Saads Does Photo a Day

21 | Mango Crust and a Vortex of Emotions

After fajr, I sat thinking about how I have talked about being there for others in their hard times. Yet, since we're a product of our environment, wouldn't the dark cloud over one's head dampen others' mood? Should one even reach out for a hand when it'll just bring others down?

As the thoughts swirled around in my head, I felt my dad give a firm but gentle pat on my back. The anxiety ebbed away as an answer to my questions.

My mind has been a vortex of emotions lately and I had barely been wanting to eat. With a big move ahead and my thesis hanging by my neck, I was burning out. Recognizing this, I put the 80days40foods challenge on the back burner.

It's a bit uncomfortable to leave it incomplete but sometimes (most times) I bite off more than I can chew. A challenge failed is a lesson learnt. My goal was to learn and enjoy the process rather than achieve a certain goal. Accordingly, I did find myself improving a little bit and having fun with the camera as well as the kitchen. The proof is literally in the pudding.

For all those who supported me throughout, thank you. I appreciate you a lot. Especially, the person who helped me throughout the process: from brainstorming food ideas to advising me about food styling to being my hand model and holding the lights in my unprofessional studio setting to advising me about editing and compositions to refining my captions and much much more. Alhamdulillah for all His blessings.

See you all in a bit. Adiós. Assalamualaykum.

20 | Jura Waffel
Hands down, some of the best wafer biscuits I have ever tasted.

19 | Haleem
Last time Ami made haleem, I made the mistake of waiting for leftovers to take a photo. I watched as the haleem level lowered and lowered in the bowl till, at last, the amount leftover could only be laughed at.

A sign of good food is that it finishes quickly, and what good food my mum makes!

18 | Abba's Special French Toast

[She woke up barely registering her father's voice, "Sado! Come on, getup! Get up! Get up! Ten minutes till sunrise." She gave a grunt of acknowledgement as her father moved on to her brother's room. It was quite a funny process, Abu going in circles trying to get all four of them up in time. But waking up for fajr wasn't exactly easy.

As they finished their salah and Abu brought in the warm honey water, Muhammad reminded them that it was the weekend. This granted an early morning corniche visit.

Loading up their bikes in the car, they made their way to the sea side. Less people and more nature was exactly how she liked it. She let the thoughts zoom through her head with the to and fro of the swing, entertaining some and letting others go.

Sweaty and energized, they returned contemplating their breakfast options. It was between halwa poori, baguettes, and French toast. A unanimous decision was made upon french toast.

She watched as Abu carefully cracked the eggs and heat up the sugary milk. She cut up the toasted bread in halves as Abu soaked each piece in the batter ready to be placed in the pan. They nibbled on the golden goodness as they chatted about this, that and everything in between, her curiosity ever present.

Much later in life did she realize how fulfilling those mornings were; spiritual stimulation leading to physical invigoration and lastly intellectual engagement paired with a satiated appetite.

She wondered whether her parents planned for things to fit in such a perfect manner or whether it was just Allah being Allah with His immaculate arrangements.]

18 | Coffee Cake

[The year was 2005. The little girl was getting ready to go to auntie K's party. As they reached the familiar apartment building, the flavorful aromas indicated the house with the party. Uncle I opened the door with a huge smile and a welcoming salam.

The lamp lit rooms, the cosy furniture, the delectable food, and auntie K's familiar laughing claps all made for a wholesome mood. The little girl patiently waited for what she found to be the best thing about these parties. As auntie K brought in her large rectangular dishes, she excitedly got up to get her serving of coffee cake. Auntie K made it best.]

16 | Toasties

A well balanced toastie is quite difficult to resist. With a hot and crispy exterior, a soft and gooey interior, and a perfect balance of flavours, it is like a dance party on the taste buds.

15 | Meetha Paan

I'm here pretending that I can make up 26 foods in the remaining 16 days...

14 | Besan ki roti

The behind the scenes of this photo consisted of me telling my mom that I get the first two rotis for my photo, my mom getting upset because the food would get cold, me running around trying to set everything up as fast as I can, me calling my brother to act as a hand model, my mom telling the maid to give the first two rotis to me, the maid asking what exactly I do with my photos and me having no reply to that question.

I love this photo even though the raita looks like the star instead of the rotis. Nevertheless, they were delicious and I could have eaten six of these if given the chance. But alas, the chance wasn't given and my stomach was spared.

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12 | Lemon Olive Oil Cake

[At the base of sadness is the notion of love. It is because you love, or are loved, that you feel sad. And therefore, I wouldn't necessarily categorize sadness as a negative emotion.]

The cake was a tenner; the texture moist, the flavor tart, and the feel fresh.

11 | Basil Balsamic Chicken
with cherry sauce and sweet potato crisps

With cherries being the in-season fruit, I was seeing a lot of sweet recipes calling for cherries. I, however, wanted to try and incorporate them into a savoury dish. My excited mind envisioned a good marriage between the flavours of basil, balsamic, and cherries.

I made a bit of stock, added a whole bunch of cherries, and a little basil to make the sauce. I think it would have been better made with a darker meat but with the prices hiking up, I was afraid to take such a risk with a more expensive ingredient.

Alas, the final dish was nothing special; it lacked punch. I should perhaps have added more of everything. It was still enjoyable albeit a bit out of balance. It made for a great photo though.

10 | Ras Malai

[Being emotionally intelligent comes with the curse of feeling too much. When you feel a lot, it can be difficult to live with and around people who just don't have the capacity to understand your feelings, let alone mirror or reciprocate them.

I wonder about the emotional burden on the Rasul SAW. He, after all, was the most emotionally intelligent person on earth. And his adversaries were so many: the hypocrites, the open enemies of Islam, the blood family that was so openly against him! But Allah chose him for a task; the most difficult and demanding job. And Allah gave him SAW the capability to fulfill it. And he did!

So too must Allah have jobs He has chosen us for. And I suppose it is our duty to fulfill those jobs as best as
we can.]
It was my first time making ras malai and might I say that it was absolutely lovely. Soft, squishy balls with the cool and cardamom-y milky goodness - amazing! The only fault was that it took a day for the milk to reach the center of the balls. But when the milk did reach the heart, the heart softened, and what a beauty it was! 9/10

09 | Honey Oat Bread

This has been sitting in my youtube playlist of "dishes" for a few years now. It was good but the white bread recipe from Serious Eats is better.

08 | Khaman Dhokla

I am not sure whether I messed up in following the recipe or whether my taste buds just aren't ready for south Indian flavours. Whatever the case, I could only just swallow a bite of this before crushing it up and feeding it to the birds who, by the way, seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.

Experimentation can often have negative results and that is okay. A lot of us have the privilege to fail without much of a risk and it might do us well to make use of this privilege. You won't always get awesome results but each trial builds up a small burst of knowledge inside of you. As the number of failed, and sometimes successful, trials increase, so too will the bursts of knowledge in your brain. And who knows, one day the bursts might congregate and KABOOM you have an explosion of awesomeness that you create!

07 | Black pepper ice cream with melon in lemon syrup
So fancy!
I started this with several factors working against me. I chose a flavour I was confident I wouldn't like. I was bored of the same old chicken, onions, and garlic and was ready to try something actually new. Since black pepper in ice cream sounded like an absolute abomination, I decided this would be a nice little adventure.

I have never made ice cream with UHT milk and cream but that's the only one available in Pakistan so I wasn't sure if the base would even come together. And lastly, the motor of my machine had been replaced last year and I don't remember using it after that. It sounded like an old Suzuki Mehran trying its best to start-up despite its weathered engine. I was in great doubt it would be able to churn the custard into an ice cream but I decided to go ahead anyway. What is life without a sprinkle of adversity, eh? Needless to say, the motor didn't work, and I had to churn the mixture by hand. Finally, my upper body workouts were coming into use, and I wasn’t complaining. Not very much, anyway.

I was surprised by how much I liked the zing of the black pepper contrasting the eggy creaminess of the ice cream. With the lemon-melon mixture, it all balanced out quite well. Even more astonishing was the fact that my mum liked it. My brother, however, reckoned it tasted like a chicken tikka or a pepper steak. He claimed it was due to his strong association of black pepper with tikka. Of course, that’s completely understandable and for this same reason, I believe this flavour would not appeal to most people’s taste buds; it’s difficult to move past your built-up ideas into new experiences.

So, even though I liked it, it probably would not be a party pleaser. I give it an 8.5/10.

Also, I made beautiful quenelles, but the heat was strong and they were quickly melting into puddles. Hence, the puddly picture.

Special thanks to my brother who readily helps with my photos whenever I nicely ask him. Asim, you're the real mvp!

06 | Coffee-walnut cupcakes

[It is quite interesting how we justify causing pain just because someone put us through a similar pain.

Instead of using our knowledge to try our level best to prevent the same harm from coming to others, we simply normalize and justify perpetuating ill deeds just because it was our own experience.

How, then, are we expecting to become intelligent beings when we cannot even consider changing our ways and bettering our systems?]

Back after a small break.

The cupcake in itself was great. The texture and the flavour of the base hit a few good notes but the coffee and walnut just didn't marry well together. 6.5/10

05 | Saads Scrumptiously Saucy Spaghetti

04 | Hyderabadi Chicken Curry

When your food isn't looking the prettiest, just plop a few flowers on top. And do the same for yourself. Now you both look gorgeous.

I really should spend time studying, and then growing, edible flowers. They elevate the entire look of a dish, and who knows, they might be tasty.

03 | The Humble Grato

For quite a few years, I've made efforts to stick to a healthy diet during Ramadans. Likewise, during the Ramadan of 2021, I had made an intention to avoid all unhealthy foods. It was going great until midway through the month, my nani (maternal grandmother), may Allah bless her fully and wholly, sent over about a kilo of grato jalebi.

We were four adults in the house, two of which don't like sweets very much. Suffice to say, my intentions didn't hold up and I had just about half a kilo of jalebi in the next two days. See, when Allah blesses you with your favourite jalebi, you thank Allah and enjoy the blessing in its full glory.

In case it's not clear, I absolutely love grato; the flavour combined with the texture pleases the taste buds in the best of ways. Interestingly, I usually am not a fan of overly sweet eats but something about this just makes me keep going back for more.

اللهم بارك لي في جليبيني

Photo help:

02 | Kirsch Schnecken
recipe by:

01 | 80days40foods
I am back with another challenge for myself starting...yesterday.

As of yesterday, I had 80 days before my life develops some changes. I am using that marker to begin a few different projects and since I miss using the camera, why not start another photo challenge? Also, I have been wanting to recreate multiple different recipes and so a food-photo challenge is born.

So here goes, 80 days and 40 foods. Will they all be homemade? Who knows? Will they all be gorgeous, amazing, fantastical photos? Probably not. But will they all be delicious, mouthwatering-ly, yummy foods? Also probably not. But will I try? Yes. Will it try me? Also yes.

Yalla bismillah!

Btw, these are potato nuggets; a product of a collaboration between me and my brother. They were, indeed, very yummy.

324 | Ramadan Kareem!
May Allah allow us to get to know Him and grow closer to Him this Ramadan.

Here's a photo of real strawberry drinks. Beat that with your rooh afzas.

And if Ramadan hasn't started yet, let's just pretend it has because this is the last post of this series.

See you after Eid in sha Allah!

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318 | Milk and cookies

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316 | Happily Exhausted