Iftar post #1

Salaam alaikum everyone!

Ramadan Kareem🤍!!!

How are you all?  I’m fine and I would like to share one of my favorite recipes during Ramadan with you all. I know it’s Hausa name and it is called “Kunun Gyada”. If I roughly translate it to English, It would mean Groundnut milk and rice gruel. Yes, the English meaning may not be appetizing but I promise that it is absolutely delicious.

Warning: Not to be consumed by those with Peanut and peanut related allergies. I’m not sure of the dietary information.

I’d recommend preparing this for iftar. For iftar, there’s usually a mini feast with multiple dishes from fruit salads to main dishes. So yeah, and if there are left overs you can have that for sahur bearing in mind that it’s actually quite light.

 My mommy always made this for some of our iftars and I’ve loved them ever since. So I learnt the recipe and here it is. There are multiple ways to make this, I mean that there are different variations but this is the one I grew up having.

Kunun Gyada

Okay, so my pictures are from the internet at this point since unfortunately I'm not at home right now so I can’t make this. I also don’t have the ingredients on hand right now so we are going to have to depend on this for now.

Serving: 4 to 6 people

Ingredients:

1.  A cup of roasted groundnut/peanut paste

2.  Half a cup of fresh tamarind/ tamarind paste

3.  Half a cup of uncooked rice

4.  3 tablespoons of regular kunu (made from gero/millet)

5.  Sugar to taste

So yeah, it’s basically that. It is quite easy if you follow the instructions and don’t worry, you can tweak the recipe once you’ve gotten the hang of it. Also, for the groundnut paste I use… It is locally made. Not the refined peanut butter we find at the supermarket. I have never attempted this recipe with that so I won’t bother recommending it to you.

For the tamarind, my mom always had some fresh ones in the freezer. I'm pretty sure the store bought paste should work as effectively. Now on to the recipe…

Recipe:

Step 1: I recommend placing a kettle to boil as you are going to need a lot of hot water.

Step 2: Soak the fresh tamarind with some hot water.

Step 3: Place the peanut paste in a bowl and pour a good amount of hot water over it to melt it. Stir with a spoon or your fingers once you can handle the heat to dissolve the paste.

Step 4: Wash your rice (We use basmati at home) and parboil it for 5-7 minutes.

Step 5: Place a sieve or strainer over a clean pot and pour the dissolve peanut paste past the sieve into the pot to separate the liquids from the unwanted lumps. You can add a little more hot water to increase the quantity.

Step 6: Place the pot on the stove and let it boil while stirring the liquid gently to avoid it bubbling over. Add the rice and for about ten minutes stir to avoid bubbling over and burning.

Step 7: Pour the tamarind through a sieve/ strainer to the juice into our pot. Stir the mixture after adding the tamarind. At this point, it should stop trying to boil over, something to do with the acidity of the tamarind I believe.

Step 8: Reduce the flame and let it simmer for about five more minutes. Taste the kunu (in the pot) to see if the tanginess is to your taste. The rice should be cooked and bordering on very soft. More tamarind juice can be added for tanginess and a little water can be added to reduce that.

Step 9: Turn of the flame. Dissolve the kunu (gero) with minimal water to make a slightly loose paste. Add the paste to the pot and stir until it thickens.

Step 10: Transfer to a serving dish or a cooler.

Serve hot and add sugar to your taste.

See. I told you. Pretty easy. Feel free to try this out and of course, Bon Appetit!

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this post and I really hope I got the recipe right this time. Enjoy! Also… Ramadan kareem!!!

For the du'a I would like to share:

The du'a to say before breaking the fast (I'm not so sure..)

Thank you so much for reading this. I really hope you enjoyed it. Allah hafeez and Ma salaam!