My Relaxed Ramadan Ghabga

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It’s been a while since I’ve had friends over. I’ve been too tired lately and with all the Ramadan fasting and meal preparations I haven’t had a moment to relax. During the holy month of Ramadan people gather for a “ghabga” and there are many ghabgas going around. A ghabga is a dinner party between the iftar meal at sunset and the suhoor meal at sunrise. People gather, dressed up to the nines and looking their best, and lavish culinary creations are usually present as well. I thought of having a more relaxed version ghabga of my own to sit and chat with my friends.

The most important things in any ghabga are the tea and Arabian coffee. Water and/or juices also play a big rule. People are usually still too full from the futoor yet are thirsty and looking for tea and coffee to help them focus. Of the caffeinated drinks, there were plenty <3

Do you see the donut in the right side of the picture above? That’s not any old chocolate donut, these are Baking Tray’s imitation of the famous “cronuts“. I don’t want to write too much about it here so wait for my next post which would be talking about it.

For munchies I’ve ordered the teeny versions of the famous Kuwaiti heartthrob food item, pizza qay9ar or caesar’s pizza. They taste just as good but their small size means guests wouldn’t be able to stop reaching for the bowl to take just another last one. They are perfect for gathering and dinner parties, I usually place them in small bowls between guest seats the way other people place bowls of mixed nuts.

More munchies: cheese fatayer, za’atar pizza, mixed sandwiches, nachos salad, pasta salad, and rocket & pomegranate salad.

There wasn’t much on the savoury side but the sweet side was loaded, people always crave sugar after iftar! I had little glasses filled with different desserts from The Danish Bakery like muhallabiya, red velvet, mango trifle, rose muhallabiya, and my ever favourite the bannoffe.

We also had a bain narain Kunafa with cheese from the kanafani, complete with it’s own heating platform. The kunafa was bubbling hot and hissing throughout our gathering and we attacked it mercilessly. Always a crowd pleaser.

The star of the ghabga, however, were these awesome luqaymat made by the mother of our friend 7amad Qalam and sent to me just before iftar time. Lugaymat, which are fried dough balls drenched in saffron and cardamom syrup, are a favourite Ramadan desserts and are very hard to make. Good lugaymat are also very hard to find and these ones I got?They were AWESOME! One of the best luqaymat I’ve ever tasted!

Each luqayma is perfectly round and fluffy, crunchy on the outside and doughy on the inside, a perfect balance that many luqaymat makers lack. The dough balls were lightly drenched in sheera, or sugar syrup, and then topped with toasted sesame seeds. Everyone who tried a lugayma went “mmmm where did you get these from!”. Thank you 7amad and thank you very much 7amad’s mum! Teslam edeenich these luqaymat eyaninoon masha2 Allah <3

We had an awesome time with my friends, Pink Girl, Jacquies, and Swera <3 I’ve missed the girls, and we each sat on the floor around the desserts, munchies, and tea and coffee cups chatting and having a blast. We must do it again soon girls. And that’s it for my relaxed Ramadan 1434 ghabga. Mubarak 3lekom el shahar o 3asakom min 3owadah.

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