This month too, I am participating in the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge. Our state of the month is the largest state of India, Rajasthan, which is located in the northern side. It is home to largest desert in India, as well as many historical monuments and a rich culture. The name of the state when literally translated means “the land of kings” and if you have a look at the history of the state, it surely stays truthful to its name! The state has a robust tourism industry and is a place that is usually on the top end list for destination weddings – the recent famous one being Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, due to the presence of many castles fit for movies. The Jaisalmer Chana and the Panchmel Dal are the Rajasthani recipes already on the blog. The beauty of the cuisine of this state is due…
Memoni Mutton Biriyani with Chutney
It’s been so long since I have done a book review. In fact, I was planning to put up this post during the last week of January. Somehow, it fizzled down in between and I couldn’t schedule it. Happens, isn’t it? 🙂 Somehow, I restarted my guest post series last month, so hoping that I will be able to keep the book reviews and guest posts every alternate month, InShaAllah… I thought of treading the path carefully and slowly and concentrate on one at a time. Let’s see how it goes… 🙂 I chose this book truly by chance, not knowing what to expect from it. The name “Spice Sorcery” did do some sort of sorcery on me, that I ended up picking it through Amazon.in a couple of years ago. 😀 The book written by Husna Rahaman and published by Harper Collins, concentrates on sharing recipes of…
Easy Moussakka | Eggplant Meat Casserole
Even though I have always mentioned that my kids are picky, I am grateful for the men that I have in my life. Whether it’s HD or B, they love to eat experimented dishes. I don’t need to worry about them not eating if I am upto making something different. I know many women don’t have that liberty. If the man of the house won’t eat, naturally you won’t be inclined to make dishes as such. Whether it’s the Baked Rice Casserole or the Fish Pie, which don’t even have any remote Indian tastes, it was accepted wholeheartedly and finished in my house, Alhamdulillah. But yes, the girls crimp their foreheads and eat a little – they love naadan food, but I really don’t care. They need to get used to have a maverick ummi who likes to experiment at times. 😀 Moussakka was something that I had…
Emirati Lamb White Bean Stew
Aren’t there times when you buy ingredients that you have never cooked with just because a recipe looked so tempting to you? That is how I first picked up white beans. The pack lay in my pantry for quite some time before I used part of it to make the hummus and this delicious filling Greek soup (yum!) The rest of the pack went into this delicious stew that I am sharing with you today. I can’t vouch how much authentic this recipe is. I have adapted the recipe from “A Taste of Arabia” which I have already reviewed in my Majboos post. I have already mentioned in my review that the book doesn’t have any Arabic names for the dish. Usually, I try to search on Google for a name, however while trying to search a name for this one, I couldn’t land on any. In fact,…
Beef Burger
How’s Ramadan going for all of you? This time, I have consciously taken the effort to post less on the blog. Doesn’t mean I will keep it empty, you will still see posts rolling on, but I clearly don’t want to be in a rat race to be posting what is called as “Ramadan specials”. I am not a person who advocates thoughtless eating during this month, whether it is now when I am taking care of myself, or before when I was negligent of myself. I never liked the concept of eating fried food and heavy meals during this month. When the gyst of the month is to practice restraint and patience, how can we go overboard with our food especially? Somehow that thought defeats my logic. I know many may disagree, but when we think deep, we will understand it. After all, hasn’t our beloved Prophet…
Ragù Sauce
After the pesto, the second one I chose for the Italian Sauces theme for the Blogging Marathon #86 is this delicious Ragù Sauce. I had never heard of Ragù till I used to constantly read about it on Jehanne’s posts, as topping for her spaghetti and pasta. It did intrigue me to cook it but it didn’t seem to happen till this theme was declared. Like I mentioned, I took it up because I didn’t find myself with more choices, and then when searching, discovered that Ragù was indeed an Italian sauce and I could make it a part of this theme! 🙂 Ragù is said to be a meat sauce commonly served with pasta, especially spaghetti and created in the 18th century. The main base of the Ragù sauce is one part of meat and some amount of liquid along with some basic ingredients that make it…
Swedish Meat Balls
As soon as I saw “Scandinavian Cuisine” for the Blogging Marathon #86, the first thing my head said is “Swedish Meat Balls”. Anybody who has access to an IKEA nearby will agree with me. The girls and I go for dinner there at least once a month. It’s not that the food matches our taste buds, but we really love the feel of the place. We sit on the high chairs, while I eat and sip my coffee looking into the merchandise, the girls will be busy chit-chatting and eating from each other’s plate. Most of the time, the menu is fixed, Rasha has the meat balls with rice and Azza has the kid’s meal nuggets. I keep moving around with whichever option is available, but if I am undecided, then I also go for the meat balls since it is cheap and filling too. I always have a…
Meat Olive Pita Pizza
The tenth of the month is always exciting for me. I love to participate in the Muslim Food Blogger Challenge as much as I can. True, I am the one who is moderating it, but sometimes planning and cooking does get a little tough in between all things that are happening! Alhamdulillah, till now I have been able to manage and hope to keep it going… This month, the theme was “Cooking with Olives”. Olives, known as Zaitoon, is one of the fruits mentioned in the Quran. Here are some articles you could read to educate yourself – here, here and here. I have an olive loving family. A big pack of olives can disappear off my counter-top within an hour of opening. Even though I had finalized in my mind what to cook for this challenge, my main task was to hide some quantity required to make…
Light Meatball Soup
The last post of the year is the toughest to write. It is like racking your brain to go ahead 365 days and think how the whole year fared for you – in all aspects. Life is a multifaceted drama that gets hit from all sides, so thinking from one angle doesn’t really give a full picture of how the whole year looked like. As I think about the year, all I can think about is: We as a family got older by a year, whether by age or by togetherness…. hehe… I took a tiny step of incorporating one hour of activity into my weekday schedule, which was broken during Ramadan, my vacation in August and now… but InShaAllah, hoping to keep it on continuity in the coming year and the years that follow InShaAllah… We hoped that the year would be better, but that was not…
Thari Choru/ Thari Biriyani ~ Malabar Semolina Biriyani
Hangover is for real, isn’t it? We had a long weekend last week for the Milad-un-Nabi plus Martyr’s Day plus National Day, all clubbed together with the weekend, and once that finished, then the next sadness is that it will take a while to get another long weekend like that. We as human beings are never satisfied with our condition, right? 😀 So without cribbing too much, I guess I get straight onto the recipe for today. Have you ever heard of a dish called “Thari Biriyani”? A biriyani with no rice at all, it is basically a jazzed up version of an upma! I am on a lot of food groups on FB where I can’t promote my blog as such but still stay on since it is a source of constant learning of so many new dishes, traditional and otherwise, that my saved drafts are overflowing…
Bedouin Meat Rice
You will never see me posting on a Friday unless it is for a challenge. And how could I miss a challenge that is so close to my heart? The Muslim Food Bloggers Challenge happened by a whim. A group that is beautifully moderated by Lubna and Huma to bring in Muslimah bloggers from around the world is where this idea was born, and was beautifully accepted by the enthusiastic ladies in the group. It is heartwarming to see that every challenge is met with a lot of interest. We are now in our challenge #12, which means that it is one year old! How fast! From starting with the Mamoul I cooked from Sawsan’s blog till the last one, each recipe has been an interesting journey. I am hoping that we will be able to keep moving along with the challenge as long as possible, InShaAllah… This…
Green Beef Pulao
We don’t make beef frequently at home. Only once in a while, when I get good ones, I get some and stock it. Most of the time, I go ahead and make the beef roast (looks like this post needs an uplift!) because that’s the easiest for me to make and also it is loved by the folks at home. This Green Beef Pulao was born out of the need to use an additional bunch of greens that I had picked up by mistake. Having loved the Green Mutton Masala and the Hara Murg Pulao, I was sure that this one would be well accepted too. After all, a combination of coriander, mint and curry leaves can’t go wrong, unless you screw up the proportions as such! Hehe… The flavors of this dish and aroma is spot on. Moreover, unlike biriyani, you don’t even need multiple pots. You…
Aadu Kurma ~ Malabar Mutton Kurma
It is the tenth of the month, so it is time for the Muslim Food Blogger challenge! There was a little bit of confusion while trying to set this challenge. InShaAllah, it will be Eid-ul-Adha at the end of this month-early September. The slaughtering of an animal is an important part of the festival, as a part of commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim (AS) and his inclination to accept and execute Allah’s command, despite it being the slaughtering of his eldest son Prophet Ismail (AS), who he was blessed with in his old age. No wonder Allah calls His “Khaleel” (intimate friend) in Surah An-Nisa, verse 125. SubhanAllah… Since next month would be too late for an Eid post, I thought it was better earlier than later. So the theme for this month is “meat recipes”. During this Eid, since we tend to get a lot of meat from…
Be My Guest – Lahm Ajeen
Coming back to this segment after four months… 🙂 I am more relaxed now. There is no pressure on me to feature a blogger every month and ever since I have done this, I feel that it is the best thing I have done. It is not that there aren’t any bloggers who fall in my favorite category. There are many in fact, who I would like to come over and grace my space, but I thought I should give time for myself and have them around slowly, InShaAllah… With Ramadan coming, I thought it is apt to feature a Muslimah blogger in this space. And all I could think of this time was Shanaz, who blogs at “Love to Cook“. I got hooked onto her blog quite recently, maybe a year or so. She has some amazing recipes, and is now more into making crisp videos that are…
Hyderabadi Kheema Biriyani
I normally don’t post on Fridays unless they are challenge posts. But this time, thought of giving that rule of mine a little miss. 🙂 Today is our anniversary #13. This is the fourth anniversary we are celebrating on the blog. 😀 At times I really wonder how much effort it takes to make a marriage work. One or the other spouse does a lot of adjustments, forgiving and forgetting the small and large mistakes. Why do we do it? There is something more than love that keeps a marriage going. I have realised that every day of my life. I am quite a moody person and one small thing can push me off a corner. HD is just the opposite. Maybe that’s why we are still together in it despite every odds. He is not a romantic that gives me surprises off the hook, or makes me feel…