Zaiqa

It has been snowing very hard here in Toronto since a few days. Everyday I get up, and draw the curtains only to see thick layers of snow on roofs, ground and everywhere. Even now it is still snowing.

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Magical, amazing wonder, but still a pain as it needs shoveling everyday, makes walking and driving on the slippery roads difficult and dangerous, and the unbearable chilly winds. I am wishing that the sun comes out as soon as possible and I get to see color everywhere soon inshallah. In the meantime, keep warm everyone.

Capellini pasta rolls

I love to prepare khare seviyan, or sometimes a simple tomato and leftover chicken + oats soup for breakfasts as a change to the very usual parathas, idli, egg sandwiches or cereals. As the name suggests khare seviyan are savory thin vermicelli noodles cooked in a tomato based sauce. Easy to prepare, simple yet filling. You can prepare it totally vegetarian or add leftover prepared qimah or shredded chicken or lamb meat or even paneer if you wish. Other than enjoying it as a quick breakfast, I also sometimes prepare it as a snack or even as a packed lunch.

Khare Seviyan – Savory Breakfast Noodles
Serves – 5

Ingredients:

Canola oil – 2 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Nigella seeds – 1/2 tsp
Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
Green chillies – 4, finely chopped
Bell Pepper – 1, cut into thin strips (I used green bell pepper)
Tomatoes – 4, large, red and ripe, finely chopped
Leftover qimah or shredded chicken or lamb meat or paneer – 1 cup (optional)
Red chilli powder – 2 tsp
Salt – 2 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Water – 4 cups
Capellini pasta rolls – around 300 gms, broken into small pieces (or any semolina vermicelli noodles)

Khare Seviyan – Savory Breakfast Noodles

Method:

In a large pan at medium high heat, pour oil and as soon as it warms up add mustard seeds and nigella seeds. As the begin to crackle, add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. Add green chillies, turmeric powder and bell pepper. Fry them for about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, leftover qimah or shredded chicken or lamb meat or paneer, salt and red chilli powder. Mix well and let cook covered until the tomatoes are soft. Add water and cover. Let it come to a boil. Once boiling, add the broken pasta and mix well. Let it come to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to medium low and let cook until the pasta has absorbed all water. Serve immediately along with boiled eggs if you wish.

My blogger buddy Tamanna has recently announced an event she is hosting on her blog – ‘Winter Comfort Foods‘~ Classic home cooked meals that make you want to come home and whip up that favorite meal you learnt from your grandmother that gives solace when you are feeling low and uplift your moods. Especially good during this harsh winter season. So do drop by her blog to go through the details and join in the fun.
Khare Seviyan is my contribution to the event she is hosting.

Luv,
Mona

I have been missing from the blogging arena for quite some time now. I apologise. Inshallah I will try to get back to blogging as soon as I can. Lately been busy since BakrEid. Till then, please enjoy the round up of the delicious entries sent by enthusiastic foodies for the BakrEid 2010 event. My aim through this event is to share traditional methods of preparation of Qurbani ka gosht (sacrificed meat) in Hyderabadi households, and to showcase Eid-ul-Adha special recipes.

Thank you all for joining in the fun and making this a success. Those of you who were not able to send in your entries this year, please join us the next BakrEid when I will again announce this event on my blog inshallah, and you can all participate once again. Here are the entries:

Blogger Entries: (all entries are in order of how I received them)
Click on the recipe title to go through the recipe.

“Eid special this year is Cherry Tomatoes and Minced Lamb(Kheema Tamatar),a juicy spicy side dish that would leave any meat-lover asking for more.I know meat is the attraction of this recipe,but what makes it even more special is the garden fresh Cherry tomatoes.”

Non-Blogger Entries:

And the following are my contributions to the event:

Lamb Chops

Lamb Roast

For more Lamb meat preparations posted earlier on my blog, please refer here and here.

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That wraps up the roundup of this year’s Hyderabadi BakriEid special recipes. Feel free to go through the last years Hyderabadi Bakr Eid Food Festival round up as well. Enjoy these meaty delicacies and be sure to join in again the next year!

Luv,
Mona

Easy to cook and full of flavor, lamb chops are one of my favorite meats to prepare whenever I am hosting a party. Even kids love to nibble them, and adults will not be able to resist.

I prefer rib lamb chops for this recipe, and you can even bake them in the oven or grill them outdoors during summer instead of cooking on stovetop. Serve them along with a chutney, or raita and a salad on the side.

Lamb Chops

Ingredients:

Lamb Chops – around 2 kg
Red chilli powder – 1 tbsp
Salt – 2 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Garam masala powder – 1 1/2 tsp
Lemon juice – 3 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1 1/2 tbsp
Canola Oil

Method:

1. Trim off any excess fat, wash the chops well, drain and pat dry. Slash the meaty side of the chops 2 or 3 times with a knife. In a mixing bowl, add all the ingredients except the chops and oil and mix well. Add the chops and rub the spice paste into the chops well. Cover with a lid and let marinate overnight.
2. The next day bring it to room temperature before you start cooking. In a wide thick bottomed non-stick frying pan at medium high heat, pour 2 tbsp oil and as soon as it warms up, add the chops in a single layer and let them sear well. Once they are browned, turn them so that they brown on the side as well. Once nicely browned, add a cup of water and cover the pan with a tight lid. Lower the heat to simmer and let cook until the meat is tender. Once the meat is tender, increase the heat, uncover the pan and cook until the water evaporates. Serve warm.

This is my second contribution to the Hyderabadi Bakr Eid Food Festival that I am hosting this month on my blog. Click on the link or the logo for more details. The logo for the event is:

Remember that the event is on and you can all send in your entries to me before December 31, 2010.

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And now for what you all have been waiting for. Thank you all for participating in the giveaway. The lucky winner of the Tetley Tea giveaway is Maryam. Congratulations Maryam, I hope you enjoy the gift basket of goodies.

Luv,
Mona

Other than just eating raw in salads, there are so many different ways to enjoy this humble winter root vegetable. Grown mostly in temperate climates, turnips are creamy white in color with a reddish purple upper crown where they have been exposed to sunlight. They have a pungent flavour similar to raw cabbage or radishes and becomes mild after cooking.

Turnips – Shalgam

About 100 gm of turnip root contains just 30 calories and contains Vitamin C. This underappreciated root vegetable packs a nutritional wallop that includes impressive stores of lutein, beta carotenes, riboflavin, magnesium, carotene, manganese, folate, calcium and iron. So for all these good reasons remember to buy them every once in a while during your grocery shopping and include them in your diets. Here’s a simple curry for you all to try this vegetable out.

Shalgam ka Salan – Turnip Curry

Ingredients:

Turnips/Shalgam – 5, peeled and chopped into pieces
Canola oil – 3 tbsp
Onions – 2, medium sized, finely sliced
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Red chilli powder – 1 1/2 tsp
Salt – 2 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Green chillies – 2, small, finely chopped
Cilantro – 3 tbsp, finely chopped

Shalgam ka Salan – Turnip Curry

Method:

In a saucepan, add oil and as soon as it warms up, add the sliced onions and fry until they are light brown in color. Add ginger garlic paste and fry along for a minute. Add red chilli powder, green chillies, chopped cilantro, salt and turmeric powder and about 2 tbsp water. Mix and cook for a minute. Add the chopped turnip and pour in about 1/2 cup water. Mix well and cover with a lid. Let it cook until the turnips are soft. Serve warm along with parathas.

The Giveaway:

A few days the Tetley Canada tea team had contacted me if I would be interested in giving away a basket full of their teas. To which I gladly accepted and here is a chance for you to win this gift basket with a range of aromatic herbal teas to extinguish all your winter blues and warm up your body.

Tetley Tea is on a mission to help Canadians get more “colourful” with their new line of herbal teas. As you know, colour influences our lives every day. In the home, a bedroom that’s painted paled blue an have a calming affect. Wearing red can illicit a sense of energy and excitement. Our colour choices can have dramatic effects on our mood and well being. Now you can match or even influence your mood using colour with this new line of herbal teas for a little Tetley Colour Therapy.

Discover which tea will suit your mood by visiting TetleyColourTherapy.com

This giveaway is limited to within Canada only (excluding Quebec, due to shipping, sorry!). Leaving a comment on my blog enters you a chance to win. One randomly-picked winner will be chosen. Contest closes on midnight December 15^th 2010. Good Luck!

Luv,
Mona

It had been quite hectic since Bakr-Eid with get-togethers and celebrations going on quite often in our circle of friends. Had a very good time along with loved ones, but it all left me tired and didn’t give me any time to sit back and unwind, forget about blogging. Nevertheless I am happy now to get back to my usual routine and enjoy the daily grind. Perhaps I am one of those people who prefer a familiar routine rather than the unusal and atypical cycles.

Lamb Roast

The last Eid I had prepared Dum ki Raan, where a whole leg of lamb is marinated overnight and then slow roasted in the oven until so tender that the meat literally falls off the bone. This year I tried my hands on Lamb roast, my mother in law’s recipe, and it was absolutely delicious. The method is as simple as it can get with the use of only the basic seasonings and ginger garlic paste as the meat tenderizer. To prepare, all excess fat from the lamb leg is removed and discarded, deboned and then the meat is cut into chunks. The meat is then allowed to marinate overnight and then roasted on stove top until perfection. The trick is to ask the butcher to give you the best quality lean meat and then to marinate it overnight. There is no need for commercial meat tenderizers at all.

Lamb Roast

Ingredients:

1 Leg of Lamb- deboned, fat removed, meat cut into big chunks, washed and pat dried
Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbsp
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
Black pepper powder – 1 tsp
Lemon juice – to taste

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, add ginger garlic paste, salt, red chilli powder, black pepper powder and lemon juice. Marinate the meat chunks in the above mixture overnight covered in the refrigerator.
2. In a large, wide and thick bottomed preferably non-stick frying pan, add the chunks of meat along with all the marinade and arrange in a single layer. Let the meat cook on high heat and keep turning after a few minutes, not too often, until you see all the pieces have nicely browned on all sides. You will see a lot of moisture that will be released during this process. Once the meat has properly browned on all sides, add about 3/4 cup of water and cover with a tight lid. Lower the heat to medium and let cook until the meat has become tender. This might take 30 minutes to 1 hour. Once done, serve immediately on a platter garnished with shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes and onion rings.

This is my first contribution to the Hyderabadi Bakr Eid Food Festival that I am hosting this month on my blog. Click on the link or the logo for more details. The logo for the event is:

Remember that the event is on and you can all send in your entries to me before December 31, 2010.

Luv,
Mona