Lily’s Blog, Dragon Absconded!
Baking Until I Drop

Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cordon Rose Cream Cheese Cake,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Traditionally, ‘Id-ul-Fitr is a many-day celebration as we, muslims (strict), have only two celebrations¹ and in muslim countries, this is honoured. Thus this will be the second of many posts commemorating ‘Id especially since Chennette won’t be arriving until Friday when we shall do some extra special cooking and thus have our ‘Id lunch on Saturday, as close to our whole family as we’ve been able to get any time the last four years, as my other sister, usually in Guyana with her offspring and spouse is now in the UK and my brother and his new family is in Saudi Arabia².

When I was a child, we used to go house to house (muslim), following the Imam and at every house there would be a table set with sweets and savouries and other things. And we’d eat. Can you imagine? Every house? Or every “muslim” house? But it was fun. When we arrived at a house, we would gather around and he would lead us in the qaseeda:

Ma hay ramzan chaldiya
Eida kadin nagaya
Eida ho subako mubarak
Eida kadin nagaya

The above is from memory. I don’t know how accurate it is or even any more than those four lines. But it was and still is my favourite (only?) qaseeda. I wish someone could tell me how it goes…and sing it like he did.

After awhile, this was discontinued. I mean we’d spend all day going and stuffing and somebody would have to be at the house waiting for the rounds and thus missing out on the rounds and some people we would probably never even see at the masjid. It wasn’t very fair all around.

Then, at some point, we started having people bring something to the masjid. You know, you fry some aloo pie, make some barfi, bring some. If everybody would bring a little of what they made, then we could all lime and celebrate a bit at the masjid before going back home.

I like this idea…except some times it seems people only bring sweet stuff, and then to compensate, the next year/next ‘Id they only bring savoury :-)
Continue reading ‘Id Mubarak: Snacking at the Masjid

24th Iftar,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Wednesday 24th September, Ramadan 23 (also Republic Day)

I made corn muffins from our bread machine cookbook. It was supposed to be a bread but I made it in muffin tins. It was supposed to be corn meal and chick pea flour. I used corn meal and split pea flour. It was supposed to be hard cheese, finely grated like parmesan. I used cheddar, coarsely grated.

Despite all this it was fine.

Except.

I kept wanting it to be sweet. It wasn’t. There was no sugar…and I didn’t think about adding any.

There are still some left. I intend to brush them with a honey glaze and reheat them in the oven or toaster.

Suhur: Bread and butter.

Iftar: Pholourie from over de road, kachorie from down de road and corn muffins.

Dinner: Parents had curry fish and rice. I forced and had the last of the macaroni pie (from last week when Chennette was here) with stewed red beans.

24th Fast: Our Iftar Table,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Thursday 25th September, Ramadan 24

Suhur: Chocolate pudding, toasted dhalpuri and avocado.

Iftar: Leftover tuna croquettes

Dinner: Parents had lots of freezer leftovers, I had rice and stewed red beans.

Friday 26th September, Ramadan 25

Hmm, we bought fried chicken. We broke fast with…???

26th Iftar: Mom’s Dinner,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Saturday 27th September, Ramadan 26

According to the second draft of the Eid menu, mom was supposed to make sahina and me cheesecake. Well mom made the sahina before I woke up…and I woke up at around 9am as we were going…Eid grocery shopping!

I went to Tarawih in the masjid on Saturday. You can read about the night of power and when it is and about the last ten nights of Ramadan anywhere else. I’ll try to find some links. I only stayed for 12 of the 20. I was getting rather dizzy.

Also, some people from the Jamaat (sort of…they used to live here but migrated…and then presto…met again there and got married…) gave an iftar.

Suhur: bread and butter?

Iftar: I didn’t take pictures. Too tired. Half-asleep. We had…GULGULLAH! (it’s like a sweet fried fritter with raisins) and accra (a bit tough, mom says batter/dough too stiff, needs more egg…but I still managed to eat a bit of it!!!).

Dinner: CURRY! I took a picture of mom’s plate and mine as she had more variety. I had my curry spread staples (roti, channa and aloo, stew chicken and salad).

There was, paratha roti, channa and aloo, stew chicken, curry mango, vegetarian biryani…and not sure if there was anything else. I can check mom’s plate.

27th iftar: Starfuit and what no,
originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Sunday 28th September, Ramadan 27

Soooo dead beat.
Today, with excellent preparation, I made Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake. It looks very nice thank you very much. This needs to go in the fridge now, and tomorrow it will be unmolded and cut into squares and will wait to go to the masjid on Eid day to share. Um. Shouldn’t I taste it to make sure it’s good? That I’m not giving people…garbage???

Mom fried pholourie from a mix. Oh sooo very addictive with a nice fresh tamarind chutney.

Suhur: Honey Wheat Dark Rolls and Egg paste (salad). Parents had…I dunno bread? and boiled egg.

Iftar: Dates, grapes, addictive pholourie and chutney, starfruit (mom), raspberry and cream cheese pastry…anything else? It’s in the picture.

Dinner: Haven’t had any yet. Current just went.

Parents are having black-eye beans and rice plus fridge lamb. Mom was going to make a black-eye pelau…when she came down while I was making the cheesecake, she told me she forgot to take out the chicken, is rice and beans okay? I’m like yeah…

PS Our dryer is kaput and not here. We’ve run out of clothespins.

Tuna Croquettes, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

The problem with delaying posts is I take no notes and forget…so if I don’t take any pictures, there is almost no hope.

Monday 22 September, Ramadan 21
suhur: unknown

iftar: Since I wasn’t fasting, I made tuna croquettes from this recipe. I doubled the recipe and used two cans of tuna (6oz each). I also used low fat milk (that’s what I had).

Aunty from next door dropped sahina.

dinner: leftovers from the weekend iftars.

Tuesday 23 September, Ramadan 22
Suhur: can’t recall, maybe bread and butter unless that was wednesday

iftar: leftover sahina and tuna croquettes

dinner: leftovers from iftars

Continue reading Tuna Croquettes

Dinner Buffet, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

This weekend we were oh so lucky to have two iftars at the masjid, ie both on Saturday night and Sunday night.

Since the menus were remarkably similar, I decided to do them in one go. However I would’ve decided this anyway as it’s so late already ;-)

Chennette was here on Saturday and took some of the pictures (mostly because I wasn’t feeling well and I think she took pity on me or something).

Continue reading Weekend Iftars at our Masjid

Three Shrimp and a Fish Pie, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

There are many reasons to not fast during Ramadan, you could be sick (either a passing thing or chronically), travelling (this doesn’t have to be only during the actual travel, changing climates and time zones can affect you also), pregnant or menstruating. I’ve known people with Diabetes who fast…but deciding on whether you fast or not is between you, God and your doctor. Some say, well, the non-muslim doctors will always tell you don’t fast! don’t fast (at least, when I was unwell that’s what people told me…but then four years later and I’m much better than I was then, and my GP is a female muslim doctor…and she herself told me…well watch how you fasting. She didn’t come out right and say don’t fast because she knew I was going to try but she did tell me it’s okay you know, if I decide not to. So whatever!

However, not waking up for suhur is not an excuse not to fast. If you’re making sunnah (voluntary fasts, outside of Ramadan) then if you don’t wake up for Suhur you don’t usually fast. In Ramadan however, if you are healthy you must fast. The commandment isn’t “wake up for Suhur” but it is “fast”.

You may think not fasting in Ramadan is nice. Like when the days come that you don’t have to fast, “wooohooo”. This isn’t really the case. For example, in your household, suppose one person isn’t fasting and everybody else is…you might feel a bit strange eating while other people aren’t. (Actually, growing up, people in school and such always apologized or wanted to hide their eating in front of me. It’s not necessary. I’m fasting, you’re not. Please … eat. The physical manifestation of fasting is abstaining from food and drink but if that’s all you get from it then you’re not working for the true benefit).

Aside from feeling strange eating while others aren’t, there’s the whole remembering to eat issue. You may not be fasting for very good reasons (like you need to eat every two hours!) but your brain/mind/whatever knows it’s in Ramadan and is already geared up to not eat and withstand some deprivations…so you’re already trained to ignore food calls…and well…you forget to eat. This always happens to me. I go hours without eating and then realize, I’m not fasting, I am supposed to eat…I must eat…go…eat…!

To me, the real dangers of Ramadan is actually not fasting. It’s not that you’re tempted to go along and eat less…it’s just you’re sooo conditioned not to eat than you negate the purpose of not fasting and don’t take care of yourself when you should.

Now, back to Friday.

Continue reading Not Fasting in Ramadan

Double-decker Cheese Paste Sandwich, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

I have returned, dear gentle readers…;-)
(Whether you missed me or not)

When I started this escapade, I blogged after suhur and after iftar.
Soon, those two posts per day started merging into one post for the day.
Then they started getting delayed into after the suhur the next day.
To catch up, two days became one post!
Now, I have three days worth missed.

But with good reason?

On Monday, mom and I prepped and topped the pizzas for my sister, my sister who was on her way to England for a year with her husband, daughter (2 years 8 months) and son (10 months) came home to overnight Tuesday.

Mom and I also made coloured cheese paste (pink and green) so as to pack sandwiches for them on the plane, coloured to entertain a small child. See recipe. We just added food colouring until we were happy.

Continue reading My sister goes to England (Ramadan 15, 16, 17)

Mango Chutney at My Masjid’s Iftar, originally uploaded by Lilandra.

Saturday 13 September:

After I couldn’t sleep the day before, I decided to peruse my cookbooks. If you remember the last time I tried to make pancakes for my family for suhur, NOBODY FASTED!

Now, I did see a recipe for Feathery Banana Pancakes in Lisa Yockelson’s Baking by Flavour, but Chennette was at home. And there were some suspicions about whether she can eat bananas or not. Also, I can’t remember if there were any bananas.

Also, since I was thinking of making this for Suhur, I didn’t want this oh sooo complicated.

But I couldn’t sleep and it was 2 am when I started looking at cookbooks and I was to get up at 4 am so did it matter?
Hmm
I could go downstairs *now* and collect all the ingredients and just pre-prep them. So down I went with Alton Brown’s baking book in hand to make buttermilk.

Continue reading Iftar at my Masjid (12th) and the next day