Quran: Sura 6, Ayat no. 151

My 'favourite' Ayat/verse of the Quran this week


قل تعالوا أتل ما حرم ربكم عليكم ۖ ألا تشركوا به شيئا ۖ وبالوالدين إحسانا ۖ ولا تقتلوا أولادكم من إملاق ۖ نحن نرزقكم وإياهم ۖ ولا تقربوا الفواحش ما ظهر منها وما بطن ۖ ولا تقتلوا النفس التي حرم الله إلا بالحق ۚ ذلكم وصاكم به لعلكم تعقلون

Transliteration
Qul taAAalaw atlu ma harrama rabbukum AAalaykum alla tushrikoo bihi shayan wabialwalidayni ihsanan wala taqtuloo awladakum min imlaqin nahnu narzuqukum waiyyahum wala taqraboo alfawahisha ma thahara minha wama batana wala taqtuloo alnnafsa allatee harrama Allahu illa bialhaqqi thalikum wassakum bihi laAAallakum taAAqiloona

Translation of the meaning:
Say (O Muhammad SAW): "Come, I will recite what your Lord has prohibited you from: Join not anything in worship with Him; be good and dutiful to your parents; kill not your children because of poverty - We provide sustenance for you and for them; come not near to Al-Fawahish (shameful sins, illegal sexual intercourse, etc.) whether committed openly or secretly, and kill not anyone whom Allah has forbidden, except for a just cause (according to Islamic law). This He has commanded you that you may understand.

Sura/chapter 6. Al-An'aam ayat/verse no.151

For further reading and better understanding of this verse and the whole Quran head on over to http://abdurrahman.org/qurantafseer/ibnkathir/

Afternoon Tea: Viennese Whirls

Asalamu Alaikum and Welcome Home,

This was my first time baking viennese swirls, as you can see we have a 'big mama' biscuit with 2 babies.... soon to be 3!

Yes you guessed right or already know from my post on Cafe Muslimah I'm pregnant again mashaAllah / as God willed.

This will be my third pregnancy and even i said this will be my third baby only Allah/God knows right now how many children i'm carrying, maybe twins! I say that only because i am a twin but seriously it could be!

I am a mother to 2 children, both under the age of 5. I know how much hard work and joy one baby at a time can bring, i really should give more thought and gratitude to my parents and grandparents who raised us. You know what they say 'double trouble' that description back then fitted us to a T.

Speaking of T or rather Tea, this post is a start of my Afternoon Tea series.
Every so often, which means I'm terrible at schedules or committing myself so let's just say as and when i can. I will be featuring recipes of my favourite British afternoon tea treats inshaAllah/God willing.

These biscuits remind me of my pre teen and teenage years living with my grandparents, they would always stick by the old traditions of elevenses and afternoon tea, mr kipling cakes / biscuits would always be featured in at least one of those sittings.

A little wiki bird told me

Afternoon tea is a small meal snack typically eaten between 3pm and 5pm. The custom of afternoon tea originated in England in the 1840s.^[2]
Traditionally, loose tea is brewed in a teapot and served with milk and sugar. The sugar and caffeine of the concoction provided fortification against afternoon doldrums for the working poor of 19th and early 20th century England who had a significantly lower calorie count and more physically demanding occupation than most Westerners today. For laborers, the tea was sometimes accompanied by a small sandwich or baked snack (such as scones) that had been packed for them in the morning. For the more privileged, afternoon tea was accompanied by luxury ingredient sandwiches (customarily cucumber, egg and cress, fish paste, ham, and smoked salmon), scones (with clotted cream and jam, see cream tea) and usually cakes and pastries (such as Battenberg cake, fruit cake or Victoria sponge). In hotels and tea shops the food is often served on a tiered stand; there may be no sandwiches, but bread or scones with butter or margarine and optional jam or other spread, or toast, muffins or crumpets.^[3][4][5]
Nowadays, a formal afternoon tea is usually taken as a treat in a hotel or tea shop. In everyday life, many Britons take a much simpler refreshment consisting of tea (and occasionally biscuits) as one of many short tea breaks throughout the day.

Viennese whirls are one of my favourite biscuits that would often make an appearance at the table accompanied by a cup of Yorkshire tea that had been brewed in one of the many tea pots, my grandmother had collected over the years.

Viennese whirls are 2 rich and buttery piped vanilla flavoured shortbread sandwiched together using a layer of jam (usually raspberry but in this case apricot) and vanilla buttercream (normally piped but i tea spooned it on)

 I am satisfied with the flavour and texture of these biscuits 100% but i messed up on the sizes of my whirls and didn't have the right star shaped nozzle for this type of biscuits, the big mama biscuit is piped into a large swirl that was too high using a large closed star nozzle and the baby biscuits are piped into something that resembles roses using my 1M wilton tip.

Looking back now maybe i should have used my open star piping nozzle but as the recipe i used didn't specify open/closed just 'large star nozzle',  i went with closed, whooops on the whirls but alhamduillah/All praise be to God, they look OK and are going down well with my family.

Next time, i will make improvements by

• Marking out circles of 6cm diameter on the underside of my baking paper before piping
• Use a large open star nozzle
• Remember not to pipe high like you would on top of a cupcake
• Staying calm! Baking is your therapy Asmaa, relax and take it easy.

I must warn you, you have to have the strength in your arms for piping this dough because it is somewhat difficult, you have to add alot of pressure as the dough is quite stiff just to get it to come out of the nozzle so you can imagine how hard it is to continue with the pressure whilst swirling!

Missing out on ½ tsp vanilla extract in both the dough and buttercream using the seeds of half a vanilla pod in each instead, i don't think made all that much difference to how hard the dough was to pipe but next time i will add ½ tsp water just to be sure.

In total i made 15 biscuits, 9 big mamas and 6 babies which meant i got 7 sandwiched biscuits and 1 leftover with no guessing who got to test taste first. Really though you should be able to get at least 32 according to the hairy bikers and to click here for their original recipe and adorable pictures, that's how a real Viennese whirl should look!

Viennese Whirls Recipe

 

Ingredients

 

Biscuits

250g / appoximately 1 cup plus 1 and half tblsp, very soft butter / margarine (i used stork brand)

50g  / aprroximately 1/3 cup pus 1 generous tblsp icing sugar, plus extra to decorate

250g / approximatey 2 1/4 cups, plain flour

50g cornflour / approximately 1/3 cup plus 1 tblsp

½ vanilla pod, seeds only

For the Filling

100g / approximately 1/3 cup pus 1 3/4 tbsp, very soft butter / margarine (i used stork brand)

200g  / approximately 1 3/4 cup, icing sugar  plus ½ tsp for dusting

½ vanilla pod, seeds only

75g / approximately 4 tbsp, seedless apricot jam

Dash of milk to bring the filling to the right consistency *you may or may not need

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C/fan oven 170C/Gas 5.

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment (on the underside using a pencil and 6cm diameter cookie cuter or bottom of glass mark out mark out circles as a guide for piping) Put the butter, icing sugar, plain flour, cornflour and vanilla

extract in a food processor and blitz until smooth.You may need to remove the lid and push the mixture down a couple of times using a rubber spatula (Alternatively, put in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth.) OR do as i did and bring the whole thing together in a bowl using a butter knife and then your hands to bring the dough together.

 

Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle. Pipe rosettes of the dough using your pencil outlines to guide you, each should be a diameter of roughly 6cm – slightly smaller than a digestive biscuit onto the baking sheet, spacing well apart. Press down with the piping bag to get a good shape.

 

Bake in the centre of the oven for 13-15 minutes or until pale golden brown and firm. Cool on the baking

tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to allow to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough to make

32-36 biscuits.To make the filling, put the butter in a bowl and sift the icing sugar on top. Add the vanilla  and beat with a wooden spoon or an electric whisk until very light and smooth. Spoon into a clean piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle or leave it in the bowl if you want to spoon it on like i did.

 

Put the jam in a bowl and stir until smooth.

 

Spoon a little jam onto the flat side of 16 of the biscuits and place jam-side up on the cooling rack.

Pipe or spoon the butter cream icing onto the remaining biscuits and sandwich with the jam. Put on a serving plate and dust with sifted icing sugar. Serve.

 

 

Other recipes that you may like

Chocolate dipped viennese whirl biscuits

Viennese whirl biscuits with a glace cherry centre

Food For Thought Friday - Sweet Potatoe

stockfreeimages

 

 

It's Friday, another week GONE and did i really appreciate the many blessings i have in my life?

 

Food is an absolute blessing Alhamduillah (All praise be to God), the fact we complain so much

about it, "there is nothing to eat" when your cupboards and fridge are half full, you have money in your purse, the thing is we are ever so picky, me included and for some nothing is every good enough INSTEAD we should think about the many people that have less than us both in terms of worldly and non worldly affairs i.e. religion.

 

A reminder to myself first and foremost: Give all thanks and praise to your creator more often and be content and satisfied with what you have and don't have because inshaAllah there is good in it.

 

I  wanted to start a weekly/monthly, depending how busy my stay at home days are, feature named food for thought friday i discuss and share health benefits of certain foods.

As i posted a sweet potatoe bread recipe recently, i found the following article fitting to start with.
 

Source : Healthy Muslim

The sweet potato is not actually a potato, or a yam. It is a nutritionally superior and versatile tuber that has a unique and distinctively sweet flavor. Here are some of the benefits of this delicious vegetable:

• High Nutritional Value Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of starch and therefore, energy. They provide some protein, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and a huge amount of carotenoids, including Beta-carotene. It is these and other phytochemicals in the tubers that make them such a powerful anti-cancer food. A mere 100g a day has been found to dramatically reduce the risk of lung cancer.
  
  
• Low glycemic index The glycemic index indicates the impact a food substance has on blood sugar levels. A high glycemic index means blood sugar levels can spike. diabetes and others who monitor their blood sugar levels seek to avoid foods with a high glycemic index or load. Sweet potatoes have a glycemic load of only 17, in comparison to a white potato, which has an index of 29. Their high vitamin B6 content also helps to keep blood sugar levels steady, helping to prevent mood swings and relieve depression. Recent research indicates that steaming or boiling sweet potatoes rather than roasting them helps to preserve their low glycemic index.
  
  
• Good For Your skin Their high levels of Vitamin E means sweet potatoes are a skin superfood. Orange-skinned sweet potatoes are rich in the anti-aging, antioixidant Beta-carotene, which is stored in the fat layer of our skin and protects against the damage from the sun's ultraviolet rays.
  
  
• A Versatile Vegetable Sweet potatoes are extremely versatile and make a wonderful health food for both children and adults alike. They can be boiled and mashed, roasted, or even juiced.

I hope you will enjoy the upcoming posts on food for thought friday and find a way to incorporate this sweet vegetable into your diet. I like to grate into salad (raw), roast along with other vegetables such as butternut squash or even in soup it would be tasty.

Do share with me your favourite sweet potatoe recipes in your comment.



I Changed My Mind Again!

Salam Alaikum / Hello,

Thank you all for being ever so patient with me and my changes which are now unchanged? what am i talking about? well i made my blog readers invite only BUT....... my posts were no longer showing in google reader and to cut it a long story short it's just easier and more convenient i keep the blog open.

My blog isn't personal as such i mean i don't divulge too much info! but my personality in my writing style comes across (i hope) and i don't feel great about the opposite sex having any piece of me.

When i found that a man (a muslim man at that) could read or would want to comment i felt quite put off the blogging experience because my blog is aimed at women only NOT that i discourage a man to get in the kitchen and cook for his wife and family no, that is something i champion at least every once in a while but you know i just don't feel comfortable with the men and woman interacting for no valid reason even in the virtual sense because it's not something permissible in the laws of my religion/Islam.

Anyway, i hope i made myself clear on the whole subject and please if you are a man and do follow my blog your free to take and use the recipes but i don't want to communicate i.e. comments with you in any shape or form unless of course you want to go through my husband? any comments from men that find will be deleted.

JazakAllah Khairan & Thank you for reading (assuming google reader is now publishing my posts again! lol)

*I DISOVERED AFTER WRITING MY POST THAT MY GOOGLE READER WAS SUBSRIBED TO MY OLD BLOG ADDRESS OOOOPS! TO SUBSCRIBE AGAIN CLICK THE ORANGE SUBSCRIBE BUTTON WHEN YOUR IN GOOGLE READER AND ADD MY WEB ADDRESS www.athomewithasmaa.blogspot.co.uk


 

G'ribiyia b's-smid / Algerian Semolina Sugar Cookies

Salam Alaikum / Greetings readers,

Followers on pinterest will have noticed i have been pinning quite a few british baking classics/favourites recently.

I have intentions inshaAllah/God willing of having an 'Afternoon Tea with Asmaa' recipe post fourtnightly that will feature a British recipe. I would love if you could join in with this, it doesn't have to be fancy or British but something you would have at afternoon tea - buns, biscuits, cake, sandwhiches, mini pies, tart etc

Now, these Ghoriba cookies are popular across all of the arabic speaking countries including Algeria which is where this recipe originates from, although similar versions can be found in neighbouring Morocco.

The fine semolina gives these cookies a slightly chewy and pleasant gritty texture and my addition of a nut on top before baking adds a bit of crunch.

Semolina is great at soaking up any liquid, so if you like dunking be it in tea, coffe or milk then you should put these cookies on your 'to bake list'

G'ribiyia b's-smid / Algerian Semolina Sugar Cookies

Adapted from Chef Zadi
Makes: 20- 30 cookies

Ingredients

500g  or approximately 2 ¾ cup of semolina flour

1 egg, separated

325g/ approx 1 ½ cups plus 2 tbsp of sugar or vanilla sugar
113g / ½ cup butter
½  teaspoon of baking soda
X amount of Water (you could use a mix of orange blossom/ rose water diluted with regular water)

To decorate(optional) - nuts and/or powdered/coarse/demerara sugar

Method

 

Preheat oven to 350F/ 180C/160C (fan)/ Gas Mark 4

 

Beat the egg yolk and butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and blend for 30seconds to a minute.

Whisk the egg whites until soft peak consistency

Blend the egg and butter mixture with the semolina. The dough will feel "gritty"

Add the egg white.The dough does not come together add  water and blend until it does. Try not to overwork the cookie dough.

Take a 2 tablespoons of dough and shape it with your hands to form a sphere. Wetting your hands with water keeps the dough from sticking to your hands.

If you like you can dip the cookies in sugar and decorate before baking, Place the cookies 2" apart from each other on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for about 10-15 minutes. Transfer and cool on wire rack.