Ismaili Recipes - This blog contains our family recipes; mainly it is Ismaili (Khoja) cuisine, our family lived in Uganda for 3 generations so we have a marked East African(Swahili, Lugandi) Influence in our cooking AND in our language!! (Kutchi / Cutchi / Gujarati. In recent years with new additions to the family our cooking includes, English, Pakistani, Italian and Irish influences.
Thursday 31 December 2009
Batata Wara / Wada / Vada
Ingredients
2 lb / 4 large potatoes
6 cloves garlic
2 inch ginger
4 green chillies
1 lime; juiced
2 tbl spn chopped coriander
salt to taste
Batter
1 cup chickpea flour; besan
3/4 cup water
1/3 tspn baking soda
salt to taste
Oil for frying
1. Wash and peel the potatoes , boil and roughly mash.
2. Puree the garlic, ginger and chillies with the lime juice
3. Add to the potatoes with the coriander and salt, mix
4. Make lime sized balls.
5. To make the batter add the flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl, add the water in slowly mixing it well. The batter should be like a pancake mix.
6. Heat the oil in a frying pan / kerai / small wok, dip the potato balls in the batter and deep fry.
7. Serve with coconut chutney (recipe to come)
Sunday 27 December 2009
Baked / Roasted Chevro / Chevdo
Thursday 24 December 2009
Coming Soon... Chevro
This batch was made by Firoz in Edmonton, Canada. It is almost fry-free, everything was baked / roasted in the oven. Chachi and I are making this tomorrow. Yes on Christmas day, we are not cooking, we will have our Christmas Lunch (Roast Lamb and trimmings) at Shaheen and Mohsin's house. Anyway I have bought all the ingredients today ready to make some for the whole family.
Monday 21 December 2009
Ismaili Mitha Thepla (Sweet)
2 cups whole wheat flour (chapatti flour)
½ cup gur / gor / jaggery
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
2 table spoon oil
1 tspn fennel seeds
½ ground Cardamom
½ tspn ground Nutmeg
Vegetable oil for frying
Jaggery or gur is supposed to be good for you, and certainly much better for you than refined sugar. It contains minerals and vitamins lost during refining of sugar. Likewise whole wheat flour is more nutritious than white flour.
1. Mix the flour, fennel seeds, cardamom and nutmeg.
2. Rub in the oil, so that the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs
3. Melt the gur in the microwave (2 minutes or so) and mix with the milk
4. Beat the egg
5. Add above liquid to the flour and make a soft dough
6. Roll into ¾ inch and cut into diamond shapes, or use a biscuit cutter.
7. Fry
These should keep in an airtight container for at least a month.
Sunday 20 December 2009
Aga Khan Primary School, Kampala
I went to
In my final form at this school my classmates included Naznin Virani, Meboob Jamani, Nazma Dhanani, Minaz Abji, the twins Salma and Shamshad Hajiani, Shafique Bhatia and Merunnissa ? to name a few. Teachers included my form teacher Penny Jiwani, Mrs Mascaranas and Mr Ramji the RE teacher. We had sewing classes in that room over the canteen, where I was constantly scolded by Mrs Sakar Devji, as I was terrible at needlework. My sewing always had blood stains on it from pricking my fingers with the needle! Miss Shahsultan Meghji and Miss Zarina Gulamhusein used to teach us how to cook. I can remember the queen of puddings well because I dropped it and broke the dish on the way home :(. If you are one of my classmates please do comment on this blog.
Some of my best memories are of standing in the Assembly in the hot sun while Mr Jinnah and Mr Hinchcliffe stood high up on the terrace (where the man with the bike is standing in the picture), and singing Bhali Bathowo ginan. At morning Recess time we would buy boiled mogo sprinkled with red chilli powder and salt; so delicious. We would go home for lunch and come back in the afternoon. No food in the afternoon, Chachi use to give us a flask of Ribena which we would drink in the break.
When we got home at about
We would have our supper at about 8.00, kitchri and doodh or gosh jo shaak. So much eating but we were very slim (they used to call me a scarecrow, because I was so thin and lanky with big feet!).
All these memories flooded back when I saw this picture of my primary school.
My next project is to make some of those nasta, starting with Thepla.
Sunday 13 December 2009
Kerala ne dungri jo shaak / Spicy Bitter Gourd with Onions
Sunday 6 December 2009
Szechuan Green Beans
1 onion; chopped finely
Monday 30 November 2009
Eid & Chachi's Birthday Dinner
- Chilli and Garlic Olives
- Papad / papadum
- Sambharo (stirfried carrots and cabbage with whole green chillies)
- Chicken samosa
- Sichuan Green Beans (made by Zayn, recipe to follow)
- Vagharelo mogo (Spicy Casava)
- Lamb akhni (pulao)
- Kachumbar (tomato and onion salad)
- Greek Salad sans cheese
- Almond cake (made by Muni)
Thursday 28 May 2009
Asparagus Spanish Omelette
I made this using leftover roast asparagus and potatoes.
To make from scratch
Ingredients
1 medium onion; chopped finely
8 small new potatoes; boiled and sliced
8 asparagus shoots; cut into 3 inch pieces and blanched
1 tablespoons olive oil
5 eggs; beaten
salt and black pepper to taste
Method
1. Heat the oil in a 8 inch frying pan, fry the onions until soft.
2. Add the potatoes and stir fry for a few minutes, until the potatoes are completed coated with oil, and begining to turn brown, now the asparagus, stir well.
3. Turn down the heat and add the beaten eggs; cover the pan with a lid, and leave for about 15 minutes, making sure that the heat is very low.
4. Carefully invert onto a plate and put back into the pan, cook for a 2-3 minutes.
5. Serve with a salad and crusty bread.
Sunday 17 May 2009
Cheese and Spinach Samosa
These samosas are adapted from Greek Spanakopita or Turkish Borek
Ingredients
1 cup thawed frozen chopped spinach
1 cup finely chopped spring onions
1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander
2 cloves garlic; crushed
1 inch ginger; grated
2 green chillies; crushed
1/4 tspn garam masala
200 gm /8 oz Feta cheese; crumbled (mash using a fork)
NO SALT (feta cheese is very salty)
20 samosa pastries (or filo pastry)
Method
1. Drain the spinach in a colander
2. Mix the spinach, spring onions, coriander and cheese
3. Add the garlic, ginger and crushed chilies, mix
4. Add the garam masala and mix. There is no need to cook the filling as it gets cooked during frying or baking
5. Fold the samosa as shown here
6. Fry the samosa in hot oil, or brush with oil and bake in the oven at 200 degrees centigrade for 25 minutes.
ENJOY
Sunday 10 May 2009
Roast Asparagus and Salmon
400g new potatoes, halved if large
2 tbspn olive oil
8 asparagus spears, trimmed and halved
2 handfuls cherry tomatoes
2 salmon filletsabout 140g/5oz each
salt and pepper to taste
- Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Tip the potatoes and 1 tbsp of olive oil into an ovenproof dish, then roast the potatoes for 20 mins until starting to brown. Toss the asparagus in with the potatoes, then return to the oven for 15 mins.
- Throw in the cherry tomatoes and vinegar and nestle the salmon amongst the vegetables. Drizzle with the remaining oil and return to the oven for a final 10-15 mins until the salmon is cooked. Season with salt and pepper
I made Spainish Omelet with the left over vegetable - recipe soon
Summer Fruit Jelly
Ingredients
Mixed summer fruit consisting of strawberries, blackberries, rasberries and blueberries, I used a pannet of each (200gm)
500 mls cranberry juice
100 mls sparkly water
100 mls plain water
2 tablespns of agar agar (china grass, faloda) flakes
1. Soften the agar agar in boiling hot water, microwave a couple of times for 1 minute, until melted.
2. Place the fruit in a 2lB loaf tin
3. Place the fruit juice and water in a bowl and add the melted agar agar, mix briskly and add to the fruit
4. Place in the fridge, should set in 30 minutes
5. Serve chilled, Turn out the jelly by placing the tin in hot water for a few minutes, and on to a plate. Cut it into slices
I served with vanilla ice cream, but you can serve with cream or creme fraiche.
Spicy Mashed Matoke (Green Bananas)
4 - 5 matoke (green bananas from Uganda)
1 200g can peeled tomatoes; liquidised
2 cloves garlic - minced
1 inch ginger - grated
2 chillis - minced
1 table spn vegetable oil
1 tspn mustard seeds
1/2 tspn cumin seeds
1/2 tspn tumeric
2 teaspoons coriander/cumin mix
salt to taste
fresh coriander for garnish
Method
1. Peel the green bananas, slice that into 1 inch chunks and place in water and boil with some salt.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard and cumin seeds, as soon as they start to splutter, add onions and fry until golden brown
3. Then add the tomatoes, garlic, ginger and the minced chillis, stir and fry for a few minutes.
4. Add the cumin, coriander and tumeric, fry for a few minutes. Add the bananas (reserve the water) and mash using a wooden spoon.
5. Add the reserved banana water (2 cups) and mix so that it blends in with the bananas.
5. Garnish with coriander and serve. I served it with chick peas and tomato and red pepper salsa.