Shami kebab are beef patties made with boneless beef, chana daal (split bengal gram), onion, spices and herbs. This recipe makes a large batch so eat some right now, and freeze the rest for later. There was a time when shami kebabs were reserved for special occasions – when guests are over or it was a fancy dinner at home. Those were the days when the meat for the shami kebab was painstakingly ground by hand with a sil batta.…
Keema samosa is a popular Pakistani snack with a filling of keema enclosed in a flour based pastry and deep fried. Enjoy it hot with mint chutney on the side. Samosa making is an art learnt by trial and error and a line of broken samosa pattis along the way. Every year in Ramadan samosa making was a ritual with my mother. I remember how I struggled when she started teaching me. As much as I tried, I could never…
Sheer khurma is a popular Eid dessert in Pakistan as well as other Muslim countries. It is made with vermicelli cooked in milk with dates, dry fruits and cardamom adding flavour and aroma to the dish. As far as I can remember, sheer khurma has been one of my favourite Eid traditions. My mother would make it in the morning, and when the men would come back from Eid prayers, we would have breakfast and then garma garam sheer khurma.…
Hosting an Iftar party can be quite challenging. Here are tips on how to organise an Iftar party with as less stress as possible along with sample menus for Iftar & Dinner. I know it’s only 10 days to the end of Ramadan, but I had been getting messages on help on preparing a Ramadan Iftar + Dinner menu, and I just thought it would be best to just share some sample Iftar party menus and also give some times…
A collection of 19 make ahead recipes for Ramadan to save you time in the kitchen and help you prepare iftar, sehri and dinner as stress free as possible. Make ahead recipes are a savior in Ramadan. Not only do they help you plan ahead, but it’s far more efficient making a recipe in bulk. Prepare them when you have some free time. Better yet – get the family together and make a production line of it. And then take a…
Onion pakora, pyaz pakora or onion fritters are a Pakistani / Indian appetizer made with sliced onion and coriander coated with a spicy chickpea flour batter and deep-fried till crispy. What are pakoras? Pakora or pakoda are the Pakistani version of a fritter, but made with besan (chickpea flour in English). It’s a snack that is synonymous with the rainy season, and the moment it rains, what everyone wants is crispy crunchy vegetable pakoras with chai. It is also an…
Chana chaat is the Desi version of a salad. The base is chickpeas or chana with onions, tomatoes, green chilies and coriander as the supporting characters finished off with chaat masala and lemon juice for that necessary spice and khataaz! How to make chana chaat? Start off with boiling chickpeas or what is known as chana or sufaid chole in Hindi / Urdu. In fact, another name for chana chaat is chole ki chaat. You can also use canned chickpeas.…