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 ground cardamon 

1/4 tsp freshly grated ginger

1/4 cup ghee

1/2 cup semolina (or cream of wheat)
* for a gluten free version use cassava flour
2 tbsp raisins

Slivered almonds and maraschino cherries to top it with when serving if you wish.

METHOD
Heat milk, sugar, cardamon and ginger in a medium sized pot over a medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved then remove from heat and put to cool.

In a large heavy duty pot, heat ghee on high. Add the semolina flour and cook on medium high for a minute or two, stirring often. Turn heat down to lowest setting and slowly add milk. Be careful it spatters. I tend to ladle out a couple spponfuls of milk before adding the rest of the milk to control the spatter. Add the raisins. Stir until the milk has been absorbed and the pudding just starts to leave the sides of the pot. Remove the pot from the heat.

The entire process goes very quickly. The pudding will be soft when you take it off the heat but will firm up further once it is cooled.

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 the use of his images of Phagwah.

In Trinidad the festival of Holi is called Phagwah. We don't have any sweets as such that are associated with it however I discovered that in India sweets made with bhang are popular at this time. Bhang, by the way, is cannabis.

Hmmmm.

Right, so in lieu of that I bring you something a little less exciting, the consumption of which is not likely to land you in jail.

I loved these Indian treats. They were quite reminiscent of  Trinidadian fat kurma. It takes a little effort to make the pleats but if you are not so inclined to go through the trouble, just shape them as flattened balls with a slight indentation at the top.

Badusha

Ingredients

Makes 8 - 10

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup ghee or butter at room temperature
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons Greek yoghurt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup water ( or more- adjust accordingly)

Oil for deep frying

Sugar Syrup
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
pinch of cardamon
2 strands saffron*optioanal
1/4 tsp ginger

3/4 tsp of lemon juice

METHOD
Melt the butter/ghee. In a mixing bowl add melted butter, yogurt, oil, baking soda, and sugar.

Add the flour and mix well with a whisk. It should look crumbly like bread crumbs. Add water a little at a time to form a soft dough. Knead for 10 mins. Divide into lemon sized balls. Cover and set aside. Let rest for 10 mins.

Shape the badushas with decorative edged swirls or flatten the balls slightly and make a dent in the top with your thumb.

Here is a video to illustrate how the swirls are done.

Heat oil (medium high heat) in a frying pan. Check oil by adding a pinch of batter. If the batter rises quickly then it is the correct temperature. Fry the badushas 3 at a time, turning the heat down occasionally so that they do not burn and are cooked through the middle.

Line a tray with foil. Grease the foil with butter and set aside.
Add sugar, cardamon, ginger and water in a pan to make the sugar syrup. Cook on medium-high heat until the syrup makes a long, slow, string when your spoon is lifted. Quickly add the lemon juice ( to avoid crystallization).

Dip the badushas in the sugar syrup turning until coated on both sides. Transfer to the tray with the buttered foil. Once the glaze has dried you can store them in an airtight container for a few days.

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 sweet is basically a fried dough that is coated in a sugar glaze. There are two varieties. A thin, crisp variety which is sold in shops all year round. Then there is the version pictured above which seems to be more popular around Divali. This kurma is thicker with a crunchy exterior but with a soft fluffy interior. It is made with a sweeter dough than the thin kurma.  It would be interesting to find out how this snack got its name because although it is Indian in origin the word  kurma in India refers to a creamy curry.

Most recipes for kurma yield impossibly large amounts. Too much for a single family. This is because when one makes kurma it is usually for commercial purposes or to give away to friends and neighbours at Divali time. I seriously had to scale back the recipe that I found. The original called for 5lbs of flour! Feel free to scale it back again by half if you don't plan on sharing with friends.

Kurma
Yeild approx 48 Kurma

Ingredients

10 cups flour
2 cups butter

4 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground  elychee (cardamom)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup condensed milk
1 1/2 cups water (+ or - as needed to for dough)

Vegetable oil for frying

For Phaag (Syrup)
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar

Method
Cut butter into small cubes and rub into flour until it looks like bread crumbs.

* You can use a pastry cutter for this or if you wish blitz it with your food processor in two batches.  Put 5 cups of flour and 1 cup butter in food processor. Give it a whir then process the second batch. This is not a pastry dough that you can mess up with over processing. No stress promise.

Mix in the grated ginger, elychee and cinnamon

Add the condensed milk, evaporated milk, and water. Combine everything to make a soft dough.

Let rest 5-10 mins

Divide dough into two balls

Heat enough oil for deep frying kurma in a pot over high heat.

Roll out dough about 1/2 " thick

Cut into strips about 1/2' wide.

Roll each strip until rounded.

Cut rounded strips into finger length or slightly shorter lengths.

Fry on low heat until golden brown.

Drain on brown or absorbent paper and place in a large bowl that can take heat.

Boil water and sugar until it forms a syrup that is just about to crystallize.

Pour all over kurma. Get someone to hold the bowl steady  so you can turn the kurma briskly  so that it does not stick. Turn kurma until the sugar crystallizes.

Cook's Tip:
The most difficult thing for me in making this was the frying. If the flame is too high the outside will cook but the insides remain as raw dough. It took a couple tries to get it going. Bring the oil up to high heat, then turn down to a low heat before putting the kurma to fry. Frying the kurma takes a bit of patience which if you know anything about me from following this blog, I do not have. I am am an impatient cook. So, in order to ensure that the kurmas cooked through, I took a bamboo skewer and poked holes in them while they were frying. Perfect results.

Modak ( Steamed, Coconut Dhal Dumplings)

Divali is nearly upon us and my mind is already on the food, especially sweets. This one is a sweet, steamed, rice dumpling from the South of India. Modaks are usually made for the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi in honour of Lord Ganesh. While not a Divali sweet per say, it was just too tempting to pass up.

Traditionally modaks are filled with with coconut, jaggery (unrefined brown sugar) and spices. However modern versions use a staggering variety of fillings. I have come across everything from mango modaks, to ones filled with raspberry coulis. There are even chocolate modaks. I love that it is a dessert which can be customized to just about everyone's taste.

For my first go at it, I decided to start with a more traditional version. Most people use modak molds to obtain a pretty fluted shape. It is possible to form the pleats by hand. if you are so skilled. Clearly I am not. I gave it the old college try but people I have a day job that I won't be quitting anytime soon. 

The lady in this video gives a good explanation of the pleating process at about 3.33 mins into the video.

The little red dots on top of my modaks are not traditional but if I were making these with different fillings, then different coloured dots would be an easy way to remember the stuffing of each dumpling. Plus it makes my sad looking, little, dumpling balls look just that more festive - or so I tell myself. A small amount of self delusion is quite healthy, isn't it? 

The reality is that working with any kind of dough takes practice as you need to develop a feel for it. Clearly, I need more practice to get a smoother dough. Luckily, these little dumplings are such a treat that making them over, and over, and over again, in order to perfect my technique will not be a hardship.

Modak (Coconut Dhal Dumplings )
Makes 24 modaks

For the dumpling
2 cups rice flour *
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp white sugar
1/8 tsp salt

For the Filling
1 cup dried yellow split peas
3 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 cup grated coconut
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cardamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger


Method

Filling
1. Cook split peas in pressure cooker with 3 cups of water. Bring pressure to high then cook for 10 mins

2. Mash peas with a wooden spoon. Mix in the grated coconut  and set aside.

3. In a saucepan dissolve one cup of sugar with half cup of sugar and cook for a few minutes until you have a thin syrup.

Add the syrup to the peas and coconut mixture. To this add salt, cardamon, and ginger.

4. Return to the stove over a medium high heat. Cook for a few minutes tirring constantly until mixture has thickened, is no longer watery and can be shaped into small balls.

Dumpling

Place rice in a mixing bowl. In a saucepan, bring to a boil  2 1/2 cups water, sugar  salt, and oil.  Slowing pour over rice flour while mixing with a wooden spoon to form a soft dough.

Grease your hands and have a small bowl of water nearby to wet your hands if needed to help maintain a good dough consistency. Make lemon sized balls and flatten to make a small cup place the coconut/dhal filling in the cup. Wrap and seal dough around the filling. Set aside and cover with a damp cloth while you shape the other modaks. Steam in a steamer for 10 - 12 minutes


Cooks Notes
*I could not find rice flour so I used a plain white gluten free flour blend that had rice flour listed as one of its ingredients.