Sunday 12 October 2014

Eid-ul-Adha + Homemade Fish Fingers + A Shortbread Recipe: 4 October - 10 October 2014

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful



This week I have found it incredibly difficult to be patient. Patience is something I'm sure most of us struggle with. 


This post from my Instagram feed helped.

Patience isn't peaceful - at least not at first.

True patience is like stepping onto shards of glass and muffling your screams. As you sit and remove the pieces from your skin, tears stinging at your eyes from the pain, you smile and do not say a word.

Patience is like being lit on fire from within, a fire that feels as though it will consume you.

And yet you keep walking forward calmly, extending your hand to take cool drinks from those who offer them in order to quell the flame.

Patience is like treading water in violent seas after your boat has capsized - you are exhausted, but if you stop trying for a moment, you will drown.


 Saturday: Today we spent the day preparing for Eid-ul-Adha. This giant bag of chicken legs arrived from the butcher ready to be washed, marinaded and roasted.
My cousin arrived to help make the dough for our Eid dessert this year - Doughnuts!
I tried out a new recipe for Chicken White Karahi.
And, here are those chicken legs. They've been washed and are about to be slashed with a knife to let the spice mixture get right through.
I mixed the marinade for them using yoghurt, tandoori powder and a whole host of other spices. You can find my mum's usual spicy roast chicken recipe here! 
Mum tossed the chicken in vinegar, salt and crushed red chilli.
... before rubbing on the spicy marinade. Rubber gloves are rather useful for this!
By now, my cousin had made the doughnut dough. It was covered loosely with clingfilm and left to rise slowly overnight.
The night before Eid, we ate the Chicken White Karahi with fresh naan.
Update: Here is the recipe.
Sunday: The day of Eid-ul-Adha had arrived! Eid Mubarak to you all!
We began the day by watching the live feed from Makkah. It brought back many memories of our own Hajj journey in 2012. 
You can read about my Hajj journey here!
May Allah accept the Hajj of all those who performed it this year - Ameen!
Then, it was on to breakfast. Eggs were being fried ...
... along with one of the chicken pieces from the night before. This was to be a seasoning tester before the whole batch went into the oven.
Coffee for me in my new mug! Happiness is most definitely homemade :)
The chicken was ready to go in the oven - the batch was divided between two baking trays and two ovens!
Here is the menu for this years Eid. There were a few last minute adjustments made, as you can see!
A few snapshots of the food cooking on Eid morning - water boiling away with whole spices, ready for the biryani rice.
Tamarind chutney being made - there was a lot of crushed dried red chilli which made us all cough hence the lid.
Onions being sliced into a small pot with melted butter for the only vegetarian dish of the day - Daal.
Plenty of sliced tomatoes ready to add to the chicken keema for the biryani.
Sliced onions, crushed ginger and garlic frying away until golden brown for the biryani.
More onions frying for the Daal.
Tomatoes slowly breaking down and turning into a masala for the biryani.
And, then, finally it was time to eat! We ate Spicy Roast Chicken.
Chicken Kebabs 
These were made by mixing together chicken mince, crushed red chilli, salt, ground cumin, ground coriander, fried onions and an egg. They were shaped into patties and fried.
White Chicken Korma
I will definitely be sharing this recipe with you all soon, Insha Allah.
Update: Here is the recipe.
Keema Biryani 
Full recipe can be found here. 
Quick Tamarind Chutney
Made by boiling half a block of dry tamarind with water, salt, crushed red chilli and ground cumin. Simmer for 45 minutes and then strain. Boil again and add sugar, mint sauce and tomato ketchup. Taste, and adjust accordingly. You can also thicken with a little cornflour too.
Green Yoghurt Chutney
Daal
Everything was so yummy - definitely an Eid lunch to remember. The Qurbani lamb hadn't arrived yet so no Qurbani Lamb Curry for us.
Then, it was time to make the Doughnuts! 
We made two versions. The fried ones were first shaped and left to rise for a second time.
And, we made baked gluten-free mini doughnuts using this recipe. And, you can get this mini doughnut tin here.
We dipped the mini ones in melted butter and cinnamon sugar.
Mum came in to help and fried the larger doughnuts.
My cousins teamed up and made an awesome Chocolate Dipping Sauce/Ganache.

Using this recipe!
We made vanilla glazes for the doughnuts and coloured them fuchsia and turquoise - thanks to coloured food gels gifted by a friend back in August! 
Once the doughnuts were fried, and cool enough to handle ...
... the messy but incredibly satisfying job of decorating them began!
And, finally, they were ready! Alhamdulillah!
Some were dipped in coloured vanilla glaze and decorated with sprinkles.
Others were dipped in the chocolate dipping sauce and more sprinkles.
But, by far my favourite, were these. Dipped in melted butter, rolled in cinnamon sugar and drizzled with the chocolate sauce.
This Eid-ul-Adha will forever be known as The One Where We Made Doughnuts.
Monday: The day after Eid is always filled with leftovers. Here I shredded the roast chicken, sliced up cucumber, tomato and lettuce. Mum rolled out a few naan breads and we wrapped everything in them with yoghurt chutney and tamarind chutney.
Some of us spread the naan with passata, sprinkled on chicken, sliced tomatoes, cheese and dried oregano - instant pizza!

Tuesday: Our Qurbani arrived today from the local butcher.
 Wednesday: A gift of traditional barfi from Pakistan.
In the evening, there was a dinner at our house. It was catered for and look at the size of this pot! It took over the entire cooker!
The food included delicious sweet yellow rice known as Zardah.
And, Qurbani Lamb Curry of which there was very little left.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets incredibly excited when packages from Amazon land through the letterbox. 
 
Thursday: Runny eggs and toast to start a very autumnal day.
Ingredients out for a stew - carrots, chickpeas, butternut squash and more!
I'll share the recipe soon, Insha Allah.
Update: Here is the recipe.
 
 Friday: There was a bit of early morning gift wrapping this morning as my cousins left on a trip to Pakistan.
You can see what I gifted her here. 
The scene in the kitchen at lunchtime - ingredients out to bake shortbread and veggies ready to be roasted.
This is such a simple side dish for any meal. Slice up carrots into sticks, and baby potatoes into half. Drizzle with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Toss together and roast on a lined tray (for easy clean up) at Gas Mark 6 (200 degrees) for 30 minutes until golden and tender.
While the veggies roasted, I baked shortbread. Into a bowl, went softened butter and sugar.
They were beaten until light and fluffy.
A cake tin was buttered ready for the shortbread.
To the bowl, I added rice flour.
And, plain flour.
Everything was brought together before being placed into the tin.
The shortbread was pressed into the tin, crimped, sliced, pricked and sprinkled with sugar.
You can find the full recipe that I used here. 
For a video version, see here. However, I would recommend that you bake as the recipe says but then slice into slices. Place on another tray and bake again for 15 minutes.
The recommended baking time wasn't enough for me and the shortbread wasn't fully cooked through.

More Qurbani meat defrosting ready for Mum to make another curry.

The giant batch of curry was being prepared for guests in the evening. You can find one of her Lamb Curry recipe here.
I made Eggy Fish Fingers for lunch.
Sounds crazy doesn't it? But they turned out really well. Full recipe is here. 
Oh, look the shortbread is baked.
At this point, I sliced it fully and baked it a bit more to dry out.
Here are the fish fingers in all their glory.
I used cod but any white fish would do.
We ate them with the roasted veggies and mushy peas.
A lovely take on the traditional Fish and Chips!
 
 No recipes from me this week, I'm afraid. I haven't been feeling too well and writing about or looking at food was the last thing that I wanted to do. Also, what with Eid and everything, things were quite hectic around here.
 Insha Allah, all will be back to normal next week - I have plenty of recipes to share with you all.

A few of my favourite links from around the web this week:

1. One of the most beautiful Adhan's (call to prayer) I have ever heard.
2. If you're thinking of making burgers soon, be sure to try this recipe.
3. Two of my favourites in one place!
4. Beautiful posts about Eid-ul-Adha: here and here.
5. Thinking about how to spend your Eid money?
6. Who is a true companion?
7. I love this take on a Punjabi Egg Masala!
8. This cake though!
9. I want spaghetti and meatballs now!
10. After seeing this crumble recipe, I was seriously craving a crumble with vanilla custard.
11. Two words: Chocolate Pie.
12. This cake stand though.
13. Seriously? Peaches, Cream and Cake?!!

 

I hope you all have a wonderful week filled with lots of happy moments and delicious food, insha allah, 

Wasalaam!


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