I had already marked up in my mind that if the state for this month’s Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge would be Punjab, I would make it a point to participate. Why not? The food of Punjab is always said to be rich, warm and welcoming. Whether it is the Butter Chicken, Palak Paneer or Dal Tadka, every dish evokes a lot of gastronomic feel in anybody who eats it. As soon as the announcement was up and I waited patiently for my assigned partner. Punjab is a beautiful state in the north that is mainly known for their agricultural prowess. The word “Punjab” means, “five rivers”, signifying the five rivers that run through the state. The state has gone through a lot during historical times and now part of it lies in Pakistan. Punjab shares its capital Chandigarh with its neighboring state Haryana. The food of the state…
Kashmiri Chicken
We are having a long week ahead of us. Government offices and schools are already closed from Thursday on account of Eid holidays, and the private sector gets their holidays from tomorrow. So we basically have a one day working week, which sounds like fun. 🙂 The only problem is when we come back to work next Sunday, our emails may be a barrage to be sorted out. But I guess when you get a long holiday, you shouldn’t be bothered about work. We hardly get long weekends here, so this is definitely welcome. The climate is not very conducive for outdoors so we may stick to being at home, mostly. I really wanted to visit my best friend who is in Muscat on visit, but then His plans are otherwise and I just have to be reconciled with the situation, Alhamdulillah. After all, if everything happened exactly…
Chicken Vermicelli Soup
It is the tenth of the month and it is time for the Muslim Food Blogger Challenge! This month being Ramadan we decided to keep the theme simple and also take a break for next month, since the post date would come immediately after Eid and the last thing you want to do during Ramadan is cook for a challenge! 😉 This month, we decided to make some soup. Now soup is one of the best meals you can have during Iftar. A complete blend of good carbs, proteins and fiber, it is a filling meal, that won’t make you bloat! With everyone looking at options to make their Iftars or dinners more healthy, soups definitely comes in as priority for many of them. Here are all the soup options that are already there on the blog… Meanwhile, I present to you my simple soup filled…
Payyoli Kozhi Curry | Chicken Curry
Can you believe Ramadan is right there at the corner? Sometimes it feels it came way too fast, but I can’t help it but say that it has come at a time when it is needed. I feel like I have a terribly parched soul, just struggling to get in terms with everything that is happening. For surely, this month comes like a relief at the right time. For me, Ramadan is like a breath of fresh air. A change in routine, a more balanced life, a peaceful thought process, a new hope… It literally recharges all the dying batteries within you. I am sure that feeling comes because the devils are chained during this precious month. There is no one but ourselves to beat when they are off our head. It takes some time to realize that there is a lot of inbuilt evil within ourselves, when…
Naga Spicy Ginger Chicken
The month end is usually the day of posting for the Shhh Cooking Challenge whenever I decide to participate. As I had mentioned in the past few posts for the challenge, the group is doing an Indian state every month and this month, it is one of the lesser known North Eastern states called Nagaland. I don’t know what was my mental status when I confirmed a “yes” for participation, only to realize that it was really difficult to find authentic sources of this state’s cuisine! The state’s food is an amalgamation of its influences of its surrounding territories, and the food uses limited ingredients, yet high on flavor. One of the main ingredient is the Bhut Jalokia or ghost chilli, as it is called, and has the reputation of being the spiciest chilli in the world! Their food is high on the use of meat and fish…
Chicken Hakka Noodles
Sometime back I had put a poll on my Instagram handle as to know which recipes my readers were looking forward to on the blog. Sometimes, it is good to know if there are any specific recipes that are not there on the blog, but are being searched. I know that the blog misses some basic posts and InShaAllah, I am planning to work on them, but time is more precious now and hence it will take time than expected. 🙂 Anyway, one of them that was mentioned was hotel style Chicken Hakka Noodles. When we cook home food, why do we want hotel style? I am always bogged down by this question. Home food should taste like home food, period. I agree that certain food is made the best by hotels, but I wouldn’t agree to making it the same way at home. Home made food will…
Spicy Oven Baked Chicken
If it is the tenth of the month, then it surely has to be the Muslim Food Blogger challenge post. Month after month, it does become a challenge to select a theme and put it forward to the ladies in this small group, but Alhamdulillah, they seem to be enjoying the themes and that is what matters. 🙂 This month as per the usual flow, we were supposed to be cooking from a Muslim blog. The chosen blog for the month was “Afelia’s Kitchen“. Afelia happens to be a Bangladeshi UK citizen and shares some interesting recipes on her blog. I found out the blog when I was searching for the Bangladeshi cooking we did a few months ago, where I cooked the Murgir Korma. I had bookmarked to try a few recipes from her blog during that time and thought it was a lovely blog to explore…
Biryani Dejaaj ~ Emirati Chicken Biriyani
If you see, starting from the Khabeesa, I have made it a point to post close to or on the UAE National Day, something that I don’t even do for the Indian Independence Day. 😀 That doesn’t make me any less patriotic, it is just that I belong to a generation of Indians who own an Indian passport, who love every vacation trip planned to India, but since they have been born and/or brought up in some part of the UAE, a part of them is in them. I am sure many of them who are in the same boat of mine can get how I feel. 🙂 This year has been celebrated by the entire country as the “Year of Zayed” as it is his 100th birth anniversary, commemorating the great father of the nation’s visionary outlook for this country. His vision for the country is very…
Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza
This weekend, we had a freak accident. What was supposed to be a relaxed day went a bit berserk. In a very action filled evening, HD’s right eye got hit by the edge of the fly stick and he was immediately writhing in pain. We immediately rushed out but since it was a Friday, most of the clinics didn’t have their ophthalmologists on duty. We did a run to the hospital, and then in one hour, was relieved to know that there was nothing much except a couple of scratches, which will heal slowly. Considering the fact that the hit was quite hard, the diagnosis was very relieving. The comical situation was that since the hit happened from my side, HD commented to the nurse that I had tried to attack him and he is going to take an insurance against me. 😕 Sometimes I wonder why are husbands…
Warm Chicken Salad
Rasha is at a very peculiar age. She is on her way to 12 and sometimes I get jitters thinking that she is growing up so fast. But still, sometimes I see my little girl in her, always excited about anything that comes her way. Last week, we were having a chat as I was driving with the girls to get some grocery. She was talking about her English class. They recently concluded their exams and the paper had an essay to be written about “Kerala Floods”. The teacher commented that many of them just wrote a couple of sentences and ended the “essay”. However, there were a couple of students who missed to see the “l” in the “floods” and wrote very narratively about Kerala Foods. I am not surprised that the teacher said she had a rumbling tummy while correcting the paper during the midnight. 😀 I…
Chicken Curry Pasta
Time for one of my favorite challenges, the Fantastical Food Fight! This month happens to be National Pasta Month and Sarah couldn’t have chosen anything apt that making anything with pasta! Since the theme was quite easy, I had to jump at it. I would have made pasta every week if my folks would eat. 🙁 HD and B likes it, but the girls are always so-so. Pasta is one of the easiest and laziest meals you can make and I wouldn’t be surprised if anybody told me that they made it multiple times a week. This Chicken Curry style pasta has a lot of memories to it. In the UAE, a lot of men live together in bachelor accommodation and they would usually cook their own meals then, unlike now, where they would simply flock the nearby restaurant. Every year, D and B would have an Iftar…
Marghi Na Farcha ~ Parsi Style Fried Chicken
Just back from a long weekend that was quite stress-free… we didn’t go out much, except for some few essentials, otherwise most of the time was spent relaxing at home. B and my sister-in-law went back home and now the house is back to being a lonely place. But still I am happy she will get some time to be with my parents. As we get into the new week, I was welcomed by a nice bang at the back of my vehicle. I am still wondering how it happened. It just seemed to happen from nowhere. The lady of the other vehicle was trying to change her track to mine and missed seeing my vehicle. It resulted in a big bang at the left side. It is my first accident with my present vehicle and I am feeling sad about it. But on one side, I am…
Baked Yogurt Curry Chicken
I love quick fix meals. All of you must be knowing it if you are regular readers of my blog. Anything that just needs a mix and cook qualifies as a super easy meal for me. I found this recipe in the same booklet which had the Malai Chicken recipe. I have been eyeing it for so long, but I have no clue why I didn’t try it earlier. I truly believe now everything has a time, right… 🙂 The beauty of this recipe is that you don’t have to slog in the kitchen for too long. We are having peak summers and standing in the kitchen is becoming a nightmare. I haven’t experienced this kind of heatwave in all these years. I am attributing my hotter-than-usual kitchen to the construction that is happening in the little stretch facing the area. It used to be an open car…
Kozhi Musuman | Whole Chicken in Chana Dal Sauce
Let me be frank here. I wanted to make a totally new curry for this Blogging Marathon #88 – Dazzling Dal series, so that I could leave my drafts untouched. I even made cholar dal once, but it didn’t turn out well, so I skipped clicking it. Then something happened, that whole thought of wanting to cook and click a totally new dish, really puts me off these days. If you see my camera now, my clicks are so wide spread. I cook new dishes and click them only if I am really in a mood for it. Otherwise, I just leave it at that. I feel glad that my drafts are feeding my blog without me having to worry about the next dish to post. During those times, I used to wonder why am I in a hurry to cook and click, and now I clearly understand the…
Healthy Chicken Caesar Salad
“Oh you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you many learn piety and righteousness” (Surah Al Baqarah:183) Ramadan is on us, Alhamdulillah… InShaAllah, with the sunset today, it will start – the time when every aspect of our life is looked into and disciplined… Actually, I always feel that we limit our good deeds and discipline only to these 29 or 30 days. It is said that it takes 21 days to create a habit, so in case we sincerely want to create a good sustainable habit in ourselves, this one month should help us with it. After all, there is even a Hadith in this regard: Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Take up good deeds only as much as you are able, for the best deeds are…