A sweet fit for a King - Baklava

Baklava is a sweet made of layers of phyllo pastry filled with a variety of nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and those of Central and Southwest Asia. According  to wikipedia, the word baklava is first attested in English in 1650,a borrowing from Ottoman Turkish باقلوا /bɑːklɑvɑ. The history of baklava is not well documented. It has been claimed by many ethnic groups, but there is strong evidence that its current form was developed in the imperial kitchens of the Topkapı Palace based on a Central Asian Turkic tradition of layered breads. In today's post I will show you two methods of making delicious baklava. You can either make the baklava into diamond shapes or you can make them round and dainty in small cup cake pans. Either way, once baked, the baklavas look stunning and visually appealing to the eyes. They don't only look beautiful on a fancy platter but they are also mouth wateringly delicious.

                                            1. Buy phyllo pastry from your local supermarket

                                            2. Open up the dough bit my bit taking care that
                                                the dough does not dry out. With a pair of
                                                scissors cut the dough into small pieces and pack
                                                away into a packet.

                                            3. Seal the packet tightly if you not going to use the
                                                dough immediately

                                            4. Take spray and cook and line the cup cake
                                                 pans.

                                            5.Take the shredded pieces of phyllo dough and place in
                                               pan

                                              6. Add the filling on top of the shredded phyllo. 

                                                  Filling: 250g of coarsely ground almonds

                                                            (Pistachios can also be used or a 

                                                             combination of both almonds can 

                                                             and pistachios can be used)

                                                             1 dessert spoon flour

                                                             1 dessert spoon sugar

                                                   Once the filling is added top up with more 

                                                    shredded phyllo pastry

                                  7. Now add 1 dessert spoon of ghee (clarified butter) over
                                   the phyllo pastry and then press down firmly. Then bake in the
                                   oven at 180 degrees.
     

                                8. Once the baklava is baked pour over cold syrup on top of the
                                    warm baklava.
                                    Syrup: 2 cups of water
                                               2 cups of sugar.
                                               Boil the above two ingredients until the consistency is
                                               sticky. Then add:
                                               A few drops of rose essence
                                               A pinch of tartaric acid
                                               1/4 cup of golden syrup
                                                Boil the mixture for another ten minutes

                                             9. Decorate with ground pistachios and
                                                 cherries

                                10. VOILA!!!! Bon appetit!!!

Diamond Shape Baklavas

                                              1. Phyllo pastry usually comprises of a few layers.
                                                  Separate the layers into 6 sheets each. Place
                                                  6 sheets on a tray. Then place the filling over.

                                             2. Then cut strips right through the layers of phyllo
                                           

                                           3. Then cut the strips at an angle to form diamonds. Now
                                            pour over the ghee (clarified butter) making sure that it
                                            penetrates through all the  layers of phyllo pastry. Then
                                            bake in the oven at 180 degrees

                                            4. Once the baklava is baked, pour over the cold
                                                syrup over the hot baklava

                                             5. Decorate with crushed pistachios and enjoy...

Saudi man dies at 120

                                                                    Image Credit: Sabq

A Saudi, believed to be the oldest man in the country, has died, his family said.
Shaikh Awadh Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saifi, 120, was born in 1893 and lived in three different centuries, the 19th, 20th and 21st, local news site Gulf news reported.
He is survived by 24 sons and daughters and had 447 grandchildren and great grand-children.His oldest son is 98 years old while the youngest is 22. His oldest grandson is 65 years old. Earlier on this year,a Saudi man who was dubbed “the dean of centenarians” died in the Kingdom at the age of 154 years. Nearly four years ago his name was listed in the Guinness World Record for being the oldest living man in the world, Arab news reported. Mohammed bin Zarei died of old age at a hospital in the small village of Sadr Ayad near the southern town of Nammas, leaving behind more than 180 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
He had 10 wives and the age of 150, he told a local TV station that he was looking for a new wife after all his wives died. “Bin Zarei (…) had seen all the kings that ruled Saudi Arabia,” one newspaper said. Bin Zarei hit headlines when the Saudi satellite TV news channel Alarabiya broadcast a film about him a few years ago, during which he said he was in a good health.The program presenter, Saud Al-Khalaf, called him “the dean of centenarians.” 

                                                                    Mohammed bin Zarei

This story reminds me of a patient of mine who use to frequent the hospital on a monthly basis. He is 112 years old and doesn't really have any medical history apart from pain in the joints. I use to always tell him that he is a walking, talking history book. I use to spend hours conversing with him. He related stories to me about the Ottoman empire and also the fascination he experienced at seeing a car in the city of Makkah driven by the founding king, King Abdulaziz al Saud. In fact it was the first car that Saudi Arabia ever had and not only him, but everyone in Makkah were astonished at the sight of the vehicle. He mentioned to me that the Saudi military in the past wore thobes along with shemagh and iqals ( the black double rings worn on top of the checkered scarf), the only difference being that their iqals were broad and huge. This is what differentiated them from the general public. He also told me about King Abdulaziz's generosity. During the month of ramadhaan, he was sitting in the company of King Abdulaziz in the haram area in Makkah. Just before the sunset, the king took out money from his thobe and sent him to buy food to break the fast with. He also insisted that the food should be distributed to as many poor people as possible. The king broke his fast with zam zam water and dates and only after everyone around him ate to their hearts content did he partake of the food. I miss this patient of mine dearly as I use to look forward to his monthly visits to the hospital. His knowledge and experience in life is priceless and I feel blessed and honoured to have been a part of his life. May Allah give him an even longer life of good health and bless him with the highest stages of Jannah. Ameen.

The newly developed and revamped Jeddah Corniche

This latest development project in Jeddah was inaugurated by the governor of Makkah, Prince Khalid Al Faisal a few weeks ago, with a smaller inauguration ceremony held on Wednesday night in what was said to be a glitterati event. Close friends of ours residing in Jeddah attended the event and also made their way to the Corniche yesterday afternoon to get a glimpse of the area during the day.Jeddah has always been my favourite city in the Kingdom and I certainly can not wait to hop onto a flight and see this latest Saudi development project and of course meet all my friends who are near and dear to me especially my best friend Faraz and the Najdi family.

An American woman's perspective on the Boston Marathon Bombings

It is quite ironical that after having a lengthy discussion with regards to the Boston marathon bombings on a friends facebook page, I landed up having guests from the USA for lunch on Sunday afternoon. One of the woman in the group was highly qualified with a masters in higher education. Whilst discussing various topics, the subject about the Boston marathon came up and without voicing my opinion, this is what the lady said ( I wish I taped it), ' I am an American citizen but I'm sorry to say that what happened at the Marathon was definitely staged. The American people do not trust the government and the media any longer. The fact that they implicated Americans of Cechnyan origin is just ludicrous for the following reason. The young Chechnyan men who were apprehended for the blasts came into the USA under refugee status fleeing the war in Bosnia years ago. They were very young when they left Bosnia and hence their mindset and ideologies are that of a typical American child. Why would you bomb people that have granted you a place to stay. As a refugee in the USA your moves and daily activities are traced and tracked. Are you a productive member of society, are you working, studying etc. If these young men were involved with Chechnyan militants as the news reports claim why were their activities not picked up earlier. She further mentioned quite correctly that whilst all the mainstream news channels reported about the incident throughout the week over and over again, none of the news channels reported about the USA army "mistakenly" bombing a wedding gathering in Afghanistan on April 17th killing 30 innocent civilians. The idiotic soldiers without gathering the correct information supposedly thought that the celebratory gunfire which usually occurs at all Afghani weddings was in actual fact a gathering for a military operation and bombed the wedding killing 30 people. Why wasn't this reported in the mainstream media? North Korea has been threatening the USA for some time now and so over the last few months the American people are questioning their government about their safety. Will the government be able to defend its people if Korea strikes.. In order to divert the peoples attention, they staged a terror attack and within a few hours, voila the criminals are caught. Well done boys.. We can defend the country thereby reinforcing the idea that the government can protect its people thereby allowing harsher laws and policies to be imposed onto the American people thereby stripping American citizens of their independence and autonomy." She further mentioned that being a Muslim in America is difficult. During her trip to South Africa out of a whole long queue of people only she and her mom were asked to step aside for a full body pat search simply because she wore a hijaab and was a Muslim. She said America talks about discrimination, racism to other countries, yet as a Muslim you are being discriminated against on a daily basis. I was shocked at a story she related to us. She said that if you are a Muslim don't be surprised if the FBI or the CIA knock at your door without a search warrant, arrest you and torture you to confess to crimes you did not commit. A community doctor residing in her neighourhood was an American citizen. He was however, a Muslim too. The FBI raided his home without a search warrant, took him away for over a year without his family knowing where he was. They had no evidence or proof to charge him against anything. So finally they charged him with providing money to a terrorist organization on the grounds that they found three thousand dollars in his home. After one and half years they released him but also stripped him of his professional licence.

Islam has always been a religion of peace. It does not condone the killing of innocent people at the hands of suicide bombers. Sadly though the majority of people in the world have no idea how the intelligence agencies work. These agencies are dogged with carrying out undercover operations that have affected the lives of thousands of people whilst shifting the blame onto someone else in order to enhance a political objective. I knew of people involved in the intelligence who are no more. There was a Syrian man who is actually a school friend of a colleague of mine. He was the head of a military operation in Syria a good few years ago. Whilst in Moscow he was introduced to a Jewish woman and within a period of time she became his wife. As a member of the Syrian military, he is not allowed to marry a non Syrian woman due to security reasons. Hence he built a home in Moscow and traveled between Syria and Russia. He also told his wife that he will only accept her if she became a Muslim. He was married to the woman for 20 years and had two kids with her. One day when he returned to Moscow, he found that his house was empty. He found a note from his wife saying that she has returned to Israel and that she was in fact a spy for Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. She was assigned to access information about Syria's military operations and also be involved with planting bombs at strategic places which was not mentioned. She was not a Muslim but rather a devout Jew and her kids were also roped into the Mossad at a later stage. After realizing that his wife had betrayed him, and knowing that he has indirectly betrayed his own country, the man committed suicide...

I suggest to all my blog readers, to please view this brilliant video below by Anthony Lawson for those of you who wish to understand the dynamics of the world we are living in today. Why is there war, loss of life, why are innocent people being killed and murdered by the thousands? Who is behind all of this? I urge all of you to please watch this video and share it with all your friends....TO HELL WITH ZIONISM..

Homemade Oven Fresh Bread Rolls

A step by step pictorial recipe

                                1. Add 4 cups flour to the mixing bowl

                                2. Add 1 tsp salt

                                3. Add 1 egg

                               4. Add 2 tablespoons sugar

                               5. Add 2 ounces butter

                               6. Add 1 sachet of  dry anchor yeast

                               7. Then take 250 ml of water and add it to 250 ml of milk.
                                Heat the mixture in the microwave until hot. Pour in the mixture
                                and knead into a soft dough, OR        
                             

                                If you have an electric mixer, add the milk/water mixture
                                slowly whilst the machine kneads the dough

                                8. The end result of the dough after kneading.

                                9. Cover the dough with a cloth. Wait for it to rise until it is
                                    double in size.

                                          10. The above two videos will illustrate a step by step
                                           method on how to fold the dough into dainty bread
                                           rolls

11. Brush a beaten egg over the individual rolls

12. Sprinkle til seeds over the rolls and allow the rolls to rise for a 

                                few minutes. Then bake rolls at 220 degrees until golden brown.

                                 13. VOILA!!! The end result.. Freshly baked homemade rolls.

                                 Enjoy it plain with a cup of tea or have it with butter and cheese or 

                                 stack them up in a beautiful bread basket to impress your guests 

                                 at the dinner table :))))))

                                     

The Boston Marathon Bombings - An Inside Job

So I guess I am not the only one who sees a different picture with regards to the Boston Marathon bombings. Thanks Muhammed Bikhoo for sharing this video with me. It highlights many of the issues that I have discussed on Ismail Mahomed's facebook page earlier this morning.

I believe that the Boston marathon was a staged terror attack carried out by the American government, the CIA and FBI. There are just too many coincidences and reports that don't make any sense. Strange that CNN, SKY and BBC reported a Saudi national as the initial suspect less than two hours after the blast..They have utilized the very same tactics as the 9/11 attacks which has now been proven through hundreds of books and video publications as being a staged terror attack carried out by the American government..The ruthless American regime will stop at nothing to achieve their goals to further enhance their Islamophobic agenda and secure oil wealth..However, what they fail to understand is that it is not America who is in charge of this universe, it is God Almighty and hence with time the truth always prevails and good always triumphs over evil..

So at first they blamed a Saudi national, a poor student who was in the country to learn English. He was basically at the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they have shifted the blame to two American citizens of Chechnyan Muslim descent and have linked their activities to Islamic Militant groups in Chechnya. I am hundred percent sure that the two brothers were either set up by the FBI, were working as spies or were informants within the CIA just like Mr. Bin Laden who miraculously disappeared and is of course now sitting in the tummy of a fish. They dropped his body at sea remember... What rubbish. Do the Americans honestly believe that the world will believe their crap blindly...

As the journalist in the video states, " The American government will murder innocent civilians, Barack Obama and his administration, the Bushes before him, they will murder you; they will murder Americans, they will murder men, women and children to achieve their political objectives. Take a look at what they have been doing in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past decade. Look at the invasion in Iraq. Remember September 11th, it was supposedly Saudi nationals who flew those planes into the world trade center. If you believe that official/unofficial story or propaganda. Yet we didn't invade Saudi Arabia, one of our allies; No, we invaded Iran on a false pretense, lie, a premise that Iran had weapons of mass destruction."

ICC Pepsi WCL Tournament - Botswana 2013

International Cricket Match Referee Devdas Govindjee, who is the official travel correspondent for this blog, was in Botswana at the beginning of this month to officiate games for the ICC Pepsi World Cricket League Tournament. The tournament commenced on the 6th of April and continued up until April 13th with teams from Vanuatu, Germany, Ghana, Nigeria and the host country Botswana participating in the event. I would like to thank Devdas for sending me an update on the events that have occurred in that part of the world during the tournament. It is always such a delight reading his emails. Take note that this update was sent to me on April 13th, the final day of the tournament.

After almost 2 weeks of enjoying wonderful sunshine and hospitality, the final day arrives and with it comes much needed rain ( for the country but not for the cricketers!).

Rain greeted us at both venues- in Lobatsi there was overnight rain and it continued this morning whereas here in Gaberone the early morning rain has persisted resulting in the match being stopped after a few overs- the weather now seems to be clearing so it will probably mean teams taking the field shortly.

Just thought I should update you- this week has gone by with us being consumed by invitations to suppers and functions and it has all been most wonderful- so much so that not one evening was left for individual free time- tonight being the final awards evening at the hotel. The officials and the community here have been so generous in their warm hospitality that it has been an experience totally unique for me.

During the week we managed to visit a nature reserve on our free day and then had an invite to the home of the Ambassador of Germany who invited the German team and tournament officials for a reception- was really lovely relaxed around the pool of her home.

Also had an invite from the Botswana Cricket Association who took us out to dinner at Rodizios- a Brazilian restaurant.

Then the supporters of Botswana cricket invited us to the cricket club for a Biryani evening and finally last night the ICC tournament director invited us out and we went to Cappucinos which is a lovely Italian restaurant at the Airport Junction Mall.

At least on the Tuesday free day I was taken to a Balaji Temple- a totally new experience for me as well and then managed to visit a few places to get my usual souvenirs and fridge magnets! (Ok there is not much place left on the fridge!!!)

Tomorrow I leave for Johannesburg- My other half is already there spending two days with the kids- we then leave tomorrow for Windhoek for the 2 ODI's (One day internationals) between Holland and Namibia to be played in the week.

We shall return home towards the end of the month and I really do hope for a long break before my next cricket appointment- thanks for just being there with me during this trip again and it is always nice to be followed and my pleasure to provide updates and insights of places I am privileged to be in as part of my cricket duties.

Until I get back to PE I shall not promise any updates but facebook postings should continue as per usual.

Take lots of care always

Best wishes

Dev

The very impressive Lobatse Sports complex with the Soccer Stadium as the main feature is alongside the cricket ground. — at Gaberone & Lobatse.

The poolside area at the very spacious Gaberone Sun — at Gaberone & Lobatse.

Hosts - The Botswana Cricket Team at the official opening ceremony

The ICC Flag and the flags of the participating countries flutter in the gentle breeze as Traditional dancers perform on the BCA oval during the welcome function

Adekunie Adegbola (Nigeria) and Josefa Rika (Fiji) exchange gifts at the toss on Day 1 of the ICC Pepsi World Cricket League Div 7 tournament. This match was played at the BCA No.1 Oval in Gaberone.

A closer look at the Man of the match award for each game during the tournament.

These locals opted to cheer for the colourful Vanuatu team at the BCA 2 Oval.

Nice pic of the coin toss!

Vanuatu batting against Germany at the BCA 2 Oval.

For his 3/22 and 82 runs Vanuatu's Nalin Nipiko was presented with the MoM award by ICC's Development and Event's manager Edward Fitzgibbon.

Enjoyed a 2 hour game drive at the Mokolodi Nature Reserve in Gaberone. — at Mokolodi Game Reserve.

Snack time- these vegetarians are really not fussy! — at Mokolodi Game Reserve.

Ah! got you! He or she?> — at Mokolodi Game Reserve.

The impressive Balaji Temple in Gaberone- paid my first ever visit to a Balaji temple.

Another view of the Balaji Temple- must confess that I know very little of the way in which devotees practice this form of Hinduism,

The home of the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Annett Gunther. Welcome reception for the German team and match officials

Enjoying the company of a very friendly and articulate ambassador

The tournament referee asked to pose with the winning team, Nigeria - proud moment for all.

The manager of the Botswana Cricket team Faz Sheriff giving me a token of appreciation.