I don’t know if I would call my weekend “relaxed”, but in a way, it was. After a long day on Thursday, I just wanted to be at home but the girls were adamant they wanted to go to the book fair which is happening at the Sharjah Expo Center. Very hesitantly, I braved the traffic of an hour to be at the fair and we had a good walk. I had already warned the girls that I wouldn’t be buying anything that day, so it was more of a walking and browsing session! Hehe… Friday was a very normal day, very much at home. Yesterday morning, we again headed to the book fair. This time, the girls had a program to attend so I took Humi along with me for company. We walked around, picked up a few books and spent some good time chatting. For the first…
Roasted Chicken, Broccoli and Potatoes
Simple joys of life is what I call this meal – a mix of proteins ,carbs and greens! 😛 We all do this, don’t we? – pick up what’s there in the fridge, pull out whatever is there in the spice section, and just put up a meal. This one was one of those, which was wiped up clean. I normally like to cut chicken on my own, but at times, when I am in a hurry, I order from the supermarket nearby and they cut such small and tardy pieces, since they use a machine. I find it convenient to make curry, since it cooks faster, but you can never make out which is the leg or the breast piece, it all looks the same! 😀 But it cooks really fast, whether on the stove or in the oven, so I do like it for such meals. 🙂…
Jeeraka Kozhi/ Jeera Kozhi ~ Malabar Cumin Chicken
The tenth of the month, so no prizes for guessing – time for the Muslim Food Bloggers Challenge post! This month, the theme was pretty interesting – to pick up a recipe bookmarked or pinned from a Muslimah blogger and recreate it in our own kitchen! It was a tough call for me. I have bookmarks all over the place, and ever since the challenge has started, it has been only increasing. However, a little bit of deep thought and all of a sudden I knew what I should be posting! This Jeeraka Chicken caught my attention as soon as I saw it here. Fathima’s was one blog I followed initially when the cooking bug hit me. I loved her blog for the simple recipes especially the Malabar ones, and the warm clicks. She even did a guest post for me during that time. Unfortunately, the doctor seems…
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…
Chicken and Corn Quesadillas
The second country I chose to cook from under the “Oceanic Cuisine” theme for the Blogging Marathon #78 was Mexico. The cuisine from this country is so well accepted, thanks to the Nachos and Tacos that do rounds at almost all food courts! The world is coming to like the Mexican twist of adding chilli to chocolate (like this hot chocolate and these shots!) and not to mention, the Dulche De Leche! I have been wanting to try quesadillas (read them as ke-se-di-ya) for quite some time, considering how easy it is to make them. I really wanted to make the tortillas (read them as to-ti-ya)for scratch, but as the dates for the publishing approached, I gave up on myself and relied on making them from store bought tortillas. There is one thing you must never miss in your quesadillas and that’s cheese! It must have cheese. The…
Easiest Chicken Fry
Continuing from where I left yesterday, we landed in Muscat at around 10:30 pm. You can understand the excitement, that despite being so tired, I was not ready to settle down, so much that I started dozing in between speaking to her at around 2:30 am and she pushed me off to sleep. 😀 Oman celebrated their Eid on Monday, so her family all went off for their Eid prayers while we caught up with some sleep. After waking up, again we had a lot of chatting before we pushed off to their friend’s house for lunch. Even there, we wouldn’t stop talking and our host was surprised that we have known each other since school days, that is almost 25 years of our life! 🙂 I didn’t want to leave so soon, but then, we have to be thankful for the little we get, right? I am thankful…
Arseeyah ~ Emirati Rice Chicken Gruel
I was ready with the Samak Koufta and Shorbat Adas well before in time, however this dish had to wait till the start of Ramadan to be made. Arseeyah is considered to be one of the Emirate’s comfort food. What is not comfort in it? Rice, chicken and some simple spices amalgamate into a wonderful dish, so very close to Harees. During my casual browsing, I landed up on this blog and it was love at first sight. It was one of the few blogs on the world wide web which had some Emirati recipes. I wish she would have continued blogging since the blog hasn’t been updated since Ramadan 2013. 🙁 Anyway, it is a treasure trove of a lot of simple recipes and I have almost bookmarked the entire blog to try! 😀 The one recipe that did pique my interest instantly was this dish. I did go…
Simple Tuna Stir Fry
I have yet not recovered from the overdose of cheesecakes of the Blogging Marathon. 😉 At times, too much sweet can also cause you lethargy and laziness. Even though I am still the “BST”, I am trying to reduce my sugar intake gradually, taking into account my constant weight gain over the past few years. I don’t know if I need to “thank” blogging for that, but to an extend, I must say “yes”. Even though I make very small quantities of dessert, it somehow ends up majorly into my system and considering that I have a super cooperative metabolism system helps in adding up the flab all over. You will still keep seeing a lot of posts, since they are all from my drafts. I am on a mission to go on slow as far as my cooking escapades are concerned till I shed off a little extra…
Bakmi Goreng/ Mie Goreng ~ Indonesian Fried Noodles
We are on the tenth of the month, so time for the Muslim Food Bloggers Challenge of the month! The way days fly from one tenth to the other is unbelievable. Sometimes I feel we have enough time to handle things, but this time, it came to a point that I had to whip up something so quick so that I could at least be a part of the challenge. It doesn’t happen to me usually. I like to plan and be prepared in advance, but sometimes things just don’t work out in your favor and plans keep getting postponed, only for the deadline to be staring at you. Alhamdulillah, still I was ready a week ahead, not too late I suppose. 😉 This month, we explore Indonesian cuisine. Why, you may ask. Indonesia happens to be the largest Muslim country in the world, accounting for 20% of…
Cheesy Chicken Pizza with Wheatgerm Crust
There is one thing I am slowly convincing myself – that I can’t escape from night photography. Period… I have always wondered if people would stop reading my blog if I don’t improve my pictures. Would you? Please do tell me… 🙂 Once during a casual conversation, Lubna had mentioned that the pictures on the blog reflects the nature of the blog. If the concentration is on food photography, then there will be lesser posts, but if the focus is on recipe sharing, then the number of posts will be more. It actually made a lot of sense to me. I never started the blog to focus on food photography. It was more to keep me motivated to cook, since I know the type of character I am. 😀 I can have long stretches of no-cooking days when we live off the fridge. I don’t want to blame…
Meat Chickpeas Patties
It is the 10th of the month and it is time for the Muslim Food Blogger Challenge of the month! I love hosting challenges and love it even more when there is healthy participation too. We are now in our fourth month, and Alhamdulillah, things are going quite well with a lot of enthusiasm in the team. I would love to thank each and every member who take the challenge and try to participate as much as they can! 🙂 For this month, the theme chosen was “Cooking from the Scrapbook“. Being foodies, we all would have at-least one scrapbook. Either it is a scribbled diary during our school days where we noted our Home Science recipes or copied it from the newspaper that our dad would be angry with us if we run the scissors around it. 😀 It may be a book with all cut-outs, or…
Meen Masala ~ Fish Masala
I wish I could eat fish whenever I wish for. When umma is around, fish is a part of lunch every weekday but I am normally not present during that time. I can’t say I am crazy about fish but I get bowled over by a good fish fry or a delicious fish curry. I guess it can be the signs of a Keralite. 😉 Here are some of the fish recipes on the blog, if you would like to refer back to… Tomato Fish Curry Meen Thoran ~ Fish Scramble Fish Makkanwala ~ Creamy Fish Curry Kerala Style Fish Masala Meen Arappu Roast ~ Fish Roast in Coconut Milk and Masalas – one of my favorites! This Fish Masala is cooked in a shallot based gravy and enriched with some tomato paste instead of whole tomatoes, to give it a nice pop of colors. Apart from the peeling…