The Hindi festival of lights – Diwali – is right around the corner on October 19th. The Indian diaspora is found all over the world, meaning that Diwali, and its collection of sweets called mithai, have traveled with them. You can check out our previous coverage of Diwali treats on the blog. Today, we’re celebrating Diwali Trinidad-style with Kurma. Trinidad has a long Indian heritage, so unsurprisingly, Indian treats are a big thing on the island. Kurma are ginger and cinnamon-spiced fried dough sticks in a sweet glaze, and though associated with holidays in Trinidad, they can now be found year-round. You can try your hand at Trinidadian Kurma with recipes from Simply Trini Cooking (seen below) and Trini Gourmet.
Tag Archives: Deepavali
Trinidadian Kurma for Diwali
Filed under Holidays, Pastry Post-Poc
Diwali Mithai: Celebrating the Festival of Lights with sweet treats
Happy Diwali! It is the first day of the Hindu Festival of Lights today, which mean a time for family, togetherness, celebration, and naturally lots and lots of delicious foods. Foods eaten on Diwali vary widely by location and family, however it is generally agreed that there should be a large assortment of sweet treats. Of course, we are absolutely for any excuse to put out a huge dessert spread. As part of the Diwali celebration, street fairs, or melas, are often set up, providing entertainment and selling any manner of delicious foods. The little sweets are known as mithai, and are:
“ a cross between snack, dessert and confectionery. If there’s one thing that captures the Indian culinary psyche, it’s mithai. Little morsels are nibbled throughout the day, on their own, with masala chai or as part of a meal alongside savoury items.”
If you are not near a Diwali market, or would simply like to prepare some mithai of your own, the Guardian has a slideshow of some of the most quintessential Diwali sweets to inspire you. For those looking to make their own mithai, I Love India, SpicyTasty, Rak’s Kitchen and Divya’s Cookbook have recipes for favorites like gulab jamun, laddu, barfi and jalebi. For a non-traditional take, why not make some truffles inspired by the traditional barfi sweets.
Diwali Market Sweets in Toronto by Chow Yun-Slim
Filed under Holidays, Pastry Post-Poc, World Eats
Eating The World 