Today in my country Muslims celebrate Eid ul fitr and so we are featuring this recipe, sawine. It's another public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago, yes last week we had Republic Day, and I'm glad for it. It's one more day to stay home and relax, or am I. A few weeks ago, I was asked to do a popular recipe made especially for the festival of Eid, by now you know what it is because the title of the post is a dead give away :^) .
Sawine Recipe
Sawine or sewine is hard to describe: it's not a drink yet we slurp it down in cups, but then it's not even porridge because it has vermicelli in it. Confusing as it may seem, this is one sweet delicacy I look forward to every Eid. The steps are simple enough to follow and if you want to make more you just have to double the recipe. So to all my Muslim brothers and sisters in Trinidad and Tobago and the world, warmest greetings on this special occasion of Eid. (That goes for you too, Chennette).
Enjoy Sawine!!!!
SAWINE
Ingredients:
5 ½ cups milk
6 tablespoons sugar
1 pack vermicelli (200g)
almonds
1 cinnamon stick
¼ cup raisins
Direction:
Chop the almonds. Set aside.
Place the vermicelli, a bit at a time, in a dry heavy skillet to parch. Parch until golden brown. The parched vermicelli should look like this.
You could use the same deep pot you parched the vermicelli, but you should allow the pot to cool first. Pour two cups of milk into the pot, add the cinnamon stick and bring to boil slowly. Add the sugar and mix.
Add the parched vermicelli to the milk. Allow to cook until the vermicelli is tender. Stir in the rest of the milk, 1 cup at a time, when it gets too thick while cooking.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
The Sawine is ready to be served.
N.B. Sawine gets thick after a while so even though you have added the amount of milk in the recipe, you may still have to add some more when you're ready to eat it. Experience has shown me that if it is refrigerated you may have to heat it and add some more milk to make it a little thinner. Last night I was at a supermarket where they were sharing out sawine, and the woman had cartons of milk at the side of the large bucket and was constantly stirring it.
Until then, bye!
Sawine
Ingredients
- 5 1/2 cups milk low fat
- 6 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 pk vermicelli 200g
- almonds chopped
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/4 cup raisins seedless
Instructions
- Place the vermicelli, a bit at a time, in a dry heavy skillet to parch until golden brown.
- Pour two cups of milk into the pot, add the cinnamon stick and bring to boil slowly. Add the salt and mix. Add the parched vermicelli to the milk.
- Allow to cook until the vermicelli is tender. Stir in the rest of the milk, 1 cup at a time. Add the chopped almonds. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Eid Mubarak to you too! I could get used to these personalised greetings 🙂 and the sawine which is all I’ll have till I get home to T&T on Friday!!!
Wish I could save some for you but it’s finished already!!!
Thank you so much for this recipe. I have plans of making it soon, I cant wait, yum !! Thank you for responding to my email. Best wishes to you and keep the recipes coming
Great recipe man, gonna try this one out tonight but instead of almonds, I wanna experiment with nutella, I really love that hazelnut flavor. Thanks for the recipe!
No problem Soul 🙂
I am getting ready to make your sawine for the first time and I am soo excited. Im from the states and my long time boyfriend is from Trinidad. Oh boy does he love my cooking thanks to you. He doesnt stand for American food or pizza. So thank you for your many posts!
PS – He suggessted we put in some condensed milk instead of sugar.
xoxo
Rubina
If he wants to put condensed milk, by all means 🙂
Felix, thanks for posting this recipe. I tried it yeasterday and it came out pretty good. Milk and I are not exactly the best of friends so I decided to chuck a few teaspoons of unsweetened cocoa into the sawine–not bad. Just an idea for you. Thanks again
all of a sudden I craving sawine..typed sawine on google and saw your site.. btw I always use your site when I want step by step cooking (which I prefer).. so im gonna use your recipe. .wish me luck 🙂
Best of luck Shanz.