this morning i got up happy as a larry… was it because i felt well rested or because i had had a beautiful evening with my maa, having dinner with her, giggling laughing at each other. added to it an unhurried summer evening walk… inhaling the air filled heavy with the scent of lilac, deliberately brushing past lemon geranium and lavender… swifts following us with their low circular flight, a good night before finding their roosts…
and having come back from attending the wedding of my two dear dear friends in monza, and being indluged in love and romance and fingerlicking goodness at piazza castello, surrounded by the warmth of friends and loved ones… i was ready to be back home. back home to give my love back to home… clean it and water the parched plants and look at the pile of e-mails (not in a work mode so wont reply), to responding to couch surf requests, to picking up a surfer from the station, to cooking and licking fingers.
this morning however, i saw my pack of dates i bought yesterday was open… must have been paolo, my italian surfer seduced by their sight. saturday… i feel like making pancakes! i have lemon. i have dates… why not make a special sauce instead of the classic sugar and lemon number? hmmm and what if you add a couple red chillies? a friend the other day was talking of the importance of red chillies in aurvedic medicine…
i woke up lovely paolo for breakfast… explained that this was inspired from the classic yet more so by my travels and wanting a wake-up-call-kinda breakfast! his face lit up after the first bite… he scrunched his brow, screamed ‘oooh spicy’, had a couple hiccups, sort of guessed the ingredients, had a sip of coffee… and proceeded to apply it more generously on the second and then the third pancake.
here goes…the recipe
- dates 200 gms (including the weight of the stones) – steam for 6 minutes to soften
- red chilli 3
- pumpkin seeds 1 table spoon
- cumin – a pinch
- lemon 2 juiced
- double cream 1 table spoon
- saffron a few threads
yessir! largely in part due 2 ur good graces! 😉 I still have time to kick some #2011 [ inshallah ]
trust all is good in your world too!
#alizaidi is still cooking! #yum!