Traditional

When my husband R was alive, we had this tradition that on Sunday we would have parathas and omelette for breakfast, and a rice pulao for lunch. The rice pulao was cooked with mutton, chic peas and raisins. We never deviated from this ritual. It was like I was carrying over the traditional food of my own childhood. 

R loved parathas. If he had his way, we would have been eating them everyday. It would have been too grueling for me to make them daily. When he had his open heart surgery (ninety eight percent of his arteries were clogged) the doctor told him that he should stop having egg yolks. He only abstained for a month. He couldn’t forgo his omelette.

Another tradition was getting up late on Sundays. We would get up to say our Fajr prayer, then go to sleep again to wake up at ten. Then I had to rush through everything, so Sunday was a really hectic day for me.

With Son having parathas is a thing of the past. There was a time when he thought that to forgo a paratha was a big crime. He is concerned now that eating it is not healthy, and I’m happy that I don’t have to cook it for his sake.

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DAILY PROMPT

Traditional

Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

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Dust In the Wind

Daily Prompt: Odd Trio Redux
Time for another odd time prompt: write a post about any topic you want in whatever form or genre, but make sure it features a slice of cake, a pair of flip-flops, and someone old and wise.

Today, 2nd August is the second death anniversary of my husband R.

Yesterday we held a Quran Khawani for him. There are thirty parts to read. I was expecting half of them left to me to finish later on, but thankfully five remained. One lady (mother of a friend), who looked so wise and old managed three, the same as me. Some ladies read two each. While the rest of them managed one only.

Children had come with their mothers. They ran about in flip-flops. Most of them remained upstairs in the children’s playroom.

After finishing the reading, we served food. My daughter-in-law had made the Pulao and baked chicken pieces. I had ordered some dishes from a local restuarant. I had made halwa and a beans salad. The ladies loved the halwa I had made, and asked for a recipe. I had a burn mark (to show) on my left arm, which I had acquired in the making of halwa.

The children liked slices of cake, and ice cream.

I held my tears at bay, when finally we said Dua for R.

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Dust In the Wind

A FAVORITE DISH

One of my favorite dish is Pulao. It’s an Urdu name for a rice dish. My memories go back to my childhood days. Back to Baba, (my father) when he was alive. It was a tradition in our home that on Sundays we had Pulao for lunch. It was a must and never to be missed routine. It had raisins, almonds, apricots,mutton,chickpeas and rice. We used to stuff ourselves with it.

Fast forward to me after marriage. I didn’t know cooking. I took time to learn how to cook. Fortunately I learned from magazines, friends and by watching other people. Woman’s Weekly and Woman and Home from UK were my guides in baking. My other must have mag was from US, Good Housekeeping. I simply loved it for ages. Still do.

I will always feel indebted to some of my friends who gave me their recipes. Now back to my Pulao dish. The basics I learned by watching my mother in law, whenever my husband left me at her home. This happened at regular intervals. He would be posted to a new place or in winters he would be called to ‘Army School Of Mountaineering and Snow Warfare’ to conduct Courses in Skiing, Mountaineering and Snow Warfare. I would be without a home and so would be back to m in law.

She was really great at cooking. So this is a family recipe with additions and alterations by myself. I like it made with mutton but it can be made with chicken. The ingredients are as following:—–
Basmati or any long grain rice 2 cups, soaked 1/2 an hour before cooking
Mutton 3/4 kg 🐐 or 1 whole chicken cut into pieces🐓
Chick Peas 1 cup, cooked
Almonds3/4 cup, blanched and skin removed
Raisins, washed and fried for a little while, till they fluff up
Garam masala made up with black pepper, zeera (cumin seeds), a few sticks of cinnamon, 4 large cardamoms, all finely ground
Cloves. 6
2 large onions, sliced
A piece of ginger and 8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt to taste
Oil 3/4 cup.
2 Tomatoes, chopped

This recipe is enough for four people.

Cook meat till it’s tender. Fry onions in oil till golden brown. Add meat, ginger and garlic. Add tomatoes. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp garam masala to the mixture.Fry for a few minutes. Remove the fried meat with a slotted spoon. Put 4 cups of water or left over broth from meat. Let it come to a boil. Now add chick peas and rice and 6 cloves, plus salt to taste and another 1 1/2 tea spoon of garam masala. When the whole thing comes to a boil, lower the heat. Cover. When water is partially absorbed, add meat, raisins and almonds. Cover and simmer on low heat till rice is cooked and water absorbed.😋