Assalamu Alaikum friends. The holy month of Ramadan is about to begin in a few days, So here I am going to share a few tips and tricks that will make cooking easy during the month of Ramadan and you will get less tired and have more time for prayers and reading Quran.
In most of our homes, we ladies make quite a large number of dishes for Iftar. All this requires plenty of time in the kitchen. And since we too are fasting we get tired. So here I am going to share a few tips that I follow to make cooking during Ramadan easy and quick.
- First make a list of items like grocery, fruits, dates, juices, etc you require during Ramadan and buy them at least a couple of days before Ramadan starts.
- Deep clean your home including refrigerators, stoves, etc at least a week before Ramadan starts. Change your bed covers, curtains, etc and keep the home clean and tidy. This way, you don't have to spend time and energy deep cleaning your home during Ramadan that too when you are fasting.
- Clean and remove the skin of ginger and garlic and grind them to a paste and keep the paste refrigerated in an airtight container. Also make breadcrumbs and keep ready. For making bread crumbs, lightly roast the bread on a tava for a few seconds, allow it to cool and grind to a powder in a mixer grinder. Also you can make coconut paste from 2 to 3 coconuts and store it in airtight containers in a freezer.
- Always make a meal plan for a week with a list of items that you are going to prepare everyday. For example, my meal plan for Monday would be Nombu Ganji, Ulundu vadai, Chicken Macaroni, Bread halwa, Sliced Fruits, Dates, Orange juice and Rose Milk. In the same way, make a list for all other days in a week. In this way, you can have a check on what you have and what has to be bought to stock your pantry.
- Divide your cooking time into 3 parts. The first is at about 11.00 a.m, the next at about 5.00 p.m and a small preparation part just before you go to bed.
- I start making drinks (juices, milkshakes or hareera), desserts or sweets, cut fruits, chop onions and veggies and marinate meat and make the curry for the next day Suhur in the morning at about 11.00 a.m. I then keep all these in the refrigerator. If I am making cutlets, spring rolls, etc, I make these too in the morning and freeze them in air tight containers and then keep them outside the refrigerator 4 to 5 hours before frying. All this takes about an hour or two.
- Next at about 5.00 p.m. after Asr prayer, I start making all the dishes that I have planned for Iftar. As I have kept everything ready in the morning itself, my job is a lot easier and I don't feel much tired and everything is ready on the dining table at least 10 to 15 minutes before we can break the fast. So we can spend this time making dua or praying Quran as this is the time when our prayers are answered.
- Before going to bed, I soak dals/ lentils if I am making Ulundu vadai or Dal vadai, etc and knead the dough if I am going to make Roti for Suhur the next day. I then place the dough inside an airtight container inside the refrigerator.
- We usually prefer eating Roti or Rice along with a curry for suhur and have a few fruits. As I have made the curry a day earlier, I just have to cook rice or roti. I cook rice during Suhur time in my pressure cooker as it cooks rice in just 10 minutes. If making Roti or Chapathi for Suhur, I knead the dough a day earlier after finishing my Taraweeh and Isha prayer and place the dough in an air tight container inside the refrigerator. In this way, I just have to roll chapathi or cook rice in one side of my stove and heat the curry or gravy in the other. In just about 15 minutes, the Suhur meal is ready.
- For Iftar too, since we have divided the preparation and cooking time, we do not get tired and cooking during Ramadan becomes a lot easy.
- If you are going to conduct an Iftar party or guests are visiting your home, you need to prepare more dishes and in large quantities. In that case, make a list of items that you feel are easy to prepare, can be stocked in the refrigertor earlier. This way you can make the dishes like sweets, desserts, cutlets, spring rolls, Curries, etc one or two days earlier and you can easily manage cooking other dishes on that day.
You can also check out more Ramadan special and Iftar special posts below
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