5 NO-COOK, NO-BAKE Tea Time Recipes

Mehfil loot lein, budget mein

There are lots topics discussed on my blog which are close to my heart and one of them is keeping it easy and stress free for yourself when you’ve got people coming over. The idea is not to be NOT mehmaannawaz. I idea is to keep it simple, practical yet making an impact. Kaun keh raha hai bad-maza cheezein khilaao, ya sookhi chai ke sath hosting karo. Bass barhi si trolley ko choti si tray se replace karo aur mehfil loot lo!

Move over haleem and shaami kababs (unless you’re banay banaye DAWN walay), easier and yummier condiments are the new cool.

Three-tiered Pineapple sticks

My mum's been using these since my bachpan to serve as appetizers at dinner parties but I think if you have them chilled, they would make a great item for tea time or iftar parties too. A little sweet, a little sour and so fulfilling, thanks to the cottage cheese.

Ingredients:

1 block of cottage or feta cheese (depends on what you prefer)

A few olives (green or black, both work)

A small tin of pineapple slices

Some chili flakes and oregano

What to do:

Cut the cheese and the fruit into small cubes and then use toothpicks/finger food sticks (fancy ones if you have them, like the ones I have used) to assemble this delight - cheese on the bottom, then pineapple and then an olive on the top.

Garnish your dish with some chili flakes and oregano before serving. 

Cracker Platter

This one’s super impressive, tasty and ideal with a warm cup of chai or coffee. There is so much going on in one platter yet there’s no cooking or baking involved. Bijli na bhi ho, kitchen se aap zinda hi lautein gay!

Ingredients

Crackers of your choice

A can/packing of ready-made hummus

Olives (green and black)

Pickles (handful)

Jalapenos (handful)

Cold cut chicken

Cheese slices

Chili flakes and oregano for garnish

What to do:

Choose a nice flat platter and spread crackers in lines. Cut all the olives, jalapenos, and pickles in small pieces, as shown in the photo. Now alternate the lines, one with hummus and one with cheese slices.

For the hummus crackers, use a teaspoon to top each cracker with a generous dollop. Top with one piece each of jalapeno, green olives and pickles.

For the cheese crackers, cut the cheese and cold chicken slices into 4 parts. Top each cracker with a piece of cheese, cold chicken, then finally finishing off with black olives and jalapenos.

Sprinkle chili flakes and oregano on the dish as garnish and serve.

TIP: Don’t prepare the crackers too much in advance. They tend to get soggy otherwise.

Cream Cheese Dip

Okay, this one’s famous. I made this for Faizaan’s birthday party and had everyone asking me for the recipe. So, I did it again when he invited his colleagues over. Someone actually said “this is the best sauce I have ever tasted”…..only that it’s a dip and not a sauce. I like serving it with cucumbers and carrots but everyone started dipping in their grilled chicken too! So, if I were in Pakistan, I’d order a plate of chicken boti and even serve that alongside!

Ingredients

½ cup yogurt

½ cup Philadelphia cream cheese mousse (I used to buy Puck or Kraft  cream cheese when I was in Pakistan)

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

4 tablespoons cream (optional)

½ teaspoon garlic paste

Chili flakes

Oregano

Salt to taste

What to do:

Mix everything together with a whisk and serve with the veggies.

Yaani. SO EASY.

Cheese platter

If you love cheese, you’re going to love this. Plus, this is mostly assembling, not even cutting.

Ingredients

Variety of cheese (I used 3 types, out of which 2 are easily available in Pakistan, the cheese slices and triangles. If you find just those, it’s good enough. OR you can make a cheese dip and pop that into the mix too!)

Grapes (green and purple)

Variety of crackers

What to do:

Put everything on a cheese board aesthetically and serve. If you don’t have a cheese board, use a chopping board!

Nutella Crunch Cookies

This list would not have been complete without meetha and without chocolate! Here’s the simplest, most divine ‘goodness on a biscuit’ that you can serve without working hard.

Ingredients

Nutella

Cereal (I usually use Kellogg Special K because we always have that at home. You can use Muesli too.)

Simple plain biscuits (I used Marie in Pakistan)

Chopped hazelnuts for garnish (optional)

What to do:

Crush some cereal in your fist (lol) and put it in a bowl. Add a few tablespoons of Nutella and mix. The consistency should be thick. Put dollops of this this mixture on the biscuits, garnish with hazelnuts and serve. Voila!

TIP: If you’re Nutella has succumbed to the temperature and is a little too thick/hard, warm it in the 

microwave for a few seconds before mixing.

FARHAT ISHTIAQ ANSWERS ALL YOUR YKS QUESTIONS

Let this cure your YKS blues this Wednesday

Mahvish Ahmed

Sometimes, “they lived happily ever after” is just not enough. Some plays find an eternal place in your heart and you become severely attached to the characters, especially when one of them is the drool worthy D.Asfandyar casting his charm on the TV screen for one hour every week. Just like he didn’t want the car ride with Zubia to end, we didn’t want Yakeen Ka Safar to end. Wednesdays now feel gloomy and we miss seeing Zubia’s pretty smile, listening to Dr.Haroon’s lame jokes and watching Asfi stealing glances at his lady love. There’s so much more we wanted to see happen in YKS and then there are several questions too that were left unanswered.

So, guess what we did! We went straight to Farhat Ishtiaq, the woman behind it all, and asked her questions to our heart’s content. We also gave her some scenarios which she imaginatively answered. She’s warm, she has magic in her pen and can feel human emotions so very deeply. You want to what our conversation was like? Here goes.

WO: What did Asfandyar actually think when he got the “Love you darling” message from Zubia?

Farhat Ishtiaq: For a moment, he was shocked at Zubia saying this to him right after he had scolded her. But being an intelligent man, he soon realized it was a mistake and the message was not meant for him. By the way, I wrote this scene based on my own experience when I sent the wrong message to someone thinking I am texting my friend (haha)! These situations can be very embarrassing.

WO: Did Asfandyar and Zubia ever discuss THAT message? Did they laugh over it?

Farhat Ishtiaq: Yes! On the wedding night he showed her the message since he had it saved in his phone and teased her about it.

WO: What was the exact moment when Asfandyar started developing feelings for Zubia?

Farhat Ishtiaq: Well, he was developing a soft corner for her since some time, though he was in denial. But the first time he really noticed her was when she asked him to help Khajista. He was able to see Daniyal in her, as he had also taken a stand to help a girl get justice. And, after that rainy night post the hepatitis camp, he falls for her full-fledged.

WO: Did Zubia ever forgive Rehan?

Farhat Ishtiaq: After showing Zubia how weak he was as a brother, she was never really able to forgive him dil se. After all, he had kicked her out of the house in the middle of the night and left her all alone to face the world. However, for duniyadaari, she does keep a relationship with him after her marriage. Aik aurat ka agar maika ho, uskey liye izzat ki baat hoti hai. Dil mein khalish to rahi, but she started speaking to Rehan again.

WO: How did Asfandyar save Zubia when she tried to commit suicide? Did she actually jump into the river?

Farhat Ishtiaq: Actually, I had written the scene a little differently – Asfandyar reached Zubia before she could jump and when he gets to her, she faints in her arms with a nervous breakdown. At that point, Zubia was someone who was not in her senses and did not know what she was doing. That’s how scared and panic stricken she was to see Rehan. However, while shooting the scene, it was dramatized a little for television where it seemed as if she did jump and the audience could not figure out how she was saved.

WO: Where did the wedding take place – from Zubia’s house in Karachi or Islamabad?

Farhat Ishtiaq: Zubia agreed to go back to her home in Karachi for the wedding. If I got the chance to write that scene, entering her house where she grew up, where her mother was killed, where she finally saw Abbi acting like a real father to her and the house from which she was kicked out, would have been a very emotional moment for Zubia. Itnay saalon baad ghar jaa ke usay wo tamaam takleef de waaqiyat yaad aatay.

WO: What happens to Rehan and his relationship with Sheema?

Farhat Ishtiaq: Rehan becomes just like Abbi. This is my observation that men eventually treat their wives the same way they have seen their fathers treat their mothers. Though Sheema  wouldn’t be able o do much when Zubia comes home for her wedding and re-enters Rehan’s life, she would always remain as bitter. People with so much negativity in them can never change. Usay kabhi apni zyadati ka ehsaas na hota.

WO: Abbi left the house for Zubia in his will. Did she ever claim her right over the house and her mother’s jewelry?

Farhat Ishtiaq: Zubia is not at all materialistic and not one to claim her right over her property. But it is possible that Rehan, realizing his mistakes and as his apology, would have handed over the house to his sister eventually.

Also, if Zubia had claimed her right over the house when she was being kicked out, how would she have met the hero of the story?!

WO: What did Asfandyar give Zubia as moon dikhaai?

Farhat Ishtiaq: Perhaps a medical book dealing with liver to remind Zubia of the wrong treatment she gave a liver patient and the scolding she got for that (haha). Of course, this would be just to tease her. After that, he would have given her a piece of jewelry.

WO: What is Dr. Asfandyar’s specialization? How can he handle every surgery?

Farhat Ishtiaq: He is a general surgeon. However, he specializes in the abdomen and hepatitis. That was his main focus since the incidence of this disease is very high in Pakistan’s northern areas.

WO: How did Noori bring the big rifle to a political rally without alerting the security?

Farhat Ishtiaq: Since the play was fiction, we had to take some liberty (haha)! But on a serious note, these things happen in reality. When a person is driven to the point Noori was at, completely broken and hopeless, he does not care of the consequences of his actions. Noori just wanted revenge, even if that cost her life. And that is exactly what she did.

WO: Did Gaiti and Dr.Haroon have more children after their marriage?

Farhat Ishtiaq: You know, that is an area which I could have explored as an entirely new story but I did not have that space while writing my novel. But if I think about it, they would have had a happy marriage and would have had more children. Initially though, it would be tough for Gaiti since learning how to truly love for the second time is difficult for a woman. Aur Gaiti ne Daniyal se shiddat se mohabbat kit thi. So, in the beginning, she would probably think of Daniyal a lot, compare Haroon with him and feel she is not being faithful to Haroon.

WO: Why was the khala telling the entire family history to an unknown Rashid?

Farhat Ishtiaq: Well, she is shown as a seedhi saadi, ghar mein rehnay wali khatoon and Asfandyar being an intelligent man gets her to say more than she should have to a stranger. However, I’d like to add that sometimes when you write a scene, it is not translated onto the TV screen the way you had imagined. We were probably not able to portray that part the way we had perceived it.

WO: Why did Asfi cancel the wedding if he trusted Zubia all along?

Farhat Ishtiaq: He never stopped trusting her. In fact, it was just the manifestation of his disappointment in the fact that Zubia did not trust him enough to come and tell him that it was her who he had saved from Rameez’s trap several years ago in Karachi.

WO: What is Dr. Asfi smiling at when he looks at Zubia during her first meeting at home with 

Faryal?

Farhat Ishtiaq: Although both of them had warm feelings towards each other by the time Faryal came back to visit, they had not said anything. Hence, when Zubia cannot help feeling jealous and her feelings are written all over her face, Asfandayar feels happy. Zubia’s behavior confirmed that the feelings of love are not one-sided.

WO: Will you ever consider writing a sequel to Yakeen Ka Safar?

Farhat Ishtiaq: A lot of people are asking me that question (haha)! I won’t say never as you never know what might inspire me to write it someday but as of now there are no plans. Something else MIGHT be cooking though but I cannot say anything just yet.