Ramadan # 5 Dum Keema (Steamed Ground Beef)

Oh Allah, please accept our fasts, prayers, and acts of charity during this blessed month.

Today is the 15th fast of Ramadan- the halfway point. I cannot believe how quickly this month is flying by.  The days are long and at times challenging, but well worth it.  The physical and spiritual detoxification that is occurring is necessary to remove the build up of toxins from our bodies and hearts.  It is my hope that this detox doesn't end with Ramadan, but continues throughout the year in some way.

Creating meals for your families while fasting can be a challenge because you can't taste anything to check for spice and flavour.  As a result, I have started cooking after iftar (after I break my fast at sunset).  I don't want to be slaving over the stove for a long time because I need to go to the mosque to pray taraweeh, so I like to make meals or parts of meals that are easy and quick to prepare.   

Dum keema is very versatile. It can be eaten by itself, put into sandwiches, tacos, pasta dishes or on pizza.  It is very easy to prepare and uses ingredients that you probably already have at home or can easily purchase at your grocery store.

Dum Keema

3 heaping tbsp chicken tikka masala spice

pinch of salt

1 cup low fat, organic yogurt

1 heaping tbsp each, freshly minced ginger and garlic

6 tbsp fried onions (these onions come prepackaged and are available at Indian grocery stores and the Indian section at No Frills or Loblaws)

2 lb lean ground beef, washed in a mesh sieve and drained

red chili flakes (optional)

diced tomatoes and fried onions for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium-large bowl, mix together chicken tikka masala, yogurt, salt, garlic, ginger, and fried onions. Add in the ground beef and using your hand (or a spoon if you don't want to touch the meat), thoroughly mix together the yogurt-based masala and meat.  Once mixed, pat the meat down into a roasting pan (the pan should have a lid) into a thin layer.  Place the pan with the lid on, into the oven.  Let the meat "steam" for 15-20 minutes before taking the lid off to stir the meat.  You will notice the meat will break into big chunks, using a wooden spoon, break these chunks into small pieces.  Replace the lid and let the meat cook for another 10-15 minutes or until the meat juices have disappeared.  

Place the dum keema into a glass dish and garnish with some friend onions, red chili flakes and diced tomatoes.

Ramadan # 4 Green and Gold Kiwifruit Salsa

O Allah, I seek your forgiveness for every sin that my soul made seem to me trivial and small, and continued to make seem insignificant, until it finally entangled me in it.

While entering the grocery store last week, I came across a stand displaying gold kiwifruit.  What attracted me to the stand wasn't the actual fruit, but the freebies sticking out of a pocket below! Inside the pocket were these plastic wrapped green spoons/knives with the words "Cut and scoop" on them.  After closer examination, I discovered that the green spoons/knives were for the kiwifruit. Normally I use a regular knife to peel my kiwifruit and eat it. But this spoon/knife was taking me in another direction.  The knife side is used to cut the kiwifruit in half and the spoon side is used to spoon out the kiwifruit so that you are left with a kiwi skin cup. Pretty neat eh?

Anyhow, I stuck a couple of those spoon-knife packets into my purse and continued to explore the stand.  I pulled off a recipe card (from Zespri Kiwifruit) for green and gold kiwifruit salsa. I was hesitant in trying the recipe out because I had never before tried gold kiwifruit. After a few minutes of deliberation, I decided to go ahead and try it out.  I picked up all of the necessary ingredients, did the rest of my shopping and came home.  

I didn't make the salsa right away because the kiwis weren't that ripe. It actually worked out for me because I had to make an unexpected trip back home, so the kiwis had a few days to ripen on my kitchen counter.  

Some info on kiwifruit (came off the back of the recipe card): -

-Kiwifruit are ripe when they give in to slight pressure.
-Gold kiwifruit will last 3-7 days at room temperature and 12-14 days in the fridge.
-Green kiwifruit will last 3-7 days at room temperature and 24-28 days in the fridge.
-2 kiwifruit have less than 100 calories, more than 230% of your daily Vitamin C and 16% of your daily fiber.
-Kiwifruit also have calcium, iron, Vitamin E, zinc, folate, antioxidants, magnesium, and potassium.

Yesterday afternoon I made the salsa (with some minor alterations to the original recipe) and after R and I broke our fasts, we tried it with corn chips and I have to tell you it ROCKS!!!! Slightly sweet yet tart and oh so yummy!  

Some notes:  I used the spoon and knife utensil to create kiwi cups and it isn't as easy as it looks.  After I made a few cups, I went back to using my knife. I think I would only use the spoon and knife utensil if I wanted to serve the salsa in the cups.

Green and Gold Kiwifruit Salsa

3 Gold kiwifruit (Original recipe said 4)

3 Green kiwifruit (Original recipe said 4)

1/2 large red onion, peeled and finely diced (Original recipe said 1 cup of diced red onion. I cut up the halves and put them into a food processor to save myself time and tears)

2 tbsp fresh cilantro/coriander, washed and chopped

1 tbsp fresh mint, washed and julienned

juice of 3 small key limes (Original recipe said 1 tbsp fresh lime juice)

1 tbsp ground cumin

Slice kiwifruit into halves and peel or spoon out the fruit onto a cutting board. Dice kiwifruit into small cubes.

Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix gently. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving so the flavours can blend together.  Serve with chips or as a side to chicken or fish (or in fish tacos!).

Ramadan # 3 Spinach and Almond Pesto with Fresh Mozzarella and Garlic Shrimp

O Allah, I seek your forgiveness for every sin that leaves grief in its wake, that causes remorse, that holds back sustenance, and that prevents acceptance of [my] prayers.

I really enjoy creating pasta-based concoctions in my kitchen. I usually stick with one type of pasta in my dishes, but lately I've been mixing different flour-based or vegetable-based pastas, trying to find combinations that work and that my family will eat.  One combination that I like is an equal blend of white and whole wheat pastas because you get the heartiness of the whole wheat pasta without having the dish become too heavy and dense.

A while back, I came across a blog post on pesto. The recipe was surprisingly easy and didn't require Parmesan cheese (it's hard to find Parmesan cheese without rennet in it). I tagged this recipe under "Recipes to Try ASAP" and let it be.  A couple of weeks ago, I came back to this recipe and thought I would test it out.   I changed the recipe by using almonds instead of walnuts, mixing up the pasta and adding fresh mozzarella and shrimp.

Spinach and Almond Pesto with Fresh Mozzarella and Garlic Shrimp

 

2 big handfuls of fresh baby spinach, stems removed and washed and dried
1/4 cup of almonds, skin removed
4 tbsp freshly minced garlic,
10 basil leaves, washed
4 tbsp olive oil
6 small fresh mozzarella balls, drained of liquid and sliced into quarters
15-20 frozen raw peeled and deveined shrimp, thawed and washed
1.5 cups dry whole wheat rotini pasta
1.5 cups dry white rotini pasta
salt and pepper to taste

In a food process,  mix together spinach, almonds,  3 tbsp garlic, 8 basil leaves, 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper until a gritty-like texture is formed.  Taste for salt and pepper.  If a stronger flavour is desired, add more spinach, basil and almonds and give the mixture a spin in the processor.

In a frying pan, add the remaining olive oil, 1 tbsp of garlic and the 2 basil leaves (torn up into small pieces).  Saute on low-medium heat for 1 minute.  Add in the shrimp and cook until the shrimp have curled in a bit and are pink all the way through.  Season with some salt and pepper before removing from heat.

Cook the dry whole wheat and white pastas (SEPARATELY) according to box instructions.  Strain the water and mix the pasta in a large bowl with the pesto. Gently mix in the mozzarella quarters and shrimp. Taste the pasta for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary.  Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top.  Serve immediately or refrigerate for a later time.

Ramadan # 2: Stuffed Puff Pastry

O Allah I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that kills the heart, and incites anxiety, and preoccupies the mind, and pleases Satan, and angers the All-Merciful

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I truly believe that the grocery stores here in Pasadena are conspiring against me.  I have been looking high and low for freshly mixed bakery pizza dough since we followed R's work assignment from TO to Fairfax to LA  and to date I HAVEN'T found any!!!  It is in my humble opinion that when the grocery store clerks see me coming, they run quickly to the bakery section and remove the bagged pizza dough...lol. I've searched Ralph's, Fresh and Easy, and Target, but I have always come back empty handed.

Why don't you just make your own you ask? Well, there are a few things that intimidate me and working with yeast is one of them.  I've heard, or rather read, horror stories that involve yeast and I'm not sure if I want to have one of my own.  Isn't yeast temperamental?  It can't be old, has to be mixed with water at the correct temperature etc.  That's why I like using the freshly mixed pizza dough that's available at home in Toronto at Loblaws or Supercentre. The bakers mix it fresh in-house every few days and it isn't chock full of preservatives. They also have the option of white or whole wheat dough which is nice.

This Ramadan, I wanted to stay away from the samosas and make something different for iftar (the small snack(s) that is eaten to break the fast). I was thinking of small pizza pockets, but BECAUSE I couldn't find the dough anywhere, I opted for puff pastry. Pizza is a great meal and has the potential of being healthy if you select good ingredients. You can cover most, if not all of the food groups based on what you choose.  For me, I love having lean ground beef, tomatoes, onions, olives, jalapeno peppers, green peppers, and mushrooms on my pizza. I do like to add pineapple, but because most of my family don't like having the sweet and savory flavour, it's usually omitted from the pizza.


Since I wanted to make individual portions, I used pre-cut, 5"x5" puff pastry squares for the crust. For the filling I used dum keema (steamed ground beef-I'll post this recipe later), hot salsa, sliced tomatoes, low-fat shredded cheese, olives and onions.  I also made a vegetarian pizza pocket, using methi palak (cooked spinach with fenugreek).

People say that when you're making crepes, the first one is always bad, well I had a similar experience while trying to fold over my first pizza pocket.  I didn't know how to fold it and keep the filing inside, so I ended up having a really bad looking pocket with pieces of filling stuck to the edges.  After thinking about it for a few seconds, I had a Martha Stewart moment and tried using the tines of a fork. Success!  I now had a completely sealed pocket that looked pretty.

Puff Pastry Pizza Pocket 

(try saying that 5 times in a row!)

1 pack of pre-cut 5"x5" puff pastry squares, thawed as per package instructions
1 cup cooked dum keema (ground beef) or any cooked ground beef/chicken/turkey or 1 cup of cooked spinach  if you want to make vegetarian pizza pockets
1 cup shredded, low fat cheddar cheese
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 jar of hot salsa
a handful of sliced olives, drained
a handful of sliced yellow grape tomatoes, washed and dried
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp cold water

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.**

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Place a sheet of parchment paper on your counter. This will be your work surface.  Lay one puff pastry square on the parchment. Place 1 tsp of salsa on the pastry and spread it out. Lay on 1 tablespoon of keema in the centre of your puff pastry square. Layer some cheese, a few slices of onion, olives and tomato slices on top of the keema. Sprinkle the filling with cheese.  Bring one corner of the puff pastry square and match it up with the corner diagonally across from it so that the square becomes a triangle.  Using the tines of a fork, press down gently to seal the puff pastry.  Using a spatula, carefully lift the pizza pocket and place it onto the parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Continue the same process until you have made all of your pizza pockets.

In a small bowl, beat 1 egg and 1 tsp of water together. Using a pastry brush, brush the top and sides of the pizza pockets with the egg wash. This will create a nice golden colour on your pizza pockets.

Put the cookie sheet into the 350 degree oven until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown.   Serve with ketchup or green chutney.

** If you don't want to make the pizza pockets right away, you can freeze them in a freezer bag layered between wax paper.  Skip the egg wash until you are ready to bake them.

Ramadan # 1: The Homemade Latte

 O Allah, I seek Your forgiveness for every sin that turns away from me Your mercy, or causes Your vengeance to befall me or deprives me of your generosity, or takes away from me Your blessings.

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So Ramadan has just begun and for the first few days it can be a challenge to wake up before sun rise, eat your suhoor (early breakfast) and go on with your day.  Some of you probably like to pick up a coffee or latte on your way to work or school, but that will have to be nixed for this month, or longer if you want to use Ramadan to help you get rid of your caffeine addiction!  For those of you who just can't give up the coffee how about making your own "latte" at home to enjoy before you start your day's fast?  You'll still get your caffeine kick and keep some money in your wallet.

My husband usually likes to have some caffeine in his system to help get his day started. Usually he would swing by Starbucks (in the US) to pick up a vanilla latte or a double-double from Tim Horton's (in Canada) on his way to work. However, for the past few weeks, I've been making these homemade lattes for him instead.  Now there will be no use of a coffee machine because, well we don't have one.  This latte is made with the Starbucks Via packs.  At first I would eye-ball the amounts of water, milk and instant espresso powder I used, but when my husband asked me how I made it, I knew I had to actually measure out the ingredients for future reference. 

Homemade Latte

1 cup filtered water
1 Starbucks Columbia Via pack
1/4 tsp instant espresso powder
1 1/4 cup 2% organic milk  (I added the extra 1/4 cup because the latte goes into a travel mug. You can get rid of it if you want)
2 1/2 tsp sugar (adjust the sugar to your taste)



In a small steel pot or sauce pan with a high rim, add your water and heat it up to a simmer over low-medium heat. Once the water begins to simmer add in the Starbucks Via pack and stir the mixture with a spoon.  Add the instant espresso powder and sugar. Bring the heat up to a medium and add in the milk. Start whisking the mixture as it begins to boil. Continue whisking until enough froth has been created. Remove from heat and pour into a large coffee mug or latte bowl and enjoy.

Ramadan

Ramadan, the month of fasting, is just a few short days away. The time has come for Muslims to return to God and begin the process of cleansing the mind, body, and soul.  It is a time where the worldly desires are put away and the focus becomes strengthening the spiritual ties to God through many acts of worship including, prayer, acts of charity, guarding one's character, and the abstinence from food and drink.

Ramadan is the time to turn to God and seek forgiveness of past and present sins, mend strained relationships, and forgive those who have transgressed against you. It is also a time to thank God for the many blessings that have been bestowed upon you and your family.

Right now is a good time to prepare yourself for the physical and spiritual cleansing that is about to start.  Here are a few links that can help you refresh your memory on the importance of Ramadan and its guidelines:

• What is Ramadan by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) (video)

• Ramadan Practice Exercises by Imam Afroz Ali  

• The Complete Guide to Fasting by Ustadha Naielah Ackbarali

• Imam Tahir Anwar's 5 Simple Ways to Prepare for Ramadan

• Imam Zaid Shakir on a Green Ramadan (video)

• A great dua (supplication) by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani (Although this prayer was for a special night during Sha'ban, I think it's great for Ramadan too!)

It is also vital that children are educated on the importance of Ramadan.There are many child-friendly resources available on the Internet and in print that can help kids understand what Ramadan is about and why certain acts of worship happen during this blessed month.  A great way to help kids, and even adults for that matter, celebrate Ramadan is to decorate your home.  Children can create posters or paintings with Ramadan greetings, banners can be made that can be put around the house etc.  Here are two articles by Hina Khan-Mukhtar that talk about getting your home and your family ready for this spiritual time:

• Readying the Ruh for Ramadan  

• Ramadan Advice: Creating Ramadan Traditions

Here are some ways my family and I would spruce up the house during  Ramadan. In my parents' home, we would string green twinkly lights along the windows in the family, living, and dining rooms. We would also put out some fancy candles and candle holders and light them up at night.  I have also done this in Ramadan pasts at my own home. This year, I've put up a small Ramadan banner that came with my Ramadan calendar from Barakah Life and I've also made some velum luminaries that will light up a dark corner of the family room.  I may also add some twinkly lights just for old time's sake.

I will be posting a few recipes during the month of Ramadan. They will be really simple to replicate and will be a great addition to your Ramadan table.

Ramadan Mubarak!

How To: Marinate a Whole Chicken with a Dry Rub

There are some kitchen basics that everyone should know how to do. So, for my first "How-To" blog post, I'm going to show you how to marinate a whole chicken with a dry rub.


I never had any experience cooking with a whole chicken until a friend of mine shared her Sprite-can chicken recipe. After talking to her about the marinade and the whole process, I went to my local halal meat store and picked up a whole chicken and attempted to make my own soda can chicken.  Success!

Before I continue, I want to let everyone know that when you go to a halal butcher shop, the meat is generally not pre-packaged into neat, plastic-wrapped portions that you see at the grocery store. Instead, you have a display case full of different kinds of meat- chicken, beef, veal, lamb, goat- and various parts of animals- legs, side cuts, ribs, ground meats, steaks, trodders, organs etc. You pick the pieces of meat you want, get it cut the way you want and then bring it home to prep it- clean off extra fat and gunk, wash it, and away you go.  So knowing that, when I tell you that my mom taught me how to clean meat when I was a teen shouldn't seem odd.  One time, she handed me a rubber glove, a whole chicken that she got from the halal meat store, and made me stick my hand up the backside of the chicken to take out the heart, lungs and any other stuff that shouldn't be there before we cooked it.  From that day on, I felt somewhat traumatized and to this day I tell her she scarred me by making me shove my hand up a chicken's butt. hehe   Between you and me though, I'm kind of glad she gave me that experience because now when I work with a whole chicken, it's no longer a daunting task and I can take care of it in a minute or so.

 Dry Rub Marinade for a Whole Chicken

2 heaping tbsp chicken tikka masala  (if you want to avoid a lot of spice, substitute the chicken tikka masala for another blended chicken spice)
2 tsp freshly ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp each freshly minced ginger and garlic
2 key limes (you can use lemon or lime wedges if you can't find key limes)

Rinse the inside and outside of your whole chicken thoroughly.  Lay it down on paper towels and pat-dry the chicken with more paper towel.

In a small bowl, mix together the chicken tikka masala, ground coriander, paprika and salt.  Set aside.
Take the minced garlic and ginger and rub them into the chicken-inside and out.  Make sure you get in between the legs and wings.  Take your rub, a tsp at a time, and begin to rub it into the chicken skin, once again making sure to get into every nook and cranny.  Repeat the process until you have used up the entire rub.

Take the two key limes, and place them inside the chicken cavity. When you roast the chicken, they will explode and release all of their flavour.

If you are going to roast the chicken later in the day, put the chicken inside a roasting pan and put it in the fridge for a few hours.  If you want to make the chicken at a later date, but the entire chicken into a freezer bag and stick it into the freezer.