Got mangoes? Put them to use in Mango Iced Tea and Mango Trifle!

I think we can all agree that the very best thing about summer in Pakistan is all the mangoes everywhere.

I was never a big mango fan when I was younger (blasphemous, I know!). However, over time, I’ve become more fond of them. Not only do they satisfy the sweet tooth, but are loaded with vitamins and minerals and are high on fibre and water content, which makes their consumption a win-win situation.

I’ve also become more interested in finding novel ways to use them in my baking and cooking.

Ease comes first for the two recipes I’m sharing today. Both require minimal effort and time in the kitchen, while highlighting mangoes in simple but delicious ways.

Mango Iced Tea

I practically live on tea and, during the summer months, iced tea is a refreshing change when I can't bear the idea of a hot cuppa. While iced tea with lemon is great on its own, flavouring it with fresh mango puree makes it extra special. This makes for a great Iftaar drink too; you get water, sugar, and caffeine all in one go.

Ingredients

For simple syrup:

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

The rest:

2 teabags

3 cups boiling water

1 cup fresh mango puree

1 teaspoon lemon juice

A pinch of salt

Ice, to serve

Method

1) To make the simple syrup: Add the sugar and water to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 3 minutes. Remove from stove and set aside to cool.

2) Add the teabags to the 3 cups of boiling water, cover, and leave to brew for 3 to 5 minutes.

3) Remove the teabags and discard. Leave the tea to cool.

4) In a large jug, mix together the cooled tea, mango puree, lemon juice and salt.

5) Sweeten the tea with the simple syrup, according to your taste. I added 4 tablespoons, but you can add more or less according to your preference.

6) Refrigerate the iced tea until you’re ready to serve.

7) Serve over ice.

Tip # 1: You can make a large batch of simple syrup and store it in a jar in your fridge for up to two weeks. Use it to sweeten all sorts of drink; it beats having to stand there stirring away until all the sugar dissolves!

Tip # 2: You can you use other fruit purees or juices to flavour your iced tea as well. Try swapping out the mango puree for fresh peach puree. A personal favourite of mine is to use 1 cup cranberry juice instead of fruit puree.

Mango Mousse Trifle

While you can't go wrong with a big bowl of mango chunks for dessert, this trifle elevates the simple mango without much effort. I’ve left out trifle standards like custard and jelly here, but you can add more layers if you wish.

Ingredients

½ lb plain cake, cut into cubes

2 large Sindhri mangoes, peeled and cut into large cubes

4 tablespoons caster sugar

1 cup mango puree, chilled (use a more flavorful mango for the puree, like Dosehri or Chaunsa)

1 cup whipping cream (heavy cream), chilled

½ to 1 cup icing sugar, sifted

Method

1) In a mixing bowl, add mango and caster sugar. Mix well, cover, and leave for 20 minutes.

2) In a large glass serving bowl, add cake in an even layer and then top with mangoes.

3) Prepare the mousse: Using an electric beater, whip the cream until stiff peaks form (when you remove the beater from the cream, the peaks formed should hold their shape).

4) Add the chilled mango puree and ½ cup icing sugar, and continue to beat until well combined. taste the mousse and add more sugar if desired.

5) Spoon the mousse over the mangoes in an even layer.

6) Cover the trifle and refrigerate, preferably overnight.

7) Decorate with chopped or sliced mango and serve.

How the super rich invest their money

WASHINGTON: Rich people are raising the stakes. The wealthy are now keeping more of their money in stocks than any other asset class, according to a new report out on Wednesday that offers a glimpse into the investing habits and concerns of the ultra-rich.

Stocks beat out cash last year to take the number one slot, according to the annual World Wealth Report by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management, which looks at people with $1 million or more to invest.

The share of assets held in stocks increased to 27 per cent last year from 26pc in 2013. Meanwhile, the portion held in cash, which investors said they viewed as important to maintaining their lifestyles, dropped to 26pc from 28pc over that same time period.

The shift into equities offers a few lessons about how the rich are managing their money. It’s worth noting that some of that increase might just be a sign that the wealthy enjoyed some of the gains we saw in the stock market last year. The S&P 500 stock index gained 11pc last year, and anyone invested in the market would have seen their assets grow and take up a bigger portion of their portfolio.

It is also a sign that after witnessing roughly six years of gains, investors finally may be getting more comfortable with the idea of investing in stocks. There’s no telling how much higher the market could go, though. While stocks are still climbing — and have nearly tripled from the low in 2009 — movement in the market has been a little more flat in recent months.

Some more good news tucked into the report: More people are getting rich. The number of people with at least $1m grew by close to 1m last year to 14.6m people, the study found. (That included 920,000 new millionaires, to be exact) A third of those new millionaires live in the US.

By arrangement with Washington Post-Bloomberg News

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2015

Bina Khan's Makeup Masterclass: Learn to contour like a pro

This is what you've been waiting for, even if you didn't know it!

In this new video series for Dawn.com, makeup artist Bina Khan shows you how to highlight, glow, bronze and shine like a superstar.

Her first tutorial tackles that elusive yet sought-after skill: highlighting and contouring. Here, Bina shows you how to achieve those cheekbones using both foreign and locally available products. She says, "the basic premise of contouring and highlighting is to exaggerate the plains of your face, suggesting some seriously chiseled bone structure below. Contouring is one of the strongest weapons in my arsenal."

Check back every two weeks for a brand-new tutorial by Bina.

Happy highlighting!

Afghan refugees ‘all praise’ for Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Rahib Nawabi, 31, an Afghan refugee, says he can never forget the hospitality which he and other refugees received during their stay in Pakistan.

“We wish we can go back to our country but the current security situation back home doesn’t allow us to return. As soon as the situation improves, we will go back to our country but the love for the people of Pakistan will always remain in our hearts,” he told Dawn at the Shalimar Cricket Ground where the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) marked the World Refugee Day.

The day is observed on June 20 every year as a tribute to the courage and resilience of the millions of people uprooted as a result of ongoing conflicts, wars and natural disasters globally. The Afghan refugees on the occasion presented musical performances and played a cricket match with Pakistani students. Stalls were also set up by Afghan vendors to highlight their culture.

“I came to Pakistan in 1992 when I was eight-year-old. I grew up here. One day we will go back to Afghanistan but the hospitality of the Pakistani people will never be forgotten,” said Nawabi.

Another refugee, Mohammad Hamad, who is getting education from the International Islamic University Islamabad, said Pakistan always gave importance to the Afghan refugees. “We appreciate Pakistan for hosting millions of registered and unregistered Afghan refugees. This is something we can’t forget,” he said.

According to the UNHCR, Pakistan has hosted almost 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees for over 35 years which is the largest protracted refugee population globally. A large number of unregistered Afghans are also living in various parts of the country.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Safron Abdul Qadir Baloch reiterated the government’s commitment to the voluntary, gradual and dignified return of Afghan refugees to their country.

“We are proud of our hospitality and will continue supporting every initiative for the establishment of peace, prosperity and development in Afghanistan,” he said, adding a peaceful and developed Afghanistan was in the best interest of Pakistan. He said improving relations between the two countries was equally important for regional peace and security.

UNHCR representative Indrika Ratwatte appreciated Pakistan for the hospitality in hosting the world’s most protracted refugee population and commended the government’s current efforts at formulating a policy on the Afghan refugees, including its decision of documenting the non-refugee Afghan population.

He also paid tributes to the resilience of the refugees and said around the world conflicts were forcing record numbers of people to flee with a devastating impact on individuals and families.

The cricket match, which was played between Afghan refugees/embassy staff and Pakistani students, was won by the former. Secretary Safron Pir Bakhsh Jamali assured the UNCHR of Pakistan’s full support in every step it takes for the betterment of the refugees.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2015

Karachi's photographers unite to reveal the city's secret stories

Despite protests and heavily jammed roads on the evening of June 12, people in large numbers managed to visit the I Am Karachi Museum set up at the Alliance Française de Karachi.

The two-day event, held under the consortium of I AM KARACHI and The School of Writing (TSW), was an audio-visual exhibition of photographs taken by amateur and professional photographers from all six districts of the metropolis namely Korangi, Malir, East, West, Central and South.

“It’s not just a photography exhibition. We have collected 70,000 photos, creating Karachi's largest archive to date," said Mohsin Tejani, the founder of TSW.

Sneak peek: Buy what you like at Daraz Fashion Week!

This weekend, you just might get your retail fix at home.

Online retailer Daraz.pk is launching a new initiative — a three-day online fashion show titled Daraz Fashion Week — that will showcase the latest summer collections of their high-street brands.

Popular favourites like Sana Safinaz, Amir Adnan, Generation, Daaman and Ego are showing, as are some lesser-known brands like Blossom and Reborn that may be worth your while to check out.

The event may be redundant for city slickers who can hop out to the mall to inspect the latest fashions, but will improve the online shopping experience of buyers in small towns and cities where many of these brands aren't as readily available. If nothing else, the fashion week will allow these buyers to inspect products more closely than a static image allows.The purpose of Daraz's fashion show is to "take luxury high-street fashion to the masses".

Perhaps the best part of Daraz Fashion Week is that it's shop-able (that is, viewers will be able to immediately buy what they see on the runway). Usually, fashion weeks entail a wait for the collections to make it to the stores, but given that this fashion week is pret-only, the collections are ready for retail. In fact, many of them are already in stores.

The fashion week was pre-taped at a press-only event and will go live on the Daraz website tomorrow.

Karachi re-imagined: How the City of Lights Festival brings civic pride back

Recently, Karachi's walls got a resplendent makeover.

Instead of political slogans and commercials for cockroach killing concoctions, the walls were adorned with beautiful artwork. It's a welcome change, and has one wonder how else art can create an impact

I Am Karachi has answered the question in more ways than one, most recently at the just concluded City of Lights Festival.

A consortium of artists, writers and thinkers, I Am Karachi aims to promote harmony and unity in the city through the arts. Citizens Archive of Pakistan (CAP)’s Karachi City of Lights festival thus also aimed to provide reminders of the city's glorious yesteryears through a taste of the visual and performing arts. The festival took place at the Fomma Trust-Art Centre at Zamzama Park from June 5 to 7.

Lighting it up

Although Day One of the festival kicked off at around 5pm, the park came alive after the sun had set and the temperature went down. With more than 10 art installations placed at different points in the park, the arrangement of lights imparted a beautiful glow to the event's ambience.

Time travelling: Mobile museums and oral histories

The festival served as a good reminder that the country's financial capital is also rich in culture. Karachi is home to architecture that dates back to the British Raj, and festival attendees were able to learn about the history of some of these famous landmarks from CAP's mobile museums. With information written both in English and Urdu, the museums aimed to attract children with a jigsaw puzzle, a peek into a miniature version of a building and boxes with fun facts about the legacy of another.

While we were disappointed to see that the mobile museums placed at Karachi Zoo last month were quite worn out, the museums at this weekend's festival were in mint condition. These mobile museums can be visited according to the buildings they represent namely, Mohatta Palace, Karachi Port Trust, Safari Park, Karachi Zooo, and Frere Hall where they had been placed in May.

One of the most needed activities was CAP’s oral history project, which is preserving tales of the partition. It was a popular installment that allowed listeners to hear all about the days when Waheed Murad visited Radio Pakistan or when Karachi boasted many bookstores and cinema halls.

Portraying Karachi: Historical, chaotic and ultimately beautiful

The art installations, including audio and pictorial stories, moving images from old Karachi as well as projects showing unique aspects of Karachi, gave an insight to how the city is perceived by different artists.

“The idea revolves around 12 seconds when you have to stop at the signal and the uncomfortable feeling that comes over leading many to rush as soon as it is opens, which symbolises an organised movement to a disorganised one.Chowks are point elements, we refer to them all the time like, Teen Talwar or when an unfortunate incident happens, we say ‘let’s meet at Press Club and move to Numaish’," said Mazhar.

"It is an important element as to how signals and chowks are related. The composition is all about layering and defines Karachi as it is a cube whose corners do not meet just like the city we live in which is growing organically.”

She added that the cube was made in such a way that from each point a different image would be seen.

A jukebox titled 'Karachi Dance-athon' playing different tunes from the old days also attracted attendees but the music was inaudible due to technical issues.

Another fascinating aspect of the festival was the live painting of old Karachi by painter Faiz Rahi, who once painted cinema billboards.

“I decided to recreate these images because they can’t be found anymore. This is Paradise Point and it used to be one of the most important landmarks in Karachi,” shared Rahi as his fingers worked swiftly on the canvas.

Of music and laughter

While people looked around at the artwork, around 80 attendees crowded into a small room where musicians Yousaf Kerai and Shehroze Hussain gave atabla and sitar workshop. Starting with a short performance of 'O Laal Meri','Ankhiyan Udeekdiyan' and others, the duo then discussed major and minor notes in music upon which all harmonies depend. The crowd including children responded to Kerai and clapped to the music with almost everyone in awe of the 17-year-old prodigy Hussain.

This was followed by a performance ‘Two Views of a Bridge’ by improvisational troupe Platoon, which poked fun at the city’s conditions and relationships. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed the work presented in both English and Urdu.

Swaleha Alam Shahzada, executive director of CAP, shared that the aim of the festival was to give room to tolerant activities through the arts:

“Our aim is to see a Karachi, which was once tolerant and peaceful, but then very quickly it all changed. I saw Karachi go from a very lovely and peaceful city to curfews, riots, political parties, etc. I lived through that era and the '80s changed the city completely, economically, politically, socially and most importantly, morally. The purpose of this exhibition is not only to promote a more forbearing Karachi but to encourage the youth that it is up to them to take its ownership.”