I am trying to get back to regular blogging and I am feeling quite rusty. Having said that, when it is the tenth of the month, I have to make sure that I don’t miss out on a challenge that I nurture and manage – the Muslim Food Blogger Challenge! It has been an amazing journey so far and each challenge has been accepted by my fellow bloggers with a lot of enthusiasm. It is this support that makes me want to keep the challenge going on. I am pretty excited by the fact that the challenge is approaching one year in November. Definitely another pointer to keep continuing, InShaAllah… This month, we are exploring Pakistani cuisine. We had done Indonesian cuisine a few months ago, and as per statistics, Pakistan is the second largest Muslim country in the world. Pakistani food is very similar to the Muslim…
Semiya Payasam ~ Vermicelli Milk Dessert
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…
Thari Unda ~ Malabar Semolina Laddoos
Malabar has so much variety of food that sometimes it is so difficult to bring all in one fold. Despite blogging for four years, my aim at collecting as much as Malabar recipes at one place seems to be moving at a snail pace, mainly because there is too much to explore! It seems to be a never-ending pit, however since I have taken the dive, let me go deep into it. 😉 Thari Unda is nothing but Malabar style semolina laddoos. While the North Indian version is loaded with ghee, this version is without even a drop of it! These undas are made by mixing roasted semolina into sugar syrup and rolling them into balls before the mixture hardens. The process is a pain. The heat of the mixture can cause burned hands, so it is something that is not very frequently made at home. I…
Cassata Ice Cream Cake
As we bid farewell to this blessed month and move on to Eid-ul-Fitr, it is more like stock taking of what we have achieved in the month. Ramadan is a month where there are a lot of restrictions – whether it is food, water or relationships; when there is more emphasis on giving away a part of your wealth to charity – compulsory and otherwise; when there is the requirement of keeping a tab on our habits and characters. Eid ul Fitr marks the removal of all those restrictions, however it points out to another fact – that if we will, we can stick to a lot of self discipline in our lives. If we will, we can give up our bad habits and grow on the good habits inculcated during this month. This festival, though is marked by sadness of the disappearance of immense blessings of the…
Vegan Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnut
The days of Ramadan are passing by fast. As this post goes for publishing, it is already the second ten days of this holy month. During the last week, I was listening to a Malayalam lecture and the main topic was of three virtues that Allah has not mentioned how much is the reward – Sabr (patience), Afuww (forgiving) and Sawm (fasting). For every other good deed we do, there is a number of reward associated with it, however for the above, there is no quantification of reward except that He will reward those who possess these quantities abundantly. That got me thinking. “Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without any account.” (Surah Az-Zumar: part of Verse 10) “And the retribution for an evil act is an evil one like it, but whoever pardons and makes reconciliation – his reward is (due) with Allah. Indeed, He does…
Tiganites ~ Greek Pancakes
I love pancakes for breakfast. It is one of the easiest recipes to cook for a hale and hearty breakfast. Wouldn’t you agree with me? You can serve them plain, with a sprinkling of sugar, a drizzle of honey, maple syrup, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce… whatever you may fancy it with. While searching for recipes for the Blogging Marathon #76 under the theme “Flavors of Greece”, I had to check for pancakes and yes, there were! Tiganites or Greek Pancake are simple pancakes that are made in every Greek household in their own variation and is normally served with a drizzle of honey and crushed walnuts. More than the pancake recipe, it was the servings that excited me and got me into trying the recipe. 😀 Even though Google gave me variety of recipes that looked like normal pancakes with milks, eggs and baking powder, I…
Vegan Biscoff Cheesecake
After the Gulab Jamun cheesecake shots, here comes the second cheesecake in the Blogging Marathon #76 under the theme, “I love, you love Cheesecakes!”. And it has to be vegan! 😉 I have been wanting to try a vegan cheesecake since very long but somehow I never liked the idea. Maybe it is just the mental thought. I have been seeing this recipe and the amount of cashews that go into them, somehow doesn’t appeal to me. However, while this theme was declared, I had already decided I would try to make one, to know the feel and texture of it. The recipe is very easy to make. The crust of the cheesecake is dates and walnuts, while the “cheesecake” portion is blend cashew cream, made up of soaked cashew nuts, coconut milk, some coconut oil and your choice of flavoring. I chose to make this with…
Gulab Jamun Cheesecake Shots
As the email from Srivalli came at the end of March, regarding participation for Blogging Marathon #76 for the month of May, I looked through excitedly and selected my themes. Once I confirmed to her, and got to planning how I go about cooking the dishes, a rude shock awaited me. I soon realized that I had hardly 16 days to finish cooking the dishes instead of more than a month, since we were having guests staying over at our house for a month and I wouldn’t be able to do too much of experimenting. You all know how it is when you have guests – you will have to stick to more routine cooking and do out-of-the-box only when they are willing to try. The first set of dates I selected, ie. from today to fifth would coincide with their stay. The second set of dates is immediately…
Semolina Mango Cake
I hope you enjoyed the Mango Custard Verrines and Aamras posts in this month’s 3-back-to-back mango recipes. I have been wanting to bake with semolina since long but never got around it. My first attempt at making the basbousa, which is an Arab style semolina cake soaked in sugar syrup, was a dud, and I never got to making it again. Even though I have bookmarked several recipes that use up semolina, I have still kept it pending. There is so much that I am cooking and trying so some things do go off to the end of the list. 🙂 I made this cake to finish off a can of mango pulp that I had got at a deal. My mind went loitering at all options like ice cream and pudding but then I remembered the semolina mango cake recipe I had saved up very long ago….
Peanut Butter Banana Sandwich
After the Secret Recipe Club came to an end, Sarah started an event called “Fantastical Food Fighting“. Every month she gives a theme and a date to publish the post. The best part about this event is that you can join in if you want and there is no pressure to be doing posts. Most of the challenges require you to do continuous posts to remain a part of the group, which is not the case with this event. Hence I took a plunge and submitted my name. However, till date I haven’t been able to participate despite some interesting themes. But this month, I got the opportunity to be a part of it and here I am! The theme for this month is PB&J, which is the short form for “peanut butter and jelly”. The recipe needed to have peanuts and a fruit in it. All I…
Fesenjan ~ Persian Chicken Stew with Walnuts and Pomegranate
There are times when I wish I can go ahead and do a post without much of an introduction. Just do the post… then I wonder, would my readers accept it? I really don’t know… Many of you are used to reading something or the other to begin a post, and I am used to it too. If I don’t do it, then I feel a pinch of guilt within me for not taking an effort to start the post with a subject. But being human, at times, we are just left to be blank. The mind doesn’t give in. It acts just opposite of the way we want it to be. At that time, the best to do is not to pressurize it, which in turn will put undue stress on our whole system. Does it make any sense? 🙂 Last week, we had some lovely climate…
Coffee Walnut Cake with Mocha Cream and Candied Walnuts
I don’t whether whoever said children are like angels were in his or her right frame of mind when he or she said that. 😀 I really don’t know… 😉 The little munchkin is no longer little. Azza completes 6 years of life on earth and steps into her seventh year. Alhamdulillah, I am blessed with two that drive me up the wall as much as that can love me to bits. It would be too cliched if I use words like “I can’t believe that it’s been 6 years since you came down into my hands!” 😀 All parents go through similar set of feelings… I am sure of that… She may a little imp at home but Alhamdulillah, she is very well behaved when she is in school and otherwise. I only pray like every mother would for their child, that He blesses her with the…