Zaiqa

As promised, I present to you all the round-up of the Season IV of the ‘The Hyderabadi Ramadan Food Festival 2012’.

I thank all participants for their enthusiasm. Here is the list of entries:

Click on the recipe title to go through the recipe.

And following are my entries to the event:

Murgh Samosa – Chicken Samosa

Dahi Baday – Chickpea Flour balls in Yogurt

I once again thank all participants. I hope you have all enjoyed the roundup. If in case I have missed anyone’s entries, please let me know. I will inshallah update it immediately.

Luv,
Mona

This Ramadan I am addicted to my sisters handmade chicken samosas.

Murgh Samosa – Chicken Samosa

Seriously they are the best I have even eaten. And they are super simple to make. You can make ahead the chicken filling which gets ready quicky and just before iftaar, use the samosa wraps, fill them all up and deep fry.

Murgh Samosa – Chicken Samosa

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast Meat – Minced – 2 lbs
Red Chilli Powder – 2 tsp
Salt – to taste
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
Garam masala – 1 tsp
Juice of 2 lemons
Cilantro and Mint – finely chopped, 3 tbsp
Egg white from one large egg
Frozen Samosa wraps
Canola oil to deep fry

Method:
1. In a pan, add oil and as soon as it is warm, add the chicken mince, red hilli powder, salt, turmeric powder and giniger garlic paste. Mix it all together, cover, and keep stirring once in a while and let it cook until the chicken is done, about 20 minutes.  Add lemon juice, ciantro and mint and garam masala and mix. Keep aside, and let it cool. You can even freeze it for future use in small portions. Just thaw for a few hours before you plan to make the samosas.
2. Thaw the frozen samosa wraps according to instructions. Brush some water on both sides of the wraps to make it pliable. Form a cone by making triangular folds as you till you have only fold left. In the cone section, spoon the filling. Seal the final flap using water and flour paste to seal the edges. Watch out for open corners and seal using the flour paste. Repeat for all wraps.
3. In a large pan, heat oil on high. Reduce the flame to medium when the oil is hot.
4. In a bowl, add the egg white and just lightly whip it using a fork. Dip each samosa into the egg white and drop it into the hot oil. Repeat using all samosas. Using a slotted spoon remove the samosa from oil into a mesh strainer once they are golden brown on all sides. Enjoy the samosa along with your favorite chutney or as is.

Note: You can also bake the samosas instead of deep frying them. Just lightly coat them all with a little bit of oil, and bake them for 10-12 mins at 350°F until golden brown. You can also skip them step of dipping them in egg white if you prefer so.

This recipe is my contribution to my very own Hyderabadi Ramadan Food Festival 2012 (Season IV) that I hosting on my blog, and also to the Joy From Fasting ToFeasting – V that Lubna is hosting on her blog.

Luv,
Mona

Perhaps one of my favourite Iftaar snacks, for two reasons mainly: awesome taste, and quick preperation time. Make a batter with chickpea flour, deep fry the balls, then add them to yogurt, add a baghaar, and you are done! Simple as that.

Dahi Baday are just a different version of Dahi Wade. Dahi Wade are made with Urad Dal and Dahi Badey are make with Chickpea flour.

If you love Dahi ki Kadi, you will definitely enjoy Dahi Badey.

Dahi Baday – Chickpea Flour Balls in Yogurt

Ingredients:

Chickpea Flour/Gram flour/Besan – 1 cup
Baking Soda – a pinch
Red chilli powder – 2 tsp
Salt – to taste
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Yogurt – 1 cup
Canola oil
Cilantro – 4 tbsp, finely chopped
For Baghaar/Tempering:
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Dried Red chillies – 2-3, each broken into pieces

Method:

1. In a bowl, add chickpea flour and pour in a little water to make a smooth batter. The batter should be thick and pourable in consistency but not thin. Add baking soda, red chilli powder, salt and turmeric powder to the batter and mix.
2. In a separate bowl ,whip yogurt with 1/2 cup of water until smooth. Season with salt and pour this yogurt mixture in a serving tray.
3. Heat oil to deep fry in a pan or kadai. (Never deep fry in a non stick pan). As soon as it is hot, drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil and deep fry them on both sides until they are nicely golden brown in colour. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towel. The baday are ready.
4. Drop them into yogurt mixture. Make sure that the baday are well coated with yoghurt.
5. Prepare tempering by heating the oil in a small pan and add the ingredients in the list. When the mustard seeds and dried red chillies splutter, pour the sizzling tempering over the baday in yogurt. Allow to soak for an hour after tempering. After an hour serve the baday on individual plates, garnish with chopped cilantro and sprinkle of chaat masala on each of the vada.

This recipe is my contribution to my very onw Hyderabadi Ramadan Food Festival 2012 (Season IV) that I hosting on my blog, and also to the Joy From Fasting ToFeasting – V that Lubna is hosting on her blog.

Luv,
Mona

The blessed month of Ramadan begins from tomorrow inshallah.

RAMADAN MUBARAK EVERYONE !!

May Allah(سبحانه وتعالى) accept our Siam (Fasting) and our Qiam (Taraweeh prayers). Ameen.

The last year during Ramadan, my baby girl was a tiny newborn, just six pounds in weight and like a minuscule. Mashallah she is now an active crawling baby who loves to keep her mama on her toes all the time. What an year it has been alhamdulillah. Motherhood has taught me a lot. The first and foremost thing is patience. A mothers job is most challenging, and so rewarding at the same time. Indeed Allah has given so much importance to a mother that it is said paradise lies under a mother’s feet ! Subhana Allah !!

With this it is yet again time for me to announce the Season IV of ‘The Hyderabadi Ramadan Food Festival 2012′ on my blog. May Allah SWT shower mercy upon us, make it easy for us all, bless and forgive us all inshallah, Ameen.

The logo for the event is as follows:

The rules of the event are listed below:

1. From now until Eid-ul-Fitr 2012, prepare traditional Hyderabadi recipes that are savored during Ramadan at both Iftaar and Suhur, and also at the day of Eid-ul-Fitr (snacks, curries, one-dish meals etc) and post about it on your blog.
2. There is no limit to the number of entries per person. You can even update old posts on your blog with a link to this announcement page in order to send me your entries. Please provide a link to this announcement page in your post and feel free to use the logo.
3. Send me your entries at zaiqaDOTmonaATgmailDOTcom with the following details:

• Your name
• Your blog name/title
• Name of the entry
• URL of your post
• A photo of the recipe (300 pixels wide)

4. If you do not have a blog, you can still participate by emailing me the recipe, along with the other details mentioned above.
5. The last day to send me your entries is Eid-ul-Fitr 2012 which falls on August 20 2012 (depends on moon sighting)

Let us all celebrate Ramadan and share the traditional Hyderabadi delicacies especially prepared during this holy month with the world. I look forward to you entries and will post a round up in the first week of September 2012 right after the Eid-ul-Fitr inshallah.

To go through previous seasons of this event, please visit this page.

Also, Enjoy the RAMADAN SALE at my shop!!
Enter Coupon code RAMADAN10 to get 10% discount off everything from my store during the entire month of Ramadan (July 20 2012 to August 20 2012) !

Luv,
Mona

Every year come spring and summer, we ritually grill meats almost every other weekend. Its like celebrating this beautiful season. I had bought a weber charcoal grill almost 4 years back and it still serves us well. I love that smoked charcoal flavor in meats. The only drawback while charcoal grilling is the time it takes to burn the charcoal and to keep the burning charcoal alive. But that is not my department, my hubby tends to all those factors and my job is to only marinate and pre-prepare the meats.

The last weekend we charcoal grilled t-bone steaks and they were so damn delicious!

My recipe is simple. Semi-homemade!  We enjoyed the steaks along with a potato salad and a bean salad and a few garlic roasted breads.

Charcoal Grilled T-Bone Steaks

Ingredients:

T-Bone Steaks – 4
Amchur powder – 2 tsp
Red Chilli powder – 1 tbsp
Salt – 2 tsp
Ginger Garlic paste – 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Garam Masala powder – 1 tbsp
Cumin/Zeera powder – 2 tsp
Coriander/Dhaniya powder – 2 tsp
BBQ Sauce – your favorite (I used ‘Kraft Original BBQ Sauce’)
Canola Oil – for brushing

Method:

1. Marinate the steaks with all the ingredients except the bbq sauce overnight.
2. Let the steaks stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Heat a charcoal grill to medium-high, and set up direct and indirect heat zones. Rub the marinated steaks lightly with oil. Sear on all sides over direct heat until you can see grill maeks, about 5 minutes per side.
3. Transfer the steaks to indirect heat, and brush them with your favorite BBQ sauce on both sides. Grill covered, turning and brushing with sauce occasionally, 30-40 minutes. (Grilling time will vary depending on thickness of steaks) Remove the steaks from grill. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Luv,
Mona