Mezze

A delicious selection of Arabic mezze (antipasti and apperatifs)

From the top, clockwise: lentil soup, samboosa, wara ‘inab (rice stuffed vineleaves), Syrian Makdous (spicy, walnut stuffed, pickled aubergines), Kalamata olives, Palestinian style felafel (stuffed with spicy onions) and M’batan (Libyan potato wedges stuffed with spiced meat).

Perfect for breaking the fast during Ramadan.

Kids at Taraweeh

Are young children allowed inside the masjid you attend for Taraweeh prayer?

I have been along to Taraweeh with my husband twice so far this Ramadan to one of the popular masjids in Riyadh – it’s the King Khalid masjid where Sheikh Khaalid Al-Jaleel now leads the prayer.

I left my older children at home since I am lucky enough to have a responsible teen and another who is almost a teen but I couldn’t leave the newest addition (8 weeks old) at home since she is breastfed.  I discovered at the first Taraweeh of this Ramadan that children are not allowed inside so I stayed in the courtyard of the masjid and prayed there and when baby wanted to be held or fed I just sat and quietly listened. I had the baby in the carseat so she was comfortable and so I could join in some of the prayer. I think she was mesmerised by the Qur’an as she was very settled! She’s probably used to the sheikh’s qira’ (recitation) as I have playing some of his Qur’an cd’s in the kitchen while I cook!

I have been to the same masjid before for other daily prayers and there was no problem taking children in but since this is Taraweeh prayer and the masjid gets very full and too many people take along small, unruly children, there is this rule for the month of Ramadan. Understandable really when you see the unruliness of the children – running around, throwing dirt, kicking and throwing water bottles and leaving the litter for others to pick up and so forth. It makes me wonder why people take such small children along to such a long prayer. The children will inevitably become bored and won’t be able to keep still – their antics only serve to distract their mothers and others from their prayer.

Goodbye England, hello Riyadh!

We have just returned from a few weeks break in the UK. It was a pretty hectic time and it was very tiring for me as my baby was only 3 weeks old when we flew out of Riyadh for London but we did some nice things with the kids like going to Alton Towers and ice-skating, we enjoyed some milder weather than that which we are used to here in Riyadh and of course we got to see family whom we had not seen in a year and half.

We were lucky to have day time flights both in and out of the UK for a change – we usually have night time flights which I don’t enjoy. I took my camera on the flight and took a few photos so it was:

Goodbye England:

… and hello Riyadh!

There is plenty I’ll miss about the UK but it’s nice to be back in the Land of Islam again – being Muslim is the norm here of course, adhan can be heard all the time and mosques are everywhere to be seen. It’ll be good starting our first day of Ramadan tomorrow back here in Saudi Arabia. Not so good to be back in the land of such extreme heat though particularly with air-conditioning units that are not working so well these days!

RAMADAN MUBAARAK to everyone! I’m hoping to blog much more again from now and blog about Ramadan in Riyadh but I’ve been having troubles signing into my WordPress account so I can’t promise!

Eid baking underway!

Just sitting back for a moment to relax after an afternoon of baking.

Progress so far is that for Eid I have made a batch of Ghribiya. They are a light shortbread with a single almond pressed into the centre before baking:

 

Also a batch of peanut cookies. A shortbread type of recipe as the dough is very crumbly when you try to roll it out. Ground unroasted peanuts and orange flower water are also included in the dough and immediately after baking the cookies are rolled in icing sugar

M’shawek just went in the oven… this is an Algerian recipe and consists of ground almond, egg white, lemon zest and orange flower water, the sticky balls are rolled in chopped almonds and topped with a piece of glace cherry before baking.

 

Also on the menu insha’Allah: chocolate cake with chocolate butter icing inside and melted Galaxy chocolate on top (gotta keep the children happy ) and M’thaqaba also known as M’barja (semolina lozenges filled with date and cooked on the hotplate).

Eid Mubaarak

We are now into the very last days of Ramadan; there are only one or at most two days of fasting left before we celebrate Eid insha’Allah. These past few days have been so busy and tiring and yet so beautiful subhan Allah! Now that the children are off school for Eid and hubby is home too and I doubt that I’ll have time to use the computer until after Eid. We are now in the midst of preparations for the actual Eid day and have lots of baking to do tomorrow so we can greet guests into our home and so we can make this day special for us all.

In advance, I would like to wish my brothers and sisters in Islam a wonderful Eid day: EID MUBAARAK!

Edited to add: Eid confirmed as being tomorrow here in Saudi Arabia. Eid Mubaarak again!!

Saudi Shorba with oats

There are many Algerians who insist on having Algerian Shorba Frik to break the fast every evening during the month of Ramadan. (I posted the recipe for Shorba Frik recently and it can be found here) Fortunately my Algerian husband is not one of them! He likes to eat a variety of soups throughout the month. Soups are gentle on the digestive system and are a good dish to prepare for the breaking of the fast and I enjoy making a range soups from simple cream of vegetable (leek and potato, celery, tomato, mushroom etc) to more substantial soups such as Saudi shorba with oats.

Saudi Shorba really has to be the simplest and easiest soup in the world to make! It uses minimal ingredients and no blending is required. The secret is in cooking the soup long enough for the meat to become very tender and the oats to disintegrate somewhat and become very soft so they melt in your mouth.

You need:

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic

2 or 3 pieces of lamb on the bone

1/2 tin chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon ground cummin

salt and pepper

1 dried black lemon

1/2 cup fast cooking oats OR barley (remember that barley will take longer to cook)

Method:

Gently saute the onions and garlic in a pressure cooker, when softened add the meat and fry until sealed. Add all the other ingredients and 3/4 litre water. Stir well and bring to the boil and then cover the pan and reduce heat to a simmer. Keep checking the water level and stir regularly to stop the oats from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add more water if you want the soup thinner.

Soup is ready when the meat is tender and oats are mushy. Remove the black lemon before serving.

Ramadan Crafting

A huge thank you to SeekingTaqwa for being my muse and never failing to inspire me whether in the kitchen or with craft activities! I really need to find a way of learning how to crochet though…

Today I finally made the time to sit down with the children and do some messy Ramadan crafting – we made cards and the Ramadan calendar which can be seen on her blog.

Here is our effort:

 

It is huge and is taking up pride of place on the first wall you see as you enter the lounge – really brightens up the place and all that gold glitter gives a special, Ramadany touch.

We are all feeling happy with our effort but now, off to vaccuum!

Adhan

Hayya ‘alaas sallaa; hayya ‘alaal falaah ~ Come to prayer, come to good work

I sat outside at the patio table with my glass of water and tub of dates close at hand quietly contemplating and listening out for the call to prayer to begin and mark the start of yet another fast. It was wonderfully peaceful outside as I sat alone and enjoyed those last sips of water and it was not long before a distant and melodious adhan gently wafted over the warm, still air. I waited and minutes later two or three adhans near my home chorused together much louder calling the faithful to prayer and letting the sai’meen (those who fast) know that the time had come to put food and drink aside and begin the fast.  Today we enter the middle ten days of Ramadan.

I find it very refreshing sitting outside at adhan time and listening to the muezzin and then later listening to the imam as he leads the prayer. This is one of the blessings of living in Saudi Arabia, the land of mosques on virtually every street corner and in between.

Ramadan opening hours

Ramadan is the time of year when the already strange shopping hours become well… stranger!

Outside of Ramadan, malls will be open in the morning from 9/9:30 until zuhr prayer (midday). The shops will then generally remain closed until after asr prayer (4pm). From 4pm everything will be open until about 11pm although shops and restaurants will close for half and hour for maghrib prayer and half an hour for ‘isha prayer. Supermarkets open all day with half hour breaks for prayer.

During Ramadan only the supermarkets are open in the morning and apart from prayer breaks, they will stay open until shortly before maghrib prayer only to open again at 9pm. The malls will open from 1pm until ‘asr and they won’t open again until after taraweeh prayer; about 9pm and they will stay open until maybe 2am.

So if you want to do some quick, trouble free shopping I highly recommend supermarket shopping in the morning or mall shopping after zuhr… The supermarkets at that time are virtually empty and the malls are ghost towns as all the clothes shops are closed. Even when they do open at 1pm, there are few people around… fab!

That little silhouetted figure is my 22 month old daughter.

Even in the evening after 9pm the malls are fairly quiet and won’t get busy until around 11pm. At the weekend we took the children out and decided to pray in the mall prayer room. My husband was able to join in the taraweeh prayer in the prayer room so he didn’t miss out. Once prayer was over and the shops started to open we took the children to the indoor fun fair at the mall which was devoid of people. At that time of the evening it is usually bustling.

The children shared the icerink with only four other children:

See how empty the place was:

My son had the tractors to himself:

It was only as we were leaving, at 11pm, that the mall was beginning to get busy. The no longer empty carpark was turning into the usual obstacle course of impatient drivers not looking where they’re going etc. It seems that in Saudi Arabia, during the holy month of Ramadan day turns to night and people only venture out to go shopping or to eat in the restaurants after taraweeh prayer. The volume of traffic on the roads at midnight and into the early hours of the morning is quite amazing!

What’s cookin’?!

So what’s cooking today? I’ve decided to keep it simple as there are leftovers each day; we finally managed to rid the fridge of leftovers at iftar yesterday so I can start afresh today.

I am making lentil soup which we will eat with samosas (samboosas/borek depending on where in the world you live) and to follow there will be Panini sandwiches which will be filled with tuna, cheese, chopped olives, sliced tomato and mayonnaise. I also have some ready made Palestinian felafel which I am defrosting. It looks like regular felafel but the golden, crispy discs are filled with spicy onion; delicious in pitta bread with lettuce, tomato, parsley and hummus or tahini sauce.

For suhoor tomorrow morning I am trying out Saudi style Brioche filled with Nutella. If I succeed, I am sure this will be a hit with the children.