With the onset of the blessed month of Ramadan, we hear here and there the word IFTAR - breaking the fast. This word has firmly entered our everyday life. For the majority of our Muslims, this word has become familiar and familiar.

Every time we invite each other to iftar, we want to show our respect and love for fasting Muslims by serving everything delicious that is in the house. All this happens in a pleasant atmosphere, while reflecting on the Almighty and the blessings that our Creator has endowed us with!

In this conversation, every time we praise our Creator for the fact that fasting is not so difficult, and as soon as the time to break the fast comes, all the inconveniences and difficulties of the past day are forgotten. Having completed our ablution before preparing food to break the fast, all the prayers that we know, the verses of the Koran, salawat to the Prophet and His family, and read dhikr are sure to come to mind...

The preparation of this food is also our worship! A person who feeds a fasting Muslim for Iftar receives a reward equivalent to the reward of the fasting person! Alhamdulillah! Each of us has this opportunity. After all, there are those who cannot fast for health reasons or for other compelling reasons. Regretting their situation and wanting to receive Allah's pleasure, they also try to prepare something tasty for Iftar and treat fasting household members, neighbors, relatives, and acquaintances. May the Almighty accept all our good deeds that we do for the sake of Allah!

More and more of our Muslims are observing fast for the first time, and with what ecstasy they talk about how they are waiting for iftar! But not for the food itself! They are waiting to give praise to the Creator and say to themselves: “I could do it, I succeeded!” Of course, there is no complacency here, there is only joy in the fact that we managed to overcome that barrier of incomprehensible fear that sometimes haunts us (due to the intervention of Iblis). We are used to blaming all our shortcomings on him, the damned one! InshaAllah, let's work on ourselves, fight our nafs!

We are all familiar with the state when, when the time comes to break the fast, there is no feeling of intense hunger or unbearably strong thirst. Of course, I want to eat and drink, but I don’t have that unbearable desire to eat a lot. Having quenched your thirst, eaten a little food, you feel full and satisfied that, by the grace of the Almighty, another day of trials entrusted to us by our Lord has passed! Alhamdulillah! Satisfaction not with ourselves, but with the fact that our Lord gives us so much wonderful and tasty food with which we can break our fast! After the adhan sounds, after drinking a little water and eating one date, there is a strong desire to perform your prayer on time, and then go to the table, where food awaits, which is prepared with great love. Food that makes us happy that we will eat it at Iftar! Let it be a barakat for each of us!

A wide variety of delicious and healthy food that we serve! There’s so much we don’t have on our tables! Everything is! When setting the tables for Iftar, we want to please ourselves and our loved ones with an abundance of this food, sometimes overdoing it. All this comes from the desire to make up for everything that is not eaten throughout the day. It’s as if we accomplished a feat by observing our fard fast. Of course, we don’t eat everything. Most of us have the opportunity to buy and eat fruit, so we will lean on it and drink plenty of water to replenish the moisture in our body lost during the long hot day. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), as we know from the history of our religion, lived very modestly and ate simple food. On ordinary days, he sometimes went to bed hungry, for lack of anything edible in the house. And during the month of fasting, our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not always have the opportunity to break his fast with food; he made do with one date. But he did not complain about it, He was pleased with what the Almighty gave him! He knew how to be grateful to his Creator!

Alhadulillah that such changes have taken place in our lives! We are already accustomed to inviting people to Iftar, visiting people at IFTAR. Not just for dinner, but for breaking the fast! More and more of those who treat fasting Muslims for iftar in mosques, in cafes (even in non-Islamic cafes), in shops... But there was a time when we didn’t even hear this word, and even more so, we didn’t know the meaning of it words. Although in the sermons of our ulama, even if they heard the word “iftar”, they did not attach any significance to it and did not delve into its meaning.

This precious opportunity lasts only one month a year! And this blessed month is so fleeting, unfortunately! Hurry up to catch iftar! Probably someone is having their first iftar this year! So don't be late for it! Let us hasten to do good and not miss this blessing given to us by the Almighty!

May the Almighty accept all our fasts and good deeds! Amine!

You will need:

- Fresh fish (carp, trout)–800-900 gr
- Dough– 300-400 gr
- For the dough: eggs–2 pcs, water (or broth)–200 ml, salt–0.5 tsp, flour–600 gr (flour–how much dough will take + for dusting)
- For the sauce: 1 onion, spices

Beshbarmak from large fresh fish (trout, carp) is a culinary invention of recent times. Rinse and clean the fish, place it in a saucepan with a capacity of at least 3 liters. Fill with water until it completely covers the fish. Divide the dough into 3 parts, roll out to a thickness of no more than 3 mm. Cut the dough into diamonds. After the fish is cooked, boil the juices from homemade dough in this broth for 5-7 minutes. Serve fish beshbarmak along with broth, which you can use to wash down the dish. For the sauce you will need the following ingredients: ready-made broth, onions, salt, pepper and bay leaf. All ingredients are simmered for ten minutes over medium heat. The prepared sauce is poured over the pre-cooked beshbarmak.

Asian style chicken liver

You will need:

- Chicken liver–700 gr
- Bulb onions–1.5 pcs. (about 185 g)
- Garlic–2-3 cloves (about 15 g)
- Soy sauce–2 tbsp. l. (about 12 g)
- Vegetable oil–5 g
- Ground thyme, cinnamon, ginger–taste
- Sugar–1 tsp. (about 5 g)
- Salt–taste

Cut the onion into thin half rings, chop the garlic, take out thyme, cinnamon, ginger, sugar and soy sauce. Place the liver in a preheated frying pan slightly greased with vegetable oil and lightly fry, stirring, for 3-4 minutes. It is advisable that the liver in the pan be in one layer. If there is a lot of liver, and the frying pan is not very large, then make two passes. Transfer the liver to a separate bowl. Grease the pan with oil again and add the onion. Fry, stirring, for 3-4 minutes over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, thyme and cinnamon to it. Fry, stirring, for another 1 minute.

Transfer the liver to the onion, add soy sauce, sugar, add some salt if necessary, and fry until the liver is completely cooked for another 5-7 minutes. Don't forget to stir.
When serving, sprinkle with herbs. The liver will turn out very soft, tender, with an amazing taste, where neither garlic, nor ginger, nor cinnamon is felt separately, but together these spices give the dish an unobtrusive, subtle bouquet.

Manti with salmon

You will need:

- Egg–1 PC
- 1 glass of hot water
- Flour–2 glasses
Filling:
- 0.5 kg pike perch cheeks
- 0.5 kg salmon
- Juice of half a lemon
- salt, spices, to taste

Knead the dough for manti, let it rest. At this time we make the filling. Cut the cheeks and salmon into small cubes, add salt, add the juice of half a lemon and spices.Roll out the dough, cut out circles. Then add your filling andpinch. Place in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes- and everything is ready!

Pilaf with peas

You will need:

Lamb or beef –1 kg
Vegetable oil –150 gr
Bulb onions –3-5 pcs.
Carrot –1.5 kg
Garlic –1 head
Peas – 100g
Rice –1 kg
Zira –1 pinch
Saffron –on the tip of a knife
Barberry –10-15 pcs.
Salt –taste
Red pepper –1 pinch

Wash the meat and dry it. Cut into large pieces. Peel, wash and cut the onions into half rings. Peel, wash and cut the carrots into strips. Preheat the cauldron. Pour in vegetable oil. Place meat in hot oil. Fry it, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 10-15 minutes over medium heat. Then add onions and carrots. Simmer everything, stirring, for about 10 minutes. Boil the kettle. Pour boiling water over everything 1-2 cm above the meat. Add salt (should be slightly salted, the rice will then take up the excess salt), pepper. Add pre-soaked peas, a head of garlic and spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low. No need to stir anymore. Cook zirvak until the liquid boils away (30-40 minutes). Rinse the rice well in several waters until it becomes transparent.

Place the washed rice on top of the zirvak and smooth it out with a slotted spoon. Pour cold water 1-2 cm above the rice, turn up the heat, and bring to a boil. Cook for about 20 minutes, the liquid will evaporate. When the liquid has almost evaporated, cover the pilaf with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Leave to cook for 25-30 minutes. When the pilaf is cooked, mix it carefully, remove the meat from the cauldron, and cut into small pieces. Place the pilaf on a dish, put meat and garlic on top.

Moroccan pancakes

You will need:

- Semolina–200 gr
- Flour– 150 gr
- Dry yeast –1 tsp.
- Baking powder –1 tsp.
- Warm water –250 ml
- Warm milk –250 ml
- Salt–1 tsp.
- Sugar–1 tbsp. l.

Mix semolina, flour, salt, sugar, yeast and baking powder. Gradually add milk and water. Beat the dough with a mixer or blender until smooth (you can also mix with a whisk). Cover with a napkin and leave in a warm place for about one hour. The dough should increase in size and be bubbly.
Stir the dough just before baking. Heat a frying pan greased with olive oil and reduce heat to medium. Pour a small amount of batter into the pan. Bake pancakes on one side only! And grease the pan with olive oil every time.

Almond balls with dates

You will need:

- Dates–500 gr
- Almonds – 100 gr
- Dried apricots– 100 gr
- Sesame– 100 gr
- Honey– 20 gr
- Cinnamon– 3 g

Grind almonds into powder. Grind dates and dried apricots into a paste. Mix. Add honey. Mix thoroughly. Form small balls. Breaded in sesame seeds. Leave the candies to dry. Decorate with mint leaves.

Apricot sherbet

You will need:

- Apricots– 1 kg
- Sugar–500 gr
- Water– 4 glasses
- Ground turmeric –taste

Wash the apricots, remove the seeds, squeeze the juice out of the pulp, add sugar and leave for 9-10 hours. Bring water to a boil, remove from heat, mix with juice, stir, strain, add turmeric and cool.

Our dear hostesses! During Ramadan, we publish recipes for you for every day of Suhoor and Iftar. Once a week and seven days in advance. We also tell stories about the Muslim families in which they were prepared before you. Read the first seven recipes for suhoor here. Read the second seven iftar recipes here. And by following this link you can read about seven wonderful drink recipes that will help you not experience excessive thirst during the day.

1st day of Ramadan

Chicken "Nostalgia"

Anna, who is married to an Iranian, decided to celebrate the first day of Ramadan with his mother’s favorite dish - chicken, which is traditionally called “nostalgia” in the family. Having collected wild flowers, Anya decorated the living room with them - it was here, and not in the traditional kitchen, that she decided to serve dinner. She and her husband had been waiting for this month for a long time. And all day long Anya can’t shake the feeling of celebration.

So, chicken “Nostalgie”, according to our today’s heroine, is prepared like this:

Take walnuts, seedless red dried barberries, and onions. You chop it all up. Fry the onion in oil until golden brown, then add nuts and barberries and fry the whole mixture. Then you stuff the chicken carcass with it. (You need to defrost it and put the mixture where the giblets usually are.) When you finish stuffing, sew the edges of the hole together so that the filling does not spill out. Then you wrap it and bake it in the oven.

Anya plans to serve this delicious dish with boiled rice.

2nd day of Ramadan

Olva P Ushtunskaya

Alina is the wife of a native of Afghanistan. Throughout Ramadan, her husband demands that she prepare olwa. They have been married for ten years, and for the first three years of their marriage, her husband tried to teach her how to cook this dish himself, but nothing worked. They once visited Afghanistan together for Ramadan, and his mother showed her daughter-in-law how to satisfy her husband's gastronomic wishes during the Holy Month. Since then, on the table of this interethnic family there is always olva and ... Olivier salad, which both husband and wife love. Over the course of eight years, the Pashtun olva has become a little Russified, as Alina brought her own touches there. She told us them too. The main advantage of the dish is that it takes 15 minutes to prepare. So…

First you need to cut the nuts and put them along with the raisins in a well-heated frying pan with vegetable oil already boiling there. Fry quickly. Then cover it all with semolina; there should be enough oil so that it is absorbed into the cereal and it is not dry. Add cardamom there.

Stir vigorously and fry the semolina until brown, then add granulated sugar and fry for some more time. Then water is added little by little - about 1/3 cup at a time. It is important not to let the mixture become mush. During the entire cooking time, what is in the frying pan should look something like shortbread dough. As soon as the water has evaporated, add more. When you taste and don’t feel any grains, the dish is ready.

Everyone puts sugar in different ways. The dish can be either sweet, for tea, or unsweetened, that is, main. You can cook without raisins and nuts. In the Russian version, we put butter, use milk instead of water, and you can also add cocoa - it will be a chocolate olva. Alina also tried using fried bananas and apples instead of nuts and raisins. It was delicious too. Imagine for fun and enjoy Ramadan.

3rd day of Ramadan

Stuffed pepper

Khadija is making stuffed peppers today. The closer autumn is, the more its household members gravitate towards this dish. Its ease and usefulness prompted a housewife from Omsk to make this dish the “highlight of the program” today. She loves and knows how to cook this food, so we decided to tell you, in her words, how to make the most delicious stuffed peppers. And Khadizhda plans to serve it with a lot of fruit, French fries and charlotte. By the way, Amina promised to tell us tomorrow how to quickly and deliciously cook the autumn queen of the sweet table - charlotte. And today we hope that there will be a stuffed handsome man on your tables.

So, Khadija prepares this dish like this:

You need to cut off both tops of the pepper and remove the seeds from the inside. Cut the cut tops into small cubes. Chop the onions and carrots, fry in oil until golden brown, then add the chopped tops of the peppers and fry until golden brown. Then the minced meat is mixed with rice boiled until half cooked, and the pepper is filled with this filling so that about 1 cm remains from the edge. The pepper is fried on all sides in a frying pan. Then Khadija makes garlic sauce. To do this, she mixes squeezed garlic and finely chopped herbs with sour cream. Before serving, the “fried” vegetables are placed on top of the meat filling, and the handsome pepper is poured with garlic sauce on top. And now you have the most delicious pepper in the world on your table. Enjoy your meal!

4th day of Ramadan

Charlotte and meat in French

Amina has a small family: she and her husband. They often go to visit iftars and invite their friends and relatives to break their fast together after fasting. But today they decided to be just the two of them. The girl decided to make a romantic light dinner. She plans to decorate the table with candles and flowers. Ramadan is a reason to celebrate every day, this Muslim woman believes.

To cook meat in French , veal is best. You need to cut squares no more than 2 cm thick. Beat the meat well! Place it on a baking sheet greased with oil. Finely chopped onion is placed on top. Then there is mayonnaise, which Amina advises to pre-mix with a set of spices - she considers ordinary “Vegeta” to be the best seasoning. And pour this mixture over the meat and onions. And put cheese grated on a coarse grater on top. Place all this in the oven for about 30–40 minutes.

And here is the promised charlotte:

In order to make a small charlotte, you will need 3 eggs, a glass of flour, a glass of granulated sugar and apples. The apples are chopped and placed on the bottom of a greased frying pan. If they are sour, you can sprinkle them with sugar. In a bowl, first grind three yolks with sugar. At this time, it is better to keep the whites in the refrigerator. Then the whites are whipped separately to a standing foam. Combine with yolks and sugar. Then flour is added. If you add another 150 g of mayonnaise, the dough will taste creamier. Don't forget to add a little salt and slaked soda. The apples are filled with dough and placed in the oven. 15 minutes - and that’s it: the charlotte is ready!

Amina’s mother called this pie “shukher” because if guests suddenly came, then based on this dough you can make not only charlotte, but also any other pie - changing the filling and adding what you have in the house. By the way, if you are eating with a group of more than four people, then it is better to double the amount of products used.

We hope that Amina and her husband will have a truly French romantic iftar today. And we, our readers, also wish you pleasant family holidays during the weekdays of Ramadan.

5th day of Ramadan

French fries, tomatoes with cheese and Zucchini Cake

Natasha is preparing iftar for guests today - she and her husband are expecting another married couple for dinner. The family's budget is not very large, but she wants to surprise the guests with something unusual and make sure that the table does not look poor. So she settled on French fries, tomatoes with cheese and zucchini cake.

Tomatoes with cheese are very easy to prepare . The vegetable is cut into circles and laid out on a plate. Grated cheese mixed with squeezed garlic and mayonnaise is placed on top. Quick, simple and usually doesn’t sit on the table.

Zucchini cake is a little more difficult to make. Grate two small zucchini on a coarse grater. Then add 3 tbsp. spoons of starch, 2 eggs, salt and pepper to taste. Add flour until thick, but not too much - so that the dough drips from the spoon. Mix everything, and then form thick pancakes from this mixture and fry in a hot frying pan. How many pancakes there will be so many layers of the cake.

Then you need to prepare the filling. To do this, take chopped mushrooms and fry them with onions until tender, not forgetting to salt, pepper, and add spices to taste. Then you assemble the cake itself from this: zucchini pancakes, coated with mayonnaise mixed with garlic, then the filling, then again mayonnaise, pancake, mayonnaise, filling... etc. Put more mayonnaise on the top layer and decorate the top with multi-colored bell peppers, or olives, or herbs - whatever vegetables are in the house will do. When you cooked the tomatoes, you ended up with the tops of the tomatoes left over because they weren't suitable to put on the plate - as an economical option, you can decorate your cake with them.

Good luck and may your iftar table please you even in its most economical form!

6th day of Ramadan

Avar khinkal

Avarka Albina prepares Avar khinkal every evening for iftar, because in their family not a single feast is complete without it. Highlanders cannot see a normal dinner without this traditional dish, and even if guests come, a table without khinkal is simply impossible. And guests often come to Albina. Therefore, she chose the simplest way to prepare this dish. And she shared it with us.

In order to prepare the most Avar khinkal, you first need to cook the meat, and while it is cooking, make the dough. Albina makes the dough with kefir to make the khinkal softer and airier. You need to add quick soda, salt, kefir to the flour and knead the dough. It should turn out homogeneous, thick, soft, but at the same time lag behind your hands.

You need to make a square sausage out of it and cut it into small pieces (about 4x6 cm). Then Albina puts potatoes in a pan with meat, and adds salt to a separate pan with boiling water and puts the khinkal in it. You need to understand that when cooking, the pieces of dough will increase in size, and leave enough space in the pan for this. Cook with the lid closed until it boils, and when it boils, reduce the heat, remove the lid, stir gently and cook for 5 minutes.

It is very important not to overcook them, otherwise they will turn gray. . To check readiness, you need to pull one out and look at the cut to make sure all the dough is cooked. When you take out the dough, you must pierce each piece with a wooden stick (toothpick) so that steam can escape. Serve on the table, place on a tray, remove potatoes and meat from the broth and also place next to them. Be sure to prepare the sauce: adjika or sour cream with garlic. You can also serve dried sausage, fat tail or chicken instead of or together with meat.

Even if your husbands are not mountaineers at all, or even Avars, they should certainly like khinkal. Good luck and bon appetit!

7th day of Ramadan

Iftar for children

Today, Saida’s son fasted all day for the first time. On this occasion, it was decided to invite his friends and make iftar for the children. It is planned to set the table for the children in the children's room, which is pre-decorated with balloons and garlands. The young mother thought for a long time about how to feed her horde of children, and eventually settled on several cute options and one filling one.

So, “Cucumber Bunnies”

Wash the cucumber and cut it into rings. Mix cottage cheese with sour cream, finely chopped herbs, and salt. Using a teaspoon, spoon the curd mixture onto the cucumbers. Using radishes, you can decorate a dish in the shape of bunnies by cutting out ears from radish semicircles, and cut out eyes and a nose from olives or beets.

Dumplings with strawberry sauce

Strawberries can be replaced with other berries, such as raspberries, red or black currants.

Preparation:

Soften the butter (2 tablespoons), grind with sugar (3 tablespoons). Add cottage cheese (200 gr.) to butter and sugar and mix well. Then you need to add an egg and then semolina (3 tablespoons), followed by flour (3 tablespoons), mix it all well. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 20–30 minutes to allow the semolina to swell. Then take it out and knead it on a table sprinkled with flour. The dough should be firm enough to stick together. Form the finished dough into a sausage and cut the edges into pieces.

Boil the resulting pieces (dumplings) in lightly salted water until they float (about 5 minutes).

Prepare strawberry sauce: mash the berries with sugar using a fork, put on fire and bring to a boil. Brush the finished dumplings with melted butter, place on a plate and pour strawberry sauce or sour cream on top.

Meat soufflé

Boil any meat, beat in a blender with the addition of broth and 1-2 quail eggs, pour into a frying pan, add butter and evaporate until it becomes a soufflé. The dish will turn out very tender, just the way children love it. And as a side dish you can boil rice or make the kids’ favorite french fries.

Saida hopes that the children's iftar will be successful and that other children will also be inspired to fast. We also wish you, our dear readers, God-fearing children and joyful children's iftars.

In exactly one week of Ramadan we will post seven more recipes for every day! Stay tuned and don't forget to bookmark this page so you don't have to search for it for a long time!