If you’re  a regular reader of this blog (or if you’ve been browsing the Ramadan posts from over the years) you will realise that there’s a particular kind of joy attached to this month. Yes, it’s all about ibadah (worship) and the fasting and extra night prayers (Tarawih) can be a test, but there’s a sense of community that abounds during this month. It’s partly the feeling you get when you perform the Hajj (pilgrimage), that you’re part of something bigger that millions and millions of people are sharing in at the same time. There’s also a more simplistic reason – people tend to break fast in the mosque together, sharing the Iftar (you get blessings for feeding a fasting person so people like to sponsor these dinners!) and the Tarawih prayers are an extra nightly reason to go to the masjid for salaah in jamaat (congregational prayers). All that extra togetherness adds to the special feelings associated with this month – specialness which is almost always accompanied by great food!

Muslims also tend to spend some time planning meals during this month – for communal cooking for the Iftar, favourite delicacies to entice reluctant eaters during Suhr (the meal before the fast begins at dawn) or to stimulate the shrinking appetite later in the month. And of course, there’s the planning for Eid! What you’re going to wear of course, but more importantly, what are you going to cook and serve up to all and sundry! While the search stats for this blog reveal that people are looking for the usual suspects in the Ramadan/Eid lineup – kurma, barfi, sawine, maleeda, and ras gullah for example – that doesn’t mean that other sweet treats aren’t on the agenda.

Like this chocolate cake. Moist, chocolatey and with a lovely butter frosting using melted chocolate. So. very. good. And not too large (although I’d double the recipe the next time to get a nice high cake).

It’s from a book called “Chocolate: Easy and delicious step-by-step recipes”. It’s a British book…I need to check the publisher details. It’s a great book as far as we can tell since the few things we’ve made from it have been excellent. The children definitely like the photos and have found lots of things Aunty Chennette needs to come make.

RECIPE (modifications in brown)

Cake

• 125 g (4.5 oz) soft margarine (or butter)
• 125 g (4.5 oz) caster sugar (we used very brown sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup (we actually had this! I’d usually substitute any kind of syrup or even some thinned molasses)
• 125 g (4.5 oz) self-raising flour, sifted (see note above!) Substitute 125 grams (4.5 oz) flour plus  1 1/3 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted (we used 4)

Frosting/Filling

• 50 g (1.75 oz) icing sugar, sifted
• 25 g (1 oz) butter
• 100 g (3.5 oz) milk cooking chocolate
• a little extra cooking chocolate for the top (optional)

METHOD (my method)

Lightly grease 2 7-inch shallow cake tins (the layer pans – we used larger ones, all we had, so the cake was flatter)

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit)

Now, the recipe just said mix all ingredients to a smooth batter, but, I have my home ec training ingrained in me – this is a cake, to be made by the creamed-in method. This is how you get a light cake texture. I have tried recipes before that say mix everything together and the cake comes out rubbery. So your choice.

Cream margarine/butter and sugar together until the mixture is creamy and light.

Add eggs, beat well.

Add golden syrup, mix well.

Add flour and cocoa powder, fold in – mix gently to incorporate  into a smooth batter but do not over beat.

Divide mixture between both pans equally.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out cleanly (if you are using the larger pans, it will cook very quickly).

Let cake cool in pans for a few minutes then turn out onto wire racks to cool while you make the frosting.

Melt chocolate over a double boiler or gently in a microwave (microwave on medium for 20 seconds at a time and stir in intervals)

Beat icing sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add melted chocolate, mix well.

Spread 1/3 of the frosting on the top of one cake layer, place the other cake layer on top. (we threw in some butterscotch chips in the middle of the layers)

Use the remaining frosting to cover the cake. (I’ll admit that I made a bit more frosting than the recipe called for, maybe using 1/2 oz more butter and icing sugar accordingly). Drizzle melted chocolate over the top or top with nuts or other chips.

Enjoy!

Googni is a term I grew up using for all types of boil and fry peas and beans – so during Ramadan people would make blackeye peas googni or channa googni. Actually those are the only 2 types I can think of in Trinidad, but there may be others I do recall that as a child, when I saw boil and fry channa on the Iftar dish, I was never impressed. I didn’t understand why people just didn’t curry the channa! It went so much better with the fried kachourie or saheena, plus it was half of being a doubles!!. And not everyone can do a good boil and fry…for years I swore that boil and fry meant “hard and dry”. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Really!

I made almost a pound of blackeye peas.* Sister-the-elder was a bit surprised, but 1. I wanted to have enough for days so I could be sure to replicate some small part of my childhood Iftars and 2. I forgot how much the peas swell when cooked. But back to reason number 1! Typical things people would bring to the masjid for communal iftar – dates of course;  fried stuff like pholouri, kachourie, goolgulah or saheena; fruit like watermelon, bananas, pineapple, apples, grapes; sweet stuff like cake, sweetbread or packaged biscuits; and channa, either curried or boil and fry (googni) or blackeye googni. Chutneys to go along with fried stuff, which also tastes pretty good with channa and blackeye! And maybe some ginger, which is used to help with “gas” after a day of fasting. I cannot replicate all of that at home just for me, or even for me and the sister, but having googni around is part of that traditional meal. So I have been breaking fast with it every day since I made it, taking a little container of it with me when I go to sister-the-elder’s. When I had first made it, she wasn’t sure about it because I had omitted pepper, which she considers essential to the dish. However, come her first day of fasting, possibly feeling those reminiscing urges as well, she asked me to bring along enough for her in my container and we had it with some tamarind chutney along with our dates and cake.

I’ve spelt it “googni” but if you do a search for “ghugni” or “ghoogni” you might encounter the root of the term and how it is used in the Eastern part of India (Oriya cuisine) or in Bihari cuisine. While some versions may use different types of peas, or add potatoes, it seems common that googni consists of some kind of peas sautéed with spices and aromatics. My aunt suggested the addition of saltfish, which would seem very West Indian The combination of spices and herbs can be infinitely varied to suit your taste, compliment your peas or the accompaniments. Just make sure you cook the peas enough!

RECIPE

• 2 cups dried blackeye peas (Although you could cook canned peas, I tend not to like the taste of canned peas. Plus blackeye cooks really quickly)
• 1 large onion, diced finely
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed slightly
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3-4 pimento (seasoning) peppers, diced finely
• (bird pepper or hot pepper, diced finely)
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• 1 tablespoon chopped bandhania (culantro, shadow beni)
• 2 teaspoons (roasted) ground geera (cumin)
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• salt and pepper to taste
• oil for sautéeing
• (any combination of herbs and spices)

1. Boil blackeye peas in water, with smashed garlic and salt to taste until cooked. (I cooked them in a pressure cooker and they were done in 15-20 minutes). Drain the peas.

2. Use a wide, deep pan (I used a wok). Heat oil on medium-low heat. Add onions and peppers and sauté until the onions are translucent (I like my onions WELL cooked).

3. Add minced garlic and chives, stir for about 20-30 seconds.

4. Add peas, with the bandhania, geera, coriander and black pepper to taste. Stir constantly to mix thoroughly and check for salt. It’s ok if the peas get a little mashed in the process. The flavours will get to the core of the bean!

Enjoy as is, or with some chutney!

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* peas and such are sold by the “pint” in Guyana, which is somewhat less than a pound.

Shiny Chocolatey Eggless Brownies

I wanted brownies today. Seemed the perfect thing to want during the excitement of World Cup. (Not really, I mean, I am enjoying the Group of 16, but it’s more like the “excitement” of trying to wrap up some work stuff that made me want chocolate). I don’t usually bake unless accompanied by a sibling (mostly Lilandra, who actually likes baking). That’s one way of not being tempted by sweet baked treats like brownies. Just don’t make them. But today I wanted them. Except I had no eggs (I’m out of a lot of things, but not making grocery just yet as I may be out of the country for a bit soon). Eggless diets have not stopped people from enjoying baked goods, however, so I decided to quickly try something.

I had flour, butter, Lindt dark chocolate, brown sugar, molasses…all sounds great, right? I did some quick googling and found that there were recipes which didn’t involve things like applesauce, or pumpkin puree…neither of which I had…I also don’t have any nut meal of any kind so that was another substitute option I could not use. But there are recipes which basically follow a brownie/batter recipe, just no eggs. So, this is what I ended up with (I winged it based on my quick readings and ingredients I wanted to use).

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter
• 3.5 oz good dark chocolate (Lindt 85% cocoa)
• 1 cup brewed coffee
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1.5 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

1. Using a double boiler (or a stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of water) melt the butter and chocolate together.

2. Mix coffee, sugar and molasses into the chocolate mixture.

3. Add flour, baking powder, salt, mix to combine.

4. Stir in walnuts.

5. Pour/spread evenly into a greased 9×13 baking pan.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until top is set but and the edges are just pulling away from the sides of the pan. If the edges look cooked but the centre is too moist for your liking, just turn off the oven and leave the pan in for another 5 minutes.

VERDICT – well, see for yourself. They were moist and chocolatey, held together very well and tasted great. When eaten hot there was smidgen of that pudding-y floury taste, but as it cooled that went away too. Although, this recipe from All Recipes uses a method of cooking some of the flour with water to deal that is apparently supposed to help this. I like chewy brownies, with a crackly top. These almost had a crackly top, but weren’t chewy. They were just dense and moist enough to not be cakey though, so overall I think it was a success. I think the molasses helps, but that has always been my secret brownie ingredient, so I am biased!

NOTE – I realise these are eggless, but NOT vegan. They were not intended to be, but I think the end result shows that with modifications, you can get a great brownie no matter the substitutions. After all, brownies are by nature more forgiving than cakes! For vegan, I would use a vegetable oil, and of course a completely non-dairy chocolate.

I can’t wait to try these again with the Lindt 99% chocolate bar! I wonder if some more butter would make it cracklier or chewier – any thoughts?

I am home* for a couple weeks – vacation, then to vote.** So, taking advantage of being at home with Mom (who did the beef and beans), I present to you our Sunday Lunch today! Cornmeal Coucou, stew beef and red beans! Sunday lunch is a big thing in the Caribbean. It’s the time to break out the sometimes labour-intensive dishes, to make a special meal that is not easy to prepare during the work week. Lunch is sometimes later than usual, because of the work involved and also because having a big Sunday lunch is part of the enjoyment of the whole day. The heavy meals with macaroni pie, or coucou, leading to post-meal-paralysis are also ok, since you’re supposed to be relaxing before you start the dreaded Monday. Well, that’s my take on it

Coucou and flying fish is the national dish of Barbados, but it is also a traditional national dish in Trinidad and Tobago, eaten with callaloo and/or stew beans. Cornmeal coucou is ubiquitous, but it can be made from breadfruit as well. It’s like a Caribbean polenta. Some people like it a bit soft where it is spooned out of a dish – others prefer it to be set and firm enough to slice, although it should never be dry and chewy – that’s not coucou…maybe that’s cornbread. 15 years ago when I was studying in Barbados, I was surprised at the number of Bajans who tried to “introduce” us Trinis to coucou…I mean, I knew their national dish, how could they not know we have coucou and callaloo? I think things have changed over the years – we are more aware of our Caribbean neighbours food and culture – at least this is my hope!

Growing up, I was never sure I liked coucou. I knew I didn’t like ochroes, not just because of the slime, but the skin itself had a texture that I was uncomfortable with, even though in most preparations (callaloo) it melted away on the tongue. I was a picky vegetable-eater…But then somewhere in my teens, through food courts in those little malls on Frederick Street, in having to get vegetarian foods, I grew to love this thing called coucou. After all it is better than rice in soaking up stew gravy!

Coucou is traditionally a bit labour-intensive, because it involves an hour or more of stirring at the pot, while the cornmeal gets heavier and heavier and harder on your arms. So I hear, anyway. I never made it that way…my first attempt at coucou making was a couple months ago when Cynthia (of Tastes Like Home) posted a microwave coucou recipe. That was the quickest I have gone from reading a blog to cooking. I made the coucou that weekend, even though I had no ochro…I substituted baigan (eggplant) since that’s what was in the fridge, and I figured…hmm…eggplant also gets kind slimy when cooked… I was already craving stew chicken and red beans, and this would have been a perfect accompaniment. The proportions and recipe were really easy to remember too – 1 cup cornmeal to 3 cups water, salt, ochroes…stir, microwave, stir, microwave…eh, voilà!

There were some problems though…which I thought I should share if you want to try microwave coucou, so as to avoid my pitfalls!

• eggplant is not bad in coucou, but the skin can be bitter and inedible – if forced to use this, PEEL it
• after stirring, let the mixture sit for a while to let the cornmeal completely absorb the liquid – this way you won’t get hard cornmeal bits at the bottom of your bowl cooking well before their time – I don’t know what I was thinking, putting in a bowl of essentially water with cornmeal floating around…
• if the liquid is fully incorporated, you may not even need the stirring process in the middle of cooking!

Using Cynthia’s recipe was great – and I enjoyed a few meals with my coucou. However, I think there are differences between Bajan coucou and the Trini version. I remembered more colour in the Trini coucou I was used to eating – colour representing peppers and seasonings. It seems Bajan coucou, or the versions I have eaten and seen online, stick to cornmeal and ochro. I checked with Mom, and reinforced by Wizzy of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Punch, I realised that Trini coucou does indeed have more things, including coconut milk. Any Barbadians reading this can confirm whether this is true, or if I have just experienced a basic coucou.

So, here’s my version of the microwave coucou recipe (hope Cynthia doesn’t mind)

Ingredients

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2 cups warm water
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 3/4 cup sliced ochroes (nice thin young ones)
• 3 pimento/seasoning peppers, chopped (these are not hot peppers)
• diced hot pepper (optional, to taste)
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• 1 teaspoon (or more) chopped shadow benny
• 1.5 teaspoon garlic (we like garlic)
• salt to taste

Prepare all ingredients
Mix all ingredients except water and coconut milk, together.
Add liquids (warm water will make the cornmeal absorb faster and come together very nicely.
Stir well so there are no large lumps of cornmeal.
Pour or spoon out into a greased microwaveable dish and smooth the top.
Microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Check the coucou – it should not need stirring.
Microwave again on high for another 2 minutes.

The coucou will still appear jiggly and soft at this stage, and Mom ate it like this, but it will continue to firm up and by the time I ate, it was sliceable.

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* home is always Trinidad.
** T&T elections are on 24 May 2010

Cheese Sticks Again

Just thought I’d post about my revisiting my Late Night Cheese Sticks recipe (otherwise known as Cheese Straws). I made them again this weekend and I really liked the way they turned out – although alot of that was not entirely intentional!

I used both shredded cheddar and parmesan – the cheddar incorporated into the dough, and the parmesan rolled on the outside. I also threw in some poppy seeds and bandhania (culantro), with mustard powder instead of mustard. The recipe can take much variation, depends on what you feel like. Originally, I wanted to get 2 different cheese experiences, not just with different types of cheese, So when I rolled out the dough, I sprinkled a handful of parmesan over the top before the last few rollings. The cheese was not completely embedded into the dough but that’s the way I wanted it. I wanted some crispy cheesy bits on the outside of the cheese sticks, as well as good cheese flavour inside. And they did come out pretty good, and very nicely textured, but that’s not the “great” variation that merits a post.

That recipe, for the record, makes many cheese sticks. Enough for a party. Seriously. And since it was just me, sister-the-elder, the niece and the old-enough-to-eat nephew (the 3 month old didn’t factor in as much as he could drool and give you hard looks)…I put half the dough away, wrapped in waxed paper and popped into a zip-top bag. And today was the revelation. Yesterday, I had rolled out the dough already before I decided to refrigerate it. There was already parmesan sprinkled all over the top. So I just rolled it up into a block and popped it in the fridge. There were now several layers of parmesan in the dough. Mmmm. So, this is what you should do -

• Mix the dough as per the recipe, and roll out one-third of the dough to 1/2 cm thick.
• Sprinkle a handful (1/2 cup) of shredded parmesan all over the top of the dough, then fold the dough carefully over and over (at least 5 times) until you have a small brick. Repeat for the remaining portions of the dough.
• Wrap each portion in waxed paper, place them inside a resealable plastic bag and refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight.
• Preheat overn to 375 deg F. Spray/grease baking sheets. Use one brick at a time, leave the others in the fridge to stay firm and cool.
• On a lightly floured surface, press or roll out a brick to a rectangle, with the short side about 6 cm, to about 1 cm thick. Using your big sharp chef’s knife, in one smooth rocking motion, carefully slice  the brick into 1/4-1/2 cm thin strips (almost like a julienne). The dough should be firm enough after the refrigeration to allow easy handling this way – and it is much easier than rolling out flat and cutting into strips.
• Place the strips on the baking sheet, with 1cm space between them and bake for about 15 minutes till golden (brown on the bottom) and crunchy.

You can see from the photo that the texture is different from the previous version. The layers with the cheese make for a lovely flavoured and extra crunchy cheese stick, with exactly the double burst of cheese I was looking for. And the little brown bubbles of baked cheese are beautiful and delicious.

Yum. Who cares about sinus allergies…sigh…

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Postcript: the niece (4 years old) asked when she was leaving, “Aunty can you put some in a napkin for us to take home in case we get hungry?” I told her I was putting them ALL in a bag for them. “Aunty can you write down how to make this in case we want to make it home?” (Lilandra has taught her about recipes, following instructions and measuring things. She can crack an egg!)

According to Wikipedia, za’atar i’s generally a combination of ground dried herbs such as oregano, thyme and marjoram, with toasted sesame seeds and salt. And then there’s the sumac. Which isn’t necessarily found in all varieties – Wikipedia says it’s a Lebanese addition, perhaps. Sumac is used in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean as spice to add some sourness or tangy taste, hint of citrus, to dishes. It’s found as a ground red (or dark purple) spice and people use it as a seasoning in all kinds of dishes, or just over a salad (see salad at right which we had in Saudi Arabia last year after the Hajj). I wanted my za’atar sour-ish, so I wanted the sumac version.

So to get back to the sumac. We bought some when we went to Hajj last year. We weren’t entirely sure what we were looking for, but in a trip to one of the big stores (a Bin Dawud) we looked all throughout the spice counter just to see what they sold (such big spice counters!). In addition to our trying to figure out what was good saffron (and that is yet another story we haven’t told**), we saw this huge tub behind the counter with a reddish ground spice. Hmm…we asked what it was. The guy looked confused…confused that we were asking I think, he seemed to understand but not speak English but was most likely wondering who on earth doesn’t know what sumac is? After a few tries, with the salesperson becoming increasingly amused we figured it must be sumac and bought up a big bag (might have been a pound…it’s light stuff, but the deciding how much to buy further delighted the man behind the counter I am sure.

So this Eid I had sumac. I had sesame seeds. I even had dried oregano and thyme. Za’atar was my destiny. Za’atar has a complex flavour – nuttiness from the toasted sesame seeds (which is enhanced if you use a little geera/cumin like I did, the tang from the sumac and the thyme and oregano rounding out the overall depth. In addition to dipping some fresh bread (of any kind, doesn’t have to be pita) into this, I’ve used it for chicken, in pasta, baked on a flat bread/pizza dough…possibilities abound.

ZA’ATAR RECIPE (so easy)

• 1/4 cup sesame seeds (toasted)
• 2 tbs dried thyme
• 2 tbs dried oregano
• 1 tbs sumac (or a bit more)
• 1 tbs geera (cumin)

I left out salt, since I figured I could add that to taste depending on need and use of the za’atar, but if you are making a batch for a specific use, go ahead and add the salt – about 1 tsp.

Toasting sesame seeds is great, because I love the smell and the magic of seeing the shiny goldenness appear – but be very careful, since it goes from a hint of gold to black very vast. The seeds are very small after all.  I used a small non-stick pan, stirred frequently, and when many started to get shiny and golden (even if still lots of white) I turned off the heat and kept stirring in the pan till they were evenly brown.

You could just mix all ingredients together, or do as I did,  and zap them briefly in my coffee grinder. Which doesn’t really grind tiny sesame seeds, but everything gets mixed together very evenly.

Also…those amounts up there – VERY subjective. You might want more sumac, or less thyme. Or no cumin at all.  Add marjoram. Play around with the amounts. If you don’t have access to sumac, add some lemon salt or lime/lemon zest for the sourness (see Arabic Bites, a great blog by two sisters, for a recipe for Za’atar and Arabic Pizza (manosha).

For Eid, I did a chicken kebab inspired dish, using lots of za’atar, that was apparently a hit even for fussy pre-teens. And more recently I added it to some whole wheat  pasta and that was just lovely. I have no photos of these meals, but will post the chicken recipe soon enough. When I was in Trinidad for Eid ul Adha last month, Lilandra and I made pizza and used one of the pizzas as a za’atar flatbread. Yum.

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* A quick word as to pronounciation. Lilandra and I were recently shocked to hear Mario Batali and Alton Brown mangling this word on Iron Chef America (old episode I guess, can’t remember the secret ingredient) with variations given and ALL wrong. It is not pronounced zaTAH or zaTARR… Stress the first syllable, ZAHtar and if you want to get technical, the Arabic has an ‘ayn in the middle, which gives a in-the-back-of-your-throat vowel sound and hence the apostrophe in some spellings to indicate it’s like za-ahtar.

** The saffron story – I started to write it here, and decided that perhaps I should post on our much-neglected Hajj blog!

Now, I don’t celebrate Divali, but it is a tradition to receive the goodies Unfortunately, in my small compound in Guyana with mostly itinerant ex-pats I don’t think anyone will be ringing my doorbell to drop off treats tomorrow night. Mind you, I did ring a couple door bells for Eid, and one of the Trinis was oh so happy since she grew up in a village like me where even though she wasn’t Hindu or Muslim she was used to these little deliveries. So…no opportunity to sample the different styles of saheena and sweets tomorrow. Ah well. At least I know that my blog is serving the needs of those last-minute “Indian delicacy” makers, especially the ones outside who look forward to the reminisces at these times.

So, what are people searching for? Ah, well, Kurma tops the list. Barfi is very close behind, and as I left work this evening they were actually dead even, but Kurma is back on top. After all there are 2 types to look for I guess, fat and thin. Gulab Jamoon was 3rd, but only half the number of hits as Kurma. So readers, you know what you going to get this Divali!

This might be a good time to point out that I am trying to organise my Recipe page. I have actually collected 24 recipes! Didn’t really want to separate the categories into different pages, but who knows. It’s a work in progress.

Falafels are that ubiquitous Middle Eastern item – savoury, crunchy, fried balls of beany-goodness. Some may say falafels are Israeli, there may be other countries laying claim to the source of these delicious vegetarian protein-packed treats, but I am no food historian, so I won’t get into the debate. You can check out Wikipedia. Falafels are great on their own, eat with a tahini (Middle Eastern sesame seed paste) dip, or as shown above with one of the chutneys Trinis serve with all our savoury deep fried goodies – in this case a boiled mango chutney. In fact, falafels are so similar to Trini kachouries (ground yellow split pea fritter), that they should be recognised as siblings. Falafels are also commonly served popped into pita bread, for a deliciously filling sandwich. Falafel like this is street food, and like the Trini doubles, or bake and shark, they’re sold with “a vast variety of ingredients and sauces to fill … falafel (pita) sandwiches” (burekaboy‘s Falafel 101 is an excellent guide and recipe to perhaps more authentic Falafel).

While the most commonly found falafel is made from chickpeas (channa, an ingredient extremely familiar to Caribbean people, especially Trinis), Egyptians traditionally made theirs from fava beans. Mom always made hers using lentils and bulgur wheat. Much more like a vegetarian kibbe actually. She says it’s because she never liked fava beans, so…lentils…after all she grew up with it in jedra!. And burekaboy noted that his Lebanese neighbours added bulgur. So Syrian-Lebanese-Trini variation maybe.

This recipe is really simple. Really. Soak beans for 24 hours, add lots of fresh herbs and aromatics. Use food processor or blender if you want a smoother texture. And fry. Voila. Don’t believe me?

RECIPE
Makes about 40
Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb dry chick peas
• 1/2 lb dry lentils (or use 1 lb chick peas)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup chopped fresh herbs of your choice (parsley, chives, shadow benny/cilantro etc)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp geera (cumin)
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• salt and black pepper to taste (taste the batter raw, go ahead)
• possibly a few tbsps of flour (or dhal flour)

optional: some fresh bird or other hot pepper to your tolerance level

1. Soak beans in enough water to cover about 2 inches over. Add baking soda. Leave for 18-24 hours.

2. Rinse beans well and let drain.

3. Put beans and all other ingredients in food processor or blender and zap away. (I like the food processor because I like it chunkier – it’s super crunchy that way and I love the texture).

4. You can store this in the fridge for a couple days, although I have noticed that it might need a little flour to bind after this.

5. Put about 2 inches of oil in a heavy pot and heat to medium high.

6. Check the mix to see if it needs flour – squeeze a golf ball sized in your hand and see if it sticks together. If it does, then take a heaping tablespoon of the mix, shape into a slightly flattened ball and fry. If it holds up and doesn’t burn, then you’re good to go without flour and the oil isn’t too hot. If the mixture breaks up in your hand or in the oil, then add a few tablespoons of flour and mix so it can be shaped easily. Until you get the hang of it, fry one at a time. Keep hands moist.

7. Fry the falafel until golden brown (lentils in the mixture will make it a bit browner) and drain on paper.

Serve with a tahini dip (maybe recipe to follow, although I relied on Mom to do this!) or a spicy Trini chutney (tamarind is really really good).

Of course, as with any food, people have their preferences, and the Rules result in sawine made the way Mom (and her family) enjoy it. Following your own rules gives you sawine the way you want it. Just don’t hold me responsible for the consequences. Now, no angry emails or comments, please. You know this is not really meant to consign all other sawine recipes to the bin or somehow malign your Naanee or Chachee or whoever taught you how to make your sawine. It’s just that any dish steeped in tradition comes with rules held over your head by a matriarch (or patriarch) as she (or he) forces you to adhere to the rigorous standards and elaborate methods to achieve the same results that generations before you enjoyed. To do anything less would be unthinkable. Part of that tradition is muttering about how the people down the road does use ghee instead of butter or them next door leave it on de stove too long or how your Aunt (by marriage of course) too own-way and look, you eh see how nobody eat she food last year?

The rules are also especially important when it’s a dish like sawine, where your version is going to have to compete with a dozen others on the same day, many many more during an Eid “season”. Sawine is traditionally made in huge quantities on Eid day so that you can share to everyone in the village or in the office and every single visitor – if it is one thing you have at a Muslim household on Eid day, even if you made some yourself at home, or if you have 20 other houses to visit later, you MUST try their sawine. It is very much a Trini tradition. Growing up the Eid schedule was: Mom wakes up earlier than anyone else and starts the sawine; then we go to masjid for salaah (prayer); come back change nto cooler clothes; pack up sawine in jugs and containers; join the other neighbourhood children to start delivering the sawine to each non-Muslim household while it’s still relatively cool in the morning. Special households would get some other sweets, but everyone would at least get sawine. And so, all our neighbours would get sawine from quite a few houses. And you want to know that yours can compete! The same way we wait for just the right parsad on Divali night, or sweet rice from the neighbour up the road. You don’t want to hear how anybody throw out your sawine or leave it for the least favoured family member to eat! (And in a village, somehow you hear these things…). Heck, for years, I’d always go across the road for their sweet bread (sorry Mom, but the recipe you gave me now is just the way I like it, so it won’t happen again).

Making sawine, with all that pressure, always seemed like a big, involved process. It is surprisingly a lot easier than you would think, especially if you are making for 10 people, instead of 200. No need to pull out the big gas ring stove, and huge masjid iron pots to patch (parch) humungous amounts of vermicelli days in advance etc. It is relatively straightforward and can be done fairly quickly in your own kitchen on a regular, or even small stove-top.

First, the RULES:

1. Never patch with butter (oil, ghee or any other fat) - this will make the sawine greasy and gloopy and it will spoil quicker.

2. Boil the sawine separately from the milk – or else the sawine will be gloopier and and it will spoil quicker.

3. Don’t boil the sawine or milk with raisins or cherries or any fruit – only with nuts – add those other things after it’s cooked, or else the milk will split or sour faster

4. Only mix milk into sawine in batches as required. – or else…well you get the idea!**

Recipe after the jump

You probably gather by now, and certainly from the photos, that we like our sawine to be not-gloopy… the vermicelli should be free flowing in the milk, which should be thicker than regular milk, sure, but nothing approaching a pudding texture. We even add a little regular milk on top when we take it from the fridge to keep it loose. It is just our way.

Now, some of you might not know what “patching” is. I write it that way because that is how I hear it pronounced. We patch vermicelli noodles for sawine, flour for halwa etc. It means brown in a heavy pot (with or without butter) and perhaps comes from “parch”? I do not know.

But now, the RECIPE
(this makes a decent pot for a small dinner event, or for the family with leftovers in the fridge – it all depends on whether you are a big bowl sawine-eater or a little serving…it should make about 2 – 2.5 litres)

Ingredients

* 1 cup vermicelli
* cinnamon stick, cardamom (elaichi) pods, cloves
* 4 cups water
* 1/2 cup sugar (preferably white, granulated)

* 175 ml (1/2 tin approx) tin evaporated milk plus equivalent water
* 195 ml (1/ tin approx) tin condensed milk plus equivalent water
* 1 tsp almond essence
* 1/2 cup ground blanched almonds (if desired)
* raisins, cherries etc (if desired)

Parching
1. Heat a heavy-bottomed pot. Add vermicelli (breaking up into small pieces before or in the pot) and whole spices.
2. Stir frequently until all noodles are brown, but not burnt. There will be some unevenness in the colours, some being beige to dark brown, that is normal.
3. Empty out into a metal bowl or tray and let cool.
Note: You can store parched sawine for a long time, just keep (with spices) in a sealed bag or container. If you might need to hang on it to it forever, keep it in the fridge but you might want to reparch it before making the sawine.

Sawine
1. In a pot big enough to fit 2.5-3 litres, put parched sawine, sugar and the 4 cups of water to boil. You may add ground almonds to this.
2. Boil until just cooked (try not to overcook as it will just continue to cook in the hot water and then over time will soak in all the liquid anyway).
3. Meanwhile, mix the evaporated milk, condensed milk and almond essence (mix VERY well)  and heat gently. (Mom sometimes adds almonds to this as well). Don’t let it come to a boil. On Saturday, Mom heated the milk in my microwave!
4. Add milk to sawine when ready to serve.
5. Just before serving, you may add raisins and cherries etc. Or you can keep these in bowls for guests to add as they like. If nut allergies are a problem, then keep the almonds out of the cooking and put on the side as well.

Notes:
1. As this is a small batch, which will not stick around for long, I am going to condone breaking one of the rules and say that you could just boil everything together if you wanted. I would insist, however, that if you were making a larger batch, or were making this in advance, that you boil them separately to achieve the consistency the Rules advocate.
2. If you are going to refrigerate, then wait till both liquids are cool, then mix and store in fridge. You will need to add some more milk before reheating, although I wouldn’t reheat – just top up with a little plain milk and stir.
3. Some people do not like biting into whole cardamom. I hate biting into whole cloves. When the sawine has boiled, most of the cloves and cardamom will have floated up to the top – retrieve them as much as possible and discard.
4. Experiment with spices – a dear friend of mine, from Jamaica,*** the first time I ever made this by myself, decided when she tried it, that anything with milk and cinnamon could benefit from nutmeg, and thereafter we had it with nutmeg!

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* People have asked me for a sawine cake recipe – I think this one by Guyana Gyal seems a good one to try.

**Mom also has a horror of things spoiling and many foods have certain rules or steps to follow to ensure that they don’t go bad – she is a pro at cooking large amounts of food, and it is on these occasions, particularly for events where food tends to stay out in uncertain conditions, that one has to be very careful.

*** Rone was a frequent visitor and commenter on this blog, and passed away completely unexpectedly a year ago. I’ve had her in mind all throughout this post, and I guess this one’s for her.
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I have decided, that although Eid ul Fitr has passed for this year, that I shall attempt to post recipes for all the things we made for this Eid. After all, people will still be looking for them next year, or indeed for Eid ul Adha (which is just a couple months away).  And it should help with the number of posts…always a concern for a blogger…

I’d always known of the 2 kurmas, and gulab jamoon, as separate entities, and it was only once I hit high school that I realised there was any other way of thinking. Kurma growing up (in a primarily Indian village in Central Trinidad), was really the fat kurma, served as sirni (sweet) after Juma in the mosque on Friday, or at Muslim functions and weddings in little plastic bags (fancy boxes and paper bags developed in later years). There were only a couple families I knew who would sometimes make and bring the thin kurma, which in my mind, was the kind normally sold in shops A recent conversation with a friend who also grew up in Central area, provided a possible reason that we didn’t get much thin kurma growing up – being Christian and surrounded by both Muslim and Hindu neighbours, she remembers getting fat kurma from the Muslims and thin kurma from the Hindus. AHA! It all made sense.

Thinking back to my sources of kurma, and checking with Mom, this explanation was indeed valid. In fact, back when lines between Muslim and Hindu Indo-Trini foods were more defined, you wouldn’t ever get thin kurma from a Muslim household! Muslims served sawine, halwa, maleeda and fat kurma. I used to wait to go to Hindu weddings to get karhi (the dhal with pholourie-like things in it) and even to this day some traditionalists say channa and aloo is “Hindu food”. Mom says long-time, paratha (buss-up-shut) was the roti of choice at Muslim weddings, while dhalpuri was the only roti served at Hindu weddings. Fortunately, I firmly believe if food is good and halaal, there should be no other distinctions In any event, gradually over time, these lines in the sand have been eroded to the point that people outside or within these communities never even think about such categorisations.

But back to the fact that there are 3 fried sweet dough things!

Thin Kurma is made from the least rich of the doughs, which is rolled out flat and cut into thin, rectangular strips, deep fried, then coated in a sugar syrup (paag). Simply Trini Cooking has an excellent step-by-step recipe with photos.

Fat Kurma is a little richer and should taste of some spice (cinnamon, clove and ginger). The dough is usually rolled into ropes, which are cut at an angle into diamond-like cuboids, deep-fried and coated in sugar (usually ending up in white, clumpy, oh-so-sweet sugar all over). It should only be crunchy on the outside, and soft and a little fluffy on the inside.

(Trini) Gulab Jamoon is fried balls of a dough enriched with spices, butter and condensed milk, then glazed with sugar. Traditionally made in elongated ovoid shapes, hand-rollled individually (see photo on the right).

But onto the FAT kurma recipe!

Ingredients

* 2 kg flour
* 500 gm butter/margarine
* 1 tin condensed milk
* 1 tin evaporated milk and 1 tin of water mixed
* Ground spices to taste – cinnamon, elaichi (cardamom) and clove
* 6 tablespoons finely grated ginger (or as desired)
* Oil for frying
* 1 kg granulated sugar (plus 1 cup)

Method

1. Mix flour and margarine completely until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.

2. Add half the tin of condensed milk, half the ginger and the evaporated milk and water and mix well.

3. Knead the dough until it is smooth.

4. Separate the dough into 4 balls and knead again to a smooth surface and allow to rest.

5. Put oil to heat in a heavy pot.

6. Roll out a ball to 1/2″ thick and cut into 1 1/2″ strips. Roll these strips slightly into ropes, and cut at an angle into 1 1/2″ pieces. Alternatively, don’t roll into a rope but cut the strips, turning/twisting the strip after each cut.

7. Fry the pieces in batches until golden brown. Repeat for each ball.

8. Leave the kurma in a large basin to cool and continue until all the balls are fried as directed above.

9. Divide the unsugared Kurma into 2 or 3 basins and have sturdy spoons for mixing.

For the Paag (Sugar Syrup):
10. Put sugar and one cup of water to boil in a large pot with the remaining ginger until the sugar mixture spins a thread when dropping from a spoon.

11. At this stage add the remaining half tin of condensed milk and boil again until the mixture spins a thread.

12. Divide this mixture equally between the basins and stir continuously until the kurma is evenly coated. You’ll need help to mix all kurma at the same time or the paag will harden. Unless you just keep the kurma in one large basin and turn it all at the same time.

13. Transfer to another bowl or tray to spread out a bit so that the kurma doesn’t clump together.

This is usually served in little clear plastic bags, but you can go ahead and pop them in just like that. Go brave!

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* just to clear up other possible confusions, this has nothing to do with korma which is a type of creamy curry, originating in Pakistan or North India

** oh, harken back to school bazaar days promising many Indian Delicacies for sale!