
Semaiya Kheer or Vermicelli Pudding to celebrate Eid
My childhood memories of Eid are associated with the rich, creamy taste of Semaiya Kheer or vermicelli pudding, also called Shimuiyer Payesh in Bengali.
Eid Mubarak! Festivities bring in lots of varied emotions… emotions of togetherness, memories of childhood and hope for the future. There’s nothing like celebrating a festival like Eid in a city like Dubai, where people from all over the world have come together and made it their homes. The word Eid means ‘festivity’ in Arabic. Every year when Eid is celebrated after the holy month of Ramadan, the city of bling readies itself to welcome more than two million visitors over the festive weekend!
Childhood memories of Eid bring in the sweet taste of Semaiya Kheer or vermicelli pudding, also called Shemuiyer Payesh (above) in Bengali. Payesh or milk pudding has a lot of significance in a Bengali’s life, specially Chaaler Payesh, or the rice pudding. It is the first initiation of solid food when an infant gets ready to embark on her/his momentous non-milk food journey and inherits the rich culinary heritage of Bengali food (do read all about in my earlier post). The introduction of semaiya to Bengali cuisine happened organically with the Islamic influence in Bengal. In 1857 AD, after the Awadh kingdom (modern day Lucknow in India) was annexed by the British, the Nawab was exiled to Calcutta, which is today’s Kolkata. His passion for gourmet food traveled from Lucknow to Calcutta and was nurtured, garnished and fuelled by his special Bawarchis or the Chefs of the Nawab. Mughlai food has since then become part of Kolkata’s culinary heritage.
I have always associated semaiya with Eid celebrations. The shimuiyer payesh that I have eaten at most Bengali homes, is made much like the rice pudding. The shimuiyer payesh, however, is sweetened with sugar and Gur or jaggery is seldom used in it. It is also less dense. The Sheer Khurma (above) is more popular amongst our Muslim friends, both from India and elsewhere in the subcontinent. The sheer khurma is a thicker version of shimuiyer payesh with a more generous amounts of dried fruits. Saffron, rosewater and Vark, edible silver foil are often added. Sheer khurma is a very popular festive breakfast with Parathas, specially Laccha Paratha – a type of paratha having multiple layers and lapped generously in Ghee. Another popular variation of semaiya is the cold beverage – Falooda which itself is an adaptation of the Persian dessert Faloodeh. This is very popular in Iran, Pakistan, North India and Afghanistan. The rosewater flavoured falooda (below) that we had in Haridwar is still lingering on my tastebuds!
Eid in Dubai
With more than two million tourists expected over the Eid weekend, Dubai basks in all its glory. Cultural programs, various events, special Eid menu in different restaurants – the weekend promises to be a whole lot of fun. Leading shopping malls are open twenty four hours. More than half of the expectant tourists are from the GCC countries alone – an exciting news for the tourism and F&B industry. Nothing can beat a city immersed in its own beat as it celebrates a local festival.
Eid al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha
Whereas Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan – the Islamic holy month of dawn-to-sunset fasting, Eid al-Adha means ‘solemn festivity’, also known as the Greater Eid or Eid al-Zuha. In India, it is called the Bakhri-Eid or the Feast of Sacrifice.
The latter is an important four-day religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to honour the willingness of the prophet ʾIbrāhīm (Abraham) to sacrifice his young firstborn son Ismā’īl (Ishmael) as an act of submission to God, and his son’s acceptance of the sacrifice before God intervened to provide Abraham with a ram to sacrifice instead (wikipedia).
The essence of Eid to a non-Muslim like me
The beauty of growing up in a multicultural city like Kolkata is that we grew up celebrating all festivals from all religions. Although I am born in a Hindu family, on Eid, we flocked to the homes of our Muslim friends and pestered their mums, whom we addressed lovingly as mashis (which means aunties). Sumptuous meals of home-made Biryanis and Laccha Parathas were followed by never-ending refills of our bowls of shimuiyer payesh. This multi-cultural upbringing has shaped not only my personality but also my own philosophies in life as described in an earlier post of mine – Living by the water with sunset as prop – Kolkata & Ganges.
During last Eid, we were enjoying our summer holidays in Kolkata – a period I like to ‘brand’ as my summer hibernation as I go into my reticent creative cocoon. I took the Z-Sisters to Mallick Bazar in the Park Circus area. This is essentially a Muslim neighbourhood and the road-side kiosks were full of semaiya, mixed dried fruits, firni mixes (a dessert pudding made with rice powder) and brightly coloured glass bangles. The stacked up semaiya bundles looked quite surreal – as if, they were fluffs of cotton wool blown by the festive breeze.
A little boy manning one of the kiosks came running to me – ‘Didi amar photo tulben?/Sister, do you want to photograph me?’ He immediately bombarded me with his next question -‘Apni ki kono bideshi magazine theke?/Are you working for any foreign magazine?’ He got disappointed that I was taking pictures… emni emni/just like that. He instructed his peers, ‘Dhoot char to didike… ja ja shob byabshay lag!/Forget her… go and mind your businesses!’
Since we weren’t buying any semaiya nor any dry fruits that day, or since I didn’t work for any foreign magazine… I was declared pretty hopeless. I wish I had met this young lad this year as I could have impressed him with my food column with Gulf News. We had planned to buy Haleem or Halim (a special Ramadan dish made with wheat, barley, meat) from one of the two popular restaurants in this area – Shiraz and Rahmania. Haleem is a delicacy and is cooked in large quantities in a huge aluminium cooking pot. In the Park Circus and Mallick Bazar area, there are many alleys and small restaurants where one can find long queues for haleem during this Ramadan time. We too queued up for haleem and took a few containers home. Along with haleem, we also devoured the delicious Firni made by mum-in-law. Set in small earthen clay pots, firni is definitely one of my mum-in-law’s signature desserts.
100 gms semaiya or vermicelli (Semaiya packets are easily found in most supermarkets around Dubai) * You may substitute this with low-fat milk. Many prefer to use sweetened condense milk – in that case you will need much less milk (1 ½ lt low-fat milk, ½cup sweetened low-fat condensed milk). A lot of us living in Dubai are lucky enough to be with our friends and family. There are many however, who aren’t. I was once having a conversation with one of the taxi-drivers of Dubai Taxi. He was talking about a rice that is made during Eid in his home in Pakistan where a special type of rice is cooked in masala. He was saying how he missed the parathas that are made for breakfast during festive days and other celebrations. He was reminiscing how his kids refuse to have their normal subah ki chai – morning tea without these parathas. Yes, he missed the sheer khurma dearly that his Ami / mother makes. I am hoping that his emotions and greetings reach his children at home. I am also hoping that the Eidi (money given to the children for buying gifts during Eid) that he’s sent home was being used by wisely by his children with their hearts filled with love for this father who was toiling away from home. The angst of a doting father is an universal phenomenon, isn’t it? Unblogging it all… Ishita Thank you for joining me on my daily food and travel journey on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook! Disclaimer: This isn’t a sponsored post, nor are there any affiliated links for any of the brands that may have been mentioned in this blogpost. The subject, story, opinions and views stated here are my own and all images are from my personal album. While you enjoy reading my posts with lot of visuals, please do not use any material from these posts.Semaiya Kheer or Vermicelli Pudding
Ingredients
2 lts full cream milk*
1 cup sugar (use less sugar if you are using sweetened condense milk)
4 cardamom pods, crushed into powder
¼ cup cashew nuts, unsalted
¼ cup almonds, slivered
¼ cup raisins, soaked in water
2 tsp pistachios, for garnishing
4 tsp ghee or Indian clarified butter
a drop of mitha attar (available in Al Adil supermarkets and spice shops in the Spice Souk in Deira)Method
Some prefer to eat their payesh smoking hot, just after it has been taken off the fire! If you aren’t one of them, let the Semaiya Kheer set for a while and refrigerate it before serving.
My prayers for peace and happiness going out to everyone, specially for people struggling in the war-torn areas around the world.
Recipes that are perfect for Eid:
Kolkata Mutton Biryani
Firni or Ferni - The broken rice pudding
Lachha Paratha – Love and ghee in every layer

43 Comments
Kanan
kheer looks yummy. I just love your photography.
Delicious Pot
Yumm kheer… your pictures are beautiful! 🙂
IshitaUnblogged
Thank you. Hopefully it will tempt you to make a ‘delicious mistake’!
Shira
Such beauty and life in your photos Ishita! A gorgeous tour ….enjoy the upcoming celebrations! X
IshitaUnblogged
Thank you Shira. A warm comment coming from one my favourite bloggers… is always welcoming, heartening and is a certificate of credibility for my post:)
Tatsat
I had my mother send me 10 packets of Sewaiyan by courier last month 🙂
I read the whole of your write-up and the way you describe things from a historical perspective is just so… enjoyable 🙂 Lovely pictures with a bit of History and Urban Planning on the sides- and Kolkata tadka, what else could one want this Eid 🙂
Thank you for such a lovely post.
PS- Not calling you by your name 😉
IshitaUnblogged
10 packets??? You have to experiment as much as you can – faloodah? What else? Siwaiyan Cake? Pie? I’m bookmarking your comment as this is exactly what I want readers to perceive my blog as, but have never been able to write that appropriately myself. Thanks so much. And hey you better call me by my name. Your wink is threatening:)
Tatsat
Siwaiyan Cake ? Now that is something I might not have even heard of. If you know what it is, put up a post on the How-To aspect. I am an aspiring chef, and a part time engineer. So that might be of use to me 🙂
Well reading your post gave me the thought actually. I, myself, have not written such holistic posts myself. But as I said, there is so much I am going to learn from you…So… 🙂
Come on ! I think the wink is a non-threatening emoticon. To be honest, I am tired of using the colon Ds and Ps and the standard colon bracket. Hence the wink.
I am myself scared of everyone with your name 🙂
Terri at Time To Be Inspired
Thanks so much for your excellent and infomative post! I love your photos, and was delighted to learn more about Eid.
IshitaUnblogged
Thank you Terri… food, culture, travel – it’s all about exchange of new ideas and thoughts. Am so happy that you enjoyed this post:)
Jayanta Chatterjee
culinary orgy !!!!!!!!!!!
IshitaUnblogged
Glad that you are all stimulated… surprised that your comment didn’t get caught by my spam-filter. Maybe it’s not working! Loads of love:)
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Mudassir
Absolutely love your EID celebrations and just stumbled upon the blog from twitter ! I have to admit, I love your blog and style of writing 🙂 Keep it up !
My eid celebrations were all geared around this “Rose Event Dubai, I volunteered for at Dubai Marina Walk, promoting peace, I discussed it here -> http://mudassirnagaria.blogspot.com/ “
IshitaUnblogged
Thank you Mudassir for your lovely comment and also your Like in Facebook. It’s been a great event – I read your post – brilliant. A few of my friends had also joined in… it’s great to see a few of you doing more than the ‘normal’. Will be hopping into your blog for sure:)
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Steph
Hi there! Just wondering where to get the bowl you have used in your pic. Of the vermicelli pudding? And if it is possible to have one sent over to Australia?
IshitaUnblogged
Well, these are traditional silver bowls available in India – maybe you can check on the online shopping sites!
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