Semaiya Kheer or Vermicelli Pudding to celebrate Eid – IshitaUnblogged
My childhood memories of Eid are affiliated with the prosperous, creamy flavor of Semaiya Kheer or vermicelli pudding, also called Shimuiyer Payesh in Bengali.
Eid Mubarak! Festivities deliver in a lot of various emotions… thoughts of togetherness, reminiscences of childhood and hope for the long term. There’s very little like celebrating a pageant like Eid in a metropolis like Dubai, wherever people today from all around the entire world have appear with each other and designed it their residences. The phrase Eid signifies ‘festivity’ in Arabic. Just about every yr when Eid is celebrated just after the holy month of Ramadan, the city of bling readies by itself to welcome additional than two million people in excess of the festive weekend!
Childhood reminiscences of Eid convey in the sweet flavor of Semaiya Kheer or vermicelli pudding, also referred to as Shemuiyer Payesh (earlier mentioned) in Bengali. Payesh or milk pudding has a great deal of significance in a Bengali’s existence, specifically Chaaler Payesh, or the rice pudding. It is the first initiation of stable foodstuff when an toddler gets ready to embark on her/his momentous non-milk foods journey and inherits the wealthy culinary heritage of Bengali foods (do go through all about in my previously article). The introduction of semaiya to Bengali cuisine happened organically with the Islamic impact in Bengal. In 1857 Advert, just after the Awadh kingdom (contemporary working day Lucknow in India) was annexed by the British, the Nawab was exiled to Calcutta, which is today’s Kolkata. His enthusiasm for gourmand foodstuff traveled from Lucknow to Calcutta and was nurtured, garnished and fuelled by his special Bawarchis or the Chefs of the Nawab. Mughlai foods has given that then become aspect of Kolkata’s culinary heritage.
I have always related semaiya with Eid celebrations. The shimuiyer payesh that I have eaten at most Bengali homes, is created substantially like the rice pudding. The shimuiyer payesh, nevertheless, is sweetened with sugar and Gur or jaggery is rarely applied in it. It is also considerably less dense. The Sheer Khurma (higher than) is much more common among our Muslim mates, each from India and elsewhere in the subcontinent. The sheer khurma is a thicker edition of shimuiyer payesh with a additional generous amounts of dried fruits. Saffron, rosewater and Vark, edible silver foil are usually added. Sheer khurma is a quite well-liked festive breakfast with Parathas, specifically Laccha Paratha – a variety of paratha possessing many layers and lapped generously in Ghee. A further well-liked variation of semaiya is the chilly beverage – Falooda which itself is an adaptation of the Persian dessert Faloodeh. This is pretty well-known in Iran, Pakistan, North India and Afghanistan. The rosewater flavoured falooda (under) that we had in Haridwar is even now lingering on my tastebuds!
Eid in Dubai
With a lot more than two million travellers anticipated around the Eid weekend, Dubai basks in all its glory. Cultural programs, many activities, exclusive Eid menu in distinctive dining places – the weekend claims to be a full lot of exciting. Leading browsing malls are open twenty 4 several hours. A lot more than half of the expectant visitors are from the GCC nations by yourself – an enjoyable information for the tourism and F&B business. Absolutely nothing can defeat a metropolis immersed in its very own conquer as it celebrates a nearby competition.
Eid al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha
Whereas Eid al-Fitr marks the stop of the fasting month of Ramadan – the Islamic holy month of dawn-to-sunset fasting, Eid al-Adha signifies ‘solemn festivity’, also known as the Better Eid or Eid al-Zuha. In India, it is called the Bakhri-Eid or the Feast of Sacrifice.
The latter is an significant four-day religious holiday celebrated by Muslims all over the world to honour the willingness of the prophet ʾIbrāhīm (Abraham) to sacrifice his young firstborn son Ismā’īl (Ishmael) as an act of submission to God, and his son’s acceptance of the sacrifice prior to God intervened to provide Abraham with a ram to sacrifice as an alternative (wikipedia).
The essence of Eid to a non-Muslim like me
The splendor of rising up in a multicultural metropolis like Kolkata is that we grew up celebrating all festivals from all religions. Although I am born in a Hindu family, on Eid, we flocked to the homes of our Muslim pals and pestered their mums, whom we addressed lovingly as mashis (which means aunties). Luxurious meals of dwelling-manufactured Biryanis and Laccha Parathas ended up adopted by hardly ever-ending refills of our bowls of shimuiyer payesh. This multi-cultural upbringing has formed not only my persona but also my very own philosophies in everyday living as explained in an before article of mine – Residing by the drinking water with sunset as prop – Kolkata & Ganges.
Through previous Eid, we ended up taking pleasure in our summer months vacations in Kolkata – a interval I like to ‘brand’ as my summer months hibernation as I go into my reticent inventive cocoon. I took the Z-Sisters to Mallick Bazar in the Park Circus spot. This is primarily a Muslim neighbourhood and the road-facet kiosks had been full of semaiya, mixed dried fruits, firni mixes (a dessert pudding made with rice powder) and brightly coloured glass bangles. The stacked up semaiya bundles appeared fairly surreal – as if, they had been fluffs of cotton wool blown by the festive breeze.
A very little boy manning one of the kiosks arrived functioning to me – ‘Didi amar photo tulben?/Sister, do you want to photograph me?’ He right away bombarded me with his following query -‘Apni ki kono bideshi journal theke?/Are you functioning for any international magazine?’ He got let down that I was having pictures… emni emni/just like that. He instructed his peers, ‘Dhoot char to didike… ja ja shob byabshay lag!/Overlook her… go and mind your firms!’
Given that we weren’t getting any semaiya nor any dry fruits that day, or given that I did not get the job done for any international magazine… I was declared pretty hopeless. I would like I had achieved this younger lad this year as I could have amazed him with my food column with Gulf Information. We experienced planned to buy Haleem or Halim (a unique Ramadan dish manufactured with wheat, barley, meat) from a person of the two well-known eating places in this space – Shiraz and Rahmania. Haleem is a delicacy and is cooked in massive portions in a substantial aluminium cooking pot. In the Park Circus and Mallick Bazar space, there are several alleys and little places to eat the place just one can come across long queues for haleem through this Ramadan time. We much too queued up for haleem and took a number of containers property. Alongside with haleem, we also devoured the mouth watering Firni manufactured by mum-in-regulation. Established in compact earthen clay pots, firni is definitely just one of my mum-in-law’s signature desserts.
Semaiya Kheer or Vermicelli Pudding Category=Dessert Delicacies=Subcontinental
Components
100 gms semaiya or vermicelli (Semaiya packets are conveniently uncovered in most supermarkets about Dubai)2 lts comprehensive cream milk*1 cup sugar (use fewer sugar if you are applying sweetened condense milk)4 cardamom pods, crushed into powder¼ cup cashew nuts, unsalted¼ cup almonds, slivered¼ cup raisins, soaked in water2 tsp pistachios, for garnishing4 tsp ghee or Indian clarified buttera fall of mitha attar (accessible in Al Adil supermarkets and spice shops in the Spice Souk in Deira)
* You may substitute this with reduced-fats milk. Quite a few favor to use sweetened condense milk – in that situation you will will need substantially less milk (1 ½ lt lower-extra fat milk, ½cup sweetened reduced-excess fat condensed milk).
System
Warmth 3 tsp of ghee in tiny wok. Crack the mounds of semaiya into lesser portions and stir in ghee slightly till the semaiya turns mild golden
Boil milk in a Dekchi/a flat bottomed pan. Stir constantly is needed so that the bottom of the pan does not get burnt. (Dekchis are typically used for cooking rice. Be sure to observe that Payesh is usually manufactured in utensils meant for cooking rice or retained independently and has not been utilized for any other sort of cooking. This is since of the susceptibility of rice grains to capture the odour of other cooked products which might overpower the fragile aroma of the dessert dish currently being created.)
Insert semaiya when the milk arrives to a boil. Keep stirring to thicken the milk and prepare dinner the semaiya.
Include cardamom, sugar, cashew nuts, almonds, raisins and sweetened condense milk (if you are making use of the latter).
Decreased the temperature and maintain on stirring until eventually the Milk thickens (this really should just take about 45 minutes to an hour).
Add some ghee and mitha attar.
Garnish with pistachios, more raisins, almonds and cashew nuts which have been a little bit pan roasted in ghee.
Some want to try to eat their payesh using tobacco scorching, just right after it has been taken off the fire! If you aren’t just one of them, allow the Semaiya Kheer established for a even though and refrigerate it just before serving.
A lot of us dwelling in Dubai are blessed more than enough to be with our buddies and spouse and children. There are many on the other hand, who are not. I was the moment possessing a discussion with one particular of the taxi-drivers of Dubai Taxi. He was talking about a rice that is made in the course of Eid in his residence in Pakistan in which a specific form of rice is cooked in masala. He was declaring how he missed the parathas that are made for breakfast in the course of festive days and other celebrations. He was reminiscing how his little ones refuse to have their ordinary subah ki chai – early morning tea with no these parathas. Certainly, he missed the sheer khurma dearly that his Ami / mom helps make.
I am hoping that his feelings and greetings get to his kids at household. I am also hoping that the Eidi (money specified to the young children for acquiring presents during Eid) that he’s sent property was getting applied by properly by his youngsters with their hearts filled with appreciate for this father who was toiling away from residence. The angst of a doting father is an universal phenomenon, is not it?
My prayers for peace and contentment going out to every person, specifically for men and women having difficulties in the war-torn areas about the world.
Unblogging it all… Ishita
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Recipes that are great for Eid:
Kolkata Mutton Biryani
Firni or Ferni – The broken rice pudding
Lachha Paratha – Love and ghee in every single layer
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