Expanding My Repertoire

There are a few things in life that remind you of good times i.e. childhood. For me one such reminder is Lebanese food. We grew up eating Shawarma, Toum, Houmous, Khubz, Arais-el-kafta etc. I reminisce about life in the Middle East whenever I get to taste this amazingly aromatic and delicious cuisine. Such mild yet luxurious flavour. I think about my dad and his obsession with Arais-el-kafta. His expert replication of all the different types of food he used to love.

I thought I'd share with you my take on Lebanese cuisine tonight. I tried my hand at their Lamb kafta. For a long time I've been trying to make it perfect. Mellow yet flavourful. I went to my butcher's early morning after a night shift. I got the freshest meat ever. He advised me to get minced lamb shoulder and not leg if I want to make kababs. His point was that shoulder meat has more fat in it and it keeps the kababs moist. He was spot-on!

LEBANESE LAMB KAFTA

INGREDIENTS

Minced lamb shoulder meat- 500gm
Salt- to taste
Coriander powder (Pisa dhanya)- 1 tsp
Cumin powder (Pisa zeera)- 1 tsp
Garlic- 4 cloves
Onion- 2: Slice one onion and fry it till golden, leave the other one raw
Cinnamon powder (Pisi daarcheeni)- 1/4 tsp
Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
Flat leaf parsley- 1 tbsp
Olive oil- to shallow fry

Put all the seasonings, garlic, onions, parsley and minced meat in a grinder and grind together.

Now make small portions of the mixture, thread onto a wooden skewer (soak the skewers in cold water for a few hours to prevent burning) and shape them around the skewer. Wet your palm slightly so the surface of the kafta is nice and smooth.

Shallow fry in olive oil on medium flame to keep these kaftas moist.










Serve with houmous, toum, cucumber yoghurt, minty salad and warm Pita bread. I was too tired therefore served it over rice. What works for me is that Zaf loves rice. You can make pita pockets out of these as well. I loved these and after several attempts, I finally got the ratio right. Would love to know what you think. Happy cooking to you!

Survival Of The Fittest

Finished my 1st set of night duties as an RMO 2 Acute Medicine yesterday. RMO 2 is a sorry character since he/she has to complete unfinished jobs in 18 wards, help the House Officer, clerk new patients, respond to peri-arrest calls and hold the crash bleep. Me in Navy scrubs with 2 bleeps on me that increase to 4 at 6:30 am, I feel smothered.

You then join the post-take rounds which may end as late as 10:15 am. I then drive 20 miles back home trying my best to not sleep at the wheel (trust me I have done it :( ). I was lucky to be working with an excellent bunch of girls though and loved cribbing together. What doesn't break you, makes you! It felt wonderful at the end to conquer such an inundating task.

I was so ecstatic to survive that I celebrated with cooking up a feast yesterday: Lebanese Lamb Kafta with roasted Pita chips! Turned out YUM!

Since I promised my friends that I would cook and post a recipe to my blog today, here we go! I'd cooked this one up over the weekend in my Haandi (clay pot) and it was just too good. Very earthy creation. You can use whatever pot you like.

MURGH MASALA

INGREDIENTS

Chicken (bone-in) cut into 8 pieces-0.75kg

MARINADE
Beaten yoghurt-3/4 cup
Freshly ground black pepper-1 tsp
Salt-to taste

SPICY PASTE
Peeled Ginger-1 inch piece
Garlic cloves-6
Medium-sized onions-2
Whole cumin (zeera)-1tbsp
Whole dried red chillies-10

GARNISH
Lemon slices
Fresh coriander (Hara dhanya)
Julienned ginger (Bareek kati adrak)


TEMPERING/BAGHAAR
Vegetable oil-1/2 cup
Whole garam masala (whole mixed spices): 10 black peppercorns (kaali mirch), 1 cinnamon stick (Daarcheeni), 3 cloves (laung), 1 black cardamom (bari ilaichi).

Coarsely pound the black peppercorns and add to the chicken alongwith yoghurt and salt. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes.

Dry roast the cumin and red chillies on low flame until fragrant

and then pound coarsely in a mortar and pestle. You could use a coffee grinder too but the spices
get slightly burnt in the process. Besides I like to put all my love in my meals.

Now pound together the garlic, onion, ginger, red chillies and cumin together to a thick paste. Don't worry if the consistency is not smooth. It tastes even better with partially ground ingredients. You can use a blender if you want. I like it as earthy as possible.

This is how my paste looked like after a few patient minutes.

Crackle the whole garam masala in hot oil.

Now add the paste to the oil and stir on medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes.

Add the chicken with the marinade, mix well and

cook on low-medium heat for 10-20 minutes until the water evaporates and oil comes up.

Now uncover and stir quickly on high flame. Once the consistency of the gravy is nice and thick (4-5 minutes)

dish it out and garnish with julienned ginger and finely chopped coriander.







Ideally this should be served with chapati/paratha but I took an easy way out and served it over boiled rice. It was just too good. In case you were wondering, this is from a cookbook with some tweaking and tailoring :).

If anyone can advise me on how to post a larger file on this blog, please write to me. I will eagerly wait for your responses. Goodbye till the next post!

Slow but Steady

The essence of happiness, I think, is enthusiasm. To learn, to meet new people, to observe, to reflect. What contributes to happiness is positivity, persistence and giving everyone the benefit of doubt except your own selves. To acknowledge every single person around you for what they've taught you, for the time they've spent with you. To accept that one's viewpoints change with time and nothing is set in stone. To make no claims whatsoever.
I think cynicism keeps one unhappy. How can you be at peace with yourself while busy noticing someone else's imperfections? It's emotionally exhausting.
All the while, it's difficult to be positive when going through a rough patch. If you are being abused or criticized round-the-clock, how will you muster the strength to not displace it to the next person? But that, my friend, is the test. That is where your own personality kicks in. If one is able to keep hope alive while being hit at, she/he in my opinion is an example for humanity. From Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to Nelson Mandela, humanity survived only due to persistence. Positive perseverance. He swore at me but I 'chose' to smile at him. It was much less exhausting than swearing back and living with the consequences. But what it took was a pause to absorb what had happened and to 'actively' think how to react. Not just react out of an impulse. That's easy and that's why the majority does it. Without giving it any thought.
Keep doing it, it'll take VERY long but one day you'll reap the rewards. You'll smile forever. Contain your tongue when angry and you'll find the secret to the highest levels of bliss.
To happiness!

میرا اللہ اور میرے اللہ کے بندے

میرا اللہ بڑا فراخ دل ہے۔ میرے اللہ کے ہاں ہر گناہ کی معافی ہے سواءے شرک کے۔
میرا اللہ اپنے بندوں سے اتنی محبت کرتا ہے کہ اگر کؤی اس کے بندے کا دل دکھا دے تو جب تک اس بندے سے معافی نہیں ملتی، اللہ سے بھی نہیں مل پائیگی۔
میرے اللہ کے بندوں کا معاملہ ذرا مختلف ہے۔ کبھی کبھی تو ایسا بھی ہوتا ہے کہ موت کے بعد بھی ان کے ہاں سے معافی نہیں ملتی۔ اس بات سے بھی دل نہیں پگھلتا کہ اس کے اس ایک عمل سے کسی پر آیا عذاب ٹل سکتا ہے۔ کسی کی زندہ رہتے ہوءے تڑپ ختم ہو سکتی ہے۔
میرے اللہ کا بندہ اپنے آپ کو اللہ سے بڑا سمجھتا ہے شاید۔ جبھی تو وہ اپنا دل بڑا نہیں کر پاتا۔ یا پھر یہ جھجک ہے۔
سب مٹی میں مل جائیگا۔
سب ٹھاٹھ پڑا رہ جائیگا۔
میرے اللہ کے بندوں، مجھے معاف کر دینا۔ جو میں نے نادانی میں دل دکھایا یا کچھ ہونے کے زعم میں، یا پھر انجانے میں۔
میرے اللہ کے بندوں، ایک محبت کی نظر کی بھیک دے دیناایک مسکراہٹ کا صدقہ کر دینا، صرف اور صرف اپنے اللہ کے لئیے۔ کیا پتہ تم جس سے ناراض ہو، وہ اللہ کا محبوب ہو