Monday 31 August 2015

Baking Bagels + Mangosteens + Picking Cherries: 22-28 August 2015.

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful




how are you?
I hope you've had a good week and are making the most of this bank holiday weekend. I most certainly am. it's been a slow Sunday as all Sundays should be.

I've been Sunday bakingthe kitchen is filled with the warm scents of coconut and cardamom. the skies outside are grey and I feel a cup of tea (no sugar, please) coming on.
update: it's now bank holiday Monday. I didn't get to post this yesterday because I was too busy catching up with my cousin who got married over the weekend (!!)
I hope your day is going well. I love bank holidays - they're like Sundays all over again. which is always a good thing.
have a good one!
{via}
this week has been quite busy. we began the weekend with a taco bar including a garden salad. I also began the dough to make homemade bagels. on Sunday, the bagels were baked and a few were fried and glazed to make doughnuts. I also tried a new spicy scrambled egg recipe for breakfast - keep scrolling for the recipe.
{via}
cooked with my mother on Monday - we made a classic Pakistani lentil curry. I also tried the mangosteen fruit for the first time. have you tried it?
to eat with the lentils, we cooked a simple pilau rice with chicken kebabs. also, this week, my mother cooked and I shot a classic Pakistani sweet dish. and, I photographed my cousin baking her sister's wedding cake.
{via}
the week ended with a visit from my cousin and her children. she lives a few hours away so it's really nice when they visit. we picked but unfortunately couldn't eat, cherries from the garden. finally, we baked a savoury chicken mince plait. yum.
{via}

here's more from my week:

Saturday!
apparantly we're growing mushrooms now.
I'm joking. but what we have been growing this year, are these cherry tomatoes and peppers.
inspired by that we had tacos for lunch.
with baked, shredded chicken.
a salad using all the wonderful produce from the garden.
tiny, soft, homemade tortillas. I urgently need to share this recipe with you. we never buy tortillas from the supermarket now - homemade is so much better and so quick too!
to bring everything together, plain yoghurt swirled with mint sauce.
simply wrap everything up in the tortilla with a drizzle of chilli garlic sauce.
the perfect meal to finish up leftovers.
I began the dough today for cinnamon raisin bagels.
rolled.
shaped.
and left to rise in the fridge overnight.
 Sunday breakfast with spiced scrambled eggs. all you do is soften sliced red onion in a little oil over a low-ish heat for 10 minutes.
then, add in sliced green chillies.
followed by a diced tomato.
let the tomato cook on a low heat until ...
.. it breaks down and becomes a little jammy.
in with four eggs, beaten. 
cook over a low heat and then finish with salt, pepper, ground cumin and fresh coriander.
done!

heat up a few frozen parathas.
breakfast, or should I say, brunch, is ready!
back to the bagels!
they are briefly boiled in water with a little bicarbonate of soda.
before being popped onto a tray.
and, baked until golden.
baking bagels at home is a project but definitely worth it. we ate some and froze the rest. 
the recipe I used is this one!
we had a few bagels leftover which hadn't been baked. so we fried them.
dipped them in a vanilla glaze and sprinkled with sprinkles.
and, turned them into doughnuts!
Monday quesadillas filled with chicken, Cheddar, peppers and spring onions.
cooking with my mother!
we cooked a classic daal. you can see the full photo recipe here!
have you guys tried mangosteens?
they're a fruit from Thailand. a bit like passion fruit because you have to slice them in half and eat the white flesh inside.
we got ours here!
a really quick pilau rice for dinner on Tuesday.
with plenty of cucumber and daal!
 Wednesday and forever snacking on fruit.

the basil is going crazy.
like really crazy!
steaming rice mixed with leftover daal.

chicken kebabs!
for lunch!
today, I shot another recipe with my mother.
this time, a sweet one.
it was a Pakistani classic sweet dish - zardah! the full photo recipe is here.
 a beautiful Thursday afternoon.
plenty of flowers blooming outside.

at my cousins house, the wedding cake baking was in full flow. a gluten-free vanilla cake batter was made.

and, I was only too happy to clean out the bowl. my mother wasn't very impressed though.
there were cupcakes baked.
plenty of cake.
and, fondant flowers.
my favourites were the roses.
a savoury break with gram flour and lentil pancakes.
and, a chicken kichri.
time to assemble the cake.
a layer of strawberry jam.
followed by vanilla custard.
sandwiched.
fondant rolled.
covered.
and, wrapped.

time for the flowers!
the end result was a cake with plenty of flowers cascading down the sides. 
I'm still trying to get the end result photos off my phone and onto the blog.
chips for dinner!
with chicken kebabs, chips and steamed green beans, carrots and Savoy cabbage.
 children in the garden on Friday morning.
picking mushrooms.
and, cherries!
the cherries were not for eating though. they were super sour!
for lunch, we had leftover chicken kebab mixture so we cooked it with peas, cooled it down and placed onto homemade shortcrust pastry.
cut a few slits.
and, plaited the whole thing up!

while the plaits baked, I tried out some different jelly flavours.
this one was cherry and we had another one which was orange.
baked!
eaten with lashings of green yoghurt chutney.

this time one year ago:
Blackberries + Sunflowers + Tiger Bread

lately, on the blog:
Masooor Daal / Red Lentil Curry
Zardah / Sweet Yellow Rice


31:17

O my son, establish prayer, enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, and be patient over what befalls you. 
Indeed, that is of the matters requiring determination.

{Surah Luqman, Verse 17}

Keep me in your duas, please. Have a lovely week,

Wasalaam!


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