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!!!
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| 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
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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 : )
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Then add the vegetables to it and cook
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| Then add a little cinnamon powder, pepper and coriander leaves and the soup is ready! |
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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
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| Drum Sticks Cooked |
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| 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!
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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!
