Ramadhan Mubarak

   Ramadhan Mubarak to muslims all over the world.

"Ramadhan is the (month)  in which the Quran was sent down , as a guide to the mankind and a clear guidance and judgement( so that mankind will distinguish from the right and wrong)."TMQ( 2:185)

Allah' s Messenger ( peace be upon him) said: Whenever you sight the new moon( of the month of Ramadhan) observe fast, and when you sight it( the new moon of Shawwal) break it, and if the sky is cloudy for you, then observe fast for thirty days.( muslim)

Allah's Apostle said, " When the month of Ramadhan starts, the gates of heaven are opened and gates of hell are close and the devils are chained."( Bukhari)

Narrated by Abu Huraira(r.a): The Prophet said:" ..... whoever fasts during the month of  Ramadhan out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah's rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven."( Bukhari)

The Messenger of Allah ( peace be upon him) addressed his companions on the last day of Shaban, saying," Oh people! A great month has come over you; a blessed month; a month in which a night better than thousand months; month in which Allah has made it compulsory upon you to fast by day, and voluntary to pray by night.  Whoever draws nearer( to Allah) by performing any of the (optional) good deeds  in this month shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time, and whoever discharges an obligatory deed in this month shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time. It is the month of patience and the reward of patience is heaven. It is the month of charity , and a month in which  a believer's sustenance is increased. Whoever gives food to a fasting person to break his fast, shall have his sins forgiven, and he will be saved from the Fire of Hell, and he shall have the same reward  as the fasting person, without believer's reward being diminished at all." ( Narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah).

Ramadhan is the month in which Allah(swt) covers you with his blessings, sends down  Mercy, decreases sins and answers prayers. So show Allah( swt) the goodness from yourselves, for the unfortunate one is he who is deprived in (this month) of the mercy of Allah.

"Fasting is the shield  with which a servant protects himself from the Fire" ( Ahmad)

On the Day Of Judgement, " Fasting will say: O My Lord I prevented him from food and desires so accept my intercession for him." ( Ahmad, al- Haakim, Hasan).

In this holy month of Ramadhan let's get closer to Allah(swt) by doing good deeds and praising Allah the Almighty.  One more thing when it comes to Ramadhan, most of the women spend a lot of time in kitchen like planning for get together, inviting guests and making special things for Iftar.  Although we get lots of reward in cooking for our friends and family, we should not forget to spend our time for Allah (swt).   The time between Asr and Magrib is the best time to be in Dhikr and seek more, also that's the peak time for us to cook for Iftar.  So sisters plan your Iftar earlier with some simple menu or something which you can make it ahead and warm it  later.  I have given a sample menu for 7 days, along with that links from last year Iftar Moments with 30 day menu plan .  This is just a sample menu, along with this include plenty of fruits and salads in your diet.

Here goes the menu

Day 1

Starter -Oats and  Sago Kanji	Starter - Uzunda Vadai	Main - Polenta Idli
Main - Vada  Curry	Dessert -Blackberry Pudding

Day 2

Starter - Vegetable  Cutlet	Main-Haleem	Main - Manakish
Main -Tandoori Chicken	Dessert - Walnut and Almond Kheer

Day 3

Starter - Turkish Lentil Soup	Starter - Turkish Pide	Main - Mediterranean Kebabs
Dessert - Semolina Syrup Cake

Day 4

Starter - Wholewheat Kanji	Main- Garlic and Coriander Naan	Main - Butter Chicken
Beverages - Nongu Paal

Day 5

Starter - Vegetable Soup	Main - Broccoli Rice	Main - Chicken Kurma
Dessert-Carrot and Almond Milk

Day 6

Starter - Morrocan Harira	Main- Garlic Rolls	Main -Baba Ganoush
Dessert - Baklava

Day 7

Starter - Falafels	Starter - Carrot and Paneer Paratha	Main - Kethal Chicken
Dessert -Fruit salad

Also for more ideas refer these links
Iftar Moments Hijri 1431- Roundup 1
                                         Roundup 2
                                         Roundup 3
Ramadhan Kareem!!!

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Any One Can Cook : Series 28

Hello Foodies,

Thank you everyone for showing your support for this event and make this going every week.  Your love and support is really a lot to me.  This week we are having three selected recipes from last week series, also the selected recipes for the month of July and last two weeks from June.  The following are the three selected recipes from last week series
Chicken Pizza Dosai by Samayal Attagasangal

Simple and Easy Carrot Rice by My Kitchen Trials

Grilled Shrimps by Saffronstreaks

Now coming to the featured recipes of the month

Dates Banana Milk Shake by Samayal Diary

Steamed Semolina Carrot Cake by Vegetarian Taste Buds

Chicken Pizza Dosai by Samayal Attagasangal

The above three recipes are eligible to enter the Annual contest, Congratulations!!!

If you have any recipes easy to cook, link to the event and get the chance of winning the award and gift.

If you are a new reader to this event please check the rules here

Archived recipes can be sent just by giving a link to the event in your post. Also don't forget to give a link about the event in your post.

If you find any trouble in linking your recipe please mail me your recipe link to ayeesha.riaz@googlemail.com.

The linky will be opened from Monday- Friday( till midnight 12) according to Europe- Greenwich Mean Time

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Prawn Gravy

Suja of Kitchen Corner has some amazing collection of recipes.  Everytime when I visit her site, I used to bookmark them, especially if it's something with chicken or prawns, I would be just drooling at the pictures. This is a recipe which I have been eyeing from her site for a long time now.
Most of the time I cook in a hurry and I end up in making my usual style of curries and gravies. This time when I was buying the prawns itself I made up mind that no excuses today.  So finally I tried her prawn gravy with few variations and it was just amazing. This easy peasy gravy is surely a keeper for me.  Thank you Suja for sharing this wonderful recipe, I'll keep trying more recipes from your site. Don't forget to check her mouthwatering collections from here.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20-30 minutes
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:
Prawns- 300 g (cleaned and washed)
Onion- 1 big sized sliced
Tomato- 1 small sized
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Ginger Garlic paste- 1 tsp
Chilli powder- 1 tsp
Coriander powder- 2 tsp
Fennel powder- 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder-1/2 tsp
Garam masala- 1/4 tsp
Tamarind paste-1 tsp
Lemon juice- juice of 1/2 a lemon
Curry leaves- 1 spring ( about 5 to 6 leaves)
Cinnamon stick- 1/2 inch stick
Cumin seeds-1/2 tsp
Oil- 1 tbsp
Salt as per taste

Method:
Clean and wash the prawns well.  Apply some turmeric powder and set it aside. Grind together 1/2 of onion, tomato, tamarind, lemon juice and spice powder. Heat the oil in a kadai, add cumin seeds, curry leaves and cinnamon stick.  Then add ginger garlic paste and sliced onion.  Reduce the heat to medium and cook till the onions get softened. Now add the ground masala and let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Finally add the prawns and salt. Mix it well to coat the gravy completely.  Cover the pan and let it cook until the prawns get cooked completely.  At this stage it would be a semi gravy, you can serve it like this or if you prefer for dry gravy, increase the heat until all the water gets absorbed and the gravy looks thick and oil oozes out from it.  Serve it hot with chapathis, plain rice or pulav.

Sending this to Joy From Fasting to Feasting

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Ragi and Banana Muffin

This is a simple muffin modified from banana muffin.  My first experience with muffins was when we were in UK, it my earlier days there.  After a tired long day walk in a big shopping mall (Oracle), we went and sat down for some coffee in bb's, I think I remember the name right.
 My husband asked me what would you like with tea or coffee, actually I'm not a tea or coffee person and very rarely I used to have tea (green tea is an exceptional in that).  I said no tea, I'll just have some juice, also I'm not a big fan of cakes or chocolates until I lived in UK.  UK was the place where I was introduced to the world of chocolates, cakes, fudges etc.. and then I got addicted to these goodies, I think now you can guess why my blog is filled with so many cakes and stuff.

 Ok I got so much deviated from the main subject, coming to the point, so I said no cake or tea and ordered some juice.  My husband ordered some coffee and banana muffin for him, it was the last muffin left in the shop.
I just had a small bit of those muffins for taste, the warm muffins flavoured with cinnamon and nutmeg, topped with walnuts was really a bliss.  I loved it so much,  after that I din't give a small pinch of that muffin to my husband and I finished it off.  From that day, everytime when I go to town centre, I used to go to bb's and ask for this banana muffin and I never got one. After trying hard for so many times in different bb's all around UK, I was desperate to have these muffins.  Finally I managed to get a recipe from BBC, which I published it here, which was bit close to that.  Restaurant food cannot be always recreated in home since they'll have secret formula and special technique so we can aim only something close to that.  Banana muffins or cakes with walnuts is one of my favourite.  That's quite a long story for this humble muffins, huh!   Ok, ok don't worry I'll go to the recipe now, this recipe is just a slight modified version of those muffins.  I have replaced the plain flour with whole wheat and ragi and few adjustment in the flavourings also.  Let's have a look at the recipe now.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:
Wheat flour or all purpose flour- 80 g
Ragi Flour- 40 g
Egg- 1
Banana- 1 medium sized (mashed)
Baking powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Bicarbonate of soda- 1/4 tsp
Jaggery or Sugar- 50 g
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Grated nutmeg- 1/4 tsp
Milk- 60 ml
Sunflower oil  or Olive oil- 30 ml
Walnuts-  6

Method:
Mix all the wet ingredients together in a large bowl.  Sift the dry ingredients in a bowl except sugar.  Mix the dry ingredients into wet ingredients along with sugar.  Don't overmix it, just gently give it a fold twice or thrice.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius, line the muffin tin with paper cases.  Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.  Broke the walnuts roughly and sprinkle on top of the mixture.  Bake it in the preheated oven 15 to 20 minutes or until the top of the muffin looks firm.  Take it out from the oven, leave it cool down in a wire rack for 5 minutes.  Remove it from the tin and serve it while they are still warm.

Sending this Anu's Healthy Kitchen Events and Only Baked Events  by Tamalapaku originally started by Pari and CWF Ragi by Oh Taste N See, originally started by Kiran

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Any One Can Cook : Series 27

Hello Foodies,

Hope you all had a fun weekend.  Last weekend was fantastic, yes it was something special.  We had our Chennai Food Bloggers meet here in Chennai and we all had a nice time together , also I was lucky enough to taste the food of our talented food bloggers.  If I have to talk more about the meet, I have to write one complete post so we'll go to the event now.
I was really excited to see the overwhelming response and the wonderful entries from last week.  My big thanks to everyone who managed to link up your recipes for the event.  It was hard for me to choose the best, if possible I would have chosen more.  As I din't want to change the rules again I went with only three, as follows

Strawberry Swirl Cones by Anu's Healthy Kitchen

Tuna Couscous salad by SchmetterlingWords

Curried Chicken Cups by Kurry leaves

If you have any recipes easy to cook, link to the event and get the chance of winning the award and gift.

If you are a new reader to this event please check the rules here

Archived recipes can be sent just by giving a link to the event in your post. Also don't forget to give a link about the event in your post.

If you find any trouble in linking your recipe please mail me your recipe link to ayeesha.riaz@googlemail.com.

The linky will be opened from Monday- Friday( till midnight 12) according to Europe- Greenwich Mean Time

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Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart

I have been having an eye on this recipe for long time now, every time when I see this recipe in a foodie blog or foodgawker, it tempts me a lot.  Finally the day has come to make my own Cinnamon Pull-Apart.  Although I have baked so many breads in the past. it was bit challenging for me to work with  yeast after coming to India.  May be it's just because a different yeast and different climatic conditions.

  If you have followed my blog earlier and seen my previous breads, you should have noticed that all my breads are made with fast action dried yeast.  I never follow the package instructions and I never dissolve yeast in warm water to work it first.  I always add the yeast directly to the flour mixture and then add warm water to knead the dough, which actually worked for me.  Now in India I couldn't find fast action dried yeast, so I used just dried yeast which was in the size of couscous.  This cannot be directly used in the flour, so followed the package instructions.  That's where the disaster strikes for me, my dough din't rise :-(

 Din't  give up, tried again.  I wasn't satisfied with the results in terms of rising, I have to work on that more.  Although I had problem with the yeast twice, finally I managed to get the bread good enough to eat, also it's cinnamon, nutmeg and buttery layers, hard to go wrong.  My bread may not look as appealing as the bloggers who did this previously but believe me it tasted great!!

Recipe source: http://annies-eats.net/2011/03/23/cinnamon-sugar-pull-apart-bread/
Preparation Time: 20 minutes+ rising time for the dough
Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes ( might vary for different ovens)
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
All purpose flour- 350 g
Sugar- 60 g
Dried yeast- 2 tsp
Egg- 1
Milk- 100 ml
Butter- 4 tbsp
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Salt- 1/2 tsp

Filling:
Butter- 4 tbsp
Cinnamon powder- 2 tsp
Grated nutmeg- 1/2 tsp
Sugar- 60 g

Method:
Prepare the dough:
Sift the flour and salt in a large bowl.  Add the sugar to the mixture and mix well.  Add some warm water to the yeast according to the package instructions and let it work.  Add the butter and milk to the pan and heat it until the butter gets melted.  Add the warm milk mixture, vanilla and egg to the flour and start kneading with the electric beater fitted with dough slowly until the dough comes together.
Once the dough comes together, increase the speed and knead it for 5 minutes.  Then turn the dough to the floured work surface and knead it again for 5 to 10 minutes.
If the dough is too sticky add a bit more flour and knead it well.  Place the dough in a clean oiled bowl and let it rise in a warm place for about 2 hours or until the dough looks doubled in size.

Prepare the filling:
Melt the butter in a pan until it gets melted and browned, don't burn it.  Mix the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl and keep it separately.

Prepare the dough:

Roll out the dough into a rectangle.

Brush it with browned butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.Cut them into 3 or 4 vertical strips and cut them again into 3 equal lengths as shown in the picture.
Stack 4 squares together.  Grease a 9x5 inch loaf tin.

Place the stacks one by one in the loaf tin. Lightly cover the loaf tin with kitchen towel and leave it to rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Bake the rised loaf in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until it looks brown on top.
Take it out of the oven, cool it in wire rack for 5 minutes.  Remove it from the tin and serve warm.

This recipe goes to yeastspotting and Only Baked Event hosted by Tamalapaku originally started by Foodelicious.

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