Culinary Chronicles
By Yasmin Rahul Bakshi
There was apprehension about transiting through Jeddah for more than twenty-four hours with a toddler. I had to gather all my courage because there was no other option if I wanted to fly to Asmara on that date.
Tiger was appointed as an Operations and Logistics Officer for a United Nations Mission in Eritrea. Our cub and I were to follow him after a fortnight, once he had settled there.
I was led to believe that Arabs are not very kind towards traversing travelers, which made me decide to stay at the airport rather than check into a hotel for the duration.
I was struggling down the air stairs, balancing little Cub in one arm and two pieces of hand luggage in the other amidst the strong gusts. Seeing my struggle, an airport official came running up to assist me. So far, so good!
Looking at the burqa-clad security staff screening us, little Cub got petrified and burst into tears. One of the officers immediately offered her a chocolate to pacify her.
We were led into a secondary inspection room. With each passing second, my heart raced with the terrifying fear of the unknown – stranded in a foreign land with my child, knowing absolutely nobody.
But it was quite the other way around. The security staff were actually informing the official that I didn’t speak Arabic, and they simply wanted to find someone who could help us.
The officer immediately assigned two staff members in rotation to look after us during our long stay at the airport, ensuring we had assistance with everything we needed.
As a young child, Cub was never naughty or a nuisance, but she simply could not sit in one place. She would constantly run around everywhere. To tackle this issue, I had a bespoke harness belt made for her with a running radius of three metres. So, while I sat and rested, she was able to play safely all around me.
Before long, the hospitality of our hosts became overwhelming. Every two hours like clockwork, a fresh box of two donuts would arrive. Even when I politely declined, they affectionately insisted that little Cub and I eat them.
With boxes piling up, this relentless hospitality had become a form of torture. Neither could we eat them nor could we trash them away.
Ultimately, I tucked a single box into my bag just in case Cub got hungry on our next flight. But even aboard their national carrier, the hospitality was so extraordinary that the donuts went completely untouched.
When Cub turned up her nose at the standard baby meal of jarred fruit and vegetable purées, the cabin crew didn’t hesitate. They quickly brought her a bowl of cheese pasta and some cake instead.
Some experiences are indeed everlasting and even today, the sight of a donut instantly teleports me back to Saudi Arabia.
Ingredients:
- Warm Milk – 1 cup
- Active Dry Yeast – 1 packet (7g)
- Granulated Sugar (for dough) – 1/3 cup
- Large Eggs (room temperature) – 2
- Unsalted Butter (melted) – 6 tbsp
- All-Purpose Flour – 4 cups
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Vegetable oil – for frying
- Fine ground Sugar (for coating) – 1 cup
Method: Activate the Yeast – Whisk warm milk, yeast, and 1 tablespoon of sugar together; let sit 5 minutes until frothy.
- Whisk the remaining sugar, eggs, and melted butter into the activated yeast, mix in the flour and salt until a soft dough forms.
- Knead dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes. Place it in a greased bowl, cover and let it rise in 1½ hours.
- Shape Donuts by rolling the dough to ½ inch thickness. Cut into circles with a donut cutter, cover, and let them rise in 45 minutes.
- Heat the oil and fry the donuts, 1 to 2 minutes per side until golden brown.
- Drain on paper towels for 30 seconds and toss immediately in fine ground sugar while they are still warm.
(Yasmin Rahul Bakshi is an accomplished senior consultant Chef and a food historian. A widely travelled Army wife from the Mussoorie hills with exposure to international cuisines & preserving recipes with the medium of food photography and digital content creation in the form of stories.)
