tea time snacks

My Guest Post for ‘Indian Simmer’- Chicken Kebab Sliders in the Pakistani Manner

Friday, April 20, 2012 By shayma 12 Comments

chicken sliders

This week I had the honour of guest blogging for someone who has become a close friend of mine through the blogging world- Prerna of Indian Simmer. Prerna is a phenomenal cook and food writer from India who takes beautiful and poetic photos of food; some of the best in the food photography – let alone food blogging – world. You can see these photos for yourself in her post on nankhatai; eggless spiced biscuits or the one on jalebis; sweet, crackly fritters which are washed down with a cup of hot, milky tea.

Prerna is currently working on her first cookery book, the arrival of which we are all eagerly anticipating.

My post on Chicken Kebab Sliders in the Pakistani Manner is here on her lovely blog.

Filed Under: appetiser, guest posts, mains, Pakistani, spicy, street food, tea time snacks

Elaichi Chai- Cardamom Tea in the Pakistani Manner

Sunday, April 8, 2012 By shayma 35 Comments

Chai Tea

If you were friendly with one of the House Prefects, you were always guaranteed a thick stack of those buttery, crumbly biscuits for dipping into your milky tea. At 10am, as the bell rang, all of us would push past the Assembly Hall’s heavy doors and greedily reach for the blue and orange rectangular biscuit tins. The Prefects had control over the tins and if you weren’t on good terms with them, you’d have to ask your mates to share some of their goodies with you, which they always did, but rather reluctantly. It was all about survival of the fittest in that Assembly Hall. No one really wanted to share their elevenses with you. Not even your best friend. Everyone huddled together, with their plastic teacup of fragrant Kenyan tea in their hand, dipping the thin sliver of a biscuit with the frilled edges into the hot liquid till it turned just a tad bit soggy and melted in your mouth with each bite. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, Beverage, breakfast, brunch, Pakistani, tea time snacks

Aloo Keema Bun- Sloppy Joes (Yousefs) in the Pakistan Manner

Monday, March 5, 2012 By shayma 30 Comments

Aloo keema

I cannot take credit for the Sloppy Yousefs witty title, my friend MAR suggested it- many thanks to him.

My Nani Ami used to make a humble ‘meat and potatoes’ dish- fragranced with notes of spicy ginger and black cardamom, it was cooked slowly, over a low flame. It wasn’t like that posh ‘meat and potatoes’ dish you have at Sassafraz- that perfectly scarlet-from-the-inside beef tenderloin you eat alongside a rectangular tower of a crispy, butter-slicked potato galette. The dish in which you glide your knife through the galette, sweep it through that glob of Dijon mustard and then impale a slice of beef on your fork, before washing it all down with a deep, earthy Malbec. [Read more...]

Filed Under: mains, Pakistani, spicy, tea time snacks

Fruit Chaat- Peach Salad in the Pakistani Manner

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 By shayma 17 Comments

peach salad

I loved those kaanch ki churiyaan; glass bangles you’d find right before Eid at the Anarkali Bazaar in Lahore’s Old City. The vendors had every colour you could imagine- neon lemon, bubble-gum pink, dark and light violets and shimmery silver ones like mother-of-pearl. I loved going to the Anarkali Bazaar with my Nani Ami to buy my Eid outfit with matching churiyaan. Of course I had to buy the dull bangles, the plastic ones, which didn’t even make that all important ‘clink clink’ sound with every hand movement. Unlike the glass ones, you could easily stuff your hand into them. Glass bangles were supposed to be slipped on after lathering up your hands with soap and water so they would slide on effortlessly. I spent most of my childhood in envy of my cousins who wore glass bangles every Eid. But then again, I had slit my wrist at the age of three after taking a fall whilst wearing them. I even have the scar of five stitches to prove it. So as a child, I just had to lump it and wear the plastic ones. [Read more...]

Filed Under: appetiser, spicy, street food, tea time snacks

Happy Summer Hols to everyone- The Spice Spoon will be back in August…

Sunday, June 26, 2011 By shayma 20 Comments

Ciragan Palace, Istanbul

At the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul last summer, having lots of scrumptious little bites and long, cool drinks.

Shayma Saadat, Çırağan Palace, Istanbul

Ciragan Palace, Istanbul

Filed Under: Beverage, confection, dessert/pudding, Istanbul, musings, tea time snacks, Travels

Aloo Tiki- Potato Cutlets in the Pakistani Manner

Sunday, May 8, 2011 By shayma 46 Comments

Aloo Tiki

Ami and Nani Ami

Ami and Nani Ami in Murree, Pakistan

It’s dreadfully difficult to find ice in Rome. It’s considered an American thing- ‘ma, tu sei Americana?‘, the server joked with my sister when she requested ice in her coca-cola. It was May, and my dear friend A and I were hosting a party on her terrace and we needed ice for making those sweet, tart mojitos. We were in a crisis- we had no idea where to get it from in Rome- and we needed lots of it. [Read more...]

Filed Under: appetiser, Pakistani, tea time snacks, vegetables/vegetarian

Boulani- Potato Turnovers in the Afghan Manner

Sunday, April 24, 2011 By shayma 32 Comments

Afghan Boulani

Carb on carb is considered very naughty.

But we, the Afghans do it, the Pakistanis do it with our spiced potato sauté mopped up with pillowy naan; the Poles do it with their pierogies and you haven’t really lived yet if you haven’t been to that trattoria in Baschi, Umbria and had a silky raviolo stuffed with a velvety potato mash, served with a fruity olive oil and shavings of that musky, sweet, intense black truffle. That dish is called “i-want-to-lick-my-plate-and-the-person-who-created-this-combination”. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, appetiser, tea time snacks, vegetables/vegetarian

Gosh-e-Feel: Baby Elephant Ears- Fried Pastry in the Afghan Manner

Monday, April 18, 2011 By shayma 23 Comments

gosh-e-feel elephant ear cookies

I first tried “gossip” when I lived in Rome. No, not that kind. I learned what gossip was in the kindergarten when my ‘husband’, Jamie and I paid Gina for a pound of tomatoes and instead of putting the two plastic yellow coins in the till, she put them in her pocket. And instead of tommies, she handed us bananas. By recess time, everyone knew about the dreadful thing Gina had done to us. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, dessert/pudding, Irani/Persian, tea time snacks

Sohan-e-Asali: Almond Saffron Brittle in the Persian Manner

Sunday, January 30, 2011 By shayma 40 Comments

Sohan-e-Asali

Bon Bons in Lahore

Mini Market in Gulberg was less than a kilometre away from our family home. On hot summer nights, after dinner, we would walk to the market with my parents, cousins- Saadiya & Ashi, my uncle- Kaka Tarik and my aunt- Aunty Shahla. With 10 rupees to call our own, Saadiya, Ashi and I would buy a Polka mango flavour ice cream, the kind you eat out of the cup with the tiny wooden spatula. Then we’d move on to buy Mitchell’s bon bon sweeties from the nearby kiosk to add more sugar to the mix. [Read more...]

Filed Under: confection, Irani/Persian, tea time snacks