Tortured with Porridge

You may think I'm joking but I'm not. "The Quaker man on the box was probably a nice enough guy, but I hated that smiling face on the box looking back at me, almost mocking me." I can't write more about it here, it's too painful, you'll have to click here to read my encounters with this dish.

Many of you have written how interested and intrigued you are by the peanut punch so here is the recipe. There's a kid version and a spiked adult version and since I am an adult, you know which one I made (evil grin).

Peanut Punch

Ingredients
2/3 cups of chunky or smooth peanut butter
3 cups whole milk, cold
4 tbsp sugar or to taste
2 sprinklings of ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (extra to garnish if you like)

Method

• Put all the ingredients, milk first, into a blender and whiz for 1 minute or until smooth
• Serve over ice or as is. Or, pour into a jug and chill some more then serve

Note

• For an adult peanut punch, spike with Baileys or other Creme liquers; these are added to the ingredients before blending.
• Skim milk can also be used but for the real creamy goodness, use the whole milk.

Be sure to check out Forgive me my nonsense... where this week Bee rants, questions and discuss, to put it in her words, "The freak show called democracy."

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Sometimes love means hard work

The subject of this week's column was steeped in hard work and an education. As you already know by now, the Caribbean is made up of a large Chinese population with Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica having the largest populations. Well, in Guyana, we have a pastry called Chinese cake (yeah, remember I told you about our practical way of naming things). I love Chinese cake and it one of the things I miss not having, well, unless I make it myself thanks to a friend who shared her family recipe with me.

The Chinese cake we make is essentially a pastry-cake that's made with 2 types of pastries and a sweet filling of black-eyed-peas-paste. I'll let you read all about making it here.

As you can see it is still warm with the filling soft and sweet, I was anxious and excited, I couldn't wait. :)

Here the cake has cooled and the filling solidifies.

I have been scouring the internet trying to come up with the original dish that it is inspired from and through my own efforts and in communication with Tigerfish, it is apparent that our Chinese cake is similar in nature to the Chinese mooncake. When you check out the link, you will see how many varieties of mooncakes there are and how they differ from region to region. Ours as you can see looks more like this and the one at the bottom here.

I love mine with peanut punch.

In the Guyanese-Chinese adaption, black-eye-bean paste was substituted for the much loved red-bean paste. My friend Bee over at Rasa Malaysia has some red-bean-paste recipes that you should check out.
Chinese New Year will be celebrated on Thursday, February, 7, so I'd like to wish my fellow country people a happy new year and also to all of my friends celebrating the holidays, especially those that read this blog.

Be sure to check out Jaden at Steamy Kitchen for the feast she's planning. She already has some recipes posted that you can try.

I am sending my Chinese Cake over to another good friend of mine, Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook for her event My Legume Love Affair.

A note on last week's post on golden apples, in Jamaica it is also called June plums, thanks Chennette & Ann and Maya alerted me that it is also called hog plums. Each day, there is something to learn.
Over at Forgive Me My Nonsense... this week, I weep for my country.
Have a good week everyone.

The recipe for the Chinese Cake is book-embargoed by my publisher. Click here if you are interested.

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