Assalamu alalikum to all my readers in this beautiful month of September! Hope you all had a wonderful Eid-ul-Adha celebrations. If you would like to read more about this festival, then do check out this post! I already have a pressure cooker version of semiya payasam on the blog, but this one is old school – needs some time and patience, but the end result is sweet! 🙂 I am not sure if anybody hates semiya payasam. I have a couple of cousins who don’t like this payasam, and I find them to be really weird. When anybody says “payasam”, the first thing that will always come into mind is semiya payasam, as it is easy to make, with easily available ingredients and basically, no-mess. Just like how you need to be while making the sago payasam, you have to cook enough that the vermicelli looks transparent, the…
Musaara Varakiyathu ~ Malabar Wheat and Bengal Gram Pudding
The Muslim Food Blogger’s Challenge is 6 months old! Alhamdulillah… it feels great to be going on. The group maybe small but we have a really enthusiastic bunch, that keeps the challenge alive. I am sure you will all agree that enthusiasm and interest is what drives everything ahead, and I thank Him for this little bunch of bloggers who make my life so easier to go on… 🙂 This month, we reverted back to trying from a blog and we chose to cook from “Shab’s Cuisine“. This blog is one of them that I started following when the cooking bug hit me around 7 years ago – yes, my cooking passion is pretty young, you see! 😉 I totally love her blog since she had some very simple recipes plus her blog was a treasure of Malabar recipes. I guess I don’t need to mention the amazing…
Nenthrapazham Pradhaman ~ Plaintain Jaggery Dessert
It is so rare that two festivals coincide together. Eid and Onam have come one after the other back home. While I was returning back from home, all outlets had boards on “Bakreedashamsakal, Onashamsagal” (Eid Wishes, Onam Wishes). For me, Onam is all about the sadya. I wait for a chance to eat the lavish meal on the leaf, where you get to eat so many varieties of food at the same time. Despite being fully vegetarian, it is a play on your taste buds and will leave you full to the brim and ready to doze off! 😀 Here is a very interesting link I found this time, makes a wonderful read and has some basic knowledge of how to lay the leaf, how to put which dish where, etc…. hopefully something that will help me later when I have the courage to make a whole sadya all…
Kheer ~ Indian Rice Pudding
We are having a long weekend in this part of the world. The government departments and schools reopen only by next Sunday, so that’s 9 long days, though I, like many working in the private sector, go back to work on Wednesday. Since it’s just two days, I don’t think many would mind it. 🙂 Since holidays are very rare here, everybody looks forward to them, to plan their travel trips. Many go home, many go for a quick vacation, and many more enjoy staycations over here itself. With the climate getting slightly better, everybody is looking at taking maximum advantage of these days. From my side, we have no plans. Somehow I feel that’s also good. Yesterday was super boring. The kids and I were at home. Though I planned to finish up the laundry, we ended up watching long hours of Food Network and then finally slept…
Semiya Ada Payasam ~ Vermicelli Rice Flakes Kheer
Another brand new month begins! Isn’t it shocking that 2016 seems to be moving at such a fast pace… we are already entering month 3! Somehow I guess we don’t think about that side much… Sharing with you a slide that I so absolutely loved lately… As I was digging through my pictures, I noticed I had ignored this post for quite some time. Gosh… During my last vacation, the day I was coming back, as soon as umma was done with the thalacurry, my sister and I got into the kitchen and got to making payasam. We had a small packet of ada, which is dried rice squares which was not enough for making payasam for a huge crowd of 25+. That was when our eyes went on to the small pack of vermicelli that we had got free along with the can of condensed milk….
Cherupayar Parippu Pradhaman ~ Kerala Moong Dal Kheer
Last week, I happened to read this article. As soon as I started reading it, I related it to myself. I always have doubts about how I am doing, what am I doing, and so on and so forth. Each and every word seemed to just point at me and the checklist in that article, SubhaAllah, was a total eye opener. I would suggest my dear readers to go through it too, maybe it will answer a lot of questions for you, just like it did for me, Alhamdulillah… JazakAllah Khair to that sister who did the post… 🙂 It is not that I always crave for cakes and desserts… sometimes I crave for our humble payasam. Somehow, I don’t make the best payasams… I am more confident when it comes to baking or making continental desserts, but if someone asks me to do a payasam, I somehow…
Persian Payasam
Intrigued by the title? Me too! When my hands landed up on the book called ‘Malabar Cuisine‘ that I had ordered through Amazon a couple of months ago, this is the first recipe that caught my attention.You may wonder why do I keep buying books that are related to Malabar cooking, when I am from the Malabar side. It is mainly because there are so many forgotten recipes, that I had eaten during my childhood, but have not had it since then for many many years. Some of these books have really helped me discover some of those forgotten tastes, that I have recorded here and would continue to record. But this payasam was something of the first kind for me…. Just before moving on, the Shhh Cooking Challenge that was started by Priya akka sometime back was on hold for the past few months due to her…
Carrot Payasam/ Kheer
Onam was on while I was back home. The whole area was quite festive during the time. Though a bit hesitant, I went to the local LP (lower primary) school, where my aunt works as assistant headmistress, on the last working day before the 10 day Onam vacation. Since there was no teaching that day, the kids looked so excited. The atmosphere was really electric. Parents were cooperating and cooking up a mini sadya for the kids, who were so eagerly waiting for the sadya. I got some very curious looks as I went around with my I-phone taking some clicks. We had quite a filling sadya which was finished off with some semiya payasam. I really enjoyed the time spent with the kids over there. One of the boys managed to hide under the bench where my banana leaf was laid for food and pulled out the chips and…
Kaithachakka Chawwari Payasam ~ Pineapple Sago Kheer
Eid is almost around the corner, Alhamdulillah… We are still in the blessed last ten nights of this month, so we haveto keep our spiritual feeling high, hoping that Laylathul Qadr would or would have dawned upon us, InShaAllah. It is sad that many of us spend our time in the markets for finishing off our Eid shopping and in return, what we lose is immense as far as blessings are concerned. I always make it a point to finish off my Eid shopping prior to Ramadan, so that I don’t have any worries about it over the month. Last year, I did participate in the first version of Eid Eats with this quick fix Semiya Payasam recipe, so when I saw Asiya’s post declaring this year’s version, I was ready to participate. Just like last time, again I bring in a payasam, or kheer! Hehe… I have been…
Ragi Semiya Payasam | Ragi Vermicelli Kheer
I love to do guest posts. Somehow, it makes me feel nice that I get requests from some lovely bloggers who want me at their space. It has a feel-good factor to it. But more than that, the nerve-wrecking thought of what to make for them or post for them is another thing! Today, I am pleased to be at Gloria’s space – a chubby Mumbaikar with the zest for baking. Do check out her blog to see all those beautiful bakes that she dishes out day in and day out! I love her collection of buns and cakes that she keeps churning out every now and then. I am especially enthralled by her Turtle Buns that are hiding among the long list of my “to-do”s. I sincerely thank her for having this humble me around in her beautiful space. I was really in a fix as to what to provide Gloria with. Being…
Kadala Parippu Pradhaman ~ Kerala Chana Dal Kheer
I guess I have been working on all the challenges this month. I can’t believe it myself! All the other posts, apart from the challenges are pulled from my drafts. When the dip in cooking happens, challenges do boost up your mood. What I do is I print out the recipe challenge and post it on my fridge door based on what to post first. So each time I go up and down the kitchen, my eyes go on it and the date of posting. That helps me to keep a mental calculation of the last date by which I should finish making it. Another thing I do is that most of the time, or almost every time I halve the recipe. You will always see that my posts serve not more than 4. This helps me to control our intake – most of the challenges are unfortunately sweet posts…
Paal Payasam ~ Kerala Style Rice Kheer/ Dessert
I am somebody who has a lot of pricks. It is a good thing to feel those pricks, especially when you do something wrong! At least, it shows that you have some conscience in you! During Onam, one of our Hindu colleagues in the head office distributed paayasam – the Malayalam word for “kheer” – to everybody in the office. In fact, this was the first time she was doing it. As we were enjoying the payasam, I got a call from a colleague in another department. I have always mentioned that I keep baking or cooking and bringing them to office, but the distribution is always limited to the little bunch in my department. Very rarely, I have distributed to all, in fact on two instances, one time when I baked the Coffee Cardamom Marble Cake and the other time was with the Carrot Rice Kheer. Cooking…
Carrot Nurukku Gothambu Payasam/ Carrot Daliya Kheer
It is Onam today… we normally don’t celebrate Onam towards our side. However, the long banana plantains adorned with innumerable varieties of vegetarian delicacies, that is to be washed down with a small banana, some sharakara varatti and a couple of payasams are too good to ignore. That is why every Onam we make sure to get a couple of “Onasadyas” from the nearby restaurant and devour them to the fullest. Not to mention the sleep that comes after having such a heavy meal… I so clearly remember the Onam when I was carrying Azza. It fell during Ramadan, I wasn’t fasting due to my physical condition. A friend of mine was also carrying at that time as well, so we always shared each other’s pregnancy depressions and ups-downs during that time. I tracked down a restaurant near to my office that was arranging parcelled Onasadya and booked two meals…
Maharashtrian Gavachi Kheer/ Whole Wheat Payasam
Some posts can be tinged with some sadness. Just like this one – due to lagging response, Divya has decided to call off her once-successful South North Challenge and this month happens to be the last challenge.I am sure she must have a hard time taking this decision, as this has been her baby ever since she has had her blog and I have seen some active participation, which is one of the reasons I became a part of this group. However, off late, the response has not been very enthusiastic. I would not say that I was regular with my challenges. I have already mentioned during previous SNC posts that the importance given more for sweets have kind of made me wary of participating, not because I don’t love sweets – then there would be no justice to my blog name! – but the calories in North Indian…
Quick Semiya Payasam/ Vermicelli Kheer
When I got an email from Sarah regarding the link-in party for Eid, I was all game for it. Sharing with you a little slide regarding the Sunnah of Eid before going ahead with the recipe: I have already shared a few of our normal Eid recipes last year – Ela Ada and Chicken Cutlets for breakfast along with a hot cup of chai, followed by biriyani for lunch, polished off with some Paal Pizhinjathu. Close to Asr prayers, in order to settle down the heaviness, we even go for a serving of Mint Sulaimani. Every year, as it is, we have a defined set of relatives who are always there for lunch. Sometimes, we have guests out of the blue moon, who decide to come in during their rounds. For our unexpected guest, we always have stock of some semiya payasam with us. Just like how in…
Be My Guest – Anjeer Ki Kheer/ Fig Rice Pudding
The holy month of Ramadan has dawned, Alhamdulillah… Today is Sha’aban 30 in this part of the world and Ramadan will be from tomorrow, InShaAllah… It feels like yesterday that the last Ramadan had passed. Last year, in the month of July, through my posts, I had tried to capture the essence of the month in the way I could. Would continue that effort this month as well, InShaAllah, even though I am aiming at not doing much of blog posts, as it puts a strain on time! It all depends upon how much I would be able to manage my time effectively… I am so excited that I have a very talented Muslim blogger as the guest today. The time I was jotting down the dates for the guest posts, I suddenly noticed today’s date and the name that popped up was hers. She is a blogger, who…
Macaroni Payasam
The level of competition in the existing world is immense. Right from birth, man is pushed to excel in everything that he does. We expect our infants and toddlers to turn over, crawl, run, walk and talk faster than the other kids of their age. We expect our children to be smarter, knowing much more than what is required for their age. We push and push them to their extreme limits whether it is in academics, sports or extra curricular. Once you are out of school, the same “pushing” is continued in college and post grad schools, and finally into your job. Somehow when I see this, I feel sad. My D has never forced us to excel in anything. He would always say, “Do what you can do, but try your best.” That’s it… Umma would get a bit irritated with his attitude, but I guess that is…
Be My Guest – Pidi Payasam/ Pidi Curry
During last time’s guest post, I had hinted that one thing I like about my “Be My Guest” series is the recipes I get. Some that I have never tried ever, some that I have had ages ago and had forgotten about it… When I invited Resna, who blogs at Resna’s Tasty Home, to be a guest on my blog, what I got was an enthusiasm of a little girl! Her messages oozed out of the excitement that she had! Seriously, one thing I seem to like about blogging is that I get to see the actual character of people and Alhamdulillah, whoever I have come across, have been really good in their own way. I found Resna to be really down to earth and innocent. A working mother based in a GCC country, just like me, I found her having similar situations like me. What I like about her…