Last week, I went for an Iftar with some friends. Each of us took a dish or two. I made the vegetarian version of Linda’s Chorba M’katfa and Amal’s Basbousa which turned out nicely. The hostess, Hafsa, had made a delicious pot of wheat kanji which she said was a staple she made during the Ramadan season for her family. I requested her to share her recipe on this blog. So, here is the wheat kanji recipe of Hafsa Farook which I am bringing to Angie’s Fiesta Friday #26 co-hosted by lovely bloggers Prudy and Jess. Hafsa did mention that people who were not fond of wheat could substitute the wheat with rice or use half and half of each.

For today’s music feature, I decided to share some Punjabi music, composed by Pritam Chakraborty, from three fun Hindi movies that will be sure to get you on your feet and dancing. 🙂
The first song is from Anurag Singh’s movie Dil Bole Hadibba (translation: Heart says Hadibba/ hurray, 2009) starring Rani Mukerji and Shahid Kapoor and sung by playback singers, Mika Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan.
The second song is from Imtiaz Ali’s movie Jab We Met (translation: When we met, 2007) starring Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor and sung by Sonu Nigam and Javed Ali.
The last song clip is from Ayan Mukerji’s movie Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (translation: This youth is crazy, 2013) starring Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone and sung by Arijit Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan.
Enjoy the music and the kanji! 🙂

Wheat Kanji
Ingredients:
- Wheat – 2 cups
- Onion – 1 large
- Ground ginger and garlic
- Cinnamon – piece
- Rampe/ pandan leaf – a piece
- Curry leaves – 1 or 2 sprigs
- Ground cumin seeds
- Tomato – 1
- Chilli powder, to taste
- Corn kernels – 1 can
- Mushroom – 1 can
- Coconut milk – 1 cup (thin consistency) and ½ cup (thick consistency)
- Fresh coriander – a small bunch
- Salt, to taste
- Oil, for sautéing
Method:
- Soak wheat for at least 5 hours.
- Chop up the onion.
- Heat oil and fry the chopped onions, ground ginger garlic, piece of cinnamon, rampe and curry leaves. Sauté until it becomes golden brown.
- Add ground cumin seeds.
- Grate a tomato and add to the pan. Add a little chilli powder and cook for a while.
- Drain the soaked wheat and add to the sauté pan together with at least three cups of water. Add more water if the liquid dries up before the wheat is cooked. When cooked, the wheat should not be transparent.
- The corn kernels can be added now along with chopped mushrooms. Add a little water if the liquid dries up. Cook for a few minutes.
- Add 1 cup of thin coconut milk and ½ cup thick coconut milk to the pan and cook.
- Just before removing from heat, add the chopped coriander and salt to taste and cook for a few minutes.
- Serve warm.
Recipe source: Hafsa Farook.