Our dear hostesses! During Ramadan, we publish recipes for you for every day of Suhoor and Iftar. Once a week and seven days in advance. We also tell stories about the Muslim families in which they were prepared before you. Read the first seven recipes for suhoor. Read the second seven iftar recipes. And by following, you can read about seven wonderful drink recipes that will help you not experience excessive thirst during the day.
1st day of Ramadan
Chicken "Nostalgia"
3rd day of Ramadan
Stuffed pepper
Khadija is making stuffed peppers today. The closer autumn is, the more its household members gravitate towards this dish. Its ease and usefulness prompted a housewife from Omsk to make this dish the “highlight of the program” today. She loves and knows how to cook this food, so we decided to tell you, in her words, how to make the most delicious stuffed peppers. And Khadizhda plans to serve it with a lot of fruit, French fries and charlotte. By the way, Amina promised to tell us tomorrow how to quickly and deliciously cook the autumn queen of the sweet table - charlotte. And today we hope that there will be a stuffed handsome man on your tables.
So, prepare this dish like this:
You need to cut off both tops of the pepper and remove the seeds from the inside. Cut the cut tops into small cubes. Chop the onions and carrots, fry in oil until golden brown, then add the chopped tops of the peppers and fry until golden brown. Then the minced meat is mixed with rice boiled until half cooked, and the pepper is filled with this filling so that about 1 cm remains from the edge. The pepper is fried on all sides in a frying pan. Then Khadija makes garlic sauce. To do this, she mixes squeezed garlic and finely chopped herbs with sour cream. Before serving, the “fried” vegetables are placed on top of the meat filling, and the handsome pepper is poured with garlic sauce on top. And now you have the most delicious pepper in the world on your table. Enjoy your meal!
4th day of Ramadan
Charlotte and meat in French
Amina has a small family: she and her husband. They often go to visit iftars and invite their friends and relatives to break their fast together after fasting. But today they decided to be just the two of them. The girl decided to make a romantic light dinner. She plans to decorate the table with candles and flowers. Ramadan is a reason to celebrate every day, this Muslim woman believes.
To cook meat in French , veal is best. You need to cut squares no more than 2 cm thick. Beat the meat well! Place it on a baking sheet greased with oil. Finely chopped onion is placed on top. Then there is mayonnaise, which Amina advises to pre-mix with a set of spices - she considers ordinary “Vegeta” to be the best seasoning. And pour this mixture over the meat and onions. And put cheese grated on a coarse grater on top. Place all this in the oven for about 30–40 minutes.
And here is the promised charlotte:
In order to make a small charlotte, you will need 3 eggs, a glass of flour, a glass of granulated sugar and apples. The apples are chopped and placed on the bottom of a greased frying pan. If they are sour, you can sprinkle them with sugar. In a bowl, first grind three yolks with sugar. At this time, it is better to keep the whites in the refrigerator. Then the whites are whipped separately to a standing foam. Combine with yolks and sugar. Then flour is added. If you add another 150 g of mayonnaise, the dough will taste creamier. Don't forget to add a little salt and slaked soda. The apples are filled with dough and placed in the oven. 15 minutes - and that’s it: the charlotte is ready!
Amina’s mother called this pie “shukher” because if guests suddenly came, then based on this dough you can make not only charlotte, but also any other pie - changing the filling and adding what you have in the house. By the way, if you are eating with a group of more than four people, then it is better to double the amount of products used.
We hope that Amina and her husband will have a truly French romantic iftar today. And we, our readers, also wish you pleasant family holidays during the weekdays of Ramadan.
5th day of Ramadan
French fries, tomatoes with cheese and Zucchini Cake
Natasha is preparing iftar for guests today - she and her husband are expecting another married couple for dinner. The family's budget is not very large, but she wants to surprise the guests with something unusual and make sure that the table does not look poor. So she settled on French fries, tomatoes with cheese and zucchini cake.
Tomatoes with cheese are very easy to prepare . The vegetable is cut into circles and laid out on a plate. Grated cheese mixed with squeezed garlic and mayonnaise is placed on top. Quick, simple and usually doesn’t sit on the table.
Zucchini cake is a little more difficult to make. Grate two small zucchini on a coarse grater. Then add 3 tbsp. spoons of starch, 2 eggs, salt and pepper to taste. Add flour until thick, but not too much - so that the dough drips from the spoon. Mix everything, and then form thick pancakes from this mixture and fry in a hot frying pan. How many pancakes there will be so many layers of the cake.
Then you need to prepare the filling. To do this, take chopped mushrooms and fry them with onions until tender, not forgetting to salt, pepper, and add spices to taste. Then you assemble the cake itself from this: zucchini pancakes, coated with mayonnaise mixed with garlic, then the filling, then again mayonnaise, pancake, mayonnaise, filling... etc. Put more mayonnaise on the top layer and decorate the top with multi-colored bell peppers, or olives, or herbs - whatever vegetables are in the house will do. When you cooked the tomatoes, you ended up with the tops of the tomatoes left over because they weren't suitable to put on the plate - as an economical option, you can decorate your cake with them.
Good luck and may your iftar table please you even in its most economical form!
6th day of Ramadan
Avar khinkal
Avarka Albina prepares Avar khinkal every evening for iftar, because in their family not a single feast is complete without it. Highlanders cannot see a normal dinner without this traditional dish, and even if guests come, a table without khinkal is simply impossible. And guests often come to Albina. Therefore, she chose the simplest way to prepare this dish. And she shared it with us.
In order to prepare the most Avar khinkal, you first need to cook the meat, and while it is cooking, make the dough. Albina makes the dough with kefir to make the khinkal softer and airier. You need to add quick soda, salt, kefir to the flour and knead the dough. It should turn out homogeneous, thick, soft, but at the same time lag behind your hands.
You need to make a square sausage out of it and cut it into small pieces (about 4x6 cm). Then Albina puts potatoes in a pan with meat, and adds salt to a separate pan with boiling water and puts the khinkal in it. You need to understand that when cooking, the pieces of dough will increase in size, and leave enough space in the pan for this. Cook with the lid closed until it boils, and when it boils, reduce the heat, remove the lid, stir gently and cook for 5 minutes.
It is very important not to overcook them, otherwise they will turn gray. . To check readiness, you need to pull one out and look at the cut to make sure all the dough is cooked. When you take out the dough, you must pierce each piece with a wooden stick (toothpick) so that steam can escape. Serve on the table, place on a tray, remove potatoes and meat from the broth and also place next to them. Be sure to prepare the sauce: adjika or sour cream with garlic. You can also serve dried sausage, fat tail or chicken instead of or together with meat.
Even if your husbands are not mountaineers at all, or even Avars, they should certainly like khinkal. Good luck and bon appetit!
7th day of Ramadan
Iftar for children
Today, Saida’s son fasted all day for the first time. On this occasion, it was decided to invite his friends and make iftar for the children. It is planned to set the table for the children in the children's room, which is pre-decorated with balloons and garlands. The young mother thought for a long time about how to feed her horde of children, and eventually settled on several cute options and one filling one.
So, “Cucumber Bunnies”
Wash the cucumber and cut it into rings. Mix cottage cheese with sour cream, finely chopped herbs, and salt. Using a teaspoon, spoon the curd mixture onto the cucumbers. Using radishes, you can decorate a dish in the shape of bunnies by cutting out ears from radish semicircles, and cut out eyes and a nose from olives or beets.
Dumplings with strawberry sauce
Strawberries can be replaced with other berries, such as raspberries, red or black currants.
Preparation:
Soften the butter (2 tablespoons), grind with sugar (3 tablespoons). Add cottage cheese (200 gr.) to butter and sugar and mix well. Then you need to add an egg and then semolina (3 tablespoons), followed by flour (3 tablespoons), mix it all well. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 20–30 minutes to allow the semolina to swell. Then take it out and knead it on a table sprinkled with flour. The dough should be firm enough to stick together. Form the finished dough into a sausage and cut the edges into pieces.
Boil the resulting pieces (dumplings) in lightly salted water until they float (about 5 minutes).
Prepare strawberry sauce: mash the berries with sugar using a fork, put on fire and bring to a boil. Brush the finished dumplings with melted butter, place on a plate and pour strawberry sauce or sour cream on top.
Meat soufflé
Boil any meat, beat in a blender with the addition of broth and 1-2 quail eggs, pour into a frying pan, add butter and evaporate until it becomes a soufflé. The dish will turn out very tender, just the way children like it. And as a side dish you can boil rice or make the kids’ favorite french fries.
Saida hopes that the children's iftar will be successful and that other children will also be inspired to fast. We also wish you, our dear readers, God-fearing children and joyful children's iftars.
In exactly one week of Ramadan we will post seven more recipes for every day! Stay tuned and don't forget to bookmark this page so you don't have to search for it for a long time!
On the eve of Ramadan, it would be nice to remind about such an indispensable and probably the most pleasant attribute of the holy month as iftar (breaking the fast). We invite you to get acquainted with the variety of traditions of breaking the fast among Muslims living in different countries and on different continents.
To begin with, it should be recalled that it is advisable to perform it in company - among fellow believers, in the family circle. “Eat alone and in the dark” is not about Muslims. And we should not forget the recommendations of the Prophet Muhammad related to eating after sunset. According to hadiths, it is extremely undesirable to delay breaking the fast if the time has come for this. The Messenger of Allah did not begin the evening prayer (maghrib) without taking at least a sip of water.
Of course, many believers, following the sunnah, start iftar with water and/or dates. And then complete diversity begins. And in different parts of the world there are different dinner menus, different traditions. Let's look at some.
Slavic identity with Turkish influence
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a Slavic state in which Islam is the most widespread religion. And the Ottoman background is manifested here in both language and culture. The cuisine, which absorbed the traditions of the local Balkan peoples and Turkish conquerors, was no exception. And Bosniaks begin breaking their fast with dates and lemonade (not the usual carbonated fizzy drink, but lemon juice dissolved in water with a pinch of sugar). During Ramadan, topa is prepared - a warm dish of eggs, sour cream, cheese and butter. It is in this that somuns are dipped - local flatbreads sprinkled with black cumin. This is all essentially an appetizer.
Bosnian Iftar / Source: Pinterest
This is followed by the first course - chorba (for example, begova chorba) or another soup in a thick broth. And then comes the main treat - meat. A special chic is to serve assorted meats from beef, lamb, chicken: boiled, smoked, baked, fried; whole pieces or finely chopped. And dolma is a frequent guest on the table here - a treat that arrived in the Balkans with the Turks and settled here forever. For dessert, people in Bosnia enjoy another reminder of the Ottoman past - baklava (baklava), generously stuffed with walnuts. Tufakhiya (baked apple filled with nuts) and smokvara (made from figs) are other pleasant borrowings from the Turks.
Coca-Cola with baklava
The issue of recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has remained unresolved for more than 40 years. However, this political entity on an island in the Mediterranean Sea has not disappeared during this time and is developing well. Since the main population here is Turks (this is actually clear from the name), the cuisine here is Turkish. But those who spent Ramadan in the TRNC (and the author of these lines had the opportunity to live in Northern Cyprus for several years) noticed some nuances in the Cypriot meal. The Greek factor left its mark on local dishes.
Iftar Turkish Cypriot / Source: annekizmutfaktayiz.blogspot.ru
As expected, breaking the fast begins with water and a piece of fruit. During the meal, the abundance of drinks is striking - natural juices, ayran, dzhadzhik (ayran with grated cucumber and mint) and... Coca-Cola. Yes, this American soda is loved by both adults and children here. And, it would seem, after a tiring hot day, carbonated drinks are extremely undesirable on an empty stomach, but the Turks still drink a glass or two of fizzy cola.
Meze may seem unusual - snacks made from cheeses, fruits, vegetables, nuts - served in small portions. In general, the festive table (after all, no one argues that iftar is a holiday), as a rule, is laid out with different types of cheeses, nuts and olives. You can often find seafood as well. But almost no feast is complete without meat. And the Turks, if anyone doesn’t already know, are real masters in preparing meat dishes. The simplest thing is grilled lamb/veal. Rice or stewed vegetables are used as a side dish (green beans are especially popular). There must be water or ayran on the tables during the meal.
Cypriot meze appetizer / Source: Travel Greece Travel Europe
As for dessert, Cypriots often place baklava on the table. Semolina muffins are also common - essentially, the usual semolina cakes, only stuffed with nuts and drizzled with syrup. Each of them has its own name, but in general they are simply called “tatly” here. By the way, residents of Cyprus buy whole sheets of baklava before Ramadan, and then feast on this sweetness for a month and treat their guests to it. All these delicacies are washed down with tea.
Orange juice and tagine
Moroccan cuisine is also varied. It has absorbed the best traditions of the Arabs, Berbers and even the French, who once owned the country. Since ancient times, Morocco has been at the crossroads of trade routes, and its culture cannot be poor by definition. So, with the adhan heralding the sunset, you are sure to be treated to fresh dates and freshly squeezed orange juice. Fortunately, there are not just a lot of citrus fruits in the country, but a lot, so Morocco is one of the world's largest exporters of oranges, tangerines, clementines, grapefruits and lemons.
Moroccan Iftar / Source: mysite.ma
Moroccan families also break their fast with dates and lentil soup (harira). The meal itself will begin with meze or vegetable salads. Olives and olives will definitely be placed on the table. The popular Arabic dish hummus is sometimes served here as a snack - a puree paste made from legumes (most often chickpeas) with the addition of spices. If funds allow, then a flight of fancy begins. Tagine is a popular Moroccan dish. It is prepared in a special clay vessel (in fact, this is a tagine) from meat (lamb or chicken) with vegetables. If they don’t serve tagine, then expect stew – there are a lot of ways to prepare it. Couscous, popular in the Maghreb countries, is not often used here during Ramadan, but an exception can be made for the guest. One thing to keep in mind is that many of the country's dishes will seem quite spicy to non-locals. This is actually why locals wash their food down with juices.
Anyone who has been to Morocco has probably drank mint tea. There is a whole ceremony of pouring this drink from a teapot into glasses from a meter high. As a bonus, you will be given the opportunity to try pastilla (pastilla), a layered pie, the preparation of which is very difficult.
Coconut milk and fried snacks
Iftar in Indonesia cannot be summed up under one specific menu. There are too many national cuisines, intertwining different traditions of the islands, India and China. In hot climates, meat dishes are probably not as popular as in northern latitudes, however, chicken or beef treats are also very common here. Muslims usually eat light snacks and drink drinks before prayer.
Coconut milk is a drink made from chilled or frozen coconut water, young fruit and syrup. He is very much adored in Indonesia. Es kelapa muda (literally “coconut ice”) is one of the 50 most delicious drinks in the world. Some people like to mix it with coconut sugar and ice. Others prefer to shake it with syrup and pieces of fruit. Some people don't add anything and just drink coconut milk. This drink quickly quenches your thirst. Coconut pulp can also be used as an aperitif before a full iftar meal. Green and young coconuts are most valued: they have a lot of water and a sweeter taste of the pulp.
In Indonesia, it is customary to serve coconut milk with dates for iftar / Source: 123RF.com
Among other drinks, the most popular are juice from local tangerines with ice, sugar cane juice, and ginger tea. They will probably give you a fruit cocktail with crushed ice to try at iftar. It is made from fruits such as pineapple, papaya, cantaloupe, squash (fruits of the cucurbit family), jackfruit and kolang kaline. The drink is sweetened with sugar and sometimes milk is added.
Kolak/kolek is an Indonesian dessert made from palm sugar and coconut milk, with pandanus leaves added for flavor. There are many options for preparing it. Banana, yellow squash, etc. can be used as an ingredient.
Porridge (liquid oatmeal or green soybean porridge) is very popular as a light snack before prayer. Indonesians usually rest after evening prayers and only then begin their main meal. Porridge is a fairly easy food to digest; coconut sugar is often added to it. Green soybean porridge is usually mixed with black sticky rice and coconut milk. Oatmeal is usually mixed with a brown, watery sugar solution.
Indonesian iftar /
Iftar
For a ceremonial evening meal - iftar - people gather together, treating loved ones, friends and those in need. They say that guests in a house who come to iftar will bring blessings from Allah to its owner.
Family iftar is held with family and close relatives. Parents, brothers, sisters, close relatives, children, even the smallest ones are invited to it. They try not to forget anyone, so as not to offend anyone and not to embarrass those who come in front of those who are absent. The oldest are invited first, with due respect and respect shown to them.
If relations between any of the relatives do not work out, Ramadan is the best time for their reconciliation. And if other guests unexpectedly come to the house during a family iftar, they are always invited to join the table.
If the number of guests is small and they are all close relatives, then they can be seated at the festive meal in any order. In any other case, please note that men and women must sit separately from each other. This arrangement is in accordance with Sharia law.
If there are enough guests and the area of the house allows, you can place them in different rooms: men in one, women and children in the other. Preferably,
so that the men were served at the table by the owner of the house, and the women were served by the hostess.
It is important to find a place to pray together. If in a large house it can become a separate room, then in a city apartment, most likely, part of the living room will have to be cleared of furniture so that as many guests as possible can participate in collective prayer.
If guests will subsequently sit at the table, then the table is placed closer to the door, and the place for prayer is located so as not to disturb the worshipers when the hostess sets the table or simply leaves the room. If the guests sit on the floor, then do the same with the tablecloth spread on it.
The prepared food, of course, must be classified as halal. When preparing for iftar, they do not try to surprise guests with the sophistication and variety of dishes. Firstly, it takes a lot of effort and time to prepare them, which may be necessary precisely during the hours when you will be fasting, and secondly, the task of the hosts is to unite the guests for a joint conversation about Islam and Ramadan, and not to amaze them with their culinary skills. Guests usually arrive before iftar time, and they, having fasted all day, should not go into the apartment and immediately smell the cooking food. Before starting the meal, they should be given the opportunity to communicate with each other and rest a little from the road. Then water and dates are placed on the table. When the time for sunset comes, the head of the family reads a prayer and starts eating first.
Since the time for evening prayer passes quickly, after a light snack, guests are invited to read a collective prayer. After it, hot food is immediately served to the table.
Traditionally, pilaf is prepared for iftar. For a light snack, vegetable salad and bread are served. Pickles and herbs are also served with pilaf. You can prepare national dishes that are usually served on holidays. It is not customary to offer guests more and more portions if they are already full.
Following the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad, the dish for Iftar, as well as for a regular meal, is offered to the guest no more than three times.
When most of the food is finished, tea is prepared. It is better to prepare enough boiling water at the same time so that some guests do not have to drink tea in front of those
who hasn't gotten it yet. An unlimited number of sweets can be served with tea. You don’t have to bake them all yourself; today you can buy a lot of them in stores. The more children there are at the holiday, the more varied they try to make the sweet table. Dates, dried apricots, fruits, sweets, sweet pastries - all this is quite appropriate for iftar. Before the guests leave, they are given sweets. Beautiful, bright bags of sweets for children can be prepared in advance.
The start time of Iftar (corresponds to the time of the evening Maghrib prayer), as well as the end of Suhoor in 2018 for large cities of the Russian Federation can be found in the table, which is available for download .
Breaking the fast - the evening meal during fasting - is perhaps the most anticipated time of day for Muslims. This is an opportunity not only for family and friends to get together at one table, but also a whole holiday, which is held almost every day throughout the Holy month of Ramadan. It is iftars, as events that unite the entire ummah, giving the opportunity to feel the festive atmosphere, that make Ramadan a special month.
When fasting falls on summer days, the fasting time increases. Accordingly, the value of the evening meal also increases. At such moments, it seems that the time before iftar lasts very long, and after it - too quickly. Therefore, the evening meal becomes long-awaited, which is why, sometimes, the other side of the situation appears. During Iftar, some fasting people may overeat, literally pouncing on food. It’s hard to resist, and allowing yourself to eat everything you see on the table is fraught with negative consequences for your health.
How to avoid overeating at Iftar?
According to the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.), it is advisable to begin breaking the fast by drinking a glass of water (you can use water with honey) and eating an odd number of dates. The latter can be replaced with another sweet or simply limited to water. According to a reliable hadith, the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.) broke his fast with fresh or dried dates, and if they were not available, with plain water. He said that water purifies.
“Allahumma lakya sumtu wa bikya amantu wa alaikya tawakkyaltu wa ‘ala rizkykya aftartu fagfirli ya gaffaru ma kaddyamtu wa ma akhhartu”
Translation:“O Allah! For Your sake I kept the fast, I believed in You and I only trust in You, I break my fast with what You sent me. Forgive me, O Forgiver of my sins, past and future!”You should not start eating right away. This will be stressful for the stomach, so it is recommended to first go to the pre-evening prayer, slowly complete it, and only then start eating. In 5-7 minutes the body will have time to prepare for eating, so after eating there will be no heaviness in the stomach.
Where to start breaking the fast?
Sitting down at the table, your eyes widen from the availability of varied and tasty food. Even if not much has been prepared, the desire to “eat the whole cow” remains. Eating well during Iftar will help you eat properly during Suhoor. After all, in a few hours the stomach must have time to digest everything eaten and make room for a new meal. Only then will Suhoor be complete and correct. Accordingly, for iftar you need to choose products that are quickly processed by the body and saturate it with moisture. Vegetables and fruits are ideal for this.
You should not start iftar with a glass of fermented milk drinks. It will be hard on the stomach. In Islam there are no prohibitions on eating food during breaking the fast, except canonically. However, the religion of the Creator adheres to the principle “do not harm yourself,” therefore, you can eat anything that does not negatively affect your health. So, you should exclude fried, fatty and, if possible, spicy foods. Some smoked and canned foods contribute to the leaching of salts and minerals, and they also increase thirst.
It is ideal to eat dietary foods for iftar: low-fat chicken broth soup, stews, stews.
You should limit your intake of flour products and carbonated drinks. It is recommended to drink water some time after eating, otherwise it will dilute the gastric juice and complicate the digestion of food.
It is best to drink water in portions when performing Tarawih prayer. Each time between rests in prayer, you can drink half a glass or a glass of clean water. This will help to gradually absorb fluids and normalize the water balance in the body before the onset of Suhoor, and relieve thirst for the coming day.
Of course, after a long fast, a person wants to try different foods. But it is worth remembering that these dishes can be eaten even after the month of Ramadan, and now the main thing is not the food, but the atmosphere itself, the process itself. It is necessary to realize that during fasting days it is important to be able to control yourself not only during daylight hours (refusing food and drink, watching your speech, thoughts and actions), but also after breaking the fast, i.e. self-control continues at night. Learning not to overeat, in other words, not to take more than what your body needs, is a good habit for the future, and Ramadan is a great way to practice.
Proper nutrition allows you to both ease stress and receive moral and physical benefits from it, and most importantly, the pleasure of the Almighty.
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