Three Things Thursday

Hello people – I got back last week after a wonderful two weeks in Brazil so today’s Three Things Thursday is going to be Three Things Brazil 🙂

Thing One: Kid Friendly Brazil

Brazilians like kids, like really like them. You pretty much get priority access in every line up if you have kids and – this was very exciting for foodie mama – when you go out to a nice restaurant with your kids no one gives you the stink eye. In fact at one of the nicest places we went to they brought out a very cool distressed leather high chair, pages for coloring, crayons, and a balloon. For real.

Canadians take notice!

Thing Two: Christ the Redeemer

I feel lame and touristy saying this, but it really is something to be standing in front of one of the modern wonders of the world. While it was not as big as I perhaps thought it is still marvelous and incredibly powerful.

Thing Three: Water Babies

I am not going to lie – travelling with a one year old is absolutely not for the faint hearted. Especially when yours wakes up at 6AM every single day. Seeing her sister happily splash around in the pool all day went a long way towards mitigating my ire.

But seeing my Zara run up to the beach when we got to Buzios and the sheer delight with which she whooped and hollered and splashed around made everything more than okay. My 1 year old didn’t take to the beach so much, but she found a way to stay ‘busy’.

Thanks for coming by and do drop in to see the hosts and other participants at Love Laugh Mirch, Pink Chai Living, and The Write Balance.

Aaloo Qeema – Ground Beef and Potatoes

Whenever I am about to go back to Karachi my mother always asks me what I want to eat when I get home. The answer always is “qeema paratha” which usually prompts my mother to say “you’re your fathers’ daughter; he also wants qeema all the time”.

I have always loved a good qeema, but since living abroad I practically crave a ghar ka qeema. I don’t mean bihari style qeema, or galawat ka qeema or any of those other varieties that are commonly found in restaurants: I mean the kind of qeema that mama’s make. To say that it has been my nemesis thus far may sound dramatic, but it is true.

Ground beef here doesn’t taste the same and it certainly doesn’t smell the same. In fact some times it smells pretty darn icky. It has taken considerable trial and error and even the occasional chucking of the final product to get me to a place where I am happy with the end result. I don’t even keep the achar (pickle) bottle handy any more – God knows a few spoonfuls of it has rescued many bad qeemas!

The fresh minced ginger makes a significant difference in overall flavor so please please walk away from the pre ground stuff. If you don’t have time to finely mince then use a box grater and shred it. This recipe is fairly basic so you’re welcome to tweak it by adding more or less tomatoes, throwing in some green bell peppers at the end (yum), subbing peas out for the potatoes etc.

Happy Cooking 🙂