Days of Our Lives

I would have never even thought of attempting to make this food item years ago. Too complicated. But after trying making roti canai, I have been entertaining the thought of attempting to make Murtabak, a food item that I love to eat with the vinegar/onion dip. I didn’t make the dip though, because as it was, I was already too exhausted from making the sheets for all the murtabak and roti telur we made.

The ground beef filling plopped on the thickest part of the stretched ball of dough

Last Friday was a holiday preceding the 4th of July. I planned for this Murtabak weekend days before, because it required some planning, seeing as how we were also going out. On Saturday we went to El Paso Outlets to get the girls some new needed shoes and soe zabiha chicken and meat because we were running low on them. We also managed to run to the Farmer’s market early in the morn to get some Japanese eggplants. We had also thawed the goat that hubby had bought (or was gifted actually) from Albuquerque. So there was a lot of work to do after we got back from El Paso. Hubby did the goat before he went to play soccer. I made the murtabak filling (ground beef), two different recipes of roti canai dough and continued hubby’s unfinished goat cutting. I was wiped out by night time.

H's the murtabak fryer

The next morning, as soon as Baby Z woke up, we went to Young Park for our tennis Sunday, and even strolled in the park at the pond, watching ducks. It was a really nice park. Kids can fish at the pond too. I tried on S’ rollerblades and realized that months of no rollerblading has made me very wobbly and screamy on it. I need more practice.

When we got home, I showered and set out to make the murtabak. It took two grueling hours to be done with all the dough balls I had submerged in oil from the night before. H was in charge of the frying. While I pressed, thinned, stretched, and gingerly wrapped each heap of ground beef filling with the roti canai sheet, H fried the murtabaks. As soon as he took one out of the pan, he’d call out to me and I would go to the kitchen with a wrapped murtabak held gingerly in my two palms, dripping oil on the floor along the way. It was messy work, but the murtabak were turning out so nicely (I hadn’t vouched on them turning out so nicely since I didn’t really think I could do it) that the exhaustion was worth it.

I used my mother’s roti canai dough recipe, but for some reason the dough balls were tough and gritty. I must have mixed it wrong the other night. The other recipe I used though, the one that I used in my first attempt to make roti canai, worked out beautifully. It was such a pleasure to stretch it.

That was our lunch, and for Baby Z, it was white rice, and the goat I had cooked the night before. We only had less than half an hour after all that work to get ready to go the masjid because the girls had Arabic class in which they have to submit their homework of writing a short essay of  ‘What I do every morning’. Reminded me of ‘inshaa”‘ in secondary school.

The rest of Sunday was sent inside the house while it poured outside. I welcome thunder and rain here. Can’t believe how happy the sound of thunder makes me feel, subhanallah. It really cool things down.

As the girls were in their room, hubby napping upstairs, and I lounged on the couch in between trying to nap and also working on the kids Ramadan activities, I heard H suddenly dash to his sisters’ room saying,

“Come! Come! Look at this. It’s so cool! Meet me in the backyard!”

I have to say it peaked my curiosity and even though I was trying to have some shut eye, I got up and fed my curiosity.

A beautiful full rainbow adorned the blue sky. It was still slightly drizzling, and the sun was descending, getting ready to set in a few hours. It was magnificent, subhaanallah. H, Baby Z, and I stood in the backyard, in the drizzle, looking at it and taking pictures. There was also a second faint rainbow, a double rainbow. Just breathtaking…Allahu Akbar!

It would have been nice if that was how our Sunday ended, but unfortunately we had been lounging to much that afternoon that by maghrib, the kitchen hadn’t yet been cleaned as it usually is, so cleaning took place between Maghrib and Isha with a grumpy mom leading the way. But in all, it was a great weekend, alhamdulillah, one of murtabak and rainbows.