Anyone can make Aloo Gobi but not everyone can bend it like Beckham

Inspired by watching Bend it like Beckham last week, I decided to try making Aloo Gobi. And Jassminder is right, ANYone can make Aloo Gobi! The recipe I found on Spark (ipod app) is soooo easy!

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon ginger paste
2 medium potatoes (cubed)
1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
salt
1lb cauliflower

1. Heat the oil. Stir in cumin seeds, garlic and ginger paste. Cook for about 1 minute until garlic is slightly browned

2. Add potatoes. Season with tumeric, chilli powder, cumin, garam masala and salt. Cover and continue cooking for 5-7 mins, stirring occasionally.

3. Mix in cauliflower. (I added in water too, as the potatoes were starting to stick). Reduce heat to low and cover. Stir occasionally. Cook for 10 mins or until cauliflower and potatoes are tender.

4. Serve with boiled rice.

Microwave Rice

I only make rice this way. It's so easy and there is never any burnt rice at the bottom of the saucepan to scrape off!

1. Wash 1 mug of rice in a microwaveable plastic container
2. Add 2 mugs of boiling water, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 table spoon of oil.
3 Cover with clingfilm and make 10-15 holes in the clingfilm with a toothpick
4. Microwave on high for 10 mins
5. Stir the rice with a fork. If it is still watery, microwave on medium for 2 mins and check again.
6. Repeat step 5 until rice is cooked.

(UK rice tends to cook in 12 mins, but Middle Eastern rice needs longer - usually 15-16 mins)

Lessons from Sayyidda Fatemah - some points from our last sister's circle

Our fortnightly wednesday sisters' circles have now become weekly! They're a great opportunity to catch up with each other and learn something too!

At the end of the last session, we looked at some lessons from the life of Sayyidda Fatemah, daughter of the Holy Prophet:
1. She never spoke anything unless it was the truth
2. She never mentioned or remembered anyone negatively
3. She protected others' secrets
4. She accepted others' excuses
5. She always kept promises
6. She forgave others

We discussed each of them and came up with the conclusion that the best way to show your love for the Ahlul Bayt (family of the Prophet) is to follow the examples that they have left for us. Obviously there is no way we can ever be as generous or as forgiving as they were, but at least we can try.

Take number 5 - one way we can follow this through is if we are invited to someone's house or gathering (or even a sister's circle!) and we tell the host we are going to attend, then its mandatory on us to attend, otherwise we are not keeping our promise of attendance!

Anyone visiting Syria on a Wednesday is more than welcome to attend!

Story from our reading comprehension book

(Credit must go to The Husband for translating and typing this out!)

Imam Musa a-Kadhim [a] relates the following story:

The once was a man from the Bani Israel, he was a pious man. He had a wife who was also pious. One night the man had a dream where an angel came to him and said that Allah had ordained for him such and such amount of time for his life on earth. In addition Allah offered him that one half of his life would be with ease (wealth) and the other with difficulty (poverty). He was to choose which half he wanted the ease and which he half he wanted the poverty. The man told the angel that he had a wife who was his partner in life and he needed to consult her and that the angel could come back tomorrow night when he had consulted her. The following morning the man awoke and related to his wife what had transpired the previous night to which she replied: 'Choose the first half with ease and let us pray for a good ending (to our lives) perhaps Allah will have mercy upon us and bless with blessing throughout our lives.'. The following night the man saw the angel and he informed the angel of his decision to which the angel said you have requested it and so it will be.

The blessings of the world began to make their way to the man and his wife from all facets and they increased on a daily basis. The wife said to her husband that with these blessings he should assist those amongst his relatives and he should gift and assist those amongst his neighbours and brothers in faith. When the first half of his life passed by he saw in his dream the same angel whom he had seen previously. The angel said to the man: 'Allah appreciates (that you did 'husn u dhan' [thinking well of God] on him and that you made good use of your first half) you and therefore has ordained the second half of your life with with ease like the first half.

Homework for you all:
What lessons do you take from this story? and what Shariah points?
(we came up with a total of 13 in class!)

My washing machine

My washing machine is ghetto. There is no other word to describe it! I was explaining the concept to a British lady who was visiting here last week and she said that it was exactly how she used to do her laundry in 1960s England!

There are 2 tubs.




The clothes go into the left tub.

I fill it up with water from the tap, via a hose. Throw in some detergent and turn the dial. Once the cycle is done, I have to drain out the water and refil it again with tap water. On the second cycle, I add fabric softner too. One cycle runs for 15 mins, but I usually do 2 cycles with detergent and one with fabric softner.

After draining out the water, the clothes go into the right tub to be wrung out.


It takes about an hour to do one load of laundry and I have to constantly babysit the washing machine! If I'm doing whites, I have to remember to turn the water heater on, as I tend to 'boil' the white clothes. The clothes come out reasonably clean, although all the dirt tends to magnetise itself to one piece of clothing (usually my black dress trousers!)

It's all part of the 'living in the third world' experience ;-)

Roghan Josh

Here is the first of many of my tried and tested recipes. I'm aiming to try at least one new recipe a week, so watch this space!

This one comes from the Marziabai Asaria Cookbook (pg 82)

2lbs cubed lamb fillet
3 tblspoons lemon juice
1 cup natural yoghurt
1 tsp salt
2 crushed cloves of garlic
1 piece grated ginger
4 tblspoons oil
toasted cumin seeds and bay leaves to garnish
1/2 tspoon cumin seeds
1 finely chopped onion
2 tspoon ground coriander
2 tspoon ground cumin
400g chopped tomatoes (I used blended fresh tomatoes, canned ones are $$$$ here!)
2 tblspoon tomatoe puree
2/3 cup water (I ended up adding a lot more than this, as meat wasnt cooked)
4 green cardamon pods
2 bay leaves

1. In a large bowl mix together the lemon juice, yoghurt, salt, garlic and ginger. Add the lamb, cover and marinate in the fridge overnight.
2. Heat the oil in wok or karahi (I used a large frying pan) and fry the cumin seeds for 2 mins. Add the bayleaves and cardamon pods and fry for a further 2 mins.
3. Add the onion and a bit of garlic and fry for 5 mins. Add the coriander, cumin and chilli powder. Fry for 2 mins.
4. Add the marinated lamb and cook for a further 5 mins, stiring occaisionally to prevent the mixture from sticking to the frying pan.
5. Stir in the tomatoes and tomatoe puree and water. Cover the simmer for 1-1.5 hours. Garnish with toasted cumin seeds and bay leaves and serve with rice.

On the left of the plate is the very yummy 5 lira bread they sell near the Haram.

p.s. There was LOADS of masala left over, so I froze it. Any ideas on what I can do with it??

Medical Museum

We took a trip to Old Damascus and visited this 12th Centuary hospital. Its now been converted into a museum, housing medical appartatus discovered by Muslims many hundreds of years ago.

The Hospital Courtyard

There are models in all the rooms showing anatomy classes and operations

Syrian English

Another example of poor use of English by the Syrians!

Genteel Man!

Iceland

We have one of these too! Albeit, selling different things from the UK chain.

One of the things that irritates me about Dubai and increasingly in Syria too is how they transliterate English words into Arabic. There is a perfectly good phrase for 'Ice Land' in Arabic, but yet they don't use it!

Swimming!

This is the swimming pool that we try and visit once a week. Its a short, 5 lira bus ride away from Sayyidda Zaynab in a place called Baabila. Recently, the prices went up to 250 lira (about 5 dollars) for a 2 and half hour swim. They hardly ever turn the jacuzzi and sauna on, bt when they do, its scalding hot! Luckily though, they heat the pool up.

This pool has really made us miss the lovely, clean, cheap Jamia pool in Qum :-(