GEORGETTE’S HOLIDAY COOKING BLOG

2012-11-14


Hi everyone,


Everybody cooks at least a couple of times a year to make a traditional dish or a family favorite around the holidays. This blog is just about that, to share the different traditions, tastes, and even a secret or two about our traditions and favorite food.


Beginning this month in Mexico, on the 2nd of November, the country celebrates their dead during the traditional “Día de Muertos” (Day of the Dead).


Although not really a National Holiday, for it is more a religious one, schools and government have the day off and so many businesses also close. Many celebrate the day by having employees build their altars for the dead at their places of work and children at school.


“Altares de Muerto” can be very elaborate and fancy or quite simple (see pictures), but the main idea is that they honor a certain person (usually a relative); and to him or her they offer flowers (bright orange ones- either plants, bouquets, petals or shaped into a skull or a cross), candles, candy in the shape of skulls with their names, fruits of the season and spirits (alcoholic drinks).


The decoration of the altar will include a picture or several of the deceased, bottles of his favorite spirits, samples of “Pan de muerto” (Dead’s bread: a sweet bread decorated with crossed bones and sprinkled with sugar), corn and pumpkins or food made with either; and maybe a “katrina” (a skeleton doll “death” all dressed up). Honoring the dead is an important non-Catholic tradition that has been preserved by the Mexicans, and is celebrated intertwined with the Catholic religion practice.


How do you celebrate or honor your dead in Japan? What time of the year does it take place?


Nobody bakes “pan de muerto” nowadays; mostly it is baked fresh daily by big commercial bakeries. It comes in its traditional form in all sizes, small and large, and lately some have ventured into stuffing them with chocolate or caramelized milk candy.

A very traditional dessert that is made during this time is “Dulce de Calabaza” (pumpkin dessert). It is quite simple to make for it uses just a few ingredients.


Do you bake or cook traditional recipes when celebrating or honoring the dead in your culture? Care to share? Is it easy to get your hands on a pumpkin in Japan, this time of the year?


If so, get yourself a very orange pumpkin (a large piece will do as well), wash it and cut into pieces the size of a tennis ball or so (raw pumpkin is very hard, so expect your pieces to be random in size). Leave skin, pulp and seeds in, and toss in a pot filled half with water and half with orange juice to cover the pieces. Add raw hardened sugar cane pulp (about 2 cups- you can substitute with brown sugar), some cloves and a large cinnamon stick. Simmer until tender and liquid is syrupy; that’s it! Enjoy!!

Try out this recipe and please tell me, did you like it? Was it hard or easy? Did you find all the ingredients? And if not, did you substitute any? What did you substitute it with?


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