I actually feel excited about doing today’s post. It is something that pushed me off my comfort zone. It may be a super simple recipe but the expectation and trepidation of how it would end up being was immense. 🙂 It is the tenth of the month, so it is time for the Muslim Food Blogger (MFB) Challenge. You can check out all the previous posts here. This month, we chose to cook with an ingredient and it was “Pomegranate”. “Rumaan” as it is called in Arabic is one of the fruits mentioned in the Quran. It is a fruit that awaits us in Jannah, InShaAllah… Have you looked at it and marveled at its beauty? At the way each pearl is placed inside, the sweet tartness that is unmatched with any other fruits… “In both of them are fruit and palm trees and pomegranates. So which of the…
Chai Karak ~ Emirati Milk Tea
With the season chilled, the amount of tea that is drunk during the hours is humongous. I was hearing the number of thousands of cups of chai karak sold on a daily basis during the winter months in the UAE on radio and was literally shell shocked! You will see people who park a few feet away from the cafeteria, roll down their window, and gesture their index finger upwards to the staff watching out. You will then see him quickly running in and coming out with one cup of chai in a covered plastic tray and walking towards the car, so that the driver can enjoy his hot cup. We are pampered with instant services here, you see? 🙂 There are people who will buy in flasks, buy bigger cups (read me and D!) and ask for “without” (no sugar!). The atmosphere around a good tea selling…
Chukku Kaapi | Dry Ginger Coffee
When you end up scheduling posts, the latest happenings just wouldn’t get recorded. 🙂 After almost three years, we had a school friends meetup over the weekend. We actually couldn’t believe that we hadn’t met for so long! Days, months and years seem to pass so fast and then the distance is limited by the use of social media, that you really don’t realize the gap of personal interaction! It would be a cliche to say we had an amazing time, just talking, giggling and discussing various issues. Since we had met up at a friend’s house rather than the mall, we were able to laugh our lungs out. We parted, promising to keep the meetups as frequent as possible. But usually the tide of life just sweeps through and things don’t get done as promises made. 🙂 We also had some amazing rains, that saw the roads…
Besan Doodh ~ Chickpea Flour Milk Drink
When the season is cold and cozy, the only thing that crosses in the mind is, “Can I have something hot?” Mostly it will be chai or coffee, but sometimes you do want something different. One thing I love about blogging is how it has made me discover other options of keeping yourself warm and cozy apart from the normal two. Do have a look at the hot drinks already on the blog, though I personally love the Masala Paal and the Aatta Ka Doodh. This is now the third drink going into that category – Besan Doodh… Besan or chickpea flour was always for pakodas, as far as I am concerned. 😀 Blogging changed that thought process for sure. After having tried the Jaisalmer Chana, and then this drink, I can’t but be awed by its usefulness. This type of making a drink comes from our northern…
Restaurant Style Tea ~ Tea using Evaporated Milk
As the climate gets better here, the sales of tea in cafeterias surges. If you thought that Arabs love their black tea or coffee, then you will change your opinion once you see the queue of the Land Cruisers and Patrols in front of all the dainty cafeteria for that foam cup of “karak chai”. 🙂 Even though I love my own “haath ka chai”, at times, when stuck in traffic, I do opt for a tall cup that will give me company till I reach home and keep me cozy. Very rare restaurants here use fresh or even UHT milk to make their tea, and most of them who do so specify it at the entrance, in the form of a little notice stuck on the glass door. Majority of them use evaporated milk and you find them in bulk in all supermarkets. For one, I am…
Gothambu Kaachiyathu/ Ooral Kaachiyathu ~ Malabar Wheat Drink | “Joy from Fasting to Feasting X”
Some posts come with a tinge of sadness. I remember when I was just months into my blogging journey. A message popped up on my FB messenger from Lubna, asking me to do a guest post for her Ramadan series, which she so lovingly calls “Joy from Fasting to Feasting”. Being a newbie, that message from a seasoned blogger gave me goosebumps. I really didn’t know how to react but finally I got back to my senses, and I said a “yes”. Luck was not in my favor and I was not able to give her a proper post, but she assured me that the post had done really well. After that, I have been a regular fixture at her space during all the Ramadans. I have excitedly worked on each post, and Alhamdulillah, she has always loved it. So this time, I was really waiting for her…
Ustad Hotel Sulaimaani ~ Spiced Black Tea
Seriously speaking, I was in no plans to do any post today. I had already scheduled the post for tomorrow, InShaAllah and was planning to go ahead with it. But the climate today… A change from what it was over the last few days! We have had hot days but cozy nights and the fluctuation is wrecking havoc on everybody’s health, it looks. It has been on and off cloudy with hardly any rains. So yesterday evening, when I saw the thick clouds and the drizzle, I wasn’t expecting it to shower heavily. But He had other plans. It rained heavily late night messing up all around the building. My car is stuck in between a little pond. If I have to take it out, I have to push through it. On top, I woke up with a sprained neck, which isn’t really helpful. I had to take…
Adeni Chai ~ Yemeni Milk Tea
Tea is my favorite beverage, if made properly. An improper tea peeves me off. I guess it runs in the family. It’s with my parents, it’s with HD as well. We prefer having tea from street side restaurants rather than homes most of the time, since many just can’t make a proper cup of tea. 🙁 I feel really bad to say this, but it is from experience. There are very rare times when I have really liked the tea from somebody’s house. I feel people make coffee better, since it is more easier to do so I always ask for it. Hehe… Like tea? Then here are some that are already on the blog – not the sulamani types! 😉 My way of making chai Burma Chai – for people who love tea with just milk! Kashmiri Chai Teh Terik – Malaysian Milk Tea Yuan Yang – Coffee…
Naaranga Sulaimaani ~ Lime Black Tea
A sulaimaani is just that – a dreamy concoction. At any point of time, I prefer my paal chaaya, but at times I do get a bit fed up of it and get myself a small glass of sulaimaani. Normally, I make it this way with a dash of cardamom, but at times when I need a little kick, or when the meal has been too heavy, then a black tea with a nice squeeze of lime does the trick. While doing this post, I remembered this one that Sona (I wish she revives her blog for which I did a guest post sometime back…) had shared on her timeline… I like this quote, though I have no clue how much I will stick to this. Improving ourselves is an ongoing process but I have never felt like giving it time and concentrating on it. I don’t know if it…
Vegan Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate
After the Mint Hot Chocolate and the Biscoff White Hot Chocolate, here comes the third one! Since I have gone through the difficulties of having some of my favorite food during the vegan days, I had found ways to go about it. I still like to look back and take around the lessons and still crave for good vegetarian food rather than non-veg after that little phase in my life! 😀 Something I used to crave so much for was hot chocolate and somehow I was really not liking too much dark chocolate. On top, I am really not a fan of hot chocolate with cocoa powder, but then you need to adjust as per your circumstances, right? 🙂 That is when this hot chocolate was born. Since I used to keep making almond milk, in order to finish them soon, I used to end up making…
Biscoff White Hot Chocolate
After the minty hot chocolate, here’s the second one. Biscoff White Hot Chocolate is simply a white hot chocolate spiked up with some Biscoff! How does that sound? I got the idea during my Google searches and was really smitten by the idea. The Biscoff goes amazingly well with the white chocolate, in fact I believe this combination would be much better than the combination of milk chocolate with Biscoff. I have already posted a white hot chocolate before on the blog, which also had a spike of cinnamon. Similar to that one, this one also has a sprinkle of cinnamon powder at the top and it gives a very homely feeling to the drink. Off to the recipe… and I hope you will keep waiting for what is going to appear tomorrow as the third recipe… 🙂 Biscoff White Hot Chocolate Save Print Prep…
Mint Hot Chocolate
I guess I mentioned it last month, but mentioning it again today… InShaAllah, in 2017 the 3 back-to-back will be done every second month than every month, so that it will make it easy for me to work around a theme and follow it too. Till now I was able to do it without much hassle, but since I don’t want to put a lot of pressure on myself, I am letting it go a bit loose. 😀 But don’t worry, we are at the end of this year and I do have a 3B2B this time, which is going to amaze you… Ready? OK, then, read on… I guess looking at the picture and the title of today’s post, you maybe thinking that I am featuring warm drinks. Yes, it is winters, there are some cold winds, all you need is some blanket all over you and…
DIY: Dulche De Leche in Pressure Cooker & DDL Coffee
I have written about DDL in detail in the previous posts. Dulche De Leche is nothing but condensed milk cooked to make it caramel like. This is one of the best discoveries when I fell in love with cooking. Adding DDL to a dessert just lifts it to another level. A few recipes on the blog that already use up this wonder ingredient: Mexican Flan Banoffee Pie DDL Ice Cream DDL Bundt Cake DDL Brownies – my absolute favorite! DDL Baked Cheesecake Making DDL from scratch is actually a tedious process. It is no fun cooking the tin for a few hours – 3 to 4 hours – soaked up in hot water on low flame. Instead, I use my trusted pressure cooker to do the job for me. It gets done so easily and you just need to leave it overnight to cool completely, to make it…
Oats Kanji ~ Oats Milk Drink
As much as focusing on our inner balance during the coming holy month, it also becomes imperative that we have good nourishing food to keep us going for the whole day. Nowadays, there is so much emphasis on what to eat and what not to eat. This left me intrigued as to how were the fasts during those days of the Prophet – when there was hardly any food to eat. There is emphasis on two foods – dates and water. Dates is a super-food that nourishes the body and brings it back to its normal state after fasting, without causing any disturbance to the balances. Water is also the same. There is no mention of any other kind of food – they used to eat whatever was available. And we plan and plan on what to cook and eat. I guess we need to reflect on the irony……
Habbat Al Hamra / Habbal Hamra ~ Custard Asario Seed Drink
Have you had cases where you go on to make a recipe, having no idea how it is going to taste like? A couple of weeks ago, when I pulled out B for a drive towards Fujeirah on a rain drenched Saturday, we were having our lunch at an Afghani eatery. As we gorged on the pulao and the kebabs, he said, “Thaatha, have you ever tried Habbat Al Hamra?” To the question like look on my face, he said, “It is a yellow thick drink, with red color sago like balls floating in it. It tastes like custard and those balls are just like those falooda thing, it just tastes so good…” And he stopped it at that. We proceeded with the drive back home, but that description stuck to my head… As per him, he had relished this several times at a small joint in Sharjah,…