any know where to find festival food recipes?

[Stripymouse]

I do voluntary work with out local playgroup and have agreed to make food for (and possibly with) the children to celebrate Diwali and then for Chanukah at the end of December. I have googled several word combinations and got nowhere. Being a white, middle class CofE type area, I have no local contacts for help or advice on how to bring multicultural ideas and customs into the group. We have bought some lovely stories and they do great art work but thought some cookery and food at snacktime might also be a fun thing to do.
Ideally, I am after simple recipes that can be created within a short time span and limited cooking...
Any ideas very gratefully received...

bump - please anyone?
everything I can find uses ingredients jsut not easily available - eg. jiggery?!!

Nigella's new book 'Feast' is specifically about special occasion food, apparently has some Hannukah recipes, but I'm not sure about Diwali.

Channukkah the traditional recipes are Potato Latkes and Doughnuts. Therefore I would suggest you buy a load of cheap mini doughnuts from the supermarkets.

Latkes are easy, grated potato and grated onion, liquid squeezed out. Mix with flour and egg (I think, I'll check) and fry in dollops.

Also traditional for Channuakah is chocolate money, driedels (a type of spinning top) and the menorah (9 pronged candlestick)

latkes

Try this recipe

thanks bettys - will try to check that one out, think my sister has a copy.
Crunchie - thankyou so much - you have given me several ideas - love the latke recipe, going to try that one out asap.
Now I am sorted for Channukkah - anyone with any Diwali recpies out there I would be very grateful....

For Diwali - there is a traditional lamp design that is on a lot of festival related decotations - you could get some of those coloured icing pens and get the kids to do the design of digestive biscuits - quick, creative and best of all, edible!

There are also the traditional rangoli designs that children can do using different types of lentils (use food colouring to get a range of different coloured beans/lentils and then get the children to stick the beans/lentils onto a glue design on some thick paper or thin card. You could use coloured chalk instead togive the more traditional powdery effect.

hi strpymouse!!

diwali:
recipies
sweets
treats
traditional

Chanukah:
recipies at bottom of page
full meal
jelly donuts
gelt(money) choc apricot
loads and loads!!

bumping incase you didn't see this stripymouse