I know I am a day late and a dollar short…as Diwali was last week and here I am now posting a recipe pertaining to that. Typical Trini here.
You know how you see a whole turkey post like days leading up to thanksgiving from other bloggers, that is not me and it may never be. First of all I can only handle eating turkey once a year! Second I don’t have that kind of time to take pictures and video of me making my turkey on thanksgiving day! Not when I have 10 other dishes to make, play cards, drink beer, try to watch football so I feel like I am keeping up with the American tradition and on top of all that, I am expected to shower and comb my hair too!
If I make the turkey a month before, who is going to eat all that meat? Its not like they sell 5 pound turkeys.
That being said, now you all know why I am a day late and a dollar short on my Diwali post. I admire those people who fast for 3 weeks before Diwali and an extra week after the holiday. I went home a few years ago with the monster for Diwali, my mom made us fast for 2 weeks…that was rough. The monster was like, look there is only so much vegetable and roti I could eat, I need some meat.
If you were not brought up fasting often, it is going to be tough. Not when meat is cooked every day in a household. Its like giving up sugar for a month! Which my trainer now wants me to do…Errr…I can’t drink my tea without 2 splendors in it. Its like the only vice I have and I am not willing to give it up.
Okay so back to Diwali, it was on the 7th of November here in America. I had never made Parsad before and living in MN is it very rare you will ever get it to eat. My sister and my friend from Trinidad had given it a go this summer, all I am going to say is that was an epic fail! All they managed to do was make a royal mess in my kitchen.
So I decided to give it a go myself, see what all the fuss was about. You will build muscles making this dish. I grew up watching my mom and my grandparents make this in huge pots back home on the day of a prays, using big, long paddles to turn the flour. And they would switch out when someone’s hands got tired. I had to keep turning and turning for 20 minutes.
And of course what other recipes don’t tell you, is that once you add the paag, (that is the sugar, water and milk mix) that the flour doubles in size, and the paag, bubbles up and splatters everywhere! This did not happen before in Trinidad, because they are using ginormous pots, and its all outside they are cooking on portable stoves.
Parsad is such a heavy, carb loading dessert. It basically is flour, milk, ghee and sugar. All the things your doctor would tell you to stay away from. And here I am telling you it is worth the dirty stove and bloated tummies!
Enjoy!
Oh yes and before I forget, be sure to head on over to my YouTube Channel for more exciting videos.
Click here for Parsad recipe.
