Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

Monday, October 16, 2017

Baskin Robbins, the best ice cream restaurant in the world is finally coming to Pakistan

October 16, 2017 0
Baskin Robbins is all set to open 35 outlets in Pakistan with the first opening in Lahore. This time its a 100%

Just a couple of months back, news of the world’s biggest specialty ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins coming to Pakistan broke. But to our disappointment, the news turned out to be a dud.
Now news of Baskin Robbins opening its doors in Pakistan has resurfaced and this time its 100% confirmed. The international chain has just signed a master licensing agreement with a local company, AHG Flavors Pvt Ltd. to set up 35 Baskin-Robbins outlets in the entirety of Pakistan. The first of 35 branches is all set to launch in Packages Mall, Lahore.
The news was broken by Irfan Mustafa, chairman of AHG Flavours who said graciously described what Baskin Robbins was and how it would be bringing all of its 31 variety of flavors to Pakistan. He also confirmed that the first branch of the ice cream restaurant will be opened in a few months.




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Thursday, October 5, 2017

Masterchef winner Saliha Mahmood is writing a cookbook inspired by Mughal cuisine

October 05, 2017 0
The book, titled Khazana, will be published next September


If there is one thing all Pakistanis living abroad can agree on, it’s that legitimate desi Chinese is impossible to find, and MasterChef UK 2017 winner, British Pakistani Saliha Mahmood-Ahmed is no different.

When asked what her favourite things to eat are when she visits Lahore, honey sesame chicken from Sing Kuong, plus dishes at Golden Wok and Yum were on the top of the list. She described desi Chinese as a “very strange and different fusion not available anywhere else in the world”.


Saliha is a doctor training to specialise in gastroenterology, which takes up pretty much all of her time, but her “serious hobby” of cooking won her the MasterChef UK title this year, after blowing away judges with dishes that Pakistanis will very easily be able to relate to, such as shami kabab (though hers were made of venison).
"Desi Chinese is a very strange and different fusion not available anywhere else in the world”
The dish is likely to feature in her upcoming cookbook called Khazana out next September that she is spending all her free time writing, and which will feature a modern take on Mughal recipes aimed at a western audience (without toning down the spices).
Saliha said she has always been fascinated by the art, culture and history around the Mughals, particular the stories about how passionate they were about food and cooking, adding that she “loves how they use nuts, saffron and cream and yoghurt to make rich foods”.
“Why not write a cookbook which celebrates my heritage and culture and what it is to be a Pakistani.. or even north Indian or Persian,” she said. “The Mughals influence spread across that entire region from Iran to Pakistan to India... a lot of our dishes are influenced by their techniques and recipes”.
“It is exciting for me to be able to bring something quite traditional and inherent to Pakistani people to a western audience,” she said.
Her book will include anecdotes about the history or recipes. For instance, she said shami kababs were invented by the chef of a Mughal emperor who had lost his teeth and couldn’t chew normal kababs.
How she has any time write a cookbook is a wonder given weekends are often spent performing cookery demonstrations at food festivals, supper clubs and collaborations with various restaurants.
The most recent one was with Sameer Taneja, the chef at a popular Indian restaurant in London called Talli Joe. The idea was to mark 70 years of independence for India and Pakistan with a feast of ten dishes which celebrates food on the Grand Trunk road.
It is exciting for me to be able to bring something quite traditional and inherent to Pakistani people to a western audience
Saliha said the food included “corn chaat, namkeen gosht, deep fried stuff, fish curries - things you would find on the highway with our ‘chefy’ influences to make it something special”.
One does wonder how someone so clearly passionate about food ended up becoming a doctor. When she was 15, she won a cooking competition, with the prize being an apprenticeship at a London restaurant – something that would have been the perfect segue into a career in cooking.
However, she gave the prize to the runner-up because she was far too involved in school, where she was into “debating and academia, and where she ended up becoming head girl.
Now, she is happy her medical career is going smoothly enough for her to spend some serious time with cooking – although it does seem to be quite a balancing act, being on call at all hours.
Saliha’s family is originally from Srinagar, Kashmir but she says she has “a strong connection with Punjab” as she would visit her grandparents two to three times a year in Lahore when they were alive.

She mentioned she has received a lot of accolade from Pakistan, with journalists keen to cover her story as it shows a positive side of someone from the country being successful abroad. Her parents have a home in Lahore and though she hasn’t been in a few years, she is itching to go back.
A trip is long overdue, she tells me.
“For inspiration?”, I ask
“For more eating!” she was quick to reply.
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Saturday, September 30, 2017

This haleem recipe is almost too good to share

September 30, 2017 0
Haleem is one of the original “generosity dishes”, meaning it was always prepared with the intention of sharing


During my wonder years, the 10th of Muharram meant a pulao deghbeing made at my parents’ home, and a haleem degh at my nani’s. Needless to say the haleem was delicious — hot, spicy, flavourful and (for a child) consumable only with a few bottles of soda. However as I entered my teens, my tolerance for spice went up and my appreciation for haleem went up even further.
I have been researching South Asian foods for some years now, and my fascination for our cuisine grows with time. Our foods have travelled regions, jumped cuisines, evolved and survived the test of time, hence earning an elite status amongst the cuisines of the world, and haleem is one such dish.
It is said to be one of the original “generosity dishes”, meaning it was always prepared with the intention of sharing with others. It is believed that the recipe of Middle Eastern harissa, written millennia ago, is what haleem actually evolved from. Harissa, according to food historian Claudia Roden is the parent of haleem and is believed to be an Arab specialty rather than a Muslim one.
Haleem is said to be one of the original “generosity dishes”, meaning it was always prepared with the intention of sharing with others
The medieval Andalusian Jews ate it on Saturdays, a day of Sabbath for them. The Lebanese and Syrian Christians make harissa to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. And in Iraq, Lebanon and the subcontinent, Shia Muslims made it to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussain at Karbala in the month of Muharram.
It was perhaps Mughal Emperor Humayun who brought the recipe of haleem to the subcontinent, but apparently it was his son Akbar who made it popular across the board, from troops to the throne. It is originally a slow-cooking dish and its name in Arabic even means ‘patience’.
Here is something interesting that I stumbled upon some years ago when researching the history of haleem.
Ciezadlo in her article History on a Plate, quotes in the article Food Stories, Haleem:
“In the late 7th century, Caliph Mu’awiya of Damascus, received a delegation of Arabian Yemenis. According to medieval historians who wrote about the encounter, the Caliph’s first question to his visitors addressed something more urgent than political matters. Years earlier, on a journey to Arabia, he had eaten an exquisite dish, a porridge of meat and wheat. Did they know how to make it? They did.
It was perhaps Mughal Emperor Humayun who brought the recipe of haleem to the subcontinent, but apparently it was his son Akbar who made it popular across the board, from troops to the throne
"The first written recipe of harissa [haleem], dates from the 10th century, when a scribe named Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq compiled a cookbook of the dishes favored by the caliphs. The version described in his Kitab al-Tabikh (Book of Dishes), the world’s oldest surviving Arabic cookbook, is strikingly similar to the one people in the Middle East eat to this day.”
This Muharram, I am torn between making pulao like my mother did, or haleem like my nani did. Maybe I’m going to end up making both. That’s not such a bad idea after all.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup wheat
¼ cup plus 1 tbsp barley
¼ cup white maash (urud) dal
¼ cup moong dal
¼ cup masoor dal
¼ cup basmati rice
1 cup channa dal
½ to ¾ cup oil
2 ½ lbs preferably boneless veal or beef stew (without fat), mutton and chicken can be used as well
1 ½ cup chicken or beef stock
1 ½ heaped tablespoon red chilli powder (increase or decrease according to taste if needed)
Salt to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons ginger garlic paste,
1 tablespoon heaped coriander powder
1 ½ teaspoon level turmeric powder
1 ½ large onions sliced for frying
Ingredients for sealed pot cooking
1 level teaspoon garam masala powder, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg powder, ¼ teaspoon mace powder, ½ teaspoon black cumin, ½ teaspoon green, cardamom powder
Ingredients for Garnish or served on the side
Lemon wedges, chopped cilantro and green chillies, fried onions, julienned ginger, chaat masala, yoghurt and naan.

Method

Wash and soak all seven grains for 6 to 8 hours. In a pan, fry onions until golden-brown, adding meat, ginger, garlic, chilli powder, turmeric, coriander powder, stock and salt. Cook until korma is tender.
In a large separate pot, boil pre-soaked grains until tender, approximately for 2 to 2 ½ hours.
Eyeball the water quantity (for boiling and cooking) depending on the required consistency and thickness of the haleem.
Once boiled, put grains in blender and blend roughly, pouring the blended grains back in the pot for cooking.
Repeat the blending process with the meat korma, pouring the roughly blended korma into the cooking grains.
Mix thoroughly on low to medium flame, stirring constantly.
Cook and stir until the correct consistency, tasting for salt and chilli content. The haleem must be well blended.
Now add all five sealed-pot ingredients and mix well. Seal the pot and let steam for a few minutes.
Garnish and serve with a side of naan, if desired. This one is a sure-shot hit — nothing short of a professionally made street-food deghi haleem. Enjoy.
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