Category Archive

From Green Zabiha:

Cows:    Cows are fed grass, right? You would be correct in thinking that, after all they were created to eat mainly grass, but in modern factory farming that is not a viable (read: profitable) option. So no grass, instead they are fed grain, which their body has a difficult time digesting, so much so that many are in a perpetual state of disease which is why we need to pump antibiotics into them to keep them alive. If that was all it’d be bad enough, but that is just the beginning.

Grain isn’t exactly cheap, and in an effort to find ways to feed animals more calories cheaply, Factory farms turned to protein rendering. Rendering takes meat scraps and waste products (carcasses, bones, fat, entrails, organs etc.) and through a process ‘renders’ it into liquefied edible protein.

So, back to our cows. The government allows cow feed to include

1. pork(!)
2. cow fat (!)
3. blood (!)
4. poultry and
5. horse to name a few things

…

Chicken: When I asked the Controlling Officer what the restrictions were on chicken feed, he chuckled and said ‘I don’t know of any real restrictions for poultry feed’.  You can feed them ground up chicken, pork, beef, whatever. He mentioned in his State ‘we have large poultry processor and their chicken waste goes to rendering plant and most goes back to the processer for feeding the chickens’.  So in the case of cows, we’ve turned a ruminate (grass feeder) into a meat eater, and the chicken into a cannibal (though the cow does get to eat cow fat). He did mentioned there were ‘only’ 9 or 10 drugs that can be given to poultry used for meat, and 3 for egg producing hens. And there is supposed to be a drug ‘withdrawal’ period, the poultry should be off the drugs for a time before going to slaughter. Who knows if that happens, probably hard to even detect or enforce.

Alhamdulilah, we’re blessed here in the twin cities to have Holy Land Grocery that sells meat that is vegetarian fed.  It isn’t organic and probably still comes from a quasi factory farm, but at least it isn’t pork fed.

squee

1. A squeal of excitement or delight (especially used by fangirls on the Internet).

I tend to obsess about things.  Currently, it is Star Wars, natural eating, ma kitteh and as always, Allah (swt). 

I first read Omnivore’s Dilemma a year and a half ago, and it (along with In Defense of Food) has changed my life.  While it is slow going, I’ve been working on removing all the processed foods out of my life and am hoping to add organic, zabiha meats to my diet.  So imagine my fan girlish delight when I saw this:

-No hormones and No antibiotics

-No grain in the feed, beef is exclusively GRASS FED

-All the cuts are dry aged to enhance tenderness as well as increase flavor

-No animal by products in the feed, in fact no feed at all, its just grass

-Cattle live live naturally, on wide open pastures

-No animals come from feedlots or stockyards, only animals directly from farms.

-You are supporting farmers who heal the land through sustainable practices

-Not just grass fed, but rotational grazing methods are used, which helps by having the grass and earth retain more carbon, as well as limit the need for de-wormers and vaccines for the cattle!

-All animals are harvested by hand without use of stunning, (blunt traumatic force to the brain) minimizing the amount of blood left in the meat, making it more healthy

-The meat is artisanally carved by hand and individually wraped and labled

We are very pleased to say that Green Zabiha is sourcing beef from the iconic Joel Salatin’s Polyface farm, one of the most well known and respected names in organic/biodynamic/pastured farming popularized by the seminal book The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the film Food Inc. To learn more visit Polyface Farms and Green Zabiha. For our prepared beef items, we also used cattle from Rich and Joe’s in Nebraska, you can see pictures of their farm by clicking here.

*faints*

 For the uninitated, Pollen visits Polyface farm in Omnivore’s Dilemma.

While it certainly is convenient to have a Target 2 blocks from work, it does have it’s drawbacks.  Like yesterday, I went to buy some hand soap and sugar over my lunch hour.  Ah, but getting the big soap refill is cheaper.  And a bigger bag of sugar is more economical than the smaller bag.  Oo, and I need peanut butter, better get the big jar of that too.  Oh no wait, my sugar container isn’t big enough for a big bag of sugar.  Better look for bigger containers too.  No wait, those are all too expensive.  What’s this?  And it’s clearanced??  Only 3 dollars???  Sold!

And that is how I ended up lugging 2 very heavy, very large bags of stuff home on the bus and became the proud owner of a this lovely  frog cookie jar, er, sugar container.  I can’t decide if it’s cute or hideous.  Maybe it’s hideously cute.  Or cutely hideous.

The Squeakster sniffs the newest addition to the household.  I swear, she sniffs everything.

I don’t have much in the way of an interior decorating plan or philosophy, but I do have an idea – frogs.  Yes, my kitchen will one day inshaAllah be frog themed.  When I moved into my apartment 4 years ago, my mom and I went thrift shopping for a few things I needed and came upon a pottery barn pot that had a leaping frog on it.  Just what I needed to store my kitchen utensils in!

I haven’t worked much on that theme since then, because someone in this household who is not me is uber frugal and doesn’t think I need to spend money decorating my kitchen.   The tide may be turning however.  We went to the mall this past weekend to spend some gift cards and I dragged AbuS into William Sonoma to browse.  While there,  he fell in love with the espresso machines and decided we needed one.  We test drove a few, but ended up only purchasing a much needed apron.  However, an espresso machine has been added to our new “to get” list.   We need a new microwave, a bookshelf and now apparently, an espresso machine (and an ipod touch, but that’s a different story).

In any case, I’ve rambled on long enough about nothing.  I assembled what I have thus far for my funky green and orange frog themed kitchen.  It’s not much, but it’s a looong way from the kid who had absolutely no desire to be girly and domesticish.

…zucchini season!

It’s Farmer’s Market Thursday here in downtown Minneapolis, and the first week that zucchinis have graced us with their presence.   I went a bit zucchini crazy last year (ok, it was zucchini mad, with a zucchini infused dish every night for 3 weeks) and fully intend to make it an annual tradition.  If you have a tried and true zucchini recipe, send it my way!

On the to make list:

• Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes
• Zucchini Ricotta Cheesecake
• Spinach and Zucchini Soup
• Buttermilk Summer Squash Soup
• Lemony Chickpea Stir-fry
• Zucchini Herb Casserole
• Summer Squash Pizza
• Sauceless Garden Lasagna
• Zucchini Grinders
• Mahshy

Made a few new recipes that turn out well this weekend:

Chocolate tapioca pudding with bananas – left out the whipped cream and chocolate cookies.  I actually cut up a whole banana into a bowl, and then only put a few spoonfuls for the pudding on top, so it was more banana then pudding.  Tasty and natural, unlike the package add milk and stir puddings from the grocery store.

Corn and Shrimp Chowder without Bacon – menos bacon obviously, so I skipped step 2, and at step 3, heated some olive oil in the pan to cook the scallions and potatos.  I suppose I could have used turkey bacon, but with my goal of getting processed food out of my live, I figured turkey processed to heck and back to look like faux bacon would not fit the bill.  Quite tasty, although I picked the shrimp out of my serving.  I’m not a huge fan of shrimp, but AbuS is, so I figured I’d save them all for him

Lemonade with Watermelon-Strawberry ice cubes.  A modified Martha Stewart recipe.  Originally suppose to be watermelon-strawberry popsicles, but since I didn’t have any popsicle molds, I improvised and put the mix into ice cube trays.  Then, throw 3 cubes in a glass, top with lemonade and wa’la

I know the food pictures aren’t the greatest.  One of these days, I’m going to get a nice wooden plate and bowl, and a clear glass to take food pics for the blog.  But until then, enjoy my vintage Micky D’s Disney glasses from my days as a McDonalds crew member.

I also went co-op shopping this weekend, and I swear this is not a staged pic.  I was setting up my purchases to photograph, and the Squeakster decided to pose with the food for me.

Annie’s Mac n Cheese was on sale for $1.49 a box.  I also stocked up on fruit leather, which is all natural, for lunch sweets.  And, vanilla extract free chocolate chips.

Last weekend, I visited my local coop to stock up on organic Annie’s macncheese, alcohol free vanilla extract, and rapunzel bouillon, and a great sense of happiness settled upon me.  I was amongst my people, my earth loving, tree hugging, hippy dippy people.

Since we began to eat soley zabiha + unprocessed foods, both AbuS and I have felt a tremendous amount of baraka in our lives and in our marriage.  Why wouldn’t all muslims want to feel the same?   Then I felt a little sad.  Where were all the earth loving, tree hugging, hippy dippy muslims?   Alhamdulilah, they’re out there.

Via The Muslimah on FB:

There isn’t much yet on the site, but rest assured, I shall be checking it obsessively. 

I’m especially excited about this challenge, to submit islam/muslim based food wisdom to Michael Pollen.  I’m going to comb the hadith for wisdom from the blessed Prophet’s (saws) lips.

Healthy bran muffins!  No no, don’t run away shaking your head in disgust.  These are tasty tasty bran muffins that fill you up and take the edge off a sweet tooth.  My recipe modifications are in italics, cuz you know it can’t be too healthy.

½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup honey
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons dark molasses
2 eggs (or egg substitute)
2 ripe mashed bananas (or 1 cup applesauce)
1 cup low far or non fat milk
3 cups wheat bran
1 1/3 cup whole wheat (or white) flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 cup raisins (or dried cranberries, dried cherries or mixture of all)
or 1 cup mini chocolate chips, or ½ mini chocolate chips and ½ dried fruit

Put all ingredients in a large bowl and stir until combined

Spray 12 large cupcake tins with cooking spray and fill each ¾ full with the mixture.  I actually get 18 muffins out of this recipe when I’ve made it. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes

I had falafel on my to make list this week, but just look at this:

Baked Sweet Potato Falafel

*packs chickpea flour and sesame seeds in suitcase for the forthcoming grand tour of wisconsin*   My poor grandma, she’s going to regret taking me up on my offer to cook for her while I visit.

When I was a teenager, I had a visceral hatred of anything Martha Stewart.  Being a happy homemaker was totally not on my list of things to do with my life.

Now here I am 12 years later, and granted, I’m still not much of a homemaker.  Thank God AbuS is not one of those Egyptian husbands who calls up and says “honey, I’m bringing home some guys to watch the game.  We’ll be there in half an hour,” because our apartment is constantly in shambles.  I do take full credit for that however, as it’s mainly my piles of stuff lying about, cluttering everything up and creating a hazard for anyone who walks in through our door.   He has invited some Jehovah’s Witnesses over these last 2 weekends to do some reverse proselytizing, but alhamdulilah he gave me a week’s notice, so I had plenty of time to pick up and even make cookies (which the JW only ate a bite of  >:(.  This weekend he only got coffee).

I must retract my former loathing of all things Martha and give my two thumbs up to the magazine Everyday Food.  The recipes are simple, quick and easy to make, which is a huge boon when you’re trying to make an entire week’s worth of meals in a single afternoon.

I’ve made two absolutely fantabulous low sodium soups from EDF these last two weeks, Vegetable Chowder and Vegetarian Split Pea Soup.  

Sprinkle a little sargento shredded cheddar cheese on top, crumble in a few crackers and you’ve got a hearty, satisfying dinner for an entire week.  

Alas, no pictures, because pictures of my soup never end up looking very appatizing.  I think I’ll look for a pretty wooden bowl and plate to provide a better backdrop for my food pictures.

Sr. Tammy has some delicious looking sabaya recipes on her blog.  As soon as I can find her directions for folding, I’m totally all over it.

*drools*

Going to take the car in tomorrow for some much avoided repair work.  Last time I had repair work done, they had to replace my back axle to the tune of $1,000.  Apparently I had driven 500 miles of my 700 mile grand tour of Wisconsin with a broken axle.  If I hadn’t taken the car in for a tire rotation in my hometown while on tour, the tires could have come off while I was driving on the highway!  So alhamdulilah, despite the steep price tag.

There’s something screwy with the right front something or other that I deferred doing last time but really should do before I go on my next grand tour at the end of the month.  Make dua that it isn’t another $1,000.

ugh, being an adult has too much responsibility attached.

On a related (to the forthcoming grand tour of Wisconsin) note, my mom and my sister have both been receptive to my obsession with eating naturally (and by extension zabiha-y), ie meals made from scratch with whole ingredients and no scary sounding chemicals and preservatives.  Mom and I actually talked this last weekend about a story we both heard on NPR, in particular, this part:

Kessler says it is possible to create virtually anything with chemicals. In his book, he writes that a piece of meat can be made to taste like it has been seared, braised, roasted or grilled. And, he tells Norris, much of our food today — because it’s so highly processed — is enormously palatable.

Seriously, is that not disturbing?

And, I often have talked with her about my grocery shopping triumphs, where I manage to purchase only whole ingredients.  So, she’s already aware that I’ve become super nit picky about what I eat.  I’m really hoping that she won’t freak when I refuse to eat x y and z at their table.

I’ve already offered to do the cooking for my grandma and my parents while I’m there, so I am hoping to introduce some tasty vegetarian cuisine sans non zabiha meat and potential alcohol.

This rarely lasts more than 2 days in our house.  Also notice the almost clean stove top.  That’s a rarity too.

Omm Ali is one of my favorite Egyptian foods.  I used to fill my suitcases with mixes when I visited and carefully ration them out.  Little did I know that this dish actually isn’t all that hard to make.  Thank you google!

I can’t speak to how authentic this recipe is, since I haven’t been to Egypt in 4 years and my memory of it has been obscured by my own attempts to make it.  However, AbuS has claimed that what I make is better then the stuff we ate next to the Hussein mosque the day we bought our rings.

*1 can of refrigerator crescent rolls (Pillsbury actually makes a general cooking pastry in the rolls section as well that works) or one sheet puff pastry dough.  In my continued quest to cut out processed foods, I’m going to attempt to make my own puff pastry next time around.  That should be fun…not.  Wish me luck.
*1/2 cup chopped walnuts
*1/2 cup chopped pecans
*1 cup raisins – I usually soak these in hot water for a few minutes to plump them up
*1 cup flaked coconut
*1 cup sugar
*4 (or 6) cups 2% milk

1. Roll the crescent roll sheet out onto a pan, and cut into a bunch of little squares. You don’t need to actually separate the squares. Bake for ~12 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Varies depending on the roll brand you use.  Or, if you’re using puff pastry, bake according to direction, until light and flaky.

2. While the rolls are baking, put the milk over a medium-low heat and stir occasionally. When milk gets warm, add sugar and continue to stir

3. When the rolls are done, grease 9×13 pan, and break the sheet into little pieces across the pan. Add nuts, raisins and coconut. Mix.

4. When milk starts to simmer, remove from heat and pour into 9×13 pan. Mix a bit

5. Bake in 375 degree oven 20-30 minutes.

Now, in egypt Omm Ali tends to have a little soupy sauce. To get this, use the 6 cups of milk. Abu Squeakster likes it at a more bread pudding like consistancy. To get this, use 4 cups of milk.

This is a (relatively) healthier version of what is made in egypt. There, they tend to use heavy cream and/or whole-ish milk.   Tasty, but this goes quickly, so you don’t want to get a whole week’s worth of fat in one sitting.

I haven’t had ice cream in years, since I was diagnosed with cold induced asthma.  As much as I love love love it, it’s just not worth the hour long coughing fit that ensues after an ice cream cone.

Add to that the fact that many ice creams are heavily processed and chock full of chemicals, and most others contain vanilla, there hasn’t been much out there that’s tempting me to start an asthma attack.

Until now.  I present to you Haagen-Dazs Five, “…[a]ll-natural ice cream crafted with only five ingredients for incredibly pure, balanced flavor… and surprisingly less fat.” 

While not all are alcohol free (the mint and vanilla bean contain extracts, which most likely contain alcohol), you still have ginger, coffee, brown sugar, milk chocolate and the heavenly passion fruit to chose from.

I picked up a pint of passion fruit from Target (where it was $1 less then the grocery store) for Abu Squeakster, who love love loved it.  I decided to risk an asthma attack for a taste, and O…M…Gosh it was worth it.  Maybe it’s just because I haven’t had ice cream in forever, but I don’t ever remember an ice cream being so creamy and flavorful.  Definitely worth the coughing fit.  I think I’ll sneak another spoonful tonight

I am reminded of a hadith in musnad Ahmed, who narrates that the Prophet (saws) said:

“Whoever leaves something for the sake of Allah, Allah will provide him with a better thing.”

Our friends think we are crazy for avoiding food with vanilla, alcohol-based flavorings, and animal rennet.  Ah, you’re missing so much, it’s too hard…

SubhanAllah, Allah (swt) provides us with something better.  I leave my kraft cheese, and Allah (swt) gives me cabot, sargento and seriously strong cheddar.   I leave my kraft macaroni and cheese, and Allah (swt) gives me Annie’s.   I leave my Babcock Ice Cream (which has gelatinin it *sobs*), and Allah (swt) gives me Haagen Dasz Five.  I’m still waiting for my replacement for diet pepsi, but inshaAllah it will be coming

Via sabiwabi, I found a message from Imam Siraj Wahhaj on a return to wholeness.  First and foremost, his cancer is under control, alhamdulilah!  And second, it appears that his illness has caused him to reflect on the same subject I have been pondering, eating whole.

I want to share something with you that has been constantly on my mind. Allah mentions in His Qur’an: “laa taqtuluu anfusakum”, i.e., “do not kill yourselves” (4:29). My advice to the Muslim Ummah, (as well as to others), is “Let us stop killing ourselves”. The most surprising thing to me when I first visited Mecca in 1978, was to see how many Muslims smoked cigarettes. According to the World Health Organization, if the nations of the world do nothing, as many as one billion people will die as a result of smoking cigarettes in the 21st century. That is an obscene number of preventable deaths! Without a doubt, cigarette smoking is HARAM and is absolutely prohibited in Al Islam! (See Fatawa Islamiyah)

…

But, while cigarette smoking, alcohol and drugs are more obvious vices, there are other subtle ways in which we are killing ourselves. One way is by what we eat, and therefore, it is imperative that we become more conscious of our eating habits. It is no accident that the first sin of our father, Adam (pbuh), is something that he ATE! We are literally eating ourselves to death. Diabetes, hypertension and many other diseases are the result of our diets. Insha’Allah MANA, as well as other organizations, will advance initiatives that promote healthy eating and healthy living. How do we prepare our foods? How much do we eat? What do we eat? These are all questions that we have to answer. I now feel compelled to help in any way that I can to bring experts to help inform us of what is best for us. Insha’Allah, more to come about that in the future. A word of caution: many people will be upset to learn the truth about the poor quality of foods we’ve been eating for so many years. Most of which, nutritionally speaking, does not qualify to be called “food”.

MashaAllah, it’s like he’s reading my mind!  I’ve done a ton of damage to myself from my years of unhealthy eating.  I’m on medication for my high blood pressure.  Can you imagine, dangerously high blood pressure at the age of 27?  Since I’ve started to cut out processed foods, it’s been inching down alhamdulilah, although there’s still quite a ways to go before it hits “normal.” 

I wonder if he’s picked up In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan?  If I had unlimited resources, I’d buy this book in bulk and pass it out to everyone I meet.

I’ve been striving to cut the processed and non halal products out of my life.   The end is near, as I’ve finally managed to part with my favorite food of all time – Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  *sobs*  From here on out, the only food stuffs in my cupboards are those with whole ingredients.  No chemicals, no multitude of corn derivatives and nothing that may have alcohol or non zabiha animal bits lurking under innocent sounding names.  If I have to google it to find out what it is, it doesn’t belong on my plate.

Since starting this quest, I’ve come across a few must have products for the muslim looking to live whole and halal:

• Ricola- cough drops are a must have for me.  The inhaler only does so much to stop my constant coughing.  Somedays a cough drop is the only thing that will work.  Even the “natural” versions of more popular brands have the ubiquitous and completely non-descriptive ingredient “flavor.”  What kind of flavor?  How is this flavor derived?  Well, I could attempt to write the companies to find out, and more often then not get no answer.  Or, I can pick up a package of Ricola cough drops.  Sure, they contain natural flavors too, but alhamdulilah, they tell you what they are – usually peppermint and spearmint oil.
• Tom’s Toothpaste – the only toothpaste I’ve ever found that has a halal certification.
• Sargento Cheeses- all their cheeses (except Romano, Provolone, Asiago, and Jarlsberg) are made with non-animal rennets.  Check out the Vegetarian Cheese List for more cheeses made without animal rennet.
• Seriously Strong Cheddar- omgoodness, this cheese has a pungent and sharp taste that is to die for.  And it gets bonus points for listing animal rennet right on the ingredients, so I didn’t have to go digging to see if it was ok to eat.
• Chocolates and flavorings made without alcohol
• CSA- community supported agriculture.  inshaAllah we’re going to sign up for a basket this year.  You pay a certain amount up front, and a local farm supplies you with fresh produce and farm products for 18+ weeks.  This is the ultimate in halal and whole eating – you can visit the farm and see exactly how the food you eat is grown.  No mystery processing in a factory, no guesswork, it’s all out there for you to see. 
• Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese- ok, still probably technically a processed food, but one where all the ingredients are easily recognizable.  Made with non animal enzymes.  Not as tasty as kraft, but inshaAllah over time, I’ll get used to it
• Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food and Omnivore’s Dilemna.  Have I mentioned these books before?  Once, twice, a million times?  Still, I’ll mention them here again for the million and first time.  Get them.  Read them.   Then come back and help me formulate an islamic approach to eating whole and halal.  Can we advocate eating local as eating halal?  How about organic?  How would the Prophet (saws) view the modern industrial food complex?  These are all questions that I’ve been mulling over for some time, and inshaAllah hope to formulate an answer on someday soon.

inshaAllah more to come as I find em.

I decided to cook tibetan this week.  Chicken curry, chinese noodle soup and this, boiled cabbage dumplings, from, guess where…The Varied Kitchens of India.  Different, but very very tasty.

2 c flour
3/4 cup cold water, approximately
2 chinese soy bean cakes/tofu (I used about half a block that you typically buy)
2 T oil
2 c chopped chinese or round head cabbage
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1/2 inch fresh gingerroot chopped fine
1 medium sized onion, chopped fine
1 scallion, green part only, sliced thing
2 t soy sauce
1 T sesame butter

1. Mix the flour and cold water into a soft, smooth dough. Knead for 5 minutes, until smooth, adding 1 to 2 T more flour if the mixture is sticky (I actually probably ended up added 6 to 8 T, and the dough was still sticky). Set aside and let the dough rest, covered, for 1 hour.

2. Cut the soybean cakes into 1/4 inch think slices. Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the slices over moderate heat until light brown. Remove and cool. Coarsely chop the slices.

3. Mix together the cabbage, salt, black pepper, garlic, ginger, onion, scallion, soy sauce, tahina, and chopped bean cakes

4. On a floured board, cut the dough into 2 equal strips. Roll out each strip between your palms into rounded lengths about 14 inches long. Cut each strip into 3/4 inch think slices, dust with flour and press into flat discs 2 inches in diameter.

5. Prepare the dough wrapper by rolling out each pressed disc into a thin disc 3 inches in diameter.

6. Place 1 heaping t of vegetable stuffing in the center fo the wrapper that rests in your palm. Pinch together one end of the wrapper, push the stuffing firmly inside, then continue to pinch the dough together at the top of the dumpling. Revolve the mo mo in your hand as you pinch and turn. Make certain that the mo mo is well sealed so that it does not open during cooking. Prepare all mo mo and set aside.

7. In a large pan bring water to a rolling boil over moderate heat. Add about 8 mo mo at a time and cook, uncovered, for 7 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon, and serve immediately.

Serve hot with soy sauce as a dip.

note – the mo mo may be cooked, cooled and refrigerated for about 4 days. Reheat briefly in a steamer when wanted.
The mo mo may also be frozen in the uncooked state for long periods of time. They should be dusted with flour prior to freezing in aluminum foil packages. They should be thawed out for 1 hour before cooking.

Free flowing thoughts:

• On Wisconsin, on Wisconsin…Varsity, oh Varsity…U, rah rah Wiiiiiscooooonsiiiiin.
• Cooking Tibetan this week.  Pictures and recipes forthcoming inshaAllah
• Ah Spring.  I love spring.
• Squeaky loves spring too.  I opened the window, and she went nuts.  She started dashing around like mad and wedged herself between the sliding window and the screen.
• Have I mentioned I love my kitty?

Sweet-and sour chicken and okra, from the jewish kitchen of the Varied Kitchens of India.  I’m totally NOT an okra fan, so I never eat this myself, but the okra loving husband adores this dish.

•  1 chicken, 3 pounds, cut into serving pieces, loose skin and fat discarded (yeah, most of the recipes in the book call for chicken like this.  I tried it a few times, but I’m not a big fan of trying to chop up a whole chicken.  So, I just use boneless, skinless chunks of meat).
• 1 cup thin-sliced onions
• 1 teaspoon crushed fresh gingerroot
• 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 pound okra (I use frozen, usually a whole pound, since the husband really really likes okra)
• 1/4 cup corn or peanut oil
• 1/2 cup chopped ripe tomato (I used canned)
• 2 tablespoons tamarind paste, soaked in 1/2 cup water for 30 minutes
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh hot chili or 1 small whole chili (I don’t keep chilis on hand, so I use aleppo pepper, not too hot for the husband’s bland arab palate).
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

1.  Put the chicken, onions, gingerroot, garlic, salt, turmeric and 1 cup water together into a pan.  Bring to a boil over moderate heat and simmer until the liquid evaporates, about 20 minutes.  Stir from time to time.

2.  In the meantime, trim the ends off the okra and cut a slit 1 inch long in each pod.  Heat the oil in a wok or skillet and fry the okra over moderate heat for 3 minutes.  Remove and set aside (Since I use chopped frozen okra, the first few times I made this recipe, I defrosted it and then fried it.  However, the last time, I just defrosted and didn’t fry,  and it turned out just fine.  A good way to save a little fat).

3.  Add the tomato to the chicken pan and stir-fry the mixture (hamiss) to reduce the remaining sauce to a thick paste.  All the liquid should be evaporated at this stage and the chicken should begin to brown.  Add the other cup of water.

4.  Rub the tamarind paste and soaking water together with your fingers and strain the liquid into the ciken through a metal sieve (I don’t have a sieve, so I just take the tamarind out of the water with my fingers and squeeze.  If little pieces are left, I don’t worry myself with them). Bring the sauce to a boil and add the okra, chili and sugar.  Cook over moderate to low heat for 10 minutes.

5.  Add the mint.  Adjust the sugar, should you wish a stronger sweet-sour flavor.

Serve warm.  There will be plenty of sauce (I usually serve it with rice or warm whole wheat pita bread).

Have I mentioned I’m cooking my way around the world?  It started about a year ago when a friend lent me World Vegetarian, but it began in earnest after Eid al Adha, when the husband bought me Varied Kitchens of India.  For the past 3 months, I’ve basically been cooking exclusively from that cookbook.  As much as I adore it, I do think it’s time to move on.  I have a few countries on my list.  Any thoughts or cookbook recommendations?

• Something more from the author of my varied kitchens book:
  • The Exotic Kitchens of Peru
  • False Tongues and Sunday Bread – Mayan and Guatemalan cooking
  • Sephardic Cooking
  • The Indonesian Kitchen

• Somali – living in the Twin Cities, I often encounter somali cooking at the masjid.  I’m sure I could track down a sister or 2 who could show me the ropes.  Plus, I stumbled on this excellent food blog recently that looks promising – Tammy’s Somali Home.

• Turkish – a friend is taking a turkish cooking class, and she’s posted some recipes on a forum we frequent.  They look delicious.  However, I don’t really know what cookbook would be good for that.

• Carribean – jamerican muslimah mentioned a carribean dish awhile back that peaked my taste buds – conch curry.  While that might be difficult to make up here, I’m sure there’s other stuff I could make.  But again, don’t know what cookbook to get.

• Tibetan – the bean thread and beef recipe I posted is to die for, and the other tibetan recipes I’ve tried from my Varied Kitchens cookbook have been quite tasty too, so it would be nice to explore tibetan cooking more fully.  Alas again, what cookbook?

Bean Threads with Beef, a recipe from the Tibetan Kitchen of Darjeeling, from my all time favorite cookbook, The Varied Kitchens of India.

• 1/4 pound bean threads
• 1 T corn of peanut oil
• 1 T minced onions (I used a whole lot more, as I loooove onions – probably a half an onion worth)
• 1/2 pound flank or sirloin steak, cut into thin 2-inch slices (didn’t have this on hand, so I used half a pound of ground beef, seasoned with salt and pepper)
• 1 garlic clove, chopped fine
• 1 t minced fresh gingerroot
• 1 cup beef broth
• 2 T soy sauce
• 1/4 t salt(I omitted this, as I had already seasoned the beef with salt)
• 1/8 t five-spice mix

1.  Soak the bean threads (phing) in hot water for 15 minutes.  The threads will swell slightly and become translucent.  Drain, and cut into 3 inch pieces with scissors.

2.  Heat the oil in a skillet and stir-fry the onion over moderate heat for 1 minute.  Add the beef and stir-fry for 1 minute.  Add the garlic and gingerroot and continue to stir-fry for 1 minute (I cooked the beef for much longer, as the husband likes meat well done).

3.  Add the broth, soy sauce, salt, five-spice mix and bean threads, and cook for 3 minutes.

Serve warm with the traditional accompaniment, rice (didn’t serve with rice, as the noodles were enough starchiness for the meal).

I’ve become a fairly decent cook and baker.  In the early days of our marriage, dinner consisted of macaroni and cheese with some cut up hot dogs and frozen veggies mixed in.  For a little variety, I may use rice a roni instead of macaroni.  This got very boring very quickly, and my blood pressure went through the roof. 

A year ago, I read Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, and my life changed forever.  The processed foods were chucked out the door.  Ok ok, I’ll admit, I still eat macaroni and cheese about once a week, but other then that, everything I buy needs to fit into this framework:

 “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

For me, this statement translates into buying as many whole foods as possible and making as much as I can from scratch.  Processed food stuffs contain so many ingredients that are a mystery.  For someone who eats zabiha, it’s more than just a question of health.  We want to know that what is going into our bodies is halal.  No alcohol.  No animal products from non zabiha slaughtered animals.  If the alcohol or animal product is cleverly disguised with any number of chemically sounding names, how are we to be sure that our food is halal? 

The answer is simple – buy food with ingredients that are whole and make your meals from scratch.  Not everything that comes out of a box is bad, but more often then not, it’s just not that good for you.

I recently posted this suggestion from Michael Pollan on a muslim message board

1. Don’t eat anything your Great-Grandmother wouldn’t recognize

No Go-Gurt Portable Yogurt tubes. (She wouldn’t be able to identify high-fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, kosher gelatin, carrageenan, tricalcium phosphate, natural and artificial flavors, etc.) No “protein waters,” “nondairy creamers” or foods that never grow stale.

2. Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronouncable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high fructose corn syrup

Pollan’s example: Sara Lee’s Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread, which fails every test proposed by this rule. “If not for the indulgence of the Food and Drug Administration, (it) could not even be labeled “bread,” he wrote.

3.  Avoid products that make health claims

If a food has a health claim, it probably has a package and that means it’s very likely processed. Moreover, the FDA’s “qualified” health claims” are all but meaningless.

4. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle

“Processed foods products dominate the center aisles of the store while the cases of ostensibly fresh food–dairy, produce, meat and fish–line the walls,” Pollan wrote. Be careful though, because high-fructose corn syrup lurks in the dairy case.

5. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible

“You won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market. Also look into CSA (community supported agriculture), in which you can subscribe to a farm and receive a box of produce.)

Unfortunately, the only responses I got were to say that this was too hard for the average person to do.  I disagree.  While it may be overwhelming at first, it’s totally doable, and it’s all about your mind set.   Are you going to approach this as a drag, ohh sigh, life was so much easier when I could just throw things in my cart without reading the ingredient list?  Or are you going to approach it as an act of worship?  Allah (swt) tells us in the Qur’an:

Remember Me and I will Remember you (2:152)

Every second you spend scrutinizing the ingredient list, know that you are doing it for Allah (swt).  Know that you are doing it because He has asked you to eat only halal.  Know that you are doing it to obey Him, to worship Him, to remember Him. 

If that extra time you spend in the grocery store becomes an act of worship, then how can you begrudge it?  The same mentality holds true for cooking from scratch.  I set aside a few hours on the weekend to prepare the food for the week.  I make a few different meat dishes, a few substantial vegetable sides and a dessert.  The only thing I haven’t mastered yet is bread, but inshaAllah I’m going to start working my way through these lessons and see what I can do.

Here are some resources I’ve found invaluable in my cooking odessy:

• Omnivore’s Dilemma – follows four meals from their beginning as plants and animals through the processing until they’re on your plate.  A real eye opener as to where our food comes from

• In Defense of Food – finding the food amongst the food stuff that clutters our lives.

• International and Vegetarian Cookbooks – plenty of recipes that don’t call for processed foods and chemically stuff

  • Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian

  • Madhur Jaffrey’s World of the East Vegetarian

  • Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, Fast and Easy Recipes for Every Day

  • Moosewood Restaurant’s Simple Suppers

  • Varied Kitchens of India

•  Recipe Websites – if I’m at a loss for what to make, I’ll look in the cupboard or fridge, see something I have on hand, and search for a recipe that I can make with it.  It’s a great way to try something new

  • All Recipes

  • RecipeZaar

  • RecipeHound

  • 101 Cookbooks

  • The Fresh Loaf

  • Ahmed’s Egyptian Recipes

If you’re muslim, like to cook and have a blog, sign up!

The Veiled Table is a very informal learning and sharing challenge. A way to test ourselves; try avenues we would normally not even think to attempt; build camaraderie, even open doors for new sisters to come together.

The challenges are open to Muslim women or women married to Muslims (but others will be taken into consideration); for all, novice, intermediate to  practically professional cooks and bakers.

First day of each month will be announced a challenge, a dish for us to decipher and recreate according to our own tastes. Every dish will for sure, be different since not one of us is the same. Mach’Allah we all come from different backgrounds; born into Muslim families or reverts; have different skill levels and talents.

There is no winner or loser, but chance to share/display our ideas, since that is the beauty of Allah’s creations … none of us are alike but we all have one great common thread mach’Allah!

And enchallah way to invite more ladies to our circle of sisters, and mabe just maybe a way for dawah.

If you interested in joining, please read the guidelines, register your e-mail and/or blog …. and let’s get to-a-creating!

I’m currently using Frontier Co-op’s alcohol free vanilla flavoring for my baking.  It’s quite tasty and I have no complaints.  But, it never hurts to have a back up plan.  I found another alcohol free vanilla flavoring on the web this morning, from Cooks.  I haven’t seen it in stores, but it’s on my to try list.

Other alcohol free ingredients from cooks:

• Almond Powder 
• Vanilla Powder

I’m cooking my way around the world!  Around Eid al Adha, the husband and I found ourselves in a used bookstore, and Varied Kitchens of India caught my eye.  He bought it for me as part of my eid present (the other part being the Squeakster – best. eid. ever.), and I’ve been cooking from it non stop ever since.  It’s pretty expensive just about everywhere online unfortunately.  It looks to be cheapest at Halalco, at $20.  I ordered from them years ago and they totally screwed up my order, so I haven’t ordered from them since.  Proceed with caution if you chose that route.

After college, my culinary skills were limited to boxed, processed crap.  Look, make some mac n cheese, chop up some hotdogs, nuke some frozen veggies, mix together and wa’la, it’s a meal!  Yeah, and the result 4 years later is high blood pressure and even higher than normal cholesterol.  Last year, I dabbled in vegetarianism.  It didn’t stick, but in the process, I was introduced to international cuisine.  Through Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking, I discovered the wonders of the curry, and a million and one things to make with beans.

Since picking up my Varied Kitchens of India book, I’ve decided to cook my way around the world.  Just about everything I’ve made from VKI has been absolutely fabulous.  There are a few things I’m not going to try – brain curry just doesn’t sound all too appetizing to me – but I’m steadily working my way through it.  I’ve made a number of recipes each week, and look forward to several more weeks of delicious indian food.

Every weekend, I prepare food for the week.  If I devote 3 or 4 hours on Sunday to cooking, my weekday evenings after work are free for other things (like working my way through Treatise for the Seekers of Guidance, discussing world events with the husband and cuddling with ma kitteh).  Here’s one of the recipes I’ve made recently:

Piaju, Two-Lentil Fritters – this comes from the Jews of Calcutta section of the book, which is the largest.  The author writes in his notes that this isn’t an exclusively jewish food, but that’s where he learned the recipe from.  My notes are in parenthesis.

• 1 cup yellow lentils/chana ka dal
• 1/2 cup red lentils/egyptian
• 1/2 t crushed fresh ginger root (I just used powder)
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed to a paste (out of garlic, so I used garlic powder)
• 1/2 t chopped fresh hot chili ( don’t keep chilis on hand, so I used chili powder)
• 1/2 t ground turmeric
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 medium onions, chopped, 1 cup
• 1 T fresh coriander (didn’t have this, so I threw in some ground coriander seeds. Next time I may use parsley.  I can’t find coriander leaves at the local grocery store)
• 1 c oil for frying (I used probably 1/3 c)

1.   Soak the yellow and red lentils separately in water for 4 hours. Drain. Crush them to a coarse paste in a processor.
2. Mix the lentils and the gingerroot, garlic, chili, turmeric, salt, onions and coriander together (I divided the lentils in half and put half the ingredients in with each half into the food processor)
3. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet over moderate heat. Take 1 heaping T of the lentil mixture and shape into a 2 inch fritter about 3/8 inch thick. Continue to shape fritters with the rest of the mixture. Brown them in oil for about 2 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels

Serve warm with lemon wedges (I just squeezed lemon juice into a bowl and dunked at will. Mmm, tasty.)

(When I make these again, I’ll only make up what we’re going to eat just then. They’re not as good reheated.  Also, I may try to bake them – brush a pan with olive oil, put the paddies on the pan and then brush the tops with olive oil.  The doctor told me no more fried foods, and oil is used liberally in this cookbook *sobs*)

More recipes to come inshaAllah.  I’m thinking about trying either Vietnamese or Caribbean cooking next.  Any cookbook recommendations?

…I’ve accidentally ended up live blogging kitty’s first full day with me on the catsite.  So rather than repeat it all here, if anyone’s interested, here it is:

www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182483

Lots of pics of kitty, plus some of the food I made.

I will say this is one needy kitty.  Thankfully, she napped for an hour and a half this afternoon, and let me get a good 4 dishes cooked – kashmiri stir fried cabbage, calcutta jewish fish curry, parsi liver and spices and lemon chicken with almonds from I’ve forgotten where – all from my new cookbook I mentioned in the last post.  MmmMmmmMmmmm!

Ok, I can’t resist, one more kitty pic:

I am so absolutely awesome that I will not jump up on your lap.  Instead, I will sit here and meow incessantly while you pat your lap and say up up up a million times like a fool.  Then, you will eventually tire and will pick me up, and I will sleep on your lap for an hour, even though you have tomato soup on the stove that needs stirring.

I’m home.  Spent 3 days straight with my extended family – all 25 of them.  Yeah, it was nice, but a bit much.  Random things I have learned:

• My uncle lived a very full life and touched a lot of people.  Alhamdulilah. 
• My dad was crazy in college.  Real crazy.  Lampshade on head crazy.
• Life on the farm was hard.  Ok, I theoretically knew that before, but hearing the stories about growing up on the farm, man, it was tough.
• My dad and his brothers performed science experiments on the barn cats when they were little, such as: how high up does a cat have to be dropped from before it can land on it’s feet?  Boo.
• There is such a job as elephant floor salesman.  That’s what my dad and uncle’s college roommate does for a living.  He sells floors for elephants.
• My dad and my uncle roomed together in college.  They had a very poor sense of hygiene.
• My dad and his siblings are horrible at Taboo.  I, on the other hand, rock.
• The Sunday after Thanksgiving is the worst day to travel.  It took me an hour and a half longer than it normally does to drive between Madison and Minnesota.  The last 19 miles along 94 to the Minnesota border were bumper to bumper traffic.
• My grandmother will never get over my hijab.  She asks me the same questions about it every time I see her. 
• Speaking of hijab, my aunt thinks my hijab is stupid.  Well, she can bite me.
• Madcat is my new favorite pet store.  Too bad it’s in Madison.  They feed their store kitty evo wet food, and OMGosh, she was soooo soft.
• Left over veggie fajita fillings make a good omelet the morning after.
• There are lots of good wet cat foods out there.  I got probably 10 different brands, 20 different flavors.  I also have 3 varieties of dry food: Innova, Origen and Solid Gold.   I figure I’ll see what kitty likes best and get more of that.
•  My kitty is going to be so spoiled.
• Speaking of kitty, my husband is weird.  He asked me this morning if I could sew some clothes for the cat.  Yeah, I can’t sew.  Apparently, he wants to take the cat outside in the winter.  Um, yeah.
• The american paper industry is in dire straights.  My dad, 2 of his brothers and 2 of my aunts are/were all in the paper industry.  Many of the people who came to the funeral were paper people.  My brother is going to be a chemical engineer who specializes in paper, just like my dad.  Every time my dad introduced my brother and said what he was studying, the person groaned, rolled their eyes and urged him to get the heck out while he still can.
• Unsloppy joes are the awesome.  It’s my new favorite recipe.  I made it for my grandma and my sister this weekend, and when my aunt and her boyfriend stopped over, they tried it too.  They all had to have the recipe.

And now, on with life.  We’re into Dhull-Hijja.  Eid is potentially next Monday.  I haven’t had a chance to see if there’s squabbling about the date yet, so I’m not sure.  inshaAllah we’re getting a kitty next weekend.  Alhamdulilah.

Found some non alcoholic fair trade vanilla flavor at my local co-op this weekend.  Made completely alcohol free chocolate chip cookies with some chocolate and peanut butter chips made without alcohol (also from the co-op).  Taaaaasty!

Frontier Non Alcoholic Flavors

I haven’t gone through and checked each one, but most do not have alcohol.  The extracts do, as does the raspberry flavor.  If you’re ordering, make sure you click on the “details” icon and check the ingredient list.

On my shopping list:

Quran 2:172 

O you who believe, eat of the good things We have provided to you and be grateful to Allah, if it is He whom you worship (in real terms). (Mufti Muhammad Taqi Uthmani)

O you who have attained to faith! Partake of the good things which We have provided for you as sustenance, and render thanks unto God, if it is [truly] Him that you worship. (Muhammad Asad)

On the near freezing, miserable dreary day that is today, I say Alhamdulilah for chai.  In partcular, TeaSource Chai Spice Blend.  Got the chai goop (aka spices and sweetened condenced milk) in the fridge at work, so when I get in, all I need to do is brew a cup of black tea, add a spoon full o goop and I’ve got something to warm my insides.

Alhamdulilah!  Chai is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

…about that. It’s alcohol. Would you cook with beer or wine? Yeah, real vanilla extract has more alcohol then either of those. And it can make you drunk if you drink it.

There are fatwas out there that say vanilla extract is ok, but seriously now, shouldn’t this be common sense? Beer and wine = no way, but vanilla extract, more potent then either, is ok?

Extracts from the shafi’i perspective

So vanilla extract is essentially a mixture of vanilla in a liquid intoxicant (namely, ethanol). It is therefore filth and forbidden to ingest, etc. Anything with vanilla extract added to it would be filthified and therefore also haram to ingest.

Now for the really bad news: chocolate. Most of it contains vanilla in some form or another. Yeah yeah, I know, I’ve been weeping over it since I started investigating it a few months ago. I know I’m an evil awful person for having ruined chocolate for ya’ll, but tough cookies. When I was in college, someone told me that my favorite ice cream, made right there on campus, had gelatin. I stuck my fingers in my ears (literally!) and went la la la la la, I didn’t hear that. If you don’t know, it’s halal, right?

But, there is a ray of hope. There is some chocolate that is made without vanilla. I’m not saying everything made by these companies is alcohol free. Always read the ingredients before you buy:

• Coppeneur
• Domori
• Rococo
• Theo Chocolate
• New Tree
• Michel Cluizel
• Lang’s Chocolate – includes a list of certified halal chocolates
• Terra Nostra – they have milk chocolate too. Most chocolate without vanilla is of the dark variety.
• Dagoba – this is the one I’ve been getting from our local co-op. The Mint and Rosemary is heavenly! They also have chocolate chips and milk chocolate.

I’m sure there are more out there. This is just what I’ve found thus far. Searching “organic chocolate” seems to bring up the best results. Yes, they’re expensive, but what is the cost of peace of mind?

Me thinks I shall make these recipes this weekend inshaAllah:

Roasted Pumpkin Salad

Caramel Apples

Borlotti Bean Mole with Roast Winter Squash

Roasted Tomato Soup

I *heart* 101 cookbooks

I picked up spaghetti and butter squash at the farmer’s market yesterday, and I’m itching to play with them.  I would have bought more, but I was riding the bus home and didn’t feel like holding 20 pounds worth of squash on my lap.

I’m thinking this with the spaghetti variety:

I have everything but fresh basil on hand.  We have plenty of tomatoes from our little balconey garden, the egyptian variety of feta cheese and kalameta olives.  I may actually splurge and buy greek feta from the ME market tonight after iftar.

With the butternut, I’m definately making more of the soup from last weekend.  I think I may try to make this pizza too.  I’ll use Jay’s Pizza Crust instead of a pre-made kind.

Halal Chinese Food.  In my area.  *sniff sniff* Be still my beating heart.

Beignets and Squash Soup.  Very very tasty.  I halved the beignets and would double the soup next time.  I got this soup recipe from a north african cookbook my sister gave me when I got married.  She figured that since Egypt was in North Africa, it would have egyptian food.  Yeah, no.  I hadn’t looked through it much, but was desperate for a butternut squash recipe since the computer was down for the count with a virus.   Alhamdulilah, I found this really tasty soup.

I used fresh squash, not frozen.  It was a little time consuming to peel, but not bad.  I cut it in half first and then into 1-2 inch strips.  From there, it was easy to cut off the rind.  I didn’t make the mint puree, despite the fact we have mint up the wazoo growing on our balcony.  I need to get a morter and pestle and a food processer inshaAllah.  It’s hard to do that stuff in a blender.

This summer, I went on a zucchini binge.  Now I’m going to go on a winter squash binge.  I’m looking to cut processed foods out of my diet.  From here on out, I’m only buying whole foods or boxed foods that have ingredients that I recongize (ie no chemically sounding things or artificial flavors).  I figure if I pick a vegetable, I should be able to google a recipe and find a whole new world of foods outside the box.  I’d love to go vegetarian, but that didn’t work so well last time we tried it.  The husband went a little crazy without his meat.  This time, I’m going to approach it a different way – prepare a hearty vegetable dish as the main course, and serve meat as the side dish.

Recipes to try inshaAllah:

• Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Yellow Curry
• Butternut Squash Gnocchi with sage butter
• Spinach Pumpkin Swirl Quiche
• Curried Squash Soup
• Roasted Vegetables
• Garlicky Baked Butternut Squash
• Butternut Squash Fries
• Spicy Pan-Fried Squash
• Fruity Acorn Squash
• Winter Vegetable Hash
• Baked Stuffed Pumpkin – minus the rum of course
• Beef and Pumpkin Stew
• Mombasa Pumpkin Dessert
• Acorn Squash Lasagna
• Spaghetti Squash with Garlic
• Twice Baked Butternut Squash
• Curried Butternut Squash and Apple Soup – minus the brandy
• Squash and White Bean Soup
• Macaroni and Cheese with Butternut Squash
• Squash Potstickers

 Ok, that’s enough!  I think that should exhaust my squash enthusiasm.

I think what I’ll miss most when I finally give up television (inshaAllah) is the PBS cooking academy. Saturday morning, I plop down for a good 2 to 3 hours, and watch show after show, attempting to gleen recipes and techniques. Almost every weekend, I come away with something new to cook.

Yesterday, I found it on Sara’s Weeknight Meals – Quick Asparagus Lasagna. As always, I futzed with the recipe. I made the dish twice as big as called for – 12 square wantons rather than 6 per layer, doubled the veggies, but didn’t double the cheese. This was mainly a result of the fact that the only pan I had available would fit 12, and that I had frozen broccoli in the freezer to add for the unplanned expansion. The first layer I laid down the broccoli, and the second was the asparagus and the onions. Tasty tasty tasty. Definitely in the “will make again” pile. Next time, I think I may add a light tomato sauce to give it a little more flavor.

If anyone is looking for a quick and easy iftar recipe, this is definitely one for the books.

On a related note, went to the Saint Paul Farmer’s market on Saturday to get veggies for the iftars I’ll be making this week.

You really can’t get a good sense of size from this picture. Everything but the tomatoes and eggplants are massive. The cauliflower is seriously bigger than my head. The tomatoes, peppers and green peppers are for the Huevos Rancheros (another cooking academy find) I’m going to make for the first suhoor Monday inshaAllah, if Ramadan really is Monday that is. If it’s Tuesday, I doubt we really want a bunch of beans before we go to work.

Finally, my dear beloved dates. I went to Holy Land last weekend to stock up on grape leaves and other ME cooking essentials. The date section was well stocked, but what was this?? No majdool dates???? Oh, I nearly had a heart attack. It just isn’t ramadan without these dates. Nothing else tastes good to me. Luckily, I tracked down an employee and pleaded with her, where are the majdool dates? Apparently, they weren’t done boxing them up yet, but she went in the back and got me some. Alhamdulilah, now ramadan can start!

Ooo, it’s almost here!  Ramadan will start either the 1st or the 2nd, inshaAllah.  For working women, Ramadan can be a nightmare.  You work hard all day long, and then come home and try to whip up something for the family to enjoy.  Even if they’re not expecting anything fancy (alhamdulilah the husband isn’t one who demands a 5 course meal, which is good, cuz he’d never get one), it can still drain away the little energy and time you have, and there’s not much left to dedicate to ibadah.

This year, it’s going to be different.  inshaAllah I’m going to do the bulk of the cooking/baking on the weekends. Then, during the week the husband and I can take a walk after work, spend some time with the Qur’an and just heat up the iftar. 

So now I’m planning what I’ll be making this weekend.  It’s Farmer’s Market day here in downtown Minneapolis, so I’m hoping do a lot of with fresh veggies.

Cauliflower with Tomato (Arnabet Ba AL-Tamatem)

There should be some cauliflower at the FM.  I always make this with much less butter than is actually called for , 1 or 2 tablespoons as opposed to half a freakin stick.

Mulukhiya

I’m so not a fan, but the husband is, so he can “enjoy” all of this green, snot-like dish.  bleck.  I use a variation first recipe with frozen mulukhiya.  I don’t actually use a chicken.  Instead, I use chicken stock.

Huevos Rancheros and Refried Beans

This is actually what I’m planning to make for suhoor of the first day.  I saw this episode of America’s Test Kitchen last weekend and have been dying to try it.  You have to register to see the recipe, but it’s well worth it.  It’s done with homemade salsa and refried beans.  It calls for pork fat, but I’ll just substitute butter. 

The husband loves foul (mashed fava beans), so I thought he would love refried beans.  I was shocked to find out that he didn’t.  Then I saw this episode last week, and they tasted premade canned beans and hate them all.  Ah, perhaps it is the fact that I’ve only served premade beans, and he’s used to homemade foul.  So, perhaps he’ll like the refried beans that I’ll be making from scratch, inshaAllah.

Chicken

No recipe here, just the same ol same ol.  I have to prep it the *egyptian* way, otherwise it apparently smells too much like chicken.  Um yeah, too much like chicken.  So, I rub it down with flour, let it sit awhile, rinse it off, and then rub it with grated onions, pepper and lemon juice.    Then I’ll pick a spice from my collection (oh, it’s lovely, I’ll be blogging about that eventually), rub it in, and bake in the oven until it’s done, at 350. 

Vegetable Lasagna

Haven’t tried this one yet, but I can get zucchini, eggplan, squash and possibly mushrooms at the FM.

Quick Moussaka

My great aunt gave me some old Everyday Food magazines, and this is one of my favorite recipes.

Curried Shrimp

I don’t leave the tails on.  bleck!

Yup, I think that looks good.  More than enough food for a week.  Add to that a bag of salad and a bowl of watermelon, and we’ll be good to go inshaAllah.

Twin Cities Somalis are moving down to Postville, Iowa, to fill positions at a kosher food plant previously filled by illegal immigrants.

The influx of Somalis has been met with some surprise in a community still bewildered by the Agriprocessors raid, the largest raid of its kind in the United States. Federal agents arrested 389 people, mostly Guatemalans and Mexicans who had established roots and become part of the community.

The new immigrants have “raised some eyebrows, which is pretty normal when you get somebody different in town,” Mayor Robert Penrod said.

“That said, as far as I know, they haven’t caused a whole lot of problems. They’ve been keeping to themselves,” he said.

It’s not the first cultural change in Postville. The slaughterhouse attracted eastern Europeans in the 1990s, including immigrants from Bosnia, Poland and the former U.S.S.R. Hispanics became the majority in the past decade.

The result is a town barely covering two square miles is home to people from 24 nationalities speaking 17 languages.

It’s situations like these that increase my wariness of mass produced meat.   Not only are those who do the slaughtering treated like crap, the animals are often subjected to degrading conditions.  One of the (many) things I’m struck with when I read about the life of our beloved Prophet (saws) is his kind regard for everything, including animals.

The Prophet (saws) said “The merciful are shown mercy by the All-Merciful. Show mercy to those on earth, and He Who is in heaven will show mercy unto you.”

If we do not treat every living thing with the dignity it deserves, be it the cow that will become our hamburger or the human being working to bring that hamburger to our table, how then can we expect Allah (swt) to treat us with dignity?  If every bite you take is tainted with the mistreatment of animals and man, how can we face Allah (swt) on the day of judgment and claim that we showed mercy to those around us, when we ignored their plight?

Heck, this extends to all massed produced food and products.  How are the workers would make our clothes treated?  The migrants who are out in the fields picking our lettuce?  Methinks muslims need to get more involved in the fair trade movement.

Since there were no comments *ehem* yaay or ney as to me deviated from the original intent of the blog, I am now going to subject ya’ll to cooking posts.

~*~*~*~ 

This has been the year in which I’ve actually cooked.  Thanks to Madhur Jaffrey, I can do Indian, Mediterranean and African vegetarian cooking.  Thanks to my sister who went to a thai cooking school while on her around the world adventure, I can do thai vegetarian.  Thanks to the International Vegetarian Union, I can find recipes from just about anywhere and make a mean strawberry tabouli and watermelon lemonade, perfect summer recipes for when it’s too hot to turn on the stove.  And, thanks to Ahmed Hamdy Eissa, my egyptian cooking has improved to the point where the husband says we no longer need to eat out at middle eastern restaurants, because I cook better than them.

Last night, I ventured into gulf territory, somewhere I haven’t been before.  Arabic Bites is chock full of new recipes just waiting for me to try.  So, I made Maraq al Dajaj.   I don’t know what possessed me to make this recipe, since I had a whole chicken, and this recipe calls for one that’s cut up.  I’ve never cut up a chicken before, and hopefully will never have to go through that again.  Me with a knife hacking away at a chicken that keeps slipping out of my grip is not a pretty picture.  Next time, I’ll just buy boneless skinless chicken breasts to use. 

We don’t have basmati rice at home, so I just nuked some of the shorter grained rice we had.  Yes, I microwave my rice, which drives my rice loving friends nuts.  But really, if I have to chose between nuked rice and rice that turns out horribly every time I attempt it in the pan, I’ll stick with the microwave, thank you very much.  I suppose I could just get a rice cooker but I have like 2 feet by 1 foot of counter space open, and I need that to prepare food.  Until I get a bigger kitchen, that means no more kitchen gadgets for me (ahh, food processor, I’m waiting for you).

Because I’m always second guessing things, I added too much in the way of spices, so I had to add a cup of water and a little can of tomato sauce in an attempt to de-spicify.  I don’t mind overpowering spiciness, but the husband is definately in the bland camp.  He said it was “really good”, with the caviate that next time, don’t make it so spicey.  That’s a rave review from him, considering that he gave it without me asking.  Normally I have to pester him after a meal to see how he liked it, and whether or not I should add it to my repetouire.  This one definatley goes in the “to make again” pile.

Notice the tight angle on the pot and bowl, so you can’t tell how messy my kitchen is.

From NPR:

Recent allegations of employee abuse at an Iowa kosher meat plant have shaken the religious meat industry. For the millions who buy ritually-slaughtered meat, the raid fueled questions over where it really comes from. Some Muslims in Chicago aimed to find an answer. They began one of the nation’s first sustainably-raised “halal” meat cooperatives, bringing together two groups that don’t usually interact — rural midwestern farmers and urban Muslims.

Taqwa Eco Halal Co-op in Illinois

Mission

To return worship back into the entire process of food production so as to ensure a lawful and wholesome product that will secure the blessings of God Most High in the lives and communities of people. To serve four communities – consumers, food production workers, animals, and the earth; and to make that food production affordable in middle to lower income brackets through special programs.

Coincidentally, I was just talking to the husband about this issue.  I’d like to contact some local organic/humane farmers in the Twin Cities area and see if they’d be willing to do some halal slaughtering for us.  Granted, I think this may have to wait until we have a house and a huge freezer so we can buy in bulk, but it’s definately something on the to do list.

MashaAllah, Allah (swt) has blessed me with a roof over my head and food on the table.  Unfortunately, I’m not too good at managing my intake of food, which has lead to a host of health problems.  I’ve been struggling with my eating and exercise habits for 2 years without sucess, but inshaAllah I’m on the right path now.  I’m writing down everything I eat, dedicating myself to exercise, and not letting my laziness overwhelm me.  Oh, and it also doesn’t hurt that the husband has bribed me…if I lose 20 pounds by my birthday in September, he’ll buy me a cat, huzzah!

To that end, I’m a member of Sparkpeople, where there’s a muslim sister support group.  Today, a sister posted a thought provoking question

Does anyone sees the irony of us trying to lose weight and eat less, when there’s a major, worldwide food shortage going on?

The price of the whole wheat pita bread the husband adores went up 50 cents since we last bought it 2 weeks ago, but that’s nothing compared to the jump of prices people are facing across the world.  The husband is originally from Mahalla el-Kubra, home of the recent strikes/food riots, where food prices have doubled.

Allah (swt) tests us all in different ways.  For my in laws, they struggle with too little food that costs too much.  For me here in the US, I struggle with too much food that, despite the recent increases, is still very affordable.

Wouldn’t it be great if we thanked Allah (swt) when we succeed in our struggles?  And what better way to thank Him right now than to give sadaqah to those who are also struggling. 

I’m going to pledge $x for each pound I lose to Islamic Relief’s Global Food Crisis Campaign, and I invite anyone else out struggling to lose weight to do the same.

The husband and I recently made the switch to eating zabiha slaughtered meat only.  On occasion, fast food commercials will tug at my heart strings when I think that I’ll never again have a chicken breast from KFC or a double cheeseburger from Burger King (at least here in the US).  But, for the most part, I’m over it.  We’re eating more vegetarian food at home, and the zabiha meat we do eat is often raised in a more humane manner than what we used to get from the local Rainbow.

Today however, I had one of those horrible realizations.  When I was in junior high, our foreign language department packed us all on buses and took us on a four hour bus trip up to the Twin Cities to attend the Festival of Nations.  Now that I live up here, it’s something the husband and I love to do every year.  My favorite part?  The food.  Ah, but alas, much of it isn’t zabiha.  Heart drops, dark pit forms in the stomach, nooooooooooooo!  Maybe the food from some countries (egypt, pakistan, somali?) will be, but I’m not getting my hopes up.

 Ah well, at least pisan goran is vegetarian.

As I think I’ve mentioned previously, I have a (self diagnosed) obsessive-compulsive personality.  I find something to be excited about, be it running, salat or whatnot, and fixate on it for a few weeks or months before I slowly lose interest and move on to something else.  I’m just coming off my salat high, although I’m working hard not to lose it.  Let’s see if I can keep up 3 obsessions – 1. salat, 2. running, and 3, the new one – organic, free range halal meat.

The husband and I have been eating meat from the local groccery store with a bismillah at the beginning, which according to certain scholars is ok.  With more study on the matter, and the admonishment of several scholars I respect, I’ve found that unless there’s no halal meat available, that meat is filth and should be avoided.  That makes the chicken curry look a little bit less appetizing.  If one knows that the meat was slaughtered by a christian or a jew, in the name of God, then it’s ok, but how do we know who’s slaughtering out meat in a groccery store?

That, in conjunction with the disgusting practices that take place in the american meat industry, has set me on a new mission – to find a source of meat that is both humanely raised and slaughtered in a halal manner.  It isn’t good enough for the animal to be slaughtered in a halal, humane manner, if the animal was abused during it’s life on a factory farm.

Now, does such a thing exist?  I’m not quite sure.  One of the local ME groccery stores gets their meat from Halal Price Farms.   Their website is down, but they claim the chickens are naturally raised.  inshaAllah I’ll have to go check it out.   Another good source looks to be Crescent Halal, where the chickens are raised free range and fed a vegetarian diet.

Some reading on the issue:

• If it’s not Organic, it’s not Halal
• Halal, Organic or Vegetarian?
• Assorted Articles on Organic and Halal

Last week, I read an article in the NYT on the effects our abundant meat consuption has on the environment.  As a bonified tree hugger who has lusted after hybrid cars, I was especially impacted by this assertion:

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan a Camry, say, to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

Dude!  I totally cannot afford a hybrid vehicle, but I can reduce my meat consuption.  My freezer is stuffed full of meat.  I buy it when it’s onsale, break it into meal sized portions and freeze for later consumption.  Since it’s always on hand, it’s an easy option for week night dinners.  Simply toss in the microwave, slap on some breadcrumbs and spices, throw in the oven and an hour later, wa’la, it’s a meal.   Um yeah, so we’ve been eating a ton of meat, like meat every single night.

Apprehensively, I proposed a meat minimalist diet to the meat loving husband – let’s limit ourselves to 2 meat based meals a week.  Suprisingly, he agreed!  Whoh, that meant that I needed to come up with something to serve every night other than noodles.  Don’t get me wrong, I love noodles, especially in their macaroni and cheese form, but after a few days of noodles in a row, it gets a little old.  Ok, well, not for me.  I could eat mac n cheese every day for the rest of my life.  It gets old for the husband.

Luckily, a friend of mine transitioned to a vegan diet a few years back, and has quite a library of vegetarian and vegan cookbooks.  I had borrowed her copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking when I was briefly inspired to make indian food, which I had done a few times and then gotten bored.  I pulled out the book and eagerly began to skim, soaking in the wide variety of non meat based meals that were out there.   Later, I paid my friend a visit, returned her long lost book (after ordering my own copy on Amazon), and borrowed Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian.  I also flipped through her most recent aquisition, Veganomics, which I promptly added to my “must get” list. 

Thus far, I’ve made a Chickpea, Tomato and Carrot stew, Lentils with Spinach and Stewed Tomatoes and Chickpeas.  The lentils received a very favorable review from the husband (ie, he actually told me it was good without me having to ask), and the other two were dubbed “good” after I asked.  Success!

Now, I bet you’re thinking, um, yeah, this is all interesting (or increadibly boring), but what is this doing on an islamo-centric blog?  Ah, yes.  When I proposed the meat minimalism to the husband, he said, “yeah, you know, that’s probably a good thing to do.  After all, the Prophet (saws) didn’t eat a lot of meat.”

So of course now I’m intrigued.  It’s obvious the Prophet (saws) wasn’t a vegetarian, nor was he opposed to slaughtering animals.  However, he did stress kindness to animals, and I’m pretty sure most modern factory farms, even those that produce “halal” meat, are not humane to the Prophetic standards.  In some Zaytuna classes I’ve listened to, Imam Zaid has frequently mentioned the importance of eating not just zabiha, but meat from animals that were raised in an organic, free range environment, as well as being aware of the footprint we leave on the environment with our consumption.

I haven’t found much in the way of what the Prophet’s diet actually composed of, but it’s on my list of things to investigate further.