Today we travelling to the lands of Arabia, to  a small country Kuwait  located on the tip of persian gulf . Our guest Fatimah Alhusaini  from the blog Saffronpudding is sharing with us about this pious month along with  a traditional recipe Rangeenak specially made during ramadan. Over to you Fatima. But before going further just to remind u all , last week I had done a guest post for her too.You can check the post here

It’s the time for spiritually and self decline . For breaking away from the things that pulls us down to the earth so our spirits can fly up high to the sky.


It’s the time for taking a break, stepping back and enjoying our families, our traditions and our culture and everything around us. 


And for me that means spending time with the elderlies in my family. Knowing more about my past. And making traditional dishes like the one I am sharing with you today. 


Rangeenak (رنگینک) is a dish that is popular in Kuwait amongst the Iranian descents families.Iam not sure exactly what the name means and why it called that. I know رنگ in farsi means‘color’ but I am not sure if it derived from that name or not. It is made with fresh sweet dates and caramelized flour and oil. The ingredients sound a bit bland for someone who haven’t tried the dish. But the overly sweet flavor of the fresh dates paired with the nutty earthy flavor of the caramelized flour topped with cinnamon and walnuts is divine, and especially full filing and satisfying after a day long fast. !

Rangeenak (رنگینک) Recipe


Fresh dates enough to fill two plates ( about 2 kg)


1/2 cup vegetable oil!

1/4 cup butter ( half a stick)


1 1/4 cup all purpose flour


1/4 tsp ground cardamom


pinch of salt


ground cinnamon for sprinkling at the end


1/4 cup walnuts ( small pieces for garnishing)


– with a toothpick carefully pierce the dates to remove the seed. Arrange dates on plates starting

from the outer circle going inward. Set a side. 


– In a medium sauce pan or regular pan heat oil and butter over medium- high heat. Add flour,

cardamom and salt. Whisk vigorously until all flour is incorporated and there are no lumps.


– Continue to cook over medium-high until mixture resembles the color of caramel ( golden

brown) . Stir occasionally.


– Carefully pour the oil and flour mixture over dates. Sprinkle with cinnamon and garnish with

walnuts. Serve warm. 


To know more about Fatimah visit her @ blog, Facebook

Who does’t love Pattice and that too filled with flavorful chicken..Today my dear friend Aara from Sweets & Spices is sharing with  her nani’s recipe Chicken Stuffed Pattice in step by step 

Potatoes – 4-5 medium size

Salt according to taste

Red Chilli Powder – 1/2tsp or more as needed

Chicken mince -3/4th cup

Oil – 4tsp

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Salt – 1/4th tsp

Turmeric powder – 1/4th tsp

Red chilli powder – 1/4th tsp

Onion – 1 medium size (finely chopped)

Spring onions – 1/4th cup (finely chopped)

Coriander powder – 1/4th cup (finely chopped)

Semolina/ suji – 1/2 cup  or more as needed

Eggs – 2 large whisked with some salt and red chilli powder

Oil – for deep frying (1cup is enough)

Method:

– Boil potatoes till soft, and remove from water immediately!! This will ensure we dont get sticky potato mashed up. Allow it to cool nicely.

Peel of the skin and mash it along with salt and chilli powder according to your taste. Keep this aside.

Preparing the chicken mixture 

When this is still hot add in the spring onions and coriander leaves, mix mix and break the large mince if any!! everything should be well combined. Our Stuffing is Ready!!

Place this over semolina or suji and carefully coat it, Just one coat is enough till it covers the outer surface of pattice.

Arrange this one by one in plates or trays keep it as it is until u are ready to fry.

Keep egg mixture ready!!

To fry Heat oil in a kadai (dont use frying pan) now carefully take each pattice and dip it into egg mixture slide it over hot oil. As soon as you place it over oil flip it, so that egg mixture does not drain towards one side alone.

Add 2 at a time to fry. Flip it and fry till both sides are golden brown, this should take just 2 mins in medium flame. Remove pattice into oil absorbent and serve it hot or warm With tomato ketchup!!

Notes:
– Make sure mashed potatoes are not sticky, It will be difficult to work that way, If in case it gets sticky add bread crumbs to make it workable. Adjust salt and chilli powder accordingly
– Add spring onions and coriander leaves after removing the chicken mixture from heat, this will ensure it both the green components retain its color. Cooking it with chicken may turn it all dark in color.
– Always use kadai for frying, Since the pattice are heavy do not attempt putting it over oil like we do for pakodas, it might take no time to spill the hot oil over your body. Be careful while flipping as well, do it slowly dont be in hurry! The same goes in using fry pan, it has high chances of spilling oil over you without you really noticing it!! I already burnt my left hand that way!! It is all like handle with love and care.
– Check salt and spice in mashed potatoes, chicken filling and eggs mixture, everything should balance the taste of pattice
– Adding chilli powder to eggs mixture will give it nice color while frying
– Vegetarians can try the same with different fillings and coat it with flour paste 1st and then bread crumbs
– This takes very less cooking time and oil also,
– Add just 2-3 pattice at a time without over crowding the kadai.
– Use  a rounded spoon to flip, If you are new to cooking, you might tend to break the pattice with pointed spatula.
– Extra fillings if left any can be stored or use it along with sabzi, or side dish for roti / puri / parathas.
– If extra mashed potatoes are left then you can make some potato cutlets / aloo bonda / aloo tikkis (nothing will be wasted)
– My nani used to add hard boiled egg whites to the filling it again used to be gud to taste something alternative to paneer.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading my post, This snacks is worth giving a try and check out the taste yourself. It is different and yes very very yummy!! 

When you try out do let us know how it turned 🙂

Thanks Aara for giving us such a detailed post.To check more of her delicious recipes, visit her @ Blog , FB

Last week we welcomed a duo of sister in laws at our event. And this time its a trio of three friends , Da Three Broomstick. Fascinated by the name?? Ya I was. Lets peek into their post to see who are faces behind  DaThreeBroomsticks

They used to share their cooking on their facebook profiles and it was one little picture of a muffin posted by Chef Honey-dukes on her profile, that did it! Her friend Urooj liked the picture and advised her to start food photography. They continued their chat and The Three Broomsticks was born!

Initially it started with 3 girls, but the 3^rd got the news of her first baby and was unable to continue with the pace of the other two. Now, The Three Broomsticks is run by Chef Urooj and Chef Honey-dukes.

We both are pure Harry Potter hard core fans and that’s why we have chosen this name for our website. We are not chefs but both of us are pursuing this career and have big plans for our passion in the near future. We also crave to open up a restaurant together inshallah. That would be a girl-café only J InshaAllah! But for now, The Three Broomsticks is it!

We both are from Pakistan and former class mates. Unfortunately, the sacred occasion of Ramadan is considered to be a total FOOD FESTIVAL in Pakistan by general population, although you also got to see this nice, pious environment during the Holy month. The trend to perform Salah and taraweeh in masjid increases to almost 100% and you can feel an actual shield of Allah’s noor enveloping the whole society. But, the fact remains that people, media and society in general have made this month of ibadah into a month of eating more and more and more and it’s a never ending race. This is how both of us see Ramadan-in-Pakistan. Although, it provide us a great opportunity to come up with more great recipes and cook to our hearts out, we do NOT. We simplify our dinning order more during this month.

The recipes we are going to share with you all were not made in Ramadan in our kitchens. They are simple snacks which can go along well with Ramadan table idea. 

Today we both are sharing with you the recipe for Ultimate Espresso-sive Naan Khatai  & Crispy creamy Béchamel rolls

Ultimate Espresso-sive Naan Khatai

Tips by Chef Urooj

1. Keep rubbing the flour off your hands after each addition. 
2. If its sticking to your hands, its a sign that you can add more flour, but do not exceed from 3 cups of flour.
3. place the naan khatai at 1 inch from each other as they expand during baking. 
4. You can use 1/2 ghee n 1/2 cup oil but don’t substitute ghee completely with oil as it has its own  importance and taste in this recipe.

1. 2 pcs chicken breasts
2. 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
3. 2 cups milk
4. 1/4 cup butter
5. 3 tbsp all purpose flour
6. salt as per your taste
7. 1/2 tsp black pepper powder
8. 1/2 tsp oregano leaves/powder
9. 1 green capsicum
10. 12-16 prepared roll wraps
11. 1 piece coal

1. Chop the capsicum real thin.
2. Cook chicken with ginger-garlic paste in some water until done.
3. Thinly chop the chicken.
4. Thaw the refrigerated roll wraps.
5. Red hot the coal on direct flame and put on aluminum foil.

1. Melt butter in a pan.
2. Add flour, stirring vigorously with a whisk to a thick paste.
3. Start adding milk, little by little, stirring continuously, to avoid forming lumps.
4. When the sauces reaches a nice thick smooth consistency, remove from heat and add seasonings.
5. Mix well and add chicken and capsicum.
6. Put the aluminum foil containing red hot coal on the sauce, drop 2 drops of oil and lid the pan immediately.
7. Open after 10 minutes.
8. Fill up the wraps with the smoked filling and freeze for 25-30 minutes before frying.

1.  Keep the flame low. The higher the flame, the thicker the sauce gets and more chances of lumps formation.
2.  Keep the sauce really thick, so that it would be easier to fill it in the wraps.
3. Add little milk and whisk with a heavy hand if any lumps are formed to smooth out the sauce.
4.  Don’t add more flour if seems runny. Just keep stirring on low flame, it will thicken up.

To check more about them visit them @ blog, Facebook

Ingredients:

Drizzle little roohafza, dried rose petals(optional) and nuts on top