INTERNATIONAL: IDEAS FOR HOLIDAYS: Tastes like home Part 6 - QUICK LINK

LINK to Recipe

Parsad

Parsad is a Trinidadian dessert that is served at Divali.  Visit any Hindu household during this time and you will be given a bag of parsad. The popular version is made with flour. However I much prefer to make my parsad with semolina. Cream of wheat is also delicious but the semolina version is my favourite.




Parsad
Yeild (4 servings)


1 cup evaporated milk 

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp

Tropical Eton Mess

It is ridiculous how much I love curd.

I love meringues too but really it's all about curd.



I go crazy for passion fruit, lemon, tangerine...... any kind of curd so long as there is a egg rich, creamy, buttery,  conglomeration of sweet and sour.

I can't seem to stop of dreaming up recipes that use curd.

Yes, my life is in fact THAT boring. You may take a moment to roll your eyes and

Candied Golden Limes ~ What to do with Calamansi?

So it might be that lately I am a little, just a teeny, tiny bit, obsessed with calamondins which are also known as calamansi. A lot of it has to do with the fact that they are a relatively unknown local fruit. Truly, I feel like the fruit version of a modern day orchid hunter when I rediscover some hitherto unknown or fallen out of favour produce. Some of you might remember me getting a

Lemon Cheesecake with Pistachio Nut Crust (Gluten Free)

I found this note stuck to my fridge.



WARNING:

Eat anymore of this cheesecake and containment will no longer be an option. Have just one more slice and I will tender my resignation. 

Sincerely 


Your Jeans.






I am never ever making this cheesecake again.



If I never make this cake again it will be too soon.



I ate far more of this than was considered polite, certainly far more

It's no big deal, Lemon curd (Microwave Version)

A spoonful of lemon curd over my breakfast makes my medicine oatmeal go down in the most delightful way! To really appreciate how HUGE a deal that is for me I direct your attention to this.


Those of you who make curd on the stove top know that it involves stirring, stirring, stirring AND stirring over a low heat until the thing thickens. It's a tedious process during which my mind

Badusha treats for Phagwah (Holi)

What a weekend!

We are fortunate to have two public holidays and an extra long weekend to celebrate. This year we have a bit of an unusual situation as other holidays also fall within this Easter weekend so let me say Happy Easter,  Happy Shouter/Liberation Baptist Day and Happy Holi!







Before I continue I must say thank you to my friend Gareth Leigh for very kindly allowing me

Bolo di kashupete (Aruban Christmas cake)

How did you enjoy Christmas day? I hope it was spent in the loving company of family and friends. As much as I enjoy the actual day of Christmas it's always such a blur of activity so that I look forward to the days after when I can laze about and relax with a fridge full of left overs so I don't have to cook. 





Here is a traditional Christmas cake from the Dutch Caribbean island of

Tamarind Ginger Spice Cake

Amazing cake but we'll get to that in a minute.

First a mini rant at the spouse who absolutely is NOT deserving of ANY cake at this point.

Some time last week, my husband was away from work and I had to use his car to drop our children to school.

Note to self:  Self, never borrow your  man's car without first checking for gas.

Children safely transported,  I was on my way to work, tunes

Trinidad Kurma

Trinidad is blessed to have a culture that embraces the festivals of different religions and every year I look forward to Divali, the Hindu festival of lights. If I lived abroad I think this is one of the holidays that I would miss like crazy.

Divali would be incomplete without the many offerings of Indian sweets that make their appearance at this time. Kurma, a traditional, Trinidadian

There is an apple dumpling for that!

This recipe comes from my friend Debbie who shared it with me about a year ago. I am kicking myself right now for not having dropped everything and making it immediately. Learn from my mistake people. 




LEARN!





Seriously STOP reading the rest of this post. Just skip to the recipe at the end (I won't mind),  and go make this. 






Fair warning: this is the least pretty dessert you

Burfi (Indian Milk Fudge)

Divali (Diwali) is one of the most eagerly anticipated holidays of my country. Yesterday my son came home from his Catholic School with his painted clay deya (a small, clay, lamp) eager to light it right away. Great was his disappointment when I explained that he needed to wait until the the next day.

Divali is a Hindu festival but in Trinidad and Tobago it is embraced and enjoyed by

Ma'amoul - Date and Walnut Filled Cookies

Somewhere out there, someone's Tita (grandmother) is tut tutting and shaking their head in dismay at my sorry looking ma'amoul.

Traditionally these cookies are made with an intricate pattern that makes them look quite regal.

You'll be tempted to serve them on nothing but your best china I'm sure.

Clearly mine are barely tupperware worthy.

Fortunately, what they lack in looks, they make up

Chocolate Truffle Ice-Cream

I go weak in the knees for magazines with images of hot, sexy, totally delicious food. Forget the carefully crafted recipe lead-ins that proclaim the sweet, sour or even piquant flavours of a particular dish; it’s the food photographs which sell it to me every time.

A perfect example would be June’s issue of bon appétit which proclaims that this chocolate ice-cream is so rich, it doesn’t

Goat's Milk Yogurt with Rose Syrup and Lychees

Hello gorgeous.

Any day that starts with something that is more like a dessert than breakfast makes me extremely happy.

This indulgent combination of yoghurt, rose syrup and lychees was the brain child of Daily Cookie.  I tasted her yoghurt and just I could not get it out of my mind. My version uses goat's milk but you can make yoghurt with almost any kind of milk. You can use whole milk, skim,

Sea Glass Jello

Eat your vegetables.

They are good for you.

Jello and condensed milk?

Most likely not a best nutritional choice but it will make you feel like a kid again AND it has restorative powers.

Yesiree

Why just this past weekend this sea glass jello was the remedy for a skinned knee.

It helped stop a bout of crying over a lost toy and alleluia if it didn't chase away a serious case of Monday blahs

Birthdays and beyond - A cake for all occaisions

Carrot cake is one of those classic homemade cakes that never seems to go out of style. Here is my adaptation of my father's favourite recipe for carrot cake which I made for his birthday.




Happy Birthday Dad.

Carrot Cake

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 tsp Angostura orange bitters or orange zest
2

St Dominic Apricot Charlotte

I am glad that summer is over.

Did you know that during summer food bloggers drive me crazy?

Yeh you do.

Oh I'm sure it's not intentional.

Still, the cumulative effect of all of you waving your punnets of berries and baskets of stone fruits in my face is a bit more than I can bear.

You bake pies, cobblers and clafoutis and sing praises to the rosy blush of summer fruit.

Meanwhile, I

Holy Cake and Ice-cream Batman!

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Oh bless! Mr. Tomato Eyes is 5 years old. Wasn’t it only yesterday that I was baking this cake for his 4th birthday? Due to time constraints I reluctantly decided to have someone else make the cake. This was no easy decision since I was and am totally convinced that I am entirely qualified to make this cake myself.

What are my qualifications? To be honest I’ve

A boy, a dog and Toasted Sesame Cookies - Happy Mother's Day

My first son believes that I am God. I am his sun, his moon, his All. My second son is an atheist. Baby S was all of 19 months when he FINALLY started saying Mama!  I ask you what child learns to call the neighbourhood pothound (stray dog) by name before his own mother? All other dogs are doggie but this one he calls by name, “Fowl” he says, or rather, “Fow.”