Tag: #freezerfood

Chicken Chapali Kebab
Alliyah Dawud
May 8, 2019

Chicken Chapali Kebabs

Mutton Chapali Kebabs are associated with the NWFP area of Pakistan. Coming from what can only be described as a bag of pick and mix I do have a little Pathan in me.

Chapali Kebabs are tangy but not spicy. You can find them being sold by the Road side across Pakistan and other Asian countries too…..

What I also have in me thanks to my Pathan blood is impatience.

To make the recipe quicker, and healthier I decided to replace the Mutton mince with Chicken (leaner) and as its Chicken it cooks quicker.

This recipe also works out cheaper (Chicken Mince costs £2.59 per KG at my local Butcher). So it’s healthier, quicker and economical. Bonus.

This recipe is a blend of what I’ve picked up from many family members. My thoughts on family variations of classic recipes is if we didn’t have variation then you haven’t eaten them enough…..

To make enough Kebabs to serve 4 you will need

  • 500 grams chicken mince.
  • 2 TBSP cornmeal
  • 1/2 TBSP salt
  • 1 TSP chili powder
  • 1 TSP coriander powder
  • 1 tsp whole dried pomegranate seeds
  • 1 TBSP pomegranate seed powder (I buy a bag of seeds and grind some down to make the powder).
  • 2 green chilis minced (finely chopped will also do!)
  • 1/2 a tomato chopped finely
  • 2 TBSP coriander leaves and stalks chopped finely
  • 1 medium onion finely chopped

To finish off (optional)
1 tomato thinly sliced
2 TBSP cornmeal

The quick chutney:

  • 3 green chilies
  • salt (to taste)
  • around 16 mint leaves
  • 2 TBSP (heaped) of coriander and leaves and stalks chopped
  • 2 TBSP dried pomegranate seed powder
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 medium tomato

To cook:
Oil to Shallow Fry

1) Mix all the kebab ingredients together.
2) Take a TBSP of the mixture and with wet hands shape them into oblong kebabs.
3) OPTIONAL step: lightly press on the thin tomato slice and sprinkle on some cornmeal.
4) Heat the oil in a large pan on a medium heat.
5) Fry the kebabs until golden brown on both sides (mine took 3 minutes on each side-just remember if the kebabs are thick you need to cook them all the way through). Don’t overcrowd the pan. It will make sloppy greasy kebabs.
6) Drain the kebabs on kitchen paper and serve with Naans and Kebab Chapali Kebab chutney (it’s tangy as its got even more pomegranate in it).

To make the chutney: blitz all the ingredients together. You’ll end up with a ‘rough’ looking chutney but that’s what you are looking for. To make the pomegranate powder you just need to blitz the seeds in your spice grinder or coffee bean grinder.

These Kebabs can be frozen successfully and used with 3 months.
The chutney doesn’t freeze well.

Why you need to set up a Ramadan Cookery Circle
Alliyah Dawud
April 15, 2019

Ramadan is the most blessed months a Muslim can experience. Its a time for contemplation. A time to reflect and change the direction of life. Its a time to give back to charity. It’s a time to get closer to our faith.

Sadly for many sisters its a time where they find themselves chained to the kitchen when they should be reaping the rewards of this awesome month.

For a lot of families food plays a huge part in Ramadan. There’s Sahoor and Iftaars to plan, prepare and cook. Then there’s hosting Iftaars for nearest and dearest (which FYI I haven’t done in a decade). That’s a large chunk of time on a daily basis. By the time you’ve cooked and cleaned up energy levels are at a low and the idea of staying up to repent or pray is near impossible (because half hearted recitation is also a no-no; you want to focus and give it your best).

A couple of years ago I started to batch cook food used in Ramadan and froze it in suitable sized portions. This helped me no end. There was no last minute mad panic in the kitchen. Things ran smoothly; very smoothly.

I then came to the realisation that my issue of balancing the time spent preparing and cooking food with the actual important duties of Ramadan were a problem for a lot of sisters. And if you are reading this and nodding along I have an idea that may help you a lot….

Ladies I present to you the idea of setting up a Ramadan Cookery Circle.

For this idea to work you will need a group of ladies in a similar position to you.

How this works:

Basically you come together with a group of ladies and cook a few recipes in bulk. You then swap portions of the food with others in the circle for food they’ve cooked. And voila; you have instantly increased the amount of food you have for your Ramadan freezer.

Sounds pretty easy doesn’t it? I’ll still talk you through it.

STEP 1:
Gather your friends that will be having the same issue as you during Ramadan together.

STEP 2:
List all the food that you guys know you will be cooking in Ramadan. These foods need to be suitable for freezing.

STEP 3:
List all special dietary requirements including how hot people like spicy foods!
Share recipes (if required) with the group.

STEP 4:
Delegate the recipes out to the group. Agree on how much of each recipe needs to be made.

STEP 5:
Decide when you want the food to be cooked by and where and how the food will be delegated. Will you guys meet up a few days before Ramadan to swap food?

STEP 6:
Take the food home and freeze.

Now that doesn’t seem to be that scary does it?

The idea behind this is you save time by bulk cooking your delegated recipes and then you swap some with the others.

So if there’s 5 of you and you each of you cooked 2 recipes in bulk you are walking away with 10 dishes for your freezer (including what you cook yourself).

Don’t you think that’s awesome?

And the more of you there is there’s potential for less work and more dishes.

In my experience the following are awesome for freezing:

Samosas and rolls
Burrito rolls (great for Breakfasts)
Kebabs/Koftas
Pulaw and Biryani bases
Chutneys
Curry sauces
Meatballs (so pasta sauces, koftas etc).

What else should consider?

How much freezer space you have.
How much time will you need to prepare and cook your dishes in bulk.
Is everyone happy with their delegated dishes.
Do you want to swap dishes or do you want to pay for the ingriedents instead?

The idea of the circle is to cut your time in the kitchen and essentially share cookery skills and invest more time into Ramadan doing things that will be fulfilling.

With Ramadan on it’s way why not share this post with your ladies and see whose willing to sign up to your circle?

Got any advice for other sisters? Drop it below.