Daily Prompt: Game of Groans

Think of an object, an activity, or a cultural phenomenon you really don’t like. Now write a post(tongue in ….cheek or not…your call)about it’s the best thing ever.

Last week I was invited to attend a graduation party hosted by the parents of the graduate in a  church basement in the city. The hostess went all out, she cooked everything she thought would be appreciated by her guests.

There were three different dishes of chicken, there was beef and salmon fish. Rice was also served with it. We call  pulao or pilaf the English version.

The dessert was Gulab Jamun, our Canadian friends love it. We love it too and I have a recipe in my blog.

At first I was hesitant about going to the party, certain people who were  invited  are seasoned gossippers, I don’t care much about it.

The party went well, I was happy I decided to go. Sometimes I need to see people who speak the same language as me, I don’t mind speaking English ,but I do not want to lose touch with my mother tongue, which my father worked so hard to remind us we must know our own language first, then the ones we learned in school,and  in the neighborhood.

Regardless of where fate puts us it’s always a good thing to remember our roots.

And yes I had a good time speaking my mother tongue with a whole bunch of people. I enjoyed being there and realized I need to keep in touch with some of these people.

 

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365 Writing Prompt: Ripped into the headline

Write about something that happened over the weekend as though it’s the top story on your local paper.

Over the weekend we had a guest for supper. I was the cook, I did not leave any stone unturned to make it a very successful venture.

The menu was fried beef, chicken curry, garbanzo beans cooked with potatoes, matar pilaf and a salad.

For dessert I made Gulab Jamun and served it with sweet yogurt, then the herbal tea.

The beef,chicken, garbanzo beans, rice pilaf with peas and the salad were all winners.

The dessert took the second spot because I forgot one ingredient and ended up making it again. The remake was okay but could have been better. Sometimes I fail to understand why there has to be one dish which has failure written all over it.

We had a grand time, our guest was a  nice person , he enjoyed the food and we were delighted.

This was my weekend and I wouldn’t doubt it was good enough to make the headline on our local paper!

………………………………:)

Daily Prompt: It’s My Party

You’re throwing a party —for you ! tell us about the food, drink,events, and party favours you’ll have for your event of a lifetime.Use any theme you like— It’s *your* party!

For my party I’ll make sure to  invite all my good friends. There is Dilruba in Montreal, Evelyn in Whitby, Valerie in St.John’s, and a few others.

The foods will be my favorite and fortunately my friends like them too. I’ll do the cooking to make sure they taste good. I know all about the catering service we have here in my neck of the woods, they are not I’d call tasty.

There will be a variety of foods on the menu:

Rice pilaf, Chicken korma, spicy beef, lamb sheesh kebab.

Then I’ll prepare mixed vegetables, cauliflower with cheese, and bagharay baingan it’s an eggplant dish.

Salad : yoghurt salad, mixed vegetable salad with tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce, sprinkled with lime juice.

Drinks: plain water or coke and pepsi for those who prefer them.

Dessert : Pineapple upside down cake.

Beverage: tea  and coffee.

Dinner time : 6.30  pm.

After dinner the guest will be entertained with some videos of popular singers.

Each guest will receive a small gift of a variety of chocolates .

I wanted to write the recipes of the foods but it will take too much time, since I’m the only one who’ll have to write it.

Wikipedia image of chicken korma and kabab

This is my plan, I hope you’ll enjoy reading it!

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Daily Prompt: You, the Sandwich

If a restaurant were to name something after you, what would it be? Describe it( Bonus points if you give us a recipe!)

This is quite an interesting prompt. If a restaurant names something after me, it is : “Ranu’s Biriyani Casserole”

“Ranu’s Biriyani( Rice meat and vegetable casserole)

The following is the recipe and ingredients:

1. beef- two pounds boneless blade roast, slice into one and half inch

2. rice : two cups basmati rice, washed and drained one hour before cooking–one and a half cup of water

3. potatoes: 6 medium regular potatoes, sliced into four each

4. onions– five medium diced

5.tomatoes: six medium, sliced in quarters

6. yoghurt: half cup

7. garlic: 4 cloves, make a paste

8. ginger: one inch piece long, make a paste

9.cayenne : one teaspoon ground

10. ground coriander: one teaspoon

11.ground cumin: one teaspoon

12.ground turmeric: half teaspoon

13.ground cinnamon: half teaspoon

14.ground clove – one-fourth teaspoon

15.ground allspice: one fourth teaspoon. 15 b. salt– two teaspoons

16. Clarified butter or vegetable oil — half cup

17. cooking pot with cover (oven proof)

18. Method:

Place the cook pot on the stove at medium heat, put the vegetable oil or clarified butter in the pot to heat for two minutes. Add onions and fry until it is transparent, add ginger and garlic and fry for a minute, add the rest of the spices including salt, fry for an additional minute and a half. Add beef slices, potatoes, tomatoes, and one and a half cup of water, stir until they are all mixed with the spices, add the rice last and let all the ingredients come to a boil.

Place the pot with its cover in a preheated 350 degrees oven for thirty minutes. Enjoy it with a cucumber yoghurt salad.

………………………………… 🙂

 

 

 

DP Daily Prompt: Food for the Soul

Tell us about your favorite meal,either to eat or to prepare. does it just taste great or does it have other associations.

I have a few favorite meals, one of them is mashed potato, lentil soup and boiled rice.

At a very young age I developed a taste for very spicy foods. My mom’s preparation of mashed potatoes was the best. She sliced the onions thinly with it she mixed toasted hot red peppers which she squashed it with her fingers. Then she mixed the mashed potatoes with the onion, pepper and salt . The finished product was heavenly. The other dish she prepared was lentil soup and boiled rice, when these three dishes were served, I did not look for anything else.

Next favorite meal of mine is bhoona gosht or fried beef. The ingredients for this dish is boneless skinless blade roast. Whenever I call the butcher for this meat, he has it ready for me. The perfect blade roast which is so tasty. I slice the roast into bite size pieces, wash it and set I it aside, I slice three medium onions, two teaspoons ginger paste and two teaspoons garlic paste. I use a saucepan to fry the onions,ginger and garlic, when they are light brown, I add the spices, Cayenne ,coriander, cumin,turmeric, garam masala, salt, stir a minute or two, next I add the sliced beef , stir it till the spices are well coated with  the beef. I transfer the ingredients into an oven safe dish. Finally I place the dish in the preheated oven @ 350 degrees for an hour. I turn off the oven and leave the dish in, for the excess water to evaporate.

I serve it with boiled rice, a yoghurt salad and curried vegetables( frozen mixed will be perfect).

It reminds me of my mother’s cooking!

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/dp-daily-promp…d-for-the-soul/

 

 

365 Writing Prompts:Simply Irresistible

Tell us about the favorite dish or food that  you simply cannot turn down.

My favorite dish is biriyani, it is a casserole dish. It has a fine  mixture of ingredients, the most important is  beef, close second is basmati rice, followed by potatoes, tomatoes,onions,yoghurt, clarified butter and all those spices that enhance the flavor of this awesome casserole.

It can be cooked in the oven or on  top of the stove, the spices give it the aroma and once it’s done, it is difficult to wait!

I cooked this several times for my daughter’s friends, they love it a lot.

ink: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/365-writing-pr…y-irresistible

 

365 Writing Prompts: Food for the soul(and the stomach)

Tell us about your favorite meal, either to eat or to prepare. Does it just taste great, or does it have other associations?

My favorite meal is the one my mom cooked for our special celebration of “Eid al Fitr,” it’s a day after one month of Ramadhan, there was a lot of things about this day which made us happy, we wore new clothes,my Dad gave us money and my mom cooked the most delicious meal for us.

Now when I think about  those days it makes me sad , because our parents have passed away and we the siblings live in different cities.

I try to cook the same meal Mom cooked, it’s probably not as good as my mother’s but I do try.

Rice is our staple food, so the menu will always have rice, because it’s a special day I cook rice pilaf.

Recipe for rice pilaf:

Ingredients:

1. Rice–2 cups basmati rice( wash and drain the water an hour before cooking)

2. onion –1 small( slice small pieces)

3. Clarified butter– half cup

4. salt — one and a half teaspoon

5.peas fresh or frozen — 3/4 cup

6.water– 3 cups(boil before pouring on the rice)

Spices:

1. cinnamon stick– one, half inch long

2. whole cardamom– 4

Method:

In a saucepan pour the clarified butter, onion, cinnamon,cardamom, salt , fry the spices and onion until the onion is transparent. Pour the two cups of washed rice for about two to three minutes to fry it in the same saucepan. Pour three cups of water and let the ingredients come to a boil, finally add the peas and continue to boil for another minute. Lower the heat to simmer , cover the saucepan and let the rice simmer for twenty minutes.Turn the heat off  remove the saucepan and place it on a mat for five minutes. Then serve.

Next is chicken korma recipe the way my Mom cooked it.

Ingredients:

1. One whole chicken—cut in small pieces

2. Yoghurt– half cup

3.Onion– two medium size(blend into a paste)

4. ginger fresh— two tablespoons

5. fresh garlic paste — two teaspoons

6.ground coriander–one teaspoon

7. ground cumin—one teaspoon

8. salt to taste

9.clarified butter or oil—quarter cup

10. sugar– one and a half teaspoon

11. cinnamon stick–1 inch long ( break it into smaller pieces).

Method:

Heat the oil or clarified  butter in a wide pot on top of the stove, put the onion paste, garlic and ginger, fry for five minutes, add the cumin , coriander , cinnamon sticks  and salt , fry two to three minutes more, gradually pour half cup yoghurt stir gently while pouring, next put the chicken pieces, stir until the pieces are coated with the onion mixture. Cook it in medium heat for twenty minutes, uncover and sprinkle the sugar, turn down the heat to minimum and cook about ten minutes more.Serve it in a dish.

My mom cooked chicken and rice, it was our favorite meal, she also cooked beef which was hot and spicy, for salad she used cucumber, tomatoes, onion, salt and lime juice and a few hot green chillies. they were sliced and tossed in a bowl . We enjoyed the meal with our family and always looked forward to next year.

p://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/365-writing-pr…nd-the-stomach/

 

 

 

 

DP Daily Prompts: Mouths wide shut

Are you a picky eater? Share some of your food quirks with us( the more exotic the better)omnivores: What’s  the one thing you won’t eat?

I am not a picky eater, I am an omnivore I do eat meat and vegetables.There are certain flesh I do not eat, such as rabbit, frogs, pigeons and most flesh that are wild game, I get a peculiar smell which makes me nauseous.

Beef is my favorite flesh food, I cook it different ways, I always make sure it is spicy and hot.In my mind nothing can beat the taste of beef. I love it so much, once my brother looked at me and said, ‘ you like cow meat so much you’ll transform into a one.’

So far I still look like a human and therefore I feel I am not in any danger of looking like a cow.

Plant food i.e, vegetables? I like them all. I do have a favorite vegetable, okra, I can eat it every day I’ll never get tired of it.Second in line is Cauliflower,followed by egg plant, string beans, spinach, broccoli and every other vegetable on this planet.

I am an omnivore but do not like some flesh, I love all the vegetables!

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/dp-daily-promp…uths-wide-shut/

 

DP Daily Prompt: Unlikely Pairinghttps://sabethville.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=25279&action=edit&message=10#post_name

Bacon and chocolate Caramel and cheddar— Is there an unorthodox food pairing you really enjoy? Share with us the weirdest combo you’re willing to admit that you like— and how you discovered it.

I am not sure how weird is my choice of liking beef and salmon. I cook them separately but I take them on my plate at the same time. My favorite  carbohydrate is rice, both salmon and beef stew is delicious with rice. I eat a slice of salmon with rice then I switch and the next morsel is beef and rice. I’ve been told it’s weird to eat fish and beef alternately for a meal. However  my taste bud does not  disapprove.

link: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/dp-daily-prompt-5/

 

365 Writing Prompts: Party animals?

After spending time with a group of people, do you feel energized and ready for anything or do you want to hide in the corner with a good book?

The parties I’m invited to attend are not crazy or noisy, they are meant to be a get together of friends and family. Main attraction is food, the hostess displays her culinary skills and wants her guests to appreciate the time she spent cooking in preparation of the grand event.

The guests come dressed in their latest Sari and jewelry, some of us admire, others do more, they actually inquire where they bought the awesome dress. Men wear suits, which doesn’t attract any conversation.

Meal is usually served to the children and the male guests first, the female guests are lucky to be served after 10 pm. If you are wondering why that is so, I can only say it is the custom.

The food is always delicious, chicken, beef, and fish is on the menu, rice is the primary food, bread is served very seldom. There are salads and other vegetable dishes served also.

After the meal dessert is served with tea or coffee.

Mothers of younger kids leave before, others wait another few minutes and make their exit.

This is the kind of party we have. I don’t feel any pressure to go home and hide in the corner with a book!