16 April 2014 - From Dusk to dawn and from dawn to dusk

 

In the name of Allah Most gracious, Most merciful.

16 April 2014.

The best part of the day are those moments before Magrib, dusk  filled with quiet and Allah’s mercy for the slave who smiles at a day’s work and makes duah for rain and mercy. The cars somehow disappear, pigeons are scratching around for seeds in the grass and the sun starts to dip in the horizon.  That time when Mom says, “Come inside and take wudhu - it’s almost Magrib”.

Thank goodness the air is so much cooler than last week, although we did expect a deluge of rain after the heat. We scrambled to plant the new strawberry runners and put up final sections of shade cloth for wind protection. The next day the plants looked quite sad and wilted in their new surroundings but with proper watering and care they found their feet, I mean their roots.

A shawl is wound tightly, because the air is cooler and fresher, a deep breathe, some final names of plants are written on boards and stuck into the soil – climbing beans; peas in a pod; rocking rocket; and so on.

There is an excitement in the air – tomorrow will be our first junior visitors from a Primary school in Rondevlei, 8 and 9 year-olds will come and help with planting seeds and seedlings. They will learn about our relationship with Allah, with people and with the environment. They will learn about soil and watering and recycling and how to attract ladybugs, bees and butterflies. I hope they love to get their hands dirty, deep in soil like I do and plant some onions seedlings and some spinach seeds. I hope that they will hop on the stepping stones.

We brought out huge carpets and tidied spaces for tomorrow, methinks the vegetable garden will not hold 50 children at one time, well it could, but it would be a squeeze. So we thought to divide them into groups and introduce them to the various sections: the strawberry patches, the vegetable section and the section where we planted the fruit trees and of late the granadilla, blue berry and black berry bushes. And I will show them the nursery section where the potatoes are seeding and cuttings come to life.

Today a dear friend brought us a convection oven. I must confess that may or may not have moaned and groaned about not having an oven and wanting to bake biscuits and baklava and warm puddings and all kinds of breads and floor rolls and brioche. No one understands this feeling but those who love baking and enjoy cake. Many a time out of desperation whoever comes to visit I would say: “please bring some cake!” Alhamdulilaah after our visitors leave tomorrow I will spit and polish the oven and maybe make a baklava – a cashew nut one with a citrusy sauce.

Let’s share the recipe and don't worry it looks very complicated, but once you get the hang of it - child's play! I tried this one Eid and was so chaffed with results I made one for each family group.

Cashew Baklava

 

Ingredients

 For syrup
2 cups sugar
2/3  cup water
1 lemon, halved
1 orange, halved
1 ½  (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
2/3 cup honey

For baklava
250 gm butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 package phyllo dough (15 sheets of phyllo)

Filling

2 cups finely chopped cashew nuts
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt

Preparation

Make syrup:
Combine sugar and water in a medium sized saucepan. Squeeze juice from lemon and orange into sugar mixture. Add fruit halves and cinnamon sticks. Bring mixture to a boil over moderate heat, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved, then simmer 10 minutes. Stir in honey and return to a boil. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Pour through a sieve into a large measuring cup or bowl, pressing hard with wooden spoon, then discarding, solids. Chill uncovered, until cold, about 1 hour.

 Assemble and bake baklava:
Place oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Stir together crushed cashew nuts, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt until combined well.

Generously brush a 13- by 9- by 2-inch baking dish with melted butter.

Fold over phyllo sheets in half and stack sheets. Keep stack covered with a dampened clean kitchen towel.

Lay 1 folded sheet of phyllo in bottom of baking dish and brush top sheet generously with butter.

Continue to layer 1 folded sheet at a time, staggering sheets in each double layer slightly to cover bottom of dish, then brushing every second sheet generously with butter, until you have used 5 folded sheets of phyllo in total.

 

After brushing top layer of phyllo with butter, spread half of nut mixture over it. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons melted butter.

 Repeat layering twice more.  Butter top and allow baklava to stand at room temperature to harden slightly (to facilitate cutting), 10 to 15 minutes.

 Using a sharp knife, cut through one layer of baklava into 16 equal rectangles, then cut each piece in half diagonally. Bake baklava until golden, 50 minutes to 1 hour.

Transfer dish to a rack to cool, then cut diamonds through to the bottom layer.

Slowly pour half the cold syrup around edges of hot baklava, in between all cuts, and over top. After about 20 minutes, pour over rest of syrup. Allow to stand at room temperature at least 8 hours. Serve with Bulgrian yoghurt and grilled fruit.

 Don’t forget to plant food and recycle.

 

 

Yasmine