Love & other Spices

lunch

Lentil and Vegetable Soup with Parsley

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We were thrilled when the sun started shining and the temperatures peaked to 25 degree Celsius. Oh! What glorious days they were. I even lamented to my husband that it’s too hot in the house and we should get a fan and wondered out loud about the benefits of an air conditioner like we had back in Dubai (gasp). As you imagined, the good weather didn’t last long and it’s back to the unpredictable weather. The other day we were walking to the town and then the library where we got soaked about 4 times. Bit of rain, then the sun, they played hide and seek and Ammar was sure the rain was targeting us. LOL! Every time we stepped out of a shop to the street, it would start pouring.

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Quinoa, Butternut Squash, Pomegranate Salad with Pumpkin Seeds

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I’m not much into salads. There I said it. The salad played a essential but minor role in meals growing up. It was never, ever considered a main meal. It’s because the type of salads we had nicely complemented the Rice & Curry and gave that extra tang or crunch.
There was the cucumber salad which I love. Sliced cucumbers mixed with chopped onions and green chillies with a bit of fresh coconut milk and lime juice. I would sprinkle the liquid to my rice and the dish is elevated to the next level where I’d easily finsh off two portions.
And the raw grated carrot salad. Same method as the cucumber salad without the coconut milk. Then there’s the Gotukola salad. These are the salad we had mostly on rotation and was never eaten on it’s own. So I could never bring myself to have a salad as a main meal.

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Beef & Rice Conjee/Porridge

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After a long silence in my blog,here I am reviving it again. Come what may,I realized I couldn’t abandon my blog. I sincerely thank all my readers who messaged me,inspiring me to keep the blog alive. Also a shout out to my husband who designed this lovely header. Felt like coming back to a newly decorated, good old home filled with memories. A lot happened during the past year,and I thank the Almighty for giving me courage and keeping me going.

It’s the blessed month of Ramadan. A month of fasting,not feasting. This year,Alhamdulillah,I made a resolution to keep our meals to a bare minimum. Not that we had extravagant meals all these years,but the focus was always been on food rather than more on worship. It’s always been what to cook for Iftar(Breaking fast),what to make for Suhoor(Early Morning meal),how many iftars do I have to organize and so on and so forth. But starting my higher studies on Islam, getting myself bombarded(in a good way) with all the updates about the true essence of Ramadan by the social media and various groups that I’m part of, helped me realize the true spirit of this blessed month.

Now in Srilanka, the staple Iftar meal is the Conjee or the rice porridge.

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Easy Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

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What you see above is a totally unplanned shot of our lunch last week.
I wasn’t planning to shoot anything that day but when I plated the meal it looked photogenic and I had beautiful early afternoon light streaming through my kitchen windows that was just perfect.I had to click.

It all happened too fast,with this dish. I had almost half an hour to cook lunch before I dash out the door to pick my hungry kids. A quick search online brought me this recipe which I was satisfied with as I had just the right ingredients,beef and broccoli..tada..

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Prawns in Mild Coconut Curry

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This month has been hectic so far. My elder son Ammar,one of the twins,came down with the fever. I should have expected this,with the weather change. We were sand blasted for a couple of days. The winds scattered copious amount of sand in to the roads and to our balcony too. A sign that chilly mornings and nights will be changing into warm ones. When that and it’s opposite happens-that is,warm days turn in to chilly ones-kids fall sick. It always catches me off guard.

Sweet and Sour Chicken and Vegetables

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Hoping you all are enjoying the holiday season and spirit.My kids were on winter break and their mornings are spent sleeping till eight or nine.Which gives a much needed me time without the hustle and bustle of waking up in the wee hours of morning cooking and trying to get the kids to school.I’ll be up watching the sunrise with a mug of steaming hot coffee and my favorite bran crackers, savoring every moment of the peace and calmness, looking forward to the day ahead.

Soft and delicious Ghee Rotis

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Chappathi or Roti(pan cooked flatbread)as we call it,sans the ghee,has been my food in need,the food that came to my rescue when I didn’t have enough time to spend in the kitchen with two newborns to tend to.The food I can eat with almost any curry,veggie or spread I had, in any form be it stuffed,wrapped or just shredded.

I’ve been making roti ever since I was introduced to it by my Mother-in-Law.It helped me through my working years in Doha(first time away from home),during the infant and toddler years and still during the growing up stage of my young ones.
I normally make about 25 to 30 rotis in one go,all cooked,freeze them up and take out the required quantity and reheat it in the pan again.My boys love to eat the roti’s rolled up with cheese or the favorite Nutella.Yummy!

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Red Rice Porridge

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The delicious red rice is a staple in my country.This long grain beauty clothed in a red husk is minimally processed and has a high nutritional value.When cooked it imparts a deep rich color which is an absolute beauty.I have tried cooking brown rice and every time it fails to satisfy me.Even if I soak it for hours and hours and add bucketfuls of water or stock it never gets done properly but the red rice cooks fast and has a nutty flavor(yeah,when I mean cooked,it’s fully cooked and not make you feel you’re tasting soaked rice after simmering for half an hour as in the case of brown rice.) .

This dish is enjoyed on lazy weekend mornings and a staple in my household.Kids love it as it is and grown ups with a touch of spice and heat,like the hot mango pickle that I’ve used here or a spicy sambol.

Chicken and Feta Manakish/Arabic Pizza

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Hope you all had wonderful Eid!

Eid for me was great but hectic too.Hubby was extremely busy,that meant late night outings and late,lazy mornings.Routines were gone haywire and kids were falling asleep or up and about on all the odd times.I had a couple of snacks and dessert ideas to be worked on and none materialized till now,after somewhat establishing the routine again…Phew…

This is one of my favorite Arabic dishes.Although it’s the same as pizza I love the beauty of it being so simple.That means no making pizza sauce from scratch,not a load of veggies or toppings to chop and no dumping of the whole mozzarella packet on top.
For some reason,I can’t bring myself to buy the pre-made pizza sauce or pasta sauces,toppings mix.Maybe,it’s the way I was brought up.We hardly ate from outside unless my mom or aunt is really,really sick.There were not much of packaged goods anyways.

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Chicken & Wheat Conjee/Porridge

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If there’s one thing that’s staple in our Iftar menu,that has to be the Conjee,the warm and comforting rice porridge that will fill your belly and delight you after those long hours of fasting.I have to have at least a couple of spoonfuls or else I feel as if I haven’t had anything at all.

Back at home we have it all year around,specially for breakfast,made with red rice or herbs.An easy one pot meal that keeps you fully satisfied.And in Ramadan,it’s made in all the Muslim households for Iftar,mostly with some kind of meat and veggies.I still remember taking the warm conjee made by mom and aunt,to neighbors as it is a sign of good gesture.And we would taste the different varieties of Conjee and snacks received from our neighbors and relatives.All this porridge talk conjures up vivid memories of past that makes me want to live them again….hmmmm.I still make it here on weekends,specially on friday mornings and my DH and sons love it..

 

Conjee,aka rice porridge,aka jook is a staple in most rice based cultures specially in China,Malaysia,HongKong,SriLanka to name a few.Wikipedia has more info on this here.It’s one of the first weaning foods given to a baby.Even though it’s made with water or stock in other cuisines,back at home we add coconut milk for grownups.

Unfortunately ,I couldn’t find the white raw rice we use, here in Dubai.But luckily I found another alternative,which is Bulgur Wheat,easy and cooks in much less time than the rice cause it’s already parboiled and broken.

And now this is what I make everyday..till the end of Ramadan..Do I get bored eating the samething everyday? No,I use different meats and sometimes only fried onions.

Here’s the recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup white bulgur wheat small
2 cups water
1 chicken breast,cut into small pieces
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 medium sized tomato finely chopped
3 tbsp grated carrot
few green stalks of spring onions or leeks chopped
5-6 curry leaves
2” inch cinnamon stick
3 cloves
3 cardomoms
3 cloves of garlic finely minced
1” inch ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
l/4 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp pepper corns
2 1/2 cups coconut milk
salt to taste
Method:
  • Soak the wheat in water for about 30 minutes.Wash and drain.
  • In a pot,add the wheat and all the other ingredients except for coconut milk,cumin seeds and pepper corns.Add salt.
  • Boil until the meat is cooked and water has evaporated.Don’t make it very dry.
  • Add the coconut milk and crushed cumin seeds and pepper corns.Simmer for about 5 minutes.
  • Adjust seasoning.
  • Serve it warm.
Notes:
* You can garnish it with fried onion and chopped coriander leaves or spring onions.
* I used 1 cup of thick milk and the rest thin milk.1 cup of freshly grated coconut blended with 1 cup water yields 1 cup thick milk in the first extraction.Second and third extraction will give you thin milk.

* You can spoon out the curry leaves,ginger and whole spices before serving.You sure don’t want to bite into a cardomom or clove!

Enjoy the yummy goodness…!!!

Shrimp String-hoppers Biryani

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There’s so much to do in this blessed month of Ramadan.First let me wish my readers a Blessed Ramadan,even though this comes pretty late it’s something I had to do now that I have followers.Thanks guys for making my days!!
Even though what I am not going to say next is not in anyway related to food blogging,I need to get it out and across.You must have heard about the famine in Africa,specially in Somalia.There were about 29,000 child deaths in the past 9 months.Having lost a baby brother when growing up and as a mother of two little kids I felt strongly about this.Specially knowing that,this could be avoided with a bit of help from all of us.Here in Dubai,we have SMS services that donate money and Government sites where you can login and deposit your Sadaqatul Fitr or charity online.Spread the word around.Please ask dua for them specially when breaking fast. And find out how you can help from your country or area.

Having said that,in this holy month there are always Iftar get together’s to look forward to.Back at home,a quite popular Iftar dinner menu is string hoppers made with either wheat flour or rice flour cause it makes a light dinner.Making it from scratch looked quite labourous to me,but the elders enjoyed it and it was team work.How I miss those days!

So,here in Dubai,I was happy to find ready-made string hoppers making it easy for me to throw an Iftar dinner without much hassle.This is what I did when one of our friends came for Iftar the other day and it made a tasty light dinner perfect for Ramadan nights.

Chicken curry

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I love cooking chicken this way.This is how the chicken curry is made in our household as far as I can remember.The spices that are crushed and added in final stages of cooking brings out such a nice flavor and aroma which I defenitely look forward to enjoying.
Ingredients
1 whole chicken cleaned and cut into pieces
2 ” cinnamon pieces
1 bay leaf
2 cardomom and clove pods each
curry leaves
1 green chilli chopped
1 large onion chopped
1 large tomato chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 pods of garlic and 1′ inch ginger crushed
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp kashmiri chili powder
some cumin seeds,fennel seeds and pepper corns crushed(save for last)
1/4 cup of thick coconut milk
oil
Method
  • Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and add cinnamon,bay leaf, cardamom,clove and curry leaves.
  • Add the onions,a pinch of salt and cook till the onions turn soft and add in the crushed ginger garlic paste.
  • Fry for a while till it turns light brown in color and add the chopped tomatoes and the spices.
  • Add a little bit a of water and cover and cook for till the tomatoes are soft.Add in the tomato paste,chicken,a cup of water,salt and cook till the chicken is done.
  • Stir the coconut milk in and heat it through.
  • Two to three minutes before you switch off the fire add the crushed spices.Adjust seasoning.

 

*Notes:

 

  • I have reduced the amount of chili powder because i feed this to my kids and added tomato paste to retain the reddish color.You can add more chilli powder if you want to fire things up a bit.
  • When I’m too lazy or pressed for time to extract the coconut milk I use about 2 tbsp plain yogurt.