A Human Interest Story

A great way to learn about the culture in Pakistan without actually travelling there is to explore the variety of ethnic foods that originate from there. I think that the only way to truly experience Pakistani food is by eating it from a true Pakistani home, because as we all know, homemade food is always better. That's why I was inspired to make an authentic Pakistani dinner for my family. I was always curious as to how my mom would make the food that we ate every day, how she added flavours, and colour to something that would seem so bland. When I turned 15, I decided to surprise my family and make dinner for them. It was my very first time cooking and no doubt, I was as nervous as I'd ever been! 
Chicken Jalfrezi
I wanted to make something traditional but also wanted to add something different and put my own personal touch to it. For the main dish, I decided to make the food that I loved most, chicken jalfrezi and for desert, strawberry falooda. Following an old recipe that my grandmother had used, I began making the chicken dish. I thought that it would be hard to cook the chicken because I always had an issue with standing near the hot stove and a fear of burning myself! I knew I had to overcome this fear if I wanted to learn how to cook and I eventually did; when I took this culinary arts course this year. I had never cooked before and was worried that the spices in the food and the flavour would be slightly off. Spices are one of the most important things in Pakistani food and if that went wrong, the dish wouldn't turn out very well. The common spices used in chicken jalfrezi are garam masala, turmeric powder, coriander powder and capsicum. I wanted to change the recipe a little and add more flavour. Keeping in mind that my family loves spicy food, I decided to add hari mirch and lal mirch which is green and red chili.

Strawberry Falooda
Then it was onto one of my favourite Pakistani desserts, falooda. Falooda is a dessert containing ice-cream, rose syrup and pre-boiled, unsalted spaghetti. It is a sweet dessert that is served cold and any other fruits can be added to it according to what you desire. When I made dinner, I made strawberry falooda by simply adding cut up strawberries at the very end. My family loved the dinner I made for them and it encouraged me to make dinner more often. Cooking for the first time was an amazing experience and I had lots of fun trying it. Ever since then, I've been cooking at home almost every day and I'm learning how to properly prepare all Pakistani dishes.









  
If you want to make these dishes, try these online recipes below
Falooda Recipe: <http://www.zaiqa.com/recipe/9925/strawberry-falooda-by-rida-aftab>
Chicken Jalfrezi: <http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-jalfrezi/>

Sources:
Images from: Google


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