A taste of Omani food and hospitality- Delicious Honey drizzled pancakes at the Heritage Village, Muscat Festival 2014

I love going to Muscat Festival, an annual event held in January every year and have been to each one since it first began in 1998. A month-long annual event showcasing Omani and international art and culture, it was inaugurated at Naseem Park and Al Amerat Park almost a week ago and will run till the 22nd of February giving everyone a chance to visit the locations and enjoy the fabulous treats that lie in store.

The Omanis are well known for their hospitality and to be invited into someone's home is considered to be a real honour. It usually means coffee or kahwa a strong, bitter drink flavoured with cardamom, and dates or halwa, a sticky sweet gelatinous substance which is made from brown sugar, eggs, honey and spices. More substantial meals often have rice as the main ingredient, together with cooked meats. The main daily meal is usually eaten at midday, while the evening meal is lighter. Chicken, fish and mutton are regularly used in dishes. 

A favourite drink is 'laban', a salty buttermilk and yoghurt based drinks, flavoured with cardamom and pistachio nuts are also very popular.

Snacks are also very popular and of these,  sweet pancakes drizzled with honey is definitely my favourite! So when I had an opportunity last evening to watch Raya, a delightful Omani lady of about 35, from Al Amerat at close quarters making her delicious pancakes, it was something that I really enjoyed and hopefully learnt from as well. In future, I certainly hope to try out something like the ones I had and will keep you posted on my progress.

Raya busy making the pancakes

Here is the recipe and method  for these delicious honey drizzled pancakes, which can be easily made at home 

Ingredients

1 cup of brown or white flour 
2 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
Butter and honey

Cooking Instructions

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, water, salt and ground cardamom. 

Beat well with a spoon. 

Making sure the colour and consistency are just right.

Pour about 1/8 cup of batter on a hot and lightly greased griddle.

She flips them over , they look almost done

Cook until golden brown on the bottom. Flip and cook until the other side is also a golden brown. Drizzle with a little butter. 

Pour honey over it and serve hot.

My plate, I got an extra pancake. 4 for 300 Baisas as I was  her first customer

They were absolutely delicious and I was seriously tempted to go back for another plate but the aroma of Omani Halwa close by tempted me. Of course that was my next stop. 

It will also be my next blog entry ...  

Good company? Food definitely tastes much better. And some memories

Think about it for a moment and you will understand exactly what I mean.

Food plays such an important role in every aspect of our life. For instance, if there's a celebration we try to come up with the best or as may be the case the most appropriate menu for the occasion. Alternately, if someone dies anywhere in the world, the close family and friends organize a 'wake' where good food and drink is served while people gather around in memory of the departed soul.

Food is also something that can really taste best when eaten in company. For me, the term 'breaking bread' with someone beautifully depicts a scenario where good food tends to taste even better with good company In fact, I'd go so far as to say that even a pastry  and coffee or a croissant and a coffee had with a friend is something that becomes really pleasurable and many a time, truly memorable. Top of my head, I can recall at least  ten instances when I've enjoyed the meal/coffee so much more because of the company on a particular day.

Shared with family

Shared with  friends

Then there are some food memories which are very dear to one's heart by virtue of the fact that they centre around the food that either someone cooked for you in a way that was really special or then it could be about a  savoury or sweet dish that you cooked  for or shared with someone and he/she loved it best just the way you made it.

Which then leads me to  a chain of bitter sweet thoughts.

For instance, I can never eat sweet rice,  or better known in Punjabi as 'Meethe Chawal' without remembering my grand mother in law, 'Beeji'. For Beeji made the best Meethe Chawal in the world as far as I was concerned. And always, always made it for me whenever I asked for it. Never mind that I was a grown up married lady and she was already in her seventies when we first met..

I can also never eat 'Kadhi Pakore and Chawal' ( a yogurt and gram flour based Punjabi dish) without remembering Jairam, my parents'  cook for over thirty years who makes the most delicious Kadhi on earth.As also my friend Amrita in Muscat who makes sure she personally delivers a box of her special home made Kadhi to our home whenever she makes it.

I can never eat a peppermint without drinking water  right after it to check if my mouth really feels cool because that is exactly what my 'long lost and never found again; friend Christine Bose from my school in Calcutta used to do.

I can never drink 'Elaichi' ( cardamom ) tea without thinking about my mother because she always drinks hers that way.  

I could go on and on but I find  that I actually have a pain in my heart remembering  some people close to me who are now deceased, so I think I will stop here.

But not before I say that what really brought on this chain of thought in the first instance was when I was making Rajma Chawal  (a North Indian delicacy made with red kidney beans cooked in thick tomato based gravy) this morning specially for my daughter Neha  when I remembered a friend of mine Akhila, who passed away in the prime of her life last year.

For whenever I made Rajma or Maa Ki Daal,  I would always send her a big bowl, or better still, drop it off to her place personally because she said that it was the best she'd ever eaten.....

For an anytime treat, try these easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Easy to make Chocolate chip cookies

Some of our best memories can be traced back to what we ate when we were out for a picnic, the weekly outing with our parents or even  the milk and cookies Grandma gave us when we went to stay with her. And when we think of cookies, the thought of chocolate chip cookies can never really be far away. As far as I'm concerned, they can easily be classified as an 'anytime treat' since they work equally well  with tea, coffee or milk.

So when I had an opportunity to try out this easy recipe for chocolate chip cookies,taken from a recipe book and tweaked a little to give it my personal twist, I was rather pleased when they turned out quite well. 

So here it is, the easy recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I got twelve large cookies in this batch and if you make them slightly smaller, you could easily get between 16-20.   

Ingredients

250 grams soft butter

• 150 grams caster sugar
• 40 grams cocoa powder
• 300 grams plain flour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150 °C/300 F and line a baking sheet with parchment  paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl and, when you have a light, soft, whipped mixture, beat in the 40g / one-third cup cocoa powder   when that’s mixed in, beat in the flour with the bicarb and baking powder. 
3. This mixture is  soft and sticky  so you should first roll them into balls, then slightly flatten into thick . Place them well spaced, on your baking sheet.
4. Bake for 15 minutes and take out of the oven . Leave them to cool and remember that they will continue to cook as they cool.
5. Remove the baking sheet to a cold surface and let it sit for 15 minutes before transferring the biscuits to a wire rack.

Pour yourself a larger mug of tea or coffee, sit back and enjoy..

1. PS-The best part about these cookies is that they can be kept up to a week. All you need to ensure is that they are stored in an airtight container so that they stay soft and chewy in the centre while being slightly crisp on top.