Ramadan in the UAE - An Iranian family Iftar - video Dailymotion

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Read the full article on gulfnews.com - Flavours of an Iranian family Iftar in UAE https://gn24.ae/7fbe8b4aa88e000  See more at: http://gulfnews.com/videos  The spread on the table was sumptuous: a tray with dates and black tea; a bowl of ‘Leila’s’ salad.

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00:00For me, Ramadan is a time that I get to do what I really love and share it with people that I love

00:07more than I would in other months.

00:10So it's a month that we come together.

00:12Iftars usually take a little while.

00:15It's not a quick meal that you eat and you get up and go on.

00:19So we sit around a table, we catch up, we discuss plans.

00:24It breeds this sense of awareness, the humanity that we may sometimes forget

00:32during the hustle and bustle as everybody is running and going about their lives.

00:36So I'm Iranian and my children are actually Emirati.

00:40So it's a marriage of the two cultures.

00:42And we usually do rice dishes with some sort of chicken or beef.

00:49They're kind of a family of goji berries.

00:52These are very sour, so we add saffron and sugar to it.

00:56And we fry them very, very lightly.

01:00And this gets added to the rice with pistachios and it gives it a very tangy flavor to the rice.

01:07Basically, it's chicken that we put lots of different herbs in it.

01:14So it has turmeric.

01:16It has lots of saffron as we put.

01:19It's got bay leaves.

01:21It's got black peppers, salt, pepper, garlic and onions.

01:26And then we just let it still cook.

01:28And then we add a little bit of tomato paste on top of it.

01:31This soup is vegetable broth, carrots and whole grain barley.

01:41Not split barleys, whole barleys.

01:43With some coriander and some onions in it.

01:49A little bit of tomato paste and some potatoes.

01:54It's kind of like a soup between mains.

01:56Sometimes people have salads, sometimes they don't.

01:59We definitely have the Iranian tea ready with the roast flour and saffron in it with dates.

02:05And we break our fast.

02:07The first thing is actually a bit of tea and dates.

02:09That's the first thing that we do.

02:11Try to drink warm liquids than water or juice if need be.

02:16This again is a very, very traditional Iranian dessert.

02:22It's our version of rice pudding, literally.

02:26It's made with Egyptian rice.

02:29So it gives it that sticky consistency.

02:32I think aside from it being a cultural and a religious celebration,

02:39what is beautiful about Ramadan is that by default the nature of the month slows everybody down.

02:48I wouldn't have the opportunity to have my family and friends over for a normal dinner.

02:53I wouldn't make it home in time to cook.

02:56They would not be done with work.

02:58And so we get to see each other on weekends.

03:01I thank God that we are sitting together.

03:05I pray for the peace of the community,

03:08that no one is hungry,

03:10and that all the tables are full of blessings.

03:13I pray for the peace of the house,

03:15that everyone is healthy,

03:17and that my family is in good health.

03:20I pray that Leila is always full of blessings,

03:23and that she has children,

03:25and that everything is good and happy.

03:27Inshallah.

03:31Ramadan Mubarak

Ramadan in the UAE - An Iranian family Iftar

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