Thursday 5 January 2012

Some Dishes!

This post is especially for Umm Suhailah, Umm Sara, Imaan and Umm Khidr and for all the others as well : )

Alhamdulillaah I am so glad I have got to know many sisters from all over the world through the blog and also have got to know some of their lifestyles, traditions and cultures and most importantly their traditional food. And the above sisters have been asking me to share our traditional dishes. So I managed to click some pictures of our day to day dishes. So here we go........

We are very much eastern and eastern food lovers and our lifestyle is Asian (of course we base everything to be upon the sunnah as much as we can Insha Allaah, I am talking about food and culture here). And I would not say that I take lot of care in eating healthy food, I know very bad of me, but my main point is that I do not spend lot of time in the kitchen and miss out other things like Ibaadah, homeschooling, reading etc etc. I would love to take great care in maintaining healthy food habits but I do not think I do enough at all. Also since our food is more Asian we eat a lot of vegetables and I always thought and think green vegetables makes you very healthy and give you the nutrients that you need Allaahu A'lam.

Any way now my husband is into lot of research about getting nutrients into our bodies that every food cannot give unless taken as supplements for example he says Omega 3 is very important and getting food with omega 3 is very difficult. Also he had done some research and now have told me that the oil I use for cooking should have variety so that different nutrients get into our bodies. He has got me variety of oil products with very less saturated fat but with additional ingredients like Omega 3. So I have started cooking according to his orders and he actually says food is tasting much nicer these days, Allaah knows best!!!

I have a variety of olive oil with basil, lemon, and chilli that I use for flavour and the rest are canola with Omega 3, sun flower oil and sesame oil. 

Usually for lunch we have rice with a meat curry and either one or two vegetables cooked. Dinner we have the usual Pasta, Burgers sandwiches, toasts, spaghetti, roti, chappati and stuff. What I am going to basically talk about here is the lunch dishes Insha Allaah!.

Mixed Vegetables and Bones or meat Soup
Add bones or chicken or beef or lamb chops  to a pan with tomatoes, onions and  salt boil with water until tender (I actually pressure cook : )

Then add the vegetables to it and cook

Then add a little cinnamon powder, pepper and coriander leaves and the soup is ready!
This soup we eat with rice and also can be eaten with toast. I make this or the stew once a week and it is enjoyed by all! 

Rice
I cook Bastmati rice sometimes Samba rice which is very small grains and sometimes red or brown rice. Basmati rice is the only rice freely available here as far as I know.



Beetroot Stir Fry
Most of the vegetables I stir fry as well as I cook. Stir fry has oil and cooking means I add coconut milk. Beet is something Maimoonah loves. Add some oil, onions, curry leaves, tomatoes and fry for a while then add a little chilly powder (Umm Suhailah you can avoid this : ), curry powder and the chopped beet (if you slice the beet very small and tiny it cooks soon and tasty too) mix together and stir fry until you want it cooked, making it a bit raw is good for health and is tasty too, then add salt and its ready!



I also do the same for beans, cabbage and carrot, ladies fingers, leeks, and green leaves like kangkung (leaves like spinach) 

Drum Sticks/ Dhal/ Pumpkin
This is such a wonderful vegetable that we enjoy! Peel the drumsticks cut and boil with onions, green chilli and salt in water or coconut milk. Then heat a little oil and stir fry onions, curry leaves and mustard seeds and chilli powder then add the boiled drumstick and add a little coconut milk and done. I make Pumpkin and dhal the same way too. We usually eat dhal with roti, chappati or bread for dinner

Drum Sticks Cooked

Dhal Cooked

Beef
I soak the beef for few minutes with vinegar and salt. Then add oil, ginger garlic paste, curry leaves, onions, tomatoes and stir fry for a liitle while, add chiili powder, curry powder 5 spices and mix well then add the beef and water and pressure cook for few minutes and the curry is done!

Beef

Mixed Fried Rice
This is something I do when I am in a hurry and for emergency! Cook the rice then add oil onion, curry leaves, tomatoes, carrot, ginger garlic paste, 5 spice powder beans in a pan and stir fry, add salt, prawns, left over beef or chicken or mutton or even sausages and mix together. Add pepper, curry powder, chilli powder and mix then add rice and mix and its done!

Fried rice with prawns and beef

Prawns
Add oil, curry leaves, lot of onions, tomatoes, capsicum and garlic ginger paste and fry for while. Add soy sauce and oyster sauce and mix then add a little chilli and curry powder, 5 spice powder and salt. Mix and add the prawns. Cook until tender add a little chopped coriander leaves and you will get a dish like this. 



Green Grams
This is our Friday Special Breakfast! Just boil the previously soaked green grams and eat with shredded coconut and may add some sugar!



Stew
Boil all vegetables and meat (chicken, mutton or beef) separately. Then add oil to a pan with onions, curry leaves, musturd seed, capsicum and fry for a while. Add curry powder, chilli powder and mix. Then add the boiled vegetables and the meat and mix. Add the stock that you boiled the vegetables and meat and let it cook for sometime. then add corn starch for thickness and its done. Again we eat this with rice for lunch or with bread or sometimes we use it as a filling for buns with butter.


Stew

Pasta
Most of the time I make pasta just like the fried rice and then add cheese just before serving. For the first time this week I baked it. I was so sacred to use the oven here which is not electric but gas. Any way managed to use it with the help of Abu Maimoonah and made this Lasagne pasta with ground beef and cheese lol! Yes it was both lasagne and pasta!



These are some of the dishes I made this week. Insha Allaah will share more traditional food when we get the opportunity to visit back home Insha Allaah!


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bismillaah

As Salaamu Alaiki

Umm Maimoonah I love this post! Mashaa'Allaah

I was just thinking today how I needed ideas for lunch! Subhana'Allaah.

Lunch here- at least from the families I met are just sandwhich, tuna fish, peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese and the like

I notice from sisters that I met from various countries make lunches that are "filling"- rice- veggies and meat.

I never thought like that! I will start doing that Inshaa'Allaah!

Oh yeah I love your counter top! lol and the bowl you used in your pics :)

I wanna make stew! I will have to try your steps when I get some of those ingredients Inshaa'Allaah- I never made stew before so I will try Inshaa'Allaah. I actually want to try all the recipes lol :)

Oh I'm signing Anonymous because my husband signed in and I forgot to sign him out of his account- didn't realize that before I started this comment-

anywho I would love to see more recipes- I learned a lot- a lot of things I never even heard of! So I look forward to trying these new dishes out Inshaa'Allaah

- Umm Suhailah :)

UmmSara said...

assalamu alaikum,

jazakillahu khair for sharing this sister!
Occasionally, I do like to eat your traditional food with less spice and little bit a change here and there :)
Ibrahim likes chicken curry and chicken/beef/lamb biryani but I don't make them spicy (we can't eat too spicy food). I usually marinate the meat in yogurt+ginger/garlic sauce and fry them with onions, ginger/garlic paste, oinions and add maybe 1.5-2 tablespoons of garam masala.

Regarding cooking oil, as you said it is very very important to use the right kind of oil for cooking. I used to think all vegetable oils are good as long as they are not trans fats. But after doing some more studies I found out it is best to use very clean and unprocessed/unrefined oils. That could be cold pressed extra virgin olive oil or unrefined cold pressed sunflower oil. The problem with today's most vegetable oils are they are all refined/processed. So, if you really want to spend your money on a healthy oil avoid the vegetable oils altogether (sunflower, canola, safflower, corn oils). When these oils are not unrefined they can be healthy like you said with omega and other important nutrients but once they are processed (using chemicals, bleach and high heat)they become harmful. Most doctors recommend pure olive olive for patients with heart disease and etc because they can harm them and the same it true with healthy people too. I don't know about where you live, but here in the west, everything is about the money, they do not care about your health, so the stores are filled with all junk food SubhanAllah.
Anyways, try doing more research on vegetable oils (especially refined/processed oils) please. Also, be careful where you get your information from, usually modern western nutritionists do not write about all these issues even though they the cause for major diseases.

Even if you can find cold pressed unrefined vegetable oil it is better to use them occasionally especially if you are cooking in high heat. High heat destroys the properties of these oils.
Extra virgin olive is healthier choice for cooking, since it mainly mono saturated fat (vegetable oils contain mostly polyunsaturated fats), it can react better to heat.

Doctors used to say saturated oils are bad for healthy (coronary heart disease, high cholesterol etc etc) but it is quite the opposite. Butter from a good source,ghee, animal fats, nuts, egg yolk do not cause any of these illnesses if consumed in proper portions. It is way much better then all those vegetable oils. And researches now find out it is the introduction of vegetable oils not the saturated oils which gave the rise to these major diseases.(one of the reasons of course)

What kind of olive oil do you use?
If you think you are not getting enough omega 3 or 6 with your oils, you can still get them from other foods. with little bit of studying and research you can have a balanced diet with enough omega 3 and 6 (eggs, flax seed oil in small amounts, fish oil, poultry, nuts etc)

These are just my sisterly notes out of my sincere love to you and your family.

Umm Maimoonah said...

Alaikum salaam warahmathullaah Akhawaat,

Umm Suhailah, glad this helps. Awaiting to see how you make them Insha Allaah!

Oh glad you liked the counter top and bowls : )

Umm Sara, Jazzakillaah Khayr for sharing the valued information. Really appreciate is. Will tell my husband about it. Yes sis we use unprocessed oil. And the Olive oil I use is the extra virgin oil and stoned crushed olive oil. As you say markets are all fro money all over. And these unprocessed mono saturated, stoned crushed oil are pretty expensive than normal oil. Until recently I was using sunflower, corn and vegetable oil, now completely stopped using the usual vegetable oil as my husband said to get the extra virgin olive oil and unprocessed oil.

Yes sis, I also do the marination for chicken and fry! I did not make chicken this week thus no pictures may be next time Insha Allaah!

What do you eat for lunch?

UmmSara said...

We usually eat leftover dinner.If i don't have any leftover i make a soup which is very easy. So I don't have to spend much time cooking.
O so you already use unprocessed oils mashaAllah
BTW, I love beets too but i have never fried them before. I boil them with potatoes, carrots,eggs and make salad.

Umm Imaan said...

Assalaamu alaikum ukhti :)

Great post :) I also love hearing about what's in everybody's pots :) It all looks so yum! I love eastern food, it is one of my favorites!

I tend to make a more filling lunch in winter as hubby works from home so is here for lunch but it is more often than not supper that is the main meal here. In summer we eat light meals.

I want to get a pressure cooker insha Allah, its so quick when making meat or soup! It is a bit nerve wracking with all that pressure building up, the sound makes me on edge!

I will try to share some of our local dishes too insha Allah :)

Fee Amaanillah
Umm Imaan

Umm Khidr said...

Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem
As'salaamu Alayki wa Rahmatullah

Jazaaki Allahu Khayr for this post Umm Maimoonah! I love this post, maashaa Allah. It is such a blessing to be able to connect with one another for the sake of Allah ta'ala, no matter where we are located.

Inshaa Allah I will be adding these recipes to my menu planning. I am really looking forward to trying the Beetroot Stir Fry, yummy! Although I am not sure how it will go over with the children, lol. I'll have to make du'a about that.

Umm Sara, Jazaaki Allahu khayr for all the information on oils. I have read a lot about them, but you shared something I wasn't aware of, maashaa Allah. I stopped using those processed oils some time ago. We only use the cold pressed organic olive oil. There are a lot of imposters these days, when it comes to olive oil. One thing to know is, olive oil is light sensitive, to keep it's quality. If the bottle is not dark colored, then it probably isn't a good quality.

I really like Grape Seed oil, but it tends to be more expensive. Alhamdulilah, I think I found a farm that sales it a lot cheaper, maashaa Allah.

Umm Imaan you may be able to find a good pressure cooker on Ebay cheap, wa Allau alim. I am looking for one myself, so inshaa Allah I will keep my eye out for two.

Umm Khadeeja said...

Asalaamu alaikum sis,

This is a very interesting post mashAllah - its nice to see what you all eat ...I think I am quite boring when it comes to meal planning so I might take a few of your recepies inshallah! I like your quick rice meal mashALlah...we always end up with left over rice so that would be a good way to use it up! (why have I never thought of doing something like that! lol).

JazakAllah khayr for sharing sis!

Umm Khadeeja x

Umm Maimoonah said...

Alaikum salaam warahmathullaa Ya Akhawaat, wa iyyaaki, it was a pleasure to share!

Umm Sarah, my mother in law boils and makes salad with beetroot too, yummy!

Umm Imaan eagerly waiting to see your dishes, I always wonder what kind of dishes South Africans make.

Umm Imaan and Umm Khidr pressure cooker is something very very essential for me, Alhamdulillaah it saves a lot of time. Yes the sound annoys but I close the kitchen door : ) Maimoonah used cry her heart out when she was a baby hearing the sound, My husbnad used to take her out of the house until I finish. I still remember her face, and when she cries for the pressure cooker she was so sweet, I love to see her face at that time : ) Now she does not cry but runs far away lol!

As for buying a pressure cooker make sure you by the steel one and not the aluminium. Steel is healthy to cook and easy to clean and does not discolour. We usually use the Prestige brand as it is long lasting. Am not sure what brands are available over there. I hope both of you get the best Insha Allaah!

Umm Khadeejah, glad you got some ideas. Do you make Arab dishes? If so you can share some with us Insha Allaah!

Imaan said...

as salaamu `alaykum...

Oh ma shaa Allah, ma shaa Allah! What a gorgeously scrumptious post! I LOVE prawns (we don't get good fresh ones here in Isb!) and your stew looks so wholesome and good! I am frankly so afraid of using a pressure cooker so I am not good with cooking beef pieces. (I love beef though!) I am going to try out the recipes - especially the beets!

Jazakillah khayran... you made my day!

Umm Maimoonah said...

Alaikum salaam Imaan,
Glad you enjoyed the post! All the best, awaiting to hear your comments, I hope you would like our recipes lol! Barakallaah Feeki!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...