Read the full article on gulfnews.com - Flavours of an Iranian family Iftar in UAE https://gn24.ae/7fbe8b4aa88e000
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The spread on the table was sumptuous: a tray with dates and black tea; a bowl of ‘Leila’s’ salad.
See more at: http://gulfnews.com/videos
The spread on the table was sumptuous: a tray with dates and black tea; a bowl of ‘Leila’s’ salad.
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00:00For me, Ramadan is a time that I get to do what I really love and share it with people that I love
00:07more than I would in other months.
00:10So it's a month that we come together.
00:12Iftars usually take a little while.
00:15It's not a quick meal that you eat and you get up and go on.
00:19So we sit around a table, we catch up, we discuss plans.
00:24It breeds this sense of awareness, the humanity that we may sometimes forget
00:32during the hustle and bustle as everybody is running and going about their lives.
00:36So I'm Iranian and my children are actually Emirati.
00:40So it's a marriage of the two cultures.
00:42And we usually do rice dishes with some sort of chicken or beef.
00:49They're kind of a family of goji berries.
00:52These are very sour, so we add saffron and sugar to it.
00:56And we fry them very, very lightly.
01:00And this gets added to the rice with pistachios and it gives it a very tangy flavor to the rice.
01:07Basically, it's chicken that we put lots of different herbs in it.
01:14So it has turmeric.
01:16It has lots of saffron as we put.
01:19It's got bay leaves.
01:21It's got black peppers, salt, pepper, garlic and onions.
01:26And then we just let it still cook.
01:28And then we add a little bit of tomato paste on top of it.
01:31This soup is vegetable broth, carrots and whole grain barley.
01:41Not split barleys, whole barleys.
01:43With some coriander and some onions in it.
01:49A little bit of tomato paste and some potatoes.
01:54It's kind of like a soup between mains.
01:56Sometimes people have salads, sometimes they don't.
01:59We definitely have the Iranian tea ready with the roast flour and saffron in it with dates.
02:05And we break our fast.
02:07The first thing is actually a bit of tea and dates.
02:09That's the first thing that we do.
02:11Try to drink warm liquids than water or juice if need be.
02:16This again is a very, very traditional Iranian dessert.
02:22It's our version of rice pudding, literally.
02:26It's made with Egyptian rice.
02:29So it gives it that sticky consistency.
02:32I think aside from it being a cultural and a religious celebration,
02:39what is beautiful about Ramadan is that by default the nature of the month slows everybody down.
02:48I wouldn't have the opportunity to have my family and friends over for a normal dinner.
02:53I wouldn't make it home in time to cook.
02:56They would not be done with work.
02:58And so we get to see each other on weekends.
03:01I thank God that we are sitting together.
03:05I pray for the peace of the community,
03:08that no one is hungry,
03:10and that all the tables are full of blessings.
03:13I pray for the peace of the house,
03:15that everyone is healthy,
03:17and that my family is in good health.
03:20I pray that Leila is always full of blessings,
03:23and that she has children,
03:25and that everything is good and happy.
03:27Inshallah.
03:31Ramadan Mubarak