Just Deserts

Thursday evening at St Mary’s in Todmorden, and it’s just starting to snow, but everyone makes it and seems really keen to get stuck into Rachel’s Asian dessert course. As I open the door, I could already smell the sweetness of a milky pudding which reminded me of my school days.

Whilst the milky pudding simmered everyone put on their pinnys and started peeling and chopping fruit for the fruit salad. Then Jim arrived from the Halifax Courier for a photo shoot and suddenly everyone was camera shy. Chopping ceased and attention was brought back to the lovely rice pudding, green sultanas and nuts were added to a syrup which was then added to the rice.

By now I couldn’t get near the kitchen as everyone was busy, busy, busy. Yoghurt and spices were being added to the fruit and vermicelli was being mixed with oil in the pot. The smell was truly out of this world, you could imagine walking through the streets of Delhi with the street vendors cooking their goods.

As usual, the best bit was the tasting. Flavours were fantastic, really tantalising my taste buds with the sweet and sour flavours.My favourite was semia (a milk pudding with vermicelli). Try it yourself using the recipe below:

SEMIA
1/3 roll of vermicelli
2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
2 x cups of milk
2 tablespoons of sugar
Raisins and coconut

Fry vermicelli in oil until reddish. Add milk and three spoons of sugar, a tablespoon of raisins and coconut. Let it simmer for 5 minutes.