30 days of iftars: #11-14

A'salaamu alaikum ya'll. So nights 11, 12, and 13 the family went to the masjid. Oh wait, maybe they just went twice but now I can't remember what I made. Umm I think we had leftovers. Anyway that's what happens when I put off updating my blog. :-)

That brings us to tonight, the 14th of Ramadhan. I made another shorba. Yes go ahead, gasp and be surprised. :-) I was planning on just making the plain lentil soup I had made previously but I got creative. Anyway I think I took pics of every step so this is gonna be a picture post. Hope ya'll got a good high-speed connection! ;-)

So I get my handy-dandy soup pot out and put some water in it. No I don't measure it, just enough to last us 2 days worth of soup. :-)

A pot of water. Captivating. :-D

OK so then I add enough chicken stock paste to flavor said water. Once again, eyeball it. Actually I ended up not eyeballing it too well because I had to add more later. Ah well. :-) Btw, if you aren't gonna make your own stock, I think this concentrated paste tastes better than canned. And please never use a cube!!! Mostly salt and msg in those little buggers.

Scintillating photojournalism. Yah, I know.

OK so added the chicken base to the water, got it boiling good.

Plop! Please notice the water displacement; I thought it looked cool. lol

Now is time to prep the other ingredients. Few cloves garlic, smashed and chopped finely. F I N E L Y. Yes don't be lazy. If you aren't gonna saute your garlic it needs to be in small pieces not chunks. :-) Oh wait, I didn't take pics of that but you can see the end result. Instead I wanted to regale you with a picture of my favorite knife. It's awwww-some! I don't let the kids touch it nor does it goes in the dishwasher. It has an uber-sharp blade and Ima keeping it safe!!! lol

This is the BEST knife. Uber-expensive but A had gotten it from an apartment; they people left a whole set behind. Cha-ching!

So then I prepped the food; sliced the carrots and chopped the garlic. Then I decided, what the heck, let's live a little and deviated from the recipe. I added some frozen spinach for an extra nutritional punch. POW! ZAP! PING! Oh and the red lentils too. :-)

Cute cutting board. :-) It makes me happy to chop!

Alrighty, into the pot you go!

Hmm I cheated; the spinach is already in the pot! Mwa-ha-ha! My evil knows no bounds!

So now what to do? Hmm I think I'll add my secret ingredient: hot pepper paste. Most halal stores I've been in sell it; it's a Turkish product. I've had many different brands. It's good because it's not incendiary but pleasantly warm. I love chipotles in adobo sauce for most things but some foods (lentil soup for example) really don't need the smoky heat of chipotles.

It lasts a long time, too. :-)

So I was all finished when I thought, hmm let's add another veggie and make it a regular old soup. So in was chunked a car of shoepeg corn. It's really sweet though and in retrospect I might not have added it although Aaminah was very happy. :-)

Hmmmm corn... :-)

Oh then I boiled it all for maybe 20 minutes, added my lentils, overcooked them as usual to mush, and voila! I then made the salad and look how lovely my avocado came out? Really it doesn't take a lot to make me happy. :-)

Perfect, butter flesh, no bruising, yay!

Now, here's the soup!

This was my bowl. :-)

And here is the salad:

OK so now I'm up-to-date and insha'Allah will do better. ;-) Ma salaama ya'll!