It feels like it has been ages since I participated in the Fantastical Food Fight which is hosted by Sarah. When this month’s theme was declared, I had to be a part of it. It seems the month of January is “National Omelet Month” in the USA and therefore the theme has to be related to it – omelettes! Now, how easy can that be! When eggs are a staple of your breakfast day in and day out, thanks for it being a powerhouse of good protein and fat, then making something for this theme is a very easy task, isn’t it? 🙂 If there is one food that makes HD happy at any time, then it is a sunny side up or an omelette. He would really love our style of omelette with onion, tomatoes and loads of bite, however I, being a lazy-head, always resort to…
Honey Kiwi Walnut Salad
I literally feel like I finished an assignment right before the deadline. Hehe… Before that, a quick look into the scenes out here. We have had an awesomely wet weekend, with heavy rains, that caused total water clogging in most of the parts of the city. On Friday, we took a drive towards the outskirts and seriously enjoyed the rains. However, on Saturday, it caused a lot of trouble, but that comes with the enjoyment, isn’t it? The girls had their madrassa closed yesterday, and have their schools off today, so they are pretty excited about what the rains have offered them. 🙂 The rains are expected to be on and off for this whole week. Thankfully, slowly it is feeling like winter, and I hope this chill stays well till March or April. It’s been long since I have participated in the AtoZ Recipe Challenge hosted by…
Kheema Toasties | Minced Meat Sandwich
Are you among those who love to go on picnics? I do love to go for them, but unfortunately HD isn’t very keen on it. I feel his disinterest actually makes me feel jittery if we need to plan a picnic, because my head goes blank regarding the snacks to carry. I don’t have a head that functions immediately when a plan is thrown at me. I suffer from inertia, and then slowly it gets into the mould. I guess it has got worse with age. Hehe… I always feel I need to bake some cake and cookies, make some sandwiches, fill a flask with some hot chai and some hot chocolate, and just move out for a quiet time. But then the lazy me wouldn’t want to bake and take the extra effort to make all and pack, so I would still prefer the prelude of being on…
Mutta Porichathu ~ Malabar Fried Eggs
I decided to have a 3 back-to-back series this month. Can you guess what is the theme? The weather over here is quite apt for “chai and pakoda”, and hence I decided I will share three chai time snacks. Even though I am someone who likes to enjoy my chai on its own without anything alongside, at times, I crave for snacks like ulli pakvada or pazham pori. This egg fry is something I learned when I get married. We would only boil our eggs, peel it and have it as it is. When I married HD and came towards his side, I was intrigued by this glamorous avatar of boiled eggs, that would get served in every second house we visited. I used to call it “monjathi mutta” aka “pretty eggs”… hehe… The eggs are boiled, peeled and slashed. You can either coat it with a masala…
Apple Pola | Apple Kums ~ Malabar Apple Egg “Cake”
Starting the year on a sweet note is usually what everybody wants to do. Sometimes we don’t realize that the upcoming year is usually a repercussion of what has already happened in the previous years. I really don’t want to muddle over it, but would rather leave you all with a little poem that really made an impact on me during the end of 2019: Miss Me, But Let Me Go When I come to the end of the road And the sun has set for me, I want no rites in a gloom filled room Why cry for a soul set free! Miss me a little, but not for long, And not with your head bowed low. Remember the love we once shared, Miss me, but let me go! For this a journey we all must take, And each must go alone; It’s all a part of…
Baked Chicken Toast
I am breathing a sigh of relief. 2019 has been a rather rough year. I wouldn’t want to sound pessimistic but it wasn’t a happy year. There were too many downs than ups, but Alhamdulillah, we faced the tide and rode against it. As much as challenges arose, we fought it and downed it, only to be faced by more. I guess with passing days, tests leave you becoming a little paranoid when little joys come your way. It is during those times I remind myself of the immense number of verses in the Qur’an, where Allah warns us of hardships. He promises His Jannah for those who are steadfast and patient. It is difficult, but not impossible. We all very well know that this life is transient, yet we do not want to accept that fact… I guess I wouldn’t want to think too much about this year….
Goji Berry Breakfast Cookies
If anybody enters my kitchen, they will think they have entered an office. I have a white board on the side of my fridge with full of scribbling, a cork board on one of my cupboard doors with lots of cut outs pinned to it and a sticker hanger with even more papers clipped onto it. Anyone new who comes gives a very curious look at them to see what I have spread on them. Obviously, they are recipe printouts and cut outs that I pin up so that I try immediately. That “immediately” has no specific time frame – it can be a week, a month or even years. But I must say that this recipe I am posting today didn’t have to wait indefinitely to be tried, thanks to the Bake-a-thon. 😀 I mentioned about receiving a small pack of goji berries from Zerin, while I…
Aloo Raita ~ Potato Yogurt Dip
After the Batata Harra, here is the post no.2 for the Blogging Marathon #106 for the theme “Choose a vegetable, prepare three dishes from different states/ countries”. I decided to do three recipes from three countries, so after a Lebanese recipe, we come to our very own India. 🙂 If you thought potatoes are loved in my house, then I beg to differ. HD, I and B are the ones who love to eat potatoes. My girls scoff at it unless it is in french fries form. Believe me, I sometimes really admire my level of patience with them when it comes to eating – they are way too fussy. *leaving a cry out* Anyway, one Friday, as I was cooking fish biriyani for lunch, I wanted to make a different type of raita. The posts for this theme was pending and it was perfect time to cook…
Batata Harra ~ Lebanese Skillet Potatoes
This week, I am doing three posts related to the Blogging Marathon #106 for the theme “Choose a vegetable, prepare three dishes from different states/ countries”. I have no clue why I chose this theme, but I am sure it was with the good intention of making some nice vegetarian dishes for the blog. I first pondered around using eggplant as my ingredient and even mentioned three recipes I would try. Alas, nothing materialized and to make sure that I have posts ready for this week, I went with the easy to work with, world famous tuber called potatoes, which was incidentally Valli’s example for us to explain the theme. 😀 I was supposed to be doing another dish to start off these three weeks. But I skittled through last moment, and realized I only had saved up the pictures of this post in my pen drive. I…
Pressure Cooker Chicken Curry | Easy Chicken Curry
I am wondering how should I start this post. Most of the time, these days my head is really blank. There has been a lot happening – good and ugly and my thoughts are all muddled up in that process, not knowing which way to think and keep my mood. But one thing I know – that what is destined, good or bad, will surely come our way, come what maybe. Sometimes thinking that way makes sense more than becoming tensed about what is going to come. I keep telling HD that we have always been relieved of the tensions we face, so maybe we just need to stay positive and hope that everything will settle, InShaAllah. Having said that, winters are slowly sweeping in and is releasing a very laid back air in all. I find it hard to do anything, forget about cooking. Even though I love…
Pazham Vaatiyathu ~ Malabar Caramelized Plaintains | Guest Post for My Sizzling Taste Buds
It has been a long time since I have contributed to guest posts. The last one I did was more than a year ago. So when I received an email from Kalyani, asking if I could do a guest post for her blog, I was obviously excited. I have mentioned before that doing a guest post literally feels like going with a dabba of home made food to the host’s house. 🙂 Kalyani had only one request, that the recipe would be a forgotten family recipe. I had a few ideas running up my head. But then, Malabar food is usually non-vegetarian and most of our snacks somehow have eggs sneaked into it. After brainstorming myself and digging into my deep memory recesses, finally I ended up making this Pazham Vaatiyathu aka Malabar style caramelized plantains. The recipe is so simple that I was worried if Kalyani would…
Easy Paneer Burji – Scrambled Cottage Cheese
I had a little startle as I looked at the calendar today. We have exactly two months to go in this year. How fast does time fly! I don’t want to judge this year now itself since we have the remaining days to see how things fare up. Just hoping that they get better, or at least stay stagnant, InShaAllah… I always believe that meals need to be quick yet filling and comforting. However, the idea of comforting is not likely the same for all of us in the family, isn’t it? 😀 What I find delicious is totally rejected by the girls. As they grow up into their own little individuals, it is a constant fight for me to see what they like and what they don’t. Unfortunately the latter is more than the former, thereby limiting my options as to what to cook for the girls….
Low Calorie Gajar Halwa | Carrot Sweet
The heart seems so much at peace when it sees that the climate is changing finally! We had a really hot September and October was also not showing much respite, making us wonder if we would have the “beach and barbeque” climate all the UAE residents look forward to. Finally, the last week showed a slight change in the scales. There were rains in some interior parts of the country and that surely affected the temperatures. Early mornings are cozy and the times after sunset are just apt for those long walks. Afternoons are still hot at times but hopefully soon they will become more comfortable. This means that it is nice to do some baking and hogging, and more cups of tea and coffee… 🙂 With the wave of healthy eating all over, it becomes difficult to sometimes control ourselves from not having sweets at all. After…
Nutella French Toast
After a little hiatus, we are back with the Muslim Food Blogger Challenge this month. Of late, we have been looking at easy themes to get in a bit of participation. How much that strategy has helped, I don’t want to comment. 🙂 When it comes to blogging, it becomes the last priority when life keeps throwing things at you on a constant basis. It is happening at the moment for me too. It is just that I don’t want to let my passion die and I am fighting it as much as I can. I have been doing the same for the past two years and so far, I have been successful. But how much I can hold myself up needs to be seen… 🙂 Coming back to the challenge, the theme for the month is “Sandwich”. So what is a sandwich? In layman terms, it is…
Haleeb Mal Zafran ~ Emirati Saffron Milk
After the Qahwa and the Laban – which are relatively no-brainer recipes – I was planning for something else as this post for the Blogging Marathon #105 for the theme of “One country, one category, three dishes”. But fate had it that I wasn’t to make the elaborate drink that I planned. I fell ill last week and I still had to prepare for this post. The lack of energy and mood reigned in and I gave up on myself. When you feel ill, there are certain drinks that play such a soothing role on your overall wellness. If we are back home, it has to be this turmeric milk aka masala paal. But when it is here in the UAE, I would vouch for this saffron milk, called colloquially as “Haleeb Mal Zafran”. Saffron is an expensive spice. It is definitely not something that we would use…