Honeycomb Bread Review

I loved this recipe. It was up my street, taste wise - carby and simple sweet. The kind of sweet stuff/desserts that my taste buds are accustomed to, that I grew up on. Being Somali, sweet, but not too sweet, and carby are 'desserts' staples - bur, doolsho, mash-mash come to mind. Overly sweet or sickly sweet things, like cupcakes with tons of icing, I'll have but they aren't my dessert of choice.

So honeycomb bread. It was easy to make. Rolling the balls took a bit of time but it was enjoyable all the same as it was my first time making it. I stuffed my balls with dates, which I chopped up, instead of the ingredient the recipe listed: cream cheese, which I'm personally not a fan of.
You can see the rest of the procedure in the recipe here: http://xawaash.com/?p=6593

I look forward to getting a stool for my baby boy when he's a little older insha'Allah and him rolling the balls with me.

Najashi's Death - A DREAM Death for The Believer

I was watching a lecture by Sheikh Navaid Aziz, hafidhahullah, entitled 'What You Need To Succeed' - a good lecture and reminder about how we can use and improve the different areas of our lives, such as family, deen and education, to attain ultimate success, both in this life and the next. This links to a beautiful du'a that Allah SWT teaches us in the Qur'an (and which Brother Navaid finished with) which is 'Rabbanaa aatinaa fid dunyaa hasanah, wa fil aakhirati hasanah, wa ghinaa adhaaban naar' (2:201)*. 
The Sheikh's central message was that we are all living for one moment in our lives, and that is the moment before our deaths. Moreover, that the deed we die upon will be the deed that we are raised upon on the Day of Judgment. As Rasullullah SAW stated: 'whoever dies upon something, he will be resurrected upon it' (Al Hakim).
The Sheikh continued that Allah SWT has given us the OPPORTUNITY to die a good death, to accrue good deeds; the best of which being those that continue (sadaqah jaariyah), those that impact humanity, as the reward is manifold and will continue beyond one's death (examples that come to mind are teaching, writing beneficial articles, building mosques etc).

Then he mentioned the gem of the lecture, a beautiful reflection, and a man whose place with Allah, His Messenger, SAW, and Jibreel is incredible. I've heard the story of An Najashi*; I've read about An Najashi in the seerah of Rasullullah SAW; I've heard that Allah's Messenger SAW lead his janazah. But subhan'Allah, I've never pondered upon his death...and this is what Brother Navaid did: he informed the audience and viewers that the type of death we want is like that of Najashi's. How so, one might ask? Let's analyse how the announcement of his life's end came, RA. Brother Navaid reminded us that it wasn't the companions who told the Messenger of Allah SAW that An Najashi had died, that's not what happened. Rather, it was actually Allah's Messenger SAW who stated: 'Today, a righteous man has died. So pray for your brother...' And it was Jibreel AS who informed our beloved Messenger SAW about this. And the One who initiated this message was Allah, Most High. Allah told Jibreel AS.

Wallaahi, this brought tears to my eyes. Imagine that. Allah says about you: a righteous man/woman has died today. Allah, Al Haqq, bears testimony to your righteousness. The Most Praiseworthy praises you. SubhanAllah! Then, who does Allah inform of your death as a righteous human being? A noble angel. The angel that descended with verses from the book of Allah from the lofty heavens to this earth. The book we love, the book we strive to memorise. The angel that reviewed the Qur'an with the best of Creation, the Messenger of Allah SAW. The angel that came to the Prophet SAW in the form of a man, and taught us Islam, iman and ihsan. Allah informs this noble angel. This blessed creation of Allah then says about you: a righteous man [or woman] has died today. Next, who does Jibreel tell? None other than the last and final Messenger, SAW. The best man to walk this earth. The one whom Allah describes as a mercy to mankind. The best of all Prophets, the best of all people. And what does Allah's Messenger SAW describe you as? A righteous man...rajulun saalih. Finally, who does Rasullullah SAW convey the news to? Who is seeking Allah's forgiveness for you at your janaaza? The Sahaba. The best generation of Islam.

Subhan'Allah, I found reflecting upon this is to be overwhelming....He was granted honour upon honour, RA. From the way he was described, to the nobility and merits of the beings who praised him, right to the rank of the people who sought his forgiveness...may Allah have mercy on this truly righteous man. And may Allah, Al Mu'izz, also honour us, bless us with a good ending and write us among the righteous, ameen.

As I reflected upon Najashi's death, RA, and thought about the lecture's exhortations towards striving to achieve good in this life and the next, I thought about our final moments. And a quote that came to mind, is the one that I'll end with:

'What really counts are good endings, not flawed beginnings' - Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimahullah)

*The du'a transliterated in the first paragraph, which Allah teaches us in the Qur'an, translates to: 'Our Lord, grant us in this world that which is good, and in the hereafter, that which is good, and save us from the punishment of the fire' (2:21) .
*An-Najashi: The King of Abyssinia when the early Muslims emigrated from Makkah and sought refuge in Abyssinia. An-Najashi granted the Muslims refuge. He was at first a Christian, but accepted, and died in a state of Islam alhamdullilah.

Here is a link to the lecture on which this article is based: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&client=mv-google&v=euh8bcUSdug&nomobile=1
May Allah reward speaker abundantly, ameen.

Reflecting upon As-Sami'

I was reminded of two of Allah’s most beautiful names, and perfect attributes just recently – As-Sami‘ (the all-Hearing) and al-Mujib (The Answerer/Responsive).

My friend came over and was sharing her experiences of Hajj with me, may Allah accept it from her (ameen). She recalled tawaaf, and said that as she was going around the ka’bah, and was calling upon Allah, making du’a to the Mighty, the Responsive, she momentarily took in the scene around her. She thought: all the waves of people around her, also encircling the ka’bah, were calling out to Him too, making du‘a to Him too, and yet He, Most High, could not only hear her, but could hear all of them. Subhan’Allah, how amazing is that? Allah hears all of those people, and each and every one of His creation, because he is perfect and unlike his creation in His Hearing: He is as-Sami‘.

Whilst she was telling me that, it reminded me of an incident from the life of our beloved Messenger SAW where Umm-al-Mu’mineen, Aishah (RA) also noticed the perfection of Allah’s attribute of being the All-Hearing. Khawlah bint Tha’labah (RA) came to complain to Prophet Muhammad SAW about her husband. Although, our mother, Aishah (RA) was fairly near to Rasullullah SAW, she could barely hear the exchange of words between the Messenger of Allah SAW and Khawlah (RA). Yet Allah SWT, from above the seven heavens, not only heard Khawlah (RA), but also revealed an ayah about her, that will be recited  (and will remain) in the book of Allah until the Day of Judgment.

Imam Ahmad recorded that after this revelation, Aishah (RA), in awe of her All-Hearing Lord, remarked: “All Praise be to Allah, Who hears all voices. ‘The woman who disputed’ came to the Prophet SAW and argued with him while I was in another part of the room, unable to hear what she said. Allah, the Exalted and Most Honoured revealed:

“Indeed Allâh has heard the statement of her (Khaulah bint Tha'labah) that disputes with you (O Muhammad SAW) concerning her husband (Aus bin As¬Sâmit), and complains to Allâh. And Allâh hears the argument between you both. Verily, Allâh is All-Hearer, All-Seer.” (58:1)

This hadith is also in Bukhari and other books of hadith. In the narration collected by Ibn Abi Hatim, Aishah (RA) said ‘Blessed is He, Whose Hearing has encompassed all things…’

Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah in describing the greatness of Allah, says about His hearing “…He hears all voices, and does not mistake one for another; He hears them all, in all the different languages and with all their varied requests and pleas. No voice distracts Him from hearing another, He does not confuse their requests, and He never tires of hearing the pleas of those in need.” Allahu Akbar!

You know, that quote is particularly amazing to me because of my nature. I don’t possess the quality that women are supposedly deemed to have: the ability to multi-task. I can’t do it. If I’m in the kitchen cooking for example and somebody is speaking to me, just one person, I’ll have to stop cooking to listen to the person if I’m to digest what they’re saying. Or at least slow down my chores quite drastically in order to follow their story. My family will bear testament to the fact that I often ask them to repeat things when they speak to me whilst I’m doing something else! I usually cannot do two things at once, sometimes even the simplest of things. But Allah, Most High, has no trouble hearing us all, all at once. In all our different tongues, at different places subhan’Allah. Whilst my friend was making Hajj, some of us were beseeching Allah at some point too. Yet, He heard her, and hears us; and He responded to her, and responds to us subhan’Allah.

I remember something that Brother Nouman Ali Khan said which was that you shouldn’t feel weird speaking to Allah. Speak to Him, ask of Him, praise Him and glorify Him. Allah hears you, so let Him hear the best of speech from you: Qur’an, dhikr, speaking about Him, good words, etc (I put an emphasis on good words because we really need to think about the way we speak to one another and the things we mindlessly utter subhan'Allah,  Allah hears that too! A reminder to myself first...)

So whether you whisper to Allah to help and guide you in a sad moment, or recite His praises a little louder on days such as Eid, know that He hears you. And govern your behaviour – specifically, your words – around that.

Is Your Expired Bicarbonate of Soda And/Or Baking Powder Still Okay To Bake With?

One late Saturday morning, I wanted to make BBC Good Food’s ‘yummy scrummy carrot cake’ recipe (which I’ll write a review of in the near future insha’Allah). I had all my ingredients but my bicarbonate of soda had expired…at the end of 2011. Still, I really wanted to make it! So I thought I’d ask my question-answering friend google if expired bicarb can be used past its expiry date. My search results listed a really useful page on a website which provided me with a little test that would determine if my bicarb was still usable.

I added a quarter teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to half a cup of very hot water. I was instructed to add a quarter teaspoon of vinegar to this too as some acidity was required to get a reaction.  For my bicarb to get the baking green light, I was looking for some bubbles, and hurrah, it bubbled up, and so the carrot cake was made that day alhamdullilah. No bubbles? Time to get rid of your bicarb.

You can run the same test for baking powder too, minus the acidity. So a quarter teaspoon of baking powder added to half a cup of boiling water, and if you see bubbles, then you’re in business.

Happy baking!

Biscotti Review

Biscotti. Reminds me of coffee shops, my early mornings into uni, and my commutes into work when I was employed as a teacher. When Costa Coffee especially, but Starbucks as well, had a fairly regular share in my wages. When I didn’t want just a coffee, or the classic coffee and muffin combination, I’d opt for a biscotti. The crunchy, originally Italian, biscuit for dunkin’.

Flicking through my Cook Yourself Thin cookbook, I came across a recipe that served biscotti as an accompaniment to some fruit and Greek yoghurt concoction. I didn’t want to make the whole dish but biscotti seemed interesting. Sweet and fairly healthy; I didn’t add any fat as it wasn’t listed! My kind of thing. As I had all the ingredients, bar the almonds at home, I decided to make a mental note to try and make it soon. Whilst the recipe listed 150g of shelled whole almonds, in the ‘tip’ section of the recipe, it stated that any nut variety could also be used in the recipe. Hence, I opted for about a half-half combination of brazil nuts (which I had at home) and whole almonds to make up my 150 grams nut content. I was pleased as well, as I had bought some fennel seeds a while back after watching some episodes of Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals on 4oD. I didn’t really like the fennel seeds/sardines amalgamation that I had tried from the show so I’ve had them sitting in my food cupboard, unused, for a little while; therefore, t’was good that they’d be getting a little outing from their habitat and being of some culinary use! Waste not, and all that.

So the recipe ingredient list went like this: 150g shelled whole almonds, 10-15g fennel seeds, 250g plain flour, a generous pinch of baking powder, 150g caster sugar and 3 medium eggs. The methodology stated that I should tip all the ingredients, bar the eggs, into an electric mixer and mix them together. I don’t have an electric mixer (yet!) so I used my wooden spoon and my cake mixing bowl from Poundland (or was it the 99p store?) - a piece of cheap kitchen kit which is turning out to be quite the gem. Then, I was instructed to mix the eggs together and stir it through the flour mixture, which I did.

Next, I shaped the mixture into a large, flat log, ‘about 30cm long, 12cm wide and 2cm high’. Whilst it stated ‘about’, which in most people’s minds translates to an approximation, I took out my ruler and measured my lovely log! Yes, I do know what 30cm looks like! I grew up in Britain. 30 and 15cm rulers are to underlining headlines, to maths lessons and to the primary and secondary education of this country, what bread is to butter! I just wanted to err on the side of caution and get the recipe just right okay? J So I got a ruler from my husband’s desk and measured my log. I realise now that I somehow read 10cm high and not 12. So my measuring may have been accurate but my reading of the actual measurement: flawed!

Anyway, that was all my prep done; so I popped my measured log onto a baking tray and in it went into my pre-heated-to-a-180oC oven for about 20mins.  When I took the log out, I sliced it thinly diagonally. I couldn’t slice it ‘very thinly’, as the recipe listed, as I found that it would break up a little. I would say I got around 20 slices of biscotti from my log, whereas the recipe states that it makes about 25-30! 25-30 if you want Cadbury’s Fingers thin! Mine looked the size of the biscotti I had eaten in coffee shops so that was good enough for me...My 20 thin diagonal slices then went back in the oven for ten minutes. But I found that they weren’t done after their 10 minute oven return so I turned them over to cook through the other side as well; so they were in the oven for about 15 minutes in all. Turning them over had the desired effect: some were ever-so-slightly beginning to brown and that was fine by me - better well done than underdone, I say.

I was quite pleased with my biscotti – the fennel seeds, I wasn’t initially keen on, but I found that they gave the biscotti a refreshing lift in taste. The texture was nice too – hard yet crumbly – and they tasted good dunked in a cup of tea. My husband liked them too; I gave him some along with his lunch so upon his return home, he commented ‘those biscuit things were nice, really good to snack on’. So I think I’ll be making ‘those biscuit things’ again. I might try omitting the fennel seeds and adding little bits of chocolate next time, as chocolate and nuts are such good flavour and texture friends.