrow, she say that she plans to treat her husband to a sumptuous
breakfast on Christmas Eve.
“I will make him some
sausages, fried bacon and scrambled eggs, served with bread. My husband
prefers a hot cup of tea for breakfast, especially one spiced with some
masala,” she says.
Linet declares that she is a pro at frying sausages:
“It seems easy, but it takes skill – sausages might appear to be well-cooked on the outside, only to be raw in the inside.”
She tells us how she does it:
Heat
a little oil in a frying pan, and when hot, reduce heat, then gently
place the raw sausages in the pan. Cooking on high heat will make the
sausages appear cooked on the outside, which is not the case.
Keep turning them until they are evenly browned.
When cooked, lay out the sausages on a serviette or two to absorb excess oil, then serve while hot.
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