Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Welcome to my week!
One of the reasons I started blogging in the first place was of course to share recipes but also to document my life.
During lockdown, I have loved going back and looking at old posts. I think now, with everything going on, I'm really glad that I posted so much back then. It's so nice to have a look back at years gone by. This is definitely a strange time but for me, it has also been a very grounding time. Life has slowed down and the important things are now centre-stage.
One of those for me is documenting the small things that make me happy every day. My blog is the perfect place for that so with that, I present some happy moments from this past week.
Monday 8 June 1:35pm - Summer strawberries for snack time. These big boxes are always a sign of Summer for me.
9:17pm
be so rooted in your being that nobody's absence or presence can disturb your inner peace.
Tuesday 9 June 1:22pm - an afternoon walk, a beautiful flower, and a catch-up with my cousin over the garden fence.
3:54pm Back home to cook. Today I cooked Chicken Ruby Curry. I would describe it as a tomato-based curry which was a mix between butter chicken and chicken tikka masala. The chicken was marinaded before being grilled. I was supposed to use skewers but was running late on time so grilled them all together on a tray.
4:19pm This was the sauce bubbling away and reducing. In the pot: whole spices, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, salt and red chilli powder.
4:20pm Once the curry had reduced down, I added in: butter, cumin, fenugreek, honey, sugar, garam masala and crispy fried garlic.
6:07pm Then the grilled chicken and double cream went in and the whole thing simmered away. I had to take a break to teach an online class so turned off the heat and came back to the curry afterwards.
8:02pm I was very excited to try this recipe but I found it too sweet. It made a huge batch so froze half for a rainy day.
Wednesday 10 June 2:46pm - It rained and the garden was looking so green and lush.
3:27pm Mum was in the mood for samosas so she pulled some out from the freezer and fried them.
3:30pm I wanted to finish off these frozen veggie dumplings so I thought I would make a soup with them using tom yum soup.
3:37pm Trying my Mum's simple mango chutney. It was lovely and spicy.
3:49pm Snacking on more mango and melon.
4:10pm the dumpling tom yum soup was ready. No real recipe for this, I just threw in random things but the main ingredient was the tom yum paste which I got from Morrisons.
4:10pm I made ramen too because there was some tom yum stock left over. Perfect for a cold, rainy day in June.
Thursday 11 June 3:28pm Ingredients out to bake a gluten-free version of my tres leches cake for my cousins.
3:35pm there was also white fish gently simmering in milk because we wanted to make fishcakes for dinner later.
3:55pm the cake going in to bake.
4:25pm the cake is baked!
4:29pm Quick food-break: baked cheese, toasted bagel, pickle, cucumber, melon, mango, strawberry. Random but it hit the spot. 👌🏽
4:56pm time for another online class. Alhamdulillah for laptops and good-ish internet.
6:58pm soaking the cake in a mixture of double cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk.
7:02pm the cake is soaked and ready to sit in the fridge overnight. I saved 1/4 of the milk mixture to serve on the side.
7:03pm fishcake production is underway. We split the mixture and spiced up half of it.
7:32pm dinner time - fishcakes, parsley sauce, wilted spinach and lemon. I used this recipe.
8:21pm that dinner was perfect for a rainy, windy day that felt more like November than June.
Friday 12 June 2:42pm the cake is ready. I topped it with whipped cream, tinned peaches and chocolate.
2:42pm ready to deliver!
Saturday 13 June 3:53pm
appreciate where you are in your journey, even if it's not where you want to be. every season serves a purpose.
4:20pm I made a spicy chilli garlic sauce to eat with dumplings later. The recipe was from this book.
6:53pm ingredients chopped and ready for noodle soup - ginger, garlic, soy sauce, onion, tomato, carrot, sugar snaps.
7:01pm dough and spiced lamb mince ready to make into dumplings.
7:24pm filled and ready to steam.
7:39pm dumplings steaming, noodle soup bubbling.
7:50pm dinner time - lamb momo dumplings, noodle soup, chilli garlic sauce - all the recipes are from this book.
9:02pm
have regular hours for work and play, make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well.
Sunday 14 June 12:09pm - a lazy Sunday morning-turned-into-afternoon. Guys, try spreading Biscoff spread onto your biscuits and dipping in hot coffee. 😍
4:32pm the day before a food delivery always has the weirdest food. I'm calling this a salad toast.
5:10pm prepping this post.
5:33pm Mum whipped up a quick batch of spinach, potato and onion pakoras. Of course, I drizzled mine with ketchup!
5:33pm I bought this coffee and blended it with chocolate ice cream. 😎
6:57pm
may you continue to open yourself up to the experience of joy, being okay with not knowing what awaits on the other side of it.
7:48pm prepping dinner. I mixed parsley, tomatoes, tomato puree, bell peppers and oil into leftover spiced lamb mince. Dough from yesterday's dumplings was rolled into a pizza.
7:52pm I spread the mince as thinly as possible over the dough and put it under a hot grill to bake.
8:15pm waiting for the pizza. At this point, it was the grill was on its highest setting and was quite powerful. I wanted the mince to be crispy on top.
8:18pm Sunday night dinner - my quick take on a Turkish pizza with yoghurt (yoghurt, cumin seeds, ground cumin, mint sauce, salt) and lemon wedges to squeeze over. It was so tasty - crispy on the edge and soft in the middle. The perfect end to the week!
I hope you had a great week too. What was your favourite meal this week?
Keep everyone in your duas please,
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu
