At Eid, family and friends gather for a mega-feast at the end of a month of fasting and praying. Here, Asima shares some recipes steeped in the traditions of her hometown.
Asima’s Eid Menu
Entree
Lukhmi
Main Course
Biryani (Kachi Akhni)
Haleem
Chicken Khorma
Dum Ke Kebab
Accompaniments
Bagare Baigan
Raita
Mixed Salad
Roti or Nan
Dessert
Sheer Khorma
Qubani Ka Meetha
Drinks
Badam Milk
Soft Drinks or Fresh Juice
Lukhmi
Lukhmi is a mince savoury starter, typical of the cuisine of Hyderabad, India
For the pastry:
500gm flour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
3 tbsp ghee
1 cup milk
(Alternatively, you could use store-bought puff pastry).
To be ground:
6 green chillies
5 peppercorns
1 tbsp coriander seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
1 stick cinnamon
4 cardamoms
For the mince:
500gm minced meat (lamb or beef)
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp ghee
A handful coriander leaves
1 tsp mint leaves
Oil for frying.
Preparation
Grind to a fine paste chillies and masalas and keep aside.
To prepare pastry, sieve the flour and salt together. Rub in the ghee till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Make a bay in the centre and put in the milk and ginger-garlic paste. Mix well and knead to a soft but not sticky dough.
To prepare filling, boil the mince with ginger-garlic paste and salt till done. Heat ghee in a pan and fry onion. Add ground masala and sauté well for 3-4 minutes. Add the mince and fry till dry. Mix in the coriander and mint leaves. Keep aside.
Divide the dough into 6-8 portions. Roll each portion into a thin chapati. Place a heaped tablespoon of the mince filling at the centre. Cover with another chapati. Seal the edges by pressing down.
Cut into triangles and deep fry in hot oil.
READ ALSO: Enjoying a spiritual – and edible – Eid
Biryani (Kacchi Akhni)
1 kg basmati rice
1 ½ kg goat meat with bones (preferably) or it can be made with boneless goat meat as well
½ kg yoghurt
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2 onions
½ tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Pinch turmeric powder
Pinch saffron
½ cup cold milk
2 tsp shahzeera
6 cardamom
4 cinnamon sticks
2 -3 tbsp pure ghee
1fresh lime
1 bunch coriander leaves
1 bunch mint leaves
5 – 6 green chillies or to taste
Fry onions in oil then grind.
Marinate meat with yoghurt, red chilly powder, salt, ginger garlic paste, turmeric, coriander, mint leaves, green chillies, cardamom (3), cinnamon sticks (2), shahzeera (1 tsp) and onions (fried and ground). Keep it aside for 2-6 hours, the longer the better.
Boil 3 cups of water with cinnamon sticks (2), cardamom (3), shahzeera (1 tsp) and salt. Once the water is boiling put the washed rice and half cook it. Then drain the water and in another vessel lay the chicken first and then lay the rice on top and then add saffron (after dissolving it in cold milk), lime and pure ghee. Make two layers. Simmer it till rice is cooked either on stove or in the oven. Preferably oven as it cooks all around evenly. Preheat the oven to 180 c and before placing the pot in the oven reduce it to the minimum 60 c for say 15 mins and then check, if rice is done remove if not keep it for a further 5 mins.
Serve hot, garnished with coriander leaves.
Haleem
My version of haleem is quick, allowing me more time to spend with my loved ones. Eid is a festival celebrated with the loved ones.
300 gms beef
2 cups porridge oats
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 onions
2 tsp garam masala
4 tbsp ghee
Juice of 2 – 3 lemons
1 tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
Pinch shahzeera
Salt to taste
For garnish:
1 large onion
2 tbsp ghee
1 handful coriander leaves
3 – 4 green chillies
1 fresh lemon
Cut and onions in hot oil. Add ginger-garlic paste, red chilli powder, salt and turmeric and fry for a minute, then add the meat and fry again for another 5-7 minutes. Add the garam masala powder, mix well and pressure cook it. Once the meat is tender, saute till dry, then mash it down with a masher.
In another vessel cook the porridge as normal with water. Once done add the meat mixture to it, then add the lemon juice (taste it and add more if you would like it tangy), cardamom powder, cinnamon powder, and shahzeera, and salt and chilly powder if necessary. The mixture should now be sticky. Cook on low flame for about 15 minutes, making sure it does not stick to the bottom.
For garnishing, cut (thin slices) and fry onions in oil and drain on paper towel. Before serving garnish with the fried onions, coriander leaves, lemons cut in quarters and green chillies. Serve hot.
Chicken Khorma
1kg chicken, cut into large pieces
6 tsp cooking oil or ghee
2 bay leaaves
1 cup water
Mix for the marinade:
400 ml yoghurt
Chilli powder to taste
Salt to taste
2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2 tsp garam masala powder / spice powder
14 cashew nuts, powdered
9 almonds, powdered
2 tsp coriander-cumin powdered
10g desiccated coconut
Pinch turmeric powder
A few strands of saffron
6 green chillies, slit lengthwise
A handful coriander leaves (chopped fine)
2 (100g) onions, ground to a paste and fried till golden
Make slits in the chicken pieces and apply the marinade mixture.
Keep aside for two to three hours.
Heat four tsp oil or butter in a pan. Add bay leaves and fry for a minute.
Add the marinated chicken and fry for five minutes on high heat.
Add one cup water and simmer for about 20 minutes or till done. Serve hot, garnished with coriander leaves.
Kebab Dam Kay
This is a personal eid favourite of mine: it can also be used as a filling for sandwiches the next day for school or work lunches.
1 kg mince beef
4 tsp poppy seeds
250 gms desiccated coconut
2 tsp chironji (available at the indian grocery store)
4 medium onion
½ kg yoghurt
1 tsp shahzeera
3 – 4 cardomom or 2 teaspoons of cardamom powder
4 cinnamon sticks or half teaspoon on cinnamon powder
2 tsp kabab chini (if not available you can do without it)
Oil for frying onions
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder to taste
1–2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
For garnish:
Fresh coriander
Fresh lime
Green chillies
Dry roast and grind coconut, poppy seeds and chironji.
Fry onions till golden brown and grind. Then mix together mince, onion paste, dry ground ingredients, shahzeera, cardamom, cinnamon, kabab chini, yoghurt and fry well for 10 – 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 200c for 10 minutes. Grease an oven proof dish and put in the above mixture. Make a hole in the middle and put a burnt coal (if available). Cover it with mince. Bake it till golden brown. Garnish with ghee, fresh lime cut in quarters, coriander leaves and green chillies. Serve hot.
Bagare Baigan
5Â medium eggplants
1 cup dry coconut, grated
1Â cup sesame seed
1Â cup peanuts
½ cup cumin seed
½ cup fresh coriander seed
3Â medium onions
2Â tsp red chili powder
1Â tsp turmeric powder
1Â tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2Â cups tamarind paste
Salt to taste
For tempering:
1Â tsp cumin seed
½ tsp fenugreek seeds
5 dried red chilies
1Â tsp mustard seeds
5-10 curry leaves
½ cup oil
For garnish (optional):
3 boiled eggs
Roast the coconut, sesame seeds, peanuts, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and chopped onions separately for at least 5 minutes. Grind them separately and collect in a bowl.
Add 1 cup of tamarind paste, ginger-garlic paste, chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt to taste. Mix well. Slice the brinjals and stuff the above paste in them.
Heat 1/2 cup oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, dried red chilli, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and curry leaves for 2-3 minutes.
Add the stuffed brinjals and the remaining paste to the oil. Stir till the brinjal is half fried. Add the remaining 1 cup of tamarind paste. Simmer for 15-20 minutes on low flame. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves or boiled eggs cut in halves.
This dish can be prepared a couple of days before the eid dawat.
Raita
500 gms yoghurt, whisked
2 cucumbers, small pieces
A handful coriander leaves
Green chillies to taste
Salt to taste
For garnish: Red chilli powder
Mix everything and garnish with red chilli powder.
Sheer Khorma
One cannot think of Eid without Sheer Khorma.
1 pack vermicelli or sevaiyya
1 litres milk
1 tbsp ghee
1 cup of sugar
15 almonds
10 pistas
10 gm cashew nuts
A few strands of saffron
1 tsp cardamom powder
Dry roast the sevaiyya in a kadai till it turns light brown. Keep aside. In a deep bottomed vessel, heat milk on a slow fire, stirring constantly, till it condenses to approximately one litre. Add saffron and sugar and stir some more. In a separate vessel, fry the dry fruits in ghee till they turn light brown. Add the fried nuts to the milk. Then add the roasted sevaiyya and cardamom powder. Stir on low flame for 5-10 minutes and serve.
Qubani Ka Meetha
1 kg dry apricots (qubani)
250 gms sugar
Cream for garnishing
Vanilla essence
After washing the apricots, soak them in water for about three hours. Now, boil them enough to make them soft and tender. Let cool and then deseed and mash well. Pass the mashed pulp through a sieve to get a uniform, smooth paste. Now put this pulp on heat for boiling. Keep stirring continuously and once it starts boiling, add the sugar. Let it be on heat for another five minutes while stirring continuously. Take it off the heat and refrigerate. Beat in the vanilla essence in the cream. When serving, top the dish with the cream and serve.
Kids favourite is every household during eid.
Badam Milk
2 cups almonds
2 cups pistachios
6 cups chilled/ warm milk
To taste sugar
2/3 tsp cardamom powder
2 tbsp kewra essence (optional)
2 tsp rose water
Grind the almonds and pistachios to a smooth paste in your food processor. Add a little milk to do this. (A lot of people like to remove the skin from the almonds before grinding them. I don’t do this as the skin contains many nutrients. You can do it if you wish, by soaking the almonds in hot water for 5 minutes. When soaked, press the almonds between your thumb and index finger. The skin will slip off quite easily).
Add the milk, sugar, cardamom powder, kewra essence (if using) and rose water. Blend well. Serve chilled/ warm in a tall glass.
Enjoy this amazing spread of tradition on EID.
READ ALSO: Understanding Ramadan
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