Mummy's Chicken Pie

My mom makes a really good chicken pie. She got the recipe from my cousin, Shaytaj appa.

My cousin, Rafia, LOVES this pie.  Whenever she visits from Chicago my mom makes this...actually she makes 2 or 3 pies and there is usually barely any left (Rafia doesn't eat all the pies....it is both of our families that devour them).  The one thing about these pies is my mom uses puff pastry for the dough...puff pastry is loaded with saturated fat.  I would love to make my mom's pie but as is it wouldn't be a regular in our home.  My husband also loves this pie and has been asking me for awhile to make it but with a more low fat dough.  So I've been searching for awhile for an alternative to the puff pastry....I found it a few weeks ago at My Halal Kitchen.  She made a chicken pot pie and used phyllo dough and even better...she didn't use melted butter to brush between the sheets...YEAH!!!

Chocolate & Chillies on Manu's Menu

Manu's Menu is a food blog I follow.  Recently Manu started a section for her readers to share recipes she has posted that they have made.  I loved her recipe for a Mango Lassi and I had to give it a try.  I ended up making some changes and came up with my own version.  Please visit Manu's Menu and take a look at her great recipes and the section MsM In Your Kitchen.

Vote for Chocolate & Chillies

Vote for Chocolate & Chillies over at Babble to help us get into the Top 100!!

Eggless Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

I need to start paying more attention to what I'm doing...but then again sometimes my lack of attention turns into something delicious...like this cake.  This is not supposed to be an eggless cake but I forgot the egg.  I had put this in the oven and was upstairs and it dawned on me...I FORGOT THE EGG!!!  This was the second time in a week I forgot to add the egg in something I was baking.  But this time I have an excuse....Hasan was helping me and I was trying to make sure he didn't make a mess.  At the same time I had to keep one eye on Bilal too.  But in the end I couldn't stop eating this cake.  I think I ate half of it in one day!  (But it's a thin cake so really it was like eating a quarter of a regular cake)  I usually don't like raspberries but I loved the tartness of the raspberries and the subtle sweetness of the cake.  It would definitely go well with a cup of tea.  My husband wasn't very fond of this cake..he thought there were too many raspberries but I think he also ate almost half the cake in one day.

La Rocca Cakes & Gelatin

I love chocolate cake...in particular I love Truffle Cakes.  I have actually been searching for a recipe for one but have not been able to find one that is like the one from La Rocca.  Recently my dad had bought the Truffle Royal Cake by La Rocca Creative Cakes.  As I was opening the package I noticed there was gelatin in the ingredients...uh oh...can't eat this.  My sister in law, Reshma, emailed La Rocca Cakes to find out the source of the gelatin.

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce Revisited

Recently I made Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce again.  This time I increased the garlic and reduced the tomato sauce.  I didn't have any Parmesan so I left that out and I used Rotini instead of Fettuccine.  It tasted great the first time I made it but this time it was even better!!!  My son loved it and calls it "Bahut Zyada Yummy Pasta" :).  You should definitely give this a try.  It doesn't take a long time to make.  The sauce is enough for 4 cups of Rotini pasta.  I've updated the post to reflect the changes I made this time.

Kheema with Bamiyan Kabob Chutney

We love eating at Bamiyan Kabob...all of us...including both kids (ages 4 and 1).  The dishes at Bamiyan Kabob are served with a chutney.  I don't like this chutney.  But besides that the food there is so good that it doesn't need anything else.  So we always have tons of this chutney leftover.  I hate throwing out food.

Whenever we go to Bamiyan Kabob we always bump into someone we know.  One time we bumped into my cousin, Anjum, and her family.  They were getting takeout.  She was saying how they love this chutney and she even makes kheema with it.  My husband immediately started telling me I should do that too.  It turned out really good and now whenever we have this chutney in the fridge I make this kheema.  It's very quick to make.

KRAFT Parmesan Cheese

UPDATE

I heard back from KRAFT and here is their response:

Thank you for visiting http://www.kraftcanada.com.

Most of our Kraft cheeses marketed in Canada, with the exception of our imported Brie, Blue and Camembert cheeses marked "Product of Denmark," do not use animal-based rennet.  They use a microbial enzyme.

Kraft imported Danish cheeses may use either calf rennet or a microbial enzyme, and are identified by their "Product of Denmark" label and "pie slice" shape.

If the word "lipase" appear in the ingredient line of a Kraft product then it will be of animal origin.

Thank you for contacting us and please add our site to your favourites and visit us again soon!

Kim McMiller
Associate Director, Consumer Relations

So KRAFT Parmesan Cheese is not Halal due to lipase.  I have seen some fresh Parmesan cheese that does not have lipase in the ingredients.  But make sure you email the company to confirm if it conforms to Halal Standards.
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