Iftar 10 Ramadhan 1431 H

Kuih kosui

Sambal terung

Kerutub ayam

Baklava, gift from Souad, my Egyptian good friend.

Pasta bake


Being far away from home where the practice of Islam is so vivid, I have no choice but to provide Islamic education or tarbiyah my kids on my own. Tried to do daily tazkirah with them after Maghrib, 30 minutes a day would be enough as long as it is consistence. What I am trying to practise now is at least in a day, try to read for 30 min, tazkirah 1/2 hr, memorise at least 3 verses of Al_Quran and of course 1 hour of my thesis writing or academic reading. May Allah shower me with strength to istaqamah with this gesture.

Serimuka with gerodok telur topping

Specially dedicated to my good friend Dr Suhaiza in Manchester...dgn ucapan selamat bertugas..hehe..

Ingredients:
For the base:
3 cawan pulut
3 cawan santan
1/2 tsp salt

Gerodok telur topping:
5 eggs
1 cup palm sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 cloves
1 tsp vanilla essence

For normal pandan topping
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup custard powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 cups coconut milk.
green colouring or pandan flavour or blend 5 pandan leaves with 1/2 cup water

Methods:
1. Mix glutinous rice with coconut milk and salt, place in the microwave for 10 minutes, take it out and stir and continue for another 5 minutes.
2. You can also steam the glutinous rice for about 30 minutes if you do not like microwaving.
3. Press the cooked glutinous rice with a wet spoon.
4. Prepare the topping, mix all te ingredients together and pour onto the rice and steam for 30 minutes.
5. For pandan topping, once ingredients are mixed, stir them on the stove to thicken so that steaming is shorter. Pour the mixture onto the rice once it has thickened.

Fried eggs in soy sauce

My lamb kerutub

This is my favourite Kelantanese dish. Thanks to Azzman Nureen of Wolverhampton for the demo in Birmingham. Before this demo, I never get my kerutub to taste right. Kinda expert now..P

Ingredients:

1 kg beef with bones
3 blended Holland onions, 5 garlic, 1 inch ginger, 1 inch galangal-blend coarsely
2 tbs kerutub spice/ powder (from Kelantan).
2 tbs blended red chilis
1 tsp shrimp paste
salt
11/2 cups coconut milk
1 tsp kerisik (optional)
cardamons, cloves, cinnamon stick, star anise
whole green chillies- make a cut in the middle
screw pine leaves (optional)

Methods:
1. Fry onion ginger mix in 3 tbs of oil till fragrant. Add blended red chilli paste.
2. Add kerutub spice and 1/2 cup of water. Add beef and simmer for 1/2 hour, keep on adding a litlle bit of water to prevent it drying.
3. Once the meat is tender, add coconut milk, kerisik and salt and a sprinkle of sugar.
4. For those who love potatoes, you can also add them but the original Kelantanese kerutub doesn't have potatoes in it. I usually add whole green chillies and pandan leaves for their fragrant smell.
5. Once the gravy is thick, serve with white rice or briyani rice. Please note that kerutubs are meant to be thick, not thin like curries.

1 Ramadhan 1431 H

Alhamdulillah Allah has showered us with rahmah to meet another Ramadhan this year. I remembered during previous Ramadhans, my kids were crying and begging from me to break their fast just a few minutes before iftar as sunset was quite late in summer encroaching to almost 9pm. This year supermum has to come up with a strategy to stengthen their inner spirit to withstand the hunger pangs of Ramadhan in summer. So I downloaded a few articles on fasting from the internet and gave a 40 minute tazkirah a week before Ramadhan began. Alhamdulillah, they are very receptive and are a lot more mature this year. So we breezed through 5 days of Ramadhan without much agony. Even on the day when we missed our sahur was not a problem at all. Alhamdullilah, thank you Allah for giving us strength to be a good follower of your deen.

As this is our first day of fasting, thought of cooking something a little special. Made lamb briyani for iftar and sahur. Got this superb recipe from http://resepiraidah.blogspot.com/search/label/Nasi. Love your blog Raidah.

Being a Malay, we can't survive without chillies, so made some Pakistani chicken as well to complete the dish.

Lamb Briyani
1 kg lamb with bones
5 cups basmathi rice~ wash, soak for 30 min and drain
1 cup yogurt

3 Holland onion ~ sliced

2 tomatoes ~ diced

3 bird chillies

1 tsp garlic- crushed

1 tsp ginger- crushed

1/2 tsp garam masala

2 tbs biryani powder
1 tsp turmeric powder

4 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

4 cardamoms

2 bay leaves

1- 2 cawan fried onion

1/2 cawan fried raisins
1/2 cup fried cashew nuts

a pinch of saffron ~ soak in 1/2 cup hot water.

1 cup chopped coriander leaves

2 tbs Ghee

salt, sugar

Method:

Lamb:

1. Fry cinnamon stick, cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves and add blended onion, ginger, garlic.

2. Add biryani spice, garam masala, turmeric powder, tomatoes the oil separates and add lamb and yoghurt. I also a tbs of kurma powder.
3. Simmer till lamb is cooked and add salt and a bit of sugar and coriander leaves. Put aside.

Rice:

~ Boil 5 cups of water, add 1 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp cumin powder dan 1 tbs oil. Add rice and boil till half cooked.

Biryani Rice:

1. Scoop 1/3 portion of rice into the rice cooker, sprinkle some fried onion, fried raisins and saffron water.

2. Scoop the lamb briyani mix on top of the rice and repeat process 1 and 2 till lamb is finished.

3. Cover with the last portion of rice and pour saffron water and coriander leaves.
4. Cover the pot and press start. Cook for 20 minutes.
5. Once the rice is cooked, sprinkle some cashew nuts and mix the rice and lamb together. Ready to be served.

I cooked some vegetable dalca to eat with this delicious briyani rice. Beware of the cholesterol content hihi..Since we have been fasting the whole day, so it is a good excuse to indulge on this rich recipe.