Of Tahnik, some scones and butter prawn

Firstly Tahnik.

I wish I could do more research before writing this in my blog. I only got to know about the word during the weekend when we had it for Atef at my parents place. Hubby went "tsk, tsk..." when I told him I knew only about shaving head (or bercukur) but not tahnik.

Anyway, I digged this out:It was reported that Abu Moosa said: “I had a baby boy, and I brought him to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). He named him Ibraaheem, did Tahneek with some dates and prayed for Allaah to bless him, then he gave him back to me.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 5150; Muslim, 2145). Tahneek means putting something sweet, such as dates or honey, in the child’s mouth when he is first born.


Atef is all ready.

But besides sweets we also use other things for the event. I was told that all are symbols to 'introduce' life to the newborn. Besides rubbing the dates on baby's palate, others are slightly touched on his lips. On the plate at the top, there are gold and silver rings (represent wealth, maybe...I'm hopeless hehe), sugar, salt and asam keping (aiseh, what you call it in English?). Dates and other dried fruits on the next plate. Zam-zam water and finally some talc powder that is meant to be used if head is fully shaven. But I'd preferred to keep my baby's hair;).

Dad just invited some folks that did a jemaah prayer at the mosque, so it is a small do actually. After tahnik, they did selawat with Atef being shown to everyone and everyone gave their blessings.
This time everyone was easy with kids, so it was done with curious kids observing the whole process...nice!

So that's how we do it. I know a lot of people do aqiqah at the same time, and for folks from Johor, they do berzanji and some involve the 'buaian' thingy. Seriously, all these are common but I never experienced anything done outside the family. I'm a bit curious actually.

Now, the scone!

With a small baby in tow, I find it harder to bake these days. Yesterday, I made some scones but I didn't manage to even knead the dough. I just quickly roll it into balls while Atef giving me warning that he would shake the condo anytime with his yelling.

But, I'm blessed with kids that are very easy with food. They got excited with anything fresh from the oven. I was only left with only two pieces (out of 20) that I hoped can be savoured peacefully while Atef naps, with some butter and tea.


And finally, butter prawn...or rather butter prawn that is not quite like it still!

After trying a few times, yesterday I followed instructions shown here to make the egg floss. I thought I almost got it, but suddenly I had a lot of foam in my wok that I could not see the eggs anymore. I finally got what looks like a drier version of scrambled eggs. What was wrong? The fire not hot enough, or I didn't stir hard enough? Any tips, please?