food

Getting ready for Ramadan….Beyond stockpiling the freezer!

With two weeks to go before the start of Ramadan, I began some planning for this special month of mercy and forgiveness. Planning involving taking actions to be in the best space for maximum gains. As given are already self isolating, being home and with no distractions about going out – I feel we already have a headstart!

For many years, I found that I would consider myself ready for Ramadan once I had containers of savouries in the freezer, and a pantry filled with ingredients to make traditional desserts and dishes we especially enjoy in this month (sometimes to the extent of mandating it!)

But if the purpose of this month is to develop Allah Consciousness (“taqwa” in Arabic) as Allah says in the Quran (2:183)
“O you who believe fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you so that you can learn Taqwa” 
Taqwa includes Allah fearing, piety, and self restraining. An opportunity to turn things around. To become closer to Allah and to learn more about ourselves by learning more about Him. It involves doing lots of good to please Allah. And to exit the month with more than we entered – physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally.

Which is why I drew up this chart – to remind myself about adopting a “holistic approach” to welcoming the Holy Month of Ramadan. Looking at all ACTIONS necessary to make the month as productive as possible. Here it is:

Holistic Approach to preparing for Ramadan. Please SHARE

Physical and Practical
This is usually my starting point. I would look at the key dates such as when do we start fasting and when is Eid and jot them into my calendar and diary. This would give me an indication of what else is going on around Ramadan (for example any appointments, meetings etc). It also gives me a good jolt into how much time is left for preparations before the start of the month! 

Next step is to plan what food preparation is needed. Without the convenience of abundant home made savouries and delicious chutney dips like we get in South Africa, if I want anything like what I am used to back home (such as samoosas or pies!) here in Istanbul, I better make it all myself (or do without it as I have in some years. Borek will have to do!). So this year where I could I used two evenings to do some preparations and I’m calling it a day.

A tip I learnt from my dear mother was to also do any Eid shopping such as clothes and gifts before Ramadan. That way you are not using precious Ramadan minutes running around with these activities! Also you can avoid the crowds. This year given the lockdown situation, I really don’t know what Eid will be like so holding on with any gift planning till things are more clear.

Lastly in this area is setting up the environment at home – putting up some exciting decorations, involving the kids in some crafts- all with the intention of creating a positive spirit and love for this beautiful month for the whole family. We have already started talking about Ramadan parties, so my little one is amped!

Mental Readiness
Setting a real focused intention immediately puts me in the right space. Reading up on the benefits of fasting, and listening to a few great speakers on the blessings of this month are great reminders about why I need to maximise on stacking up reward. 

If there are any habits I want to change, I might start working on them now, weeks before we start fasting. This year, I aim to give up on junk shows (at least!) on Netflix. I actually enjoy documentary style shows so I have already started switching to that instead. In Ramadan, I would aim to watch nothing at all. It always amazes me how I am able to detox in this way so easily, and occupy my time with extra prayer -or just rest.

Closer to the start of Ramadan I would begin my “fasting focus”, and do my best to clear my mind of all other peripherals – binge chats, binge Instagram scrolling, anything else taking me away from the sole purpose of this month – worshipping Allah and gaining closeness to Him.

This mental focus is so important as it sets the tone for the last pillar. We cannot pray in the sincerest way we are meant to if our mind is still cluttered with other things. I mentally put on hold anything extra that can wait for after the four weeks- so my mind has clarity and space.

Spiritual
The focus of the month will be on my soul- to uplift myself in a deep spiritual way Insha Allah. Usually this involves goals for completing recitation of the Quran, listening to tafseer, revising previously memorised surahs. I really enjoy understanding what I read in Quran so for this I have begun at least listening to (and often making notes though I do need to revise more so its more entrenched), the tafseer from leading scholars on the verses of Quran we read most often – for example starting with Surah Yaseen, Surah Kahf, and the last 20 surahs in Quran which are the ones I would read in my Salaatul Taraweeh every night. 

Other great resources I have come to love has been the daily 20 minute lectures that some scholars give live after Taraweeh salaah. My favourite being Ramadan Gems  and Ramadan Nightly Reminders (Mufti Menk). These are all available on demand on YouTube if you miss it live. It is centred around a theme such as Stories from Quran, or Stories about the Messengers, making it compelling listening to complete the full picture. Great learning.

So as you can see, if we start to break down all the aspects to consider in preparing for this month Insha Allah, there’s so much more beyond hanging up decor or stock piling the freezer!

 How far are you with preparations for this beautiful month? And which aspects do you focus on?


Wishing you all a productive Ramadan, filled with barakah and blessings
Taskeen

Posh veggies for dinner



I love watching cooking shows and I often hear certain phrases or ingredients that seem to stick in my mind, especially when the contestants describe their scrummy looking dishes with vivid vocabularly!

One such example is a description of a dish where it is served  “… on a bed of celeriac purée ..” Just sounds so exotic! I guess I must talk about it a lot too- as the other day the hubby went out to the store (sorry not the local market…this time) and brought me a medium sized sandy little vegetable and proudly presented it to me as “celeriac as you hear your favourite posh people make!”  (he’s so embarrassing!)
 
Celeriac Two Ways

Nonetheless, I was intrigued and so I googled some ideas and found two great recipes to make that day for dinner. I even made a little for my baby as mash (the celeriac puree!) as it’s texture lends itself to lovely and smooth for little mouths 🙂

 
So here is my recipe for celeriac two ways… quite yummy and works great as a side.
 
Posted recipe on @halaalrecipes 
#whatsfordinner  #celeriac #masterchef 
 
Creating in the kitchen,
M4life

Turkish Tales: Our First Meals

Food plays an incredible role in any special event in our lives. So no wonder, our first meal in our new home is significant to us,  and kind of represents a big step in settling in.

Whats on the menu you ask? Something exotic like local specialties of kofte or borek? Perhaps a home classic like chicken? Well bearing in mind I’m still stocking up my kitchen and groceries are not as straightforward as back home (not everything in the supermarket is translated for starters) and I was exhausted from the trip over, the menu was simple but just right to hit the right notes Alhamdulillah!

Mum’s Grub Rules

For our very first dinner that we ate at home, we were lucky to have some homemade mum’s grub from South Africa.

Nothing like urad dhall, mealie meal rotis and spicy carrot pickle to comfort and pick you up!
I also fried some okra (“bhinda”) as its available in abundance here- the only real ‘indian’ vegetable really.

And we had extra food leftover for hubby to take to work for lunch – he was quite the envy of the office, and didn’t mind a bit sitting in the canteen with his roti and dhall! We ended up packing some carrot pickle for his friends who missed home food too so it was great to share the love.

End result

For the first dinner that I cooked, I braved it with a new kind of fish called “plaithe” which turned out to be tasty and not too “fishy”. I served it with spinach and onion (seasoned with “pulbiber”- a Turkish favourite which is red pepper flakes) and fresh potato salad.

When cooking for the first time in a new kitchen, and country really you have to be careful before you commit to preparing any dish – as you cannot take for granted that you have everything you need- even seemingly simple things like garlic, or chillies may not be as readily available. So I made good use of my personal favourite “Amina’s wonder spice peri-peri marinade” from South Africa for the fish, as I know it wouldn’t need anything further to flavour the fish – just pour over and you are ready to fry!

Get your first meals in your new country right, and you are on to the right track I say. May Allah grant us more barakah, Aameen
Next stop : cooking some chicken – but first I need to figure out how to make my own ginger/garlic paste (not found here!!)

Finding our way Insha Allah,
M4Life