7 October: National Poetry Day


'Our cafes with the brickwork trays of saffron sweets,
brass woks flying flamingo-pink syrup-tunnelled
jalebis networking crustily into their familied clumps....'

From 'Our Town with the Whole of India' by Daljit Nagra (b 1964 Bradford)

I woke this morning as usual to the wonderful tones of BBC Radio 3 without which I could not live - and it's National Poetry Day! So this is in haste and in celebration. Check out the NPD website and see Daljit Nagra reading. What a poppet.

http://www.nationalpoetryday.co.uk/

I met Daljit Nagra a while ago when he came to read and run a workshop at the Morrab Library in Penzance and he is quite as lovely as he looks. Later we had a supper party and this is what I took. My copy of 'Look We Have Coming to Dover' is now inscribed 'To Liz the Kulfi Queen...'

Mango and Cardamom Kulfi As Made For a Poet.

I made this and froze it in cheap plastic beakers , you can then wreck them if they won't turn out - and they are exactly the right shape.

425g tin of mango slices in syrup

10 green cardamom pods podded and crushed

400g tin condensed milk

284ml carton whipping cream

2 ripe mangoes for decoration

juice of a lime

Drain the mango slices and puree them in a food processor. Add the condensed milk and the cardamom and whizz it so it blends. Whip the cream until it just holds it shape and then combine gently in a bowl. Pour into your moulds and freeze for at least three hours. Serve with fresh mango and a squeeze of lime.

'Mango, banana and tangerine

Sugar and ackee and cocoa bean

When we get marry we make them grow

And nine little chil' in a row'

From 'Underneath The Mango Tree' ( lyrics by Monty Norman)


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I make mango kulfi too! And my recipe is almost identical to yours - and I serve it with fresh mango & lime as well!

In honour of National Poetry Day, here's my very best mango haiku:

Mango juice trickles.
Face and hands sticky, drippy.
Best eaten naked.

Unknown said...

I always thought you were supposed to eat them in the bath with a friend...

Grazing Kate said...

yum! And well done for remembering Poetry day - heard some TS Elliot on 6 Music which was wonderful

Unknown said...

fabulous! been listening to Rad 4 all day and the poetry on there has been lovely...

Choclette said...

And maybe he has written a poem to the Kulfi Queen - what fun. Your kulfi looks a lot easier to make than mine where I tediously tried to condense my own milk.