Poppy's kitchen: The art of sweet

Banish the blues with these sweet treats.

We never tire of eating meetha! And those of us who claim not to have a sweet tooth, like myself, grow up to be utterly fascinated by the concept of sweet. A good dessert is manna from the heavens and possesses the power to alleviate misery. I often wonder what it is: is it the sugars that enliven you and give you strength or is it magic?

I would like to go with the latter since cooking can be enchanting, especially when you make something new. With the month of Ramazan coming up I usually get excited and try out new recipes. What I tell my students is that half your work is done if you let inspiration lead the way. A great way to get going is to use something you don’t like; the results are just so satisfying that you eventually end up loving what you cooked. I don’t like bananas, so for me making something edible with bananas is a great feat. The two recipes I created are all about using ingredients differently, and I also think there should be a low sweet option for those who can’t eat sweet e.g diabetics. Why leave anyone out when you can create magic in your own kitchen!

Stewed Pears

A safe indulgence for those with diabetes and health issues.

Most Eid spreads often ignore the fact that a lot of people have sugar related problems. If you make this lovely dish for your guests, it will be a great hit. Again, this is an alternative dessert to all the mithai we eat.

Ingredients:

Water- 1 litre

Sugar- 5 tablespoons- or 3 tablespoons of artificial sweetener

Pears – 4-6 whole

Cinnamon- 2 sticks

Method:

Heat the water in the pan and add in the artificial sweetener or the sugar. Next, put in the pears and the cinnamon.

Leave to cook on a medium flame, till only a quarter of the water is left. This will take approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Take the pears out after 45 minutes. Leave the water to reduce a little more, this will give you a lovely sheera, or sugar syrup.

Serve with a light sprinkling of powdered sugar, and some of the sweet syrup. Again, this is optional.

Banana cream bites

Ingredients:

Sponge cake slices - 8

Bananas - 3

Cream - 1.5 packets

Sugar – 4 tablespoons - as a lovely alternative you can use brown sugar



Method:

Slice up the bananas and add in a pot along with the cream. Next, add in the sugar and cook till the cream thickens. Try not to break the bananas.

Next, place all the slices of cake in an oven dish and layer some of the banana mix onto each slice.

Sprinkle with a little sugar, about two to three pinches, and then cook in a pre-heated oven at 220 degrees for 12 minutes.

You can serve these bites hot or cold, and to make it even more appetizing, you can add a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the side. This will be a fantastic alternative to all the heavy sweets served at Eid.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, July 17^th, 2011.

Correction: The 'Stewed Pears' recipe was incorrectly labelled as 'Baked Pears' in an earlier version of this article. The correction has been made.