Another beautiful Saturday with a beautiful lady!!! :)My tryst with Lail started rather recently. I have been hopping to With A Spin on and off to have a look at the gorgeous pictures that she puts up along with the detailed recipes. I absolutely fell in love with the decorated swiss roll cake that she had done for Mother's Day. With detailed steps, I am really going to go back to that post when I get my swiss roll pan for sure! This is just one post that I dot on her space. Recently, I was on her space for two reasons - for a guest post as well as to be a part of her virtual Ramadan Potluck party. Both the occasions, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed my interaction with her.
Since we are just a little far away from Eid and the month of Shawwal is still on, I just thought of asking this friend of mine if she could plug in a guest post to celebrate Eid in her own way. Every country, every state, in fact every family has their own way of celebrating Eid. I had done a little synopsis of it in a previous post. I was so keen to know how Eid is in Lail's mother country, Bangladesh.
I guess more than me, let me allow my guest of the day to do the talking, isn't it? :) Off to you Lail...
Assalamu alaikum(may the peace be upon you), hello, hi! A belated
Eid Mubarak from my family to yours. I hope those of you who celebrate Eid had
a blessed and joyous celebration!
First of all I would like to thank Rafeeda for inviting me to do a guest post on her ever so popular blog. It is with much joy that I am here on Rafeeda’s space today. I love how humble and friendly Rafeeda is and enjoy her stories on her blog posts. I am ever so mesmerized by her commendable balance between her job, her personal life as a mother and wife and the frequency at which she blogs. I was honored and thrilled when Rafeeda asked me to do a guest post for her very popular blog and immediately agreed to do so. JazakAllah khiar, my dear friend for featuring me on your special blog.
Before, I go any further, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Lail from the blog With A Spin. I am in the opinion that every day, normal food taste significantly better depending on the company you keep and it is the family, most of the time, who is accompanying us during every day mealtime. Another reason for food to taste divine is when you add your creativity and add your own “spin” to a recipe to customize for your palate, and for your families liking.
First of all I would like to thank Rafeeda for inviting me to do a guest post on her ever so popular blog. It is with much joy that I am here on Rafeeda’s space today. I love how humble and friendly Rafeeda is and enjoy her stories on her blog posts. I am ever so mesmerized by her commendable balance between her job, her personal life as a mother and wife and the frequency at which she blogs. I was honored and thrilled when Rafeeda asked me to do a guest post for her very popular blog and immediately agreed to do so. JazakAllah khiar, my dear friend for featuring me on your special blog.
Before, I go any further, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Lail from the blog With A Spin. I am in the opinion that every day, normal food taste significantly better depending on the company you keep and it is the family, most of the time, who is accompanying us during every day mealtime. Another reason for food to taste divine is when you add your creativity and add your own “spin” to a recipe to customize for your palate, and for your families liking.
With this in mind, on my humble blog With A Spin, I celebrate everyday life through food, family and creativity. I am passionate about sharing Bangladeshi food, but you'll find other world cuisine on my space too. Besides food, I throw in travel photo journal and some art and crafts from time to time as well.
Now a little background about the date chutney I prepared to include as part of Eid celebration. “Date” is a significant food for Muslims. During the month of Ramadan, it is recommended that we break our fast with dates. Dates are rich in natural fibers and are the perfect food for iftar because they quickly supply the body with the energy it needs. Naturally, those who fasts during the month of Ramadan, eat dates almost every day. Since we celebrate Eid to mark the end of Ramadan, I just did not want to give up dates because Ramadan is over. I like to continue to keep dates in the menu so made this special chutney. This is also a great recipe to enjoy if you have a lot of leftover dates after Ramadan and don’t necessarily want to consume the dried yet moist fruit as is.
Recipe : Date Chutney
Ingredients:
15-20 pieces pitted dates
1 cup seedless tamarind or 3-4 tablespoon concentrated tamarind paste
3/4 cup molasses date molasses (khejur gur)
2-3 dry red chili
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
2 tablespoon mustard oil
1 teaspoon panch foron
1 teaspoon black salt
Steps:
2. Dry roast the red chilies, coriander, and cumin. Cool a little and grind to make powder.
3. Add the dates and tamarind to a heavy bottomed pan along with the water and molasses. Bring it to a boil and the spice powder and gur. Cook until all the dates are broken down and softened.
4. Cool and strain the mixture through a sieve to remove any fibers or lumpy pieces of dates and/or tamarind.
5. Puree the cooled and strained mixture.
6. Heat the mustard oil and temper with panch foron. Add the pureed mixture.
7. Cook 5-6 minutes. The chutney should start coating the sides of the pan and a spoon when dipped in it, but pourable.
8. Cool and store in air tight container and refrigerate.
Notes:
1. You can substitute date molasses with brown sugar or regular sugar. Please adjust the amount per taste if you are using substitutes.
2. Adjust the chutney per taste if you like it to be tangier or sweeter or vice versa.
3. Adjust spice and texture(pulp, smooth and creamy texture) per your liking as well.
4. Tamarind tartness varies, so adjust the sour taste of the chutney per your taste as well.
Ingredients:
15-20 pieces pitted dates
1 cup seedless tamarind or 3-4 tablespoon concentrated tamarind paste
3/4 cup molasses date molasses (khejur gur)
2-3 dry red chili
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
2 tablespoon mustard oil
1 teaspoon panch foron
1 teaspoon black salt
Steps:
2. Dry roast the red chilies, coriander, and cumin. Cool a little and grind to make powder.
3. Add the dates and tamarind to a heavy bottomed pan along with the water and molasses. Bring it to a boil and the spice powder and gur. Cook until all the dates are broken down and softened.
4. Cool and strain the mixture through a sieve to remove any fibers or lumpy pieces of dates and/or tamarind.
5. Puree the cooled and strained mixture.
6. Heat the mustard oil and temper with panch foron. Add the pureed mixture.
7. Cook 5-6 minutes. The chutney should start coating the sides of the pan and a spoon when dipped in it, but pourable.
8. Cool and store in air tight container and refrigerate.
Notes:
1. You can substitute date molasses with brown sugar or regular sugar. Please adjust the amount per taste if you are using substitutes.
2. Adjust the chutney per taste if you like it to be tangier or sweeter or vice versa.
3. Adjust spice and texture(pulp, smooth and creamy texture) per your liking as well.
4. Tamarind tartness varies, so adjust the sour taste of the chutney per your taste as well.
As usual, I am drooling at her awesome photography... I love dates pickle, so I am sure this would taste so close to it. Definitely got to make this when I have some time in my hands... JazakAllah Khairan, Lail for gracing my little space... :)
Hope all of you have a great weekend...