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…
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…
Biryani Samak ~ Emirati Fish Biriyani
Life is back to normal. My parents went back home on Thursday night, so the weekend was very drab without them. Just to cheer up, I attended a small potluck tea party of a very vibrant FB group of homemakers. I thanked myself for doing that. I had a good time and the kids enjoyed themselves in the company of the other kids as well. The night was cold though, so once back home, I started getting jitters and yesterday I was totally low. I had everything except fever. I just managed the day with all leftovers from the fridge and simply stretched myself on the couch most of the day. Today, school has started and the mornings are getting colder and darker. Slowly, traffic will also start picking up once all schools open by early next week. So I am trying to brace myself up for it after…
Easy Mushroom Biriyani
I sometimes do feel that it is not necessary a good biriyani needs to be non-veg. The Malabar style vegetable biriyani proved it to me as well as a bunch of guests I made it for! A very close competitor is this biriyani, which is made with mushrooms. Mushroom tastes so much like meat. I personally like it a lot, though I don’t have folks in the family who enjoy it. I had to make biriyani when I landed up with two boxes of it picked up at a very good deal at the hypermarket closeby. Now does that happen to you? When I see fruits and vegetables at good deals, I tend to go overboard and pick them up and unfortunately they end up hastily used up or spoiled. 🙁 I used to always keep mushrooms at normal temperature – my kitchen is pretty warm! – and…
Dum Aaloo Biriyani ~ Potato Biriyani
We are now in the last ten days of Ramadan, which is considered to be the most blessed days of this month. Even though the consensus is bend towards the odd number days to be considered “Laylathul Qadr”, it is recommended that the same level of worship is maintained all throughout the ten days or till Eid is declared. I had already shared some information regarding this night in this post during my initial days of blogging. However, many people still don’t realize its importance and end up spending majority of the days and nights in shopping for Eid. It is something that happens not only where I stay, but back home too. I always make it a point to finish my Eid shopping before Ramadan begins, yes, with the full thought that we may not even live to see the day! But I also feel it is…
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…
Thalassery Chemmeen Biriyani ~ Thalassery Style Prawn Biriyani
The feeling of achievement is immense, isn’t it? I am glad that my little attempt to bring together a small group of bloggers is faring fairly well. We are in the third month of our challenge and I am sincerely hoping that we continue moving forward well, InShaAllah… 🙂 For this month’s Muslim Food Blogger Challenge, the challenge was to make “Biriyani”. Alhamdulillah, after trying so many versions, I can confidently handle a biriyani, though there are times when I conveniently screw it up too. 😀 Those are called “bad biriyani days (BBD)”. 😉 A biriyani is usually a very intimidating dish for many, but let me tell you, once you get a hang of it, it is quite easy to make. One major thing you need to learn is to how much to cook the rice. The rice is never cooked fully in the first stage, it…
Nawabi Qabooli Biriyani ~ Chickpea Lentil Biriyani
Alhamdulillah, today is the day of Arafah. For the people who are Makkah for the pilgimage of Hajj, they will all assemble in the vast ground of Arafah, continuously supplicating and praying to the Almighty for themselves and for all of the others. The Prophet (SAW) said, ‘There is no day on which Allah frees people from the Fire more so than on the day of Arafah. He comes close to those (people standing on ’Arafah), and then He revels before His Angels saying, ‘What are these people seeking.” (Tirmidhee). It is said that He forgives all their sins, even if it is as much as the foam on the surface of the sea, SubhanAllah! How can we count foam? To read more about this day, you can check out this link. For those not on Hajj, it is highly recommended to fast, since fasting on this day with sincere intentions…
Ambur Chicken Biriyani
As Ramadan draws to the end and Eid gets closer, many households slowly start the preparation for the festivities. InShaAllah, we are looking forward to a wonderful Eid, with the whole family in place and I guess we are having it this way after many years, so you can imagine the excitement. 🙂 Once we are done with our Eid prayers, we all gather at my aunt’s place to gorge on ela adas, cutlets, continuous cups of tea and unlimited chatter. This is followed by quick trips to my cousin’s place and then we come back to biriyani (mostly this one) and some paal pizhinjathu. We also catch up on some sleep since the previous night is always hectic and we wake up really early to get going to the Eidgah, the big ground where the special Eid prayers happen. The first day of Eid is always within the…
Malabar Chemmeen (Prawn) Biriyani
It has been more than a week since my vacation ended and still I get questions like, “You must be still in that hangover!” Being a working mother who arrived the previous day before the school opens, I do not have the option to stay in the hangover for too long! The most interesting fact is that kids get adjusted to their life much faster than we adults do. We tend to sulk a lot when our situation changes. Yes, it did take me a couple of days to sink into reality but the four days I had before the start of work helped me a lot to get back to work much faster than I expected, Alhamdulillah. Yes, I still go into the hangover at times, thinking how alone my parents must be feeling and getting that pinch that every grown-up child must be facing thinking of that situation….
Travancore Style Chicken Biriyani
Following yesterday’s Pineapple Sago Kheer, I have to post a biriyani, right? Eid is never complete without a biriyani. How much ever tired we may be, we still put up a lavish biriyani lunch, which will be finally washed down by cups of paalu pizhinjathu… This time, I am coming with you with a very interesting biriyani, which I had bookmarked ages ago, but once I got the chance to try it, I was wondering why I had not tried it earlier! The ingredient list may look really long – I mean, really really long, but believe me it takes more or less the same time as every other biriyani tastes and I must say that making the garam masala from scratch in this recipe makes it “a-must-try-at-least-once” biriyani! Travancore or “Thiruvithankoor”, if you want the tongue twister name in Malayalam, is the southern part of Kerala just like how…
Malabar Vegetable Biriyani | Pachakari Biriyani
My interaction with Shweta started with my participation in the Saturday Snapshots. From then on, it has been a very cordial and warm relationship. I have always liked her frank comments for my photographs, whether positive or negative. She always would give ideas to improve on the overall blogging experience. I was very happy when she asked me for a guest post – especially when I love her pictures and I feel inferior as far as mine is concerned! I always feel that my pictures are very normal, especially knowing how lazy I am to improve on them. I know that if I put my heart in, I would be able to improve quite a bit but somehow my laziness and lack of time creeps in. So when she asked me for a guest post, I was determined to try to do the…
Chicken Masala Biriyani
I was having a casual chat with Priya a couple of weeks ago. It just happened all of sudden, I whatsapped her (where is English going to??? Hehe…) and she called me back. We spoke for quite some time. She, along with her co-blogger Tessa, seem to be a big fan of my biriyani collection and she was quick to mention to me that it had been long since I had posted a biriyani on the blog. And she was true! The last biriyani that I posted was this one, which was way back in November. Yes, I have been a bit away from biriyanis, not because I lost my interest in them but because the new kitchen was making me so fidgety that I was taking much longer to finish the whole process. It was really frustrating me to say the least. When we had guest over when my…
Malabar Mutton Biriyani
Yikes! Another biriyani??? I sometimes feel I am overdoing the biriyanis on my blog… or is it just a thought? Just to let you know that this was the last biriyani I made in our old home… and I have no more biriyanis pending in my drafts, so maybe you don’t get to see another biriyani recipe at least for another month! Hehe…I have already posted a Malabar Chicken Biriyani on the blog before. This one with mutton is slightly different from the chicken version. At home, umma makes mutton the same way she makes the chicken, with the variation only in the cooking time. When I saw a different version in one of the cookery books, I wanted to try it. This is a very simple biriyani, with ingredients in your pantry and does not take much time. That is what I like about this recipe. So when you…
Bombay Chicken Biriyani
I am always on the lookout for new ways to cook any ingredient I get in my hand. I have already mentioned before, if it turns out really good, it immediately appears on the blog and if doesn’t, I still jot down the recipe to improve it in my next trial. Most of the time, Alhamdulillah my first trials have always been good. For me, cooking is all dependent on my mood. If I am in a really good mood, whatever I cook, even if it is a simple dish, it comes out well, but if I am lousy, I just prefer keeping myself away from cooking rather than trashing the food, as simple as that… I love it when my colleagues share their recipes with me. It gives the cook in me a push. I have already posted a couple of them that were passed onto me by…