The Moreish Podcast
More than jerk chicken, beaches and Carnival, the cultures of the Caribbean is unique and diverse with influences from all over the world.
Join Hema and guests on The Moreish Podcast as they talk about the history of the Caribbean people, current day culture and food with a focus on the national dish of each country.
The Moreish Podcast. Where Caribbean history meets culture and cuisine.
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The Moreish Podcast
Caribbean Christmas Flavours with Teri
Exploring Trinbagonian Christmas Recipes with Teri's Food Therapy
In this special bonus Christmas episode, Hema chats with Teri from Teri's Food Therapy about Trinbagonian Christmas recipes.
Teri shares her journey as a self-taught cook, her love for sharing recipes through social media and e-cookbooks, and reminisces about traditional Trinidadian Christmas foods such as ham, hops bread, sorrel, pastelles, and black cake. Tune in to discover the vibrant flavours and cultural significance of Trinbagonian cuisine during the festive season.
Connect with Teri:
https://terisfoodtherapy.com/
https://terisfoodtherapy.com/cookbooks-2/
https://www.instagram.com/teris_food_therapy/
https://www.tiktok.com/@terisfoodtherapy
https://www.youtube.com/@terisfoodtherapy
Join us on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to continue the conversation.
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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!) https://uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/jerk-sauce
Hema: Hi, Teri.
I'm so excited for this conversation. We connected through social media, and I've been watching your TikToks for quite a while and you very recently posted a hops spread recipe. And I started to do a little bit of digging and realized that you have so many Trini, Trinbagonian Christmas recipes.
And I thought Christmas is coming up. This is the perfect time to have this conversation.
Teri: Yeah, I, this is something I started doing last year, actually. I started posting Christmas recipes. It started with me just posting a ham, and it was well received, and I decided to do more recipes. And this year I decided, you know what, I'm going to do it again, but this time I will do an e-cookbook, and it's been doing very, very well.
Hema: Before we dive into this conversation, why don't you introduce yourself and what you do?
Teri: My name is Teresa, but my friends call me Teri, hence the name, Teri's Food Therapy. I am a self-taught cook. I have been doing food um, through my business, Teri's Food Therapy, for maybe seven years, seven, eight years now. I initially started off with just micro catering something that spawned off of me cooking for friends and family. And recently I have been kind of dialing back the catering because I realized that was not like my first love. I like sharing my recipes, I like cooking, I like, like food, but I don't really like the catering so much. So I have been working on sharing my recipes through e-cookbooks, through my website, through my social media. And hopefully that will evolve into product creation so that I can give people a little bit more of the food therapy in the future or in the near future.
Hema: Before we get into Christmas, what does food therapy mean?
Teri: For me, it means an expression of self. Food is a very, very big part of my life. I remember having a fake cooking show in the kitchen as a child. And that kind of just eventually spawned into, well, what this is now. But for a long time, it was just me trying out new foods. It was me using food as a way to relax take the edge off of the hard day of work. And it just snowballed into me sharing my style of food with so many different people.
Hema: You know what's, what I love about that is my family is Trinidadian, you are Trinidadian in Trinidad, food is such a big part of the culture, right?
Teri: Huge.
Hema: It is, it is absolute, everywhere you go, you're going to get food, somebody's going to ask you, did you eat?
Teri: Mm-hmm
Hema: You eat?
I grew up in Toronto watching cooking shows as a young child, even before things like the Food Network became popular. And I just naturally was always in the kitchen and I would start cooking. And I think it's just in us. What was one of the first things you remember actually cooking yourself?
Teri: That is really hard to remember, to be quite honest. My mom was very protective of her kitchen space. So there was not a lot going on in her kitchen until I left home to be on my own. But it's thinking back, it's really hard to remember what was one of the first things, but.
Hema: I mean, if you, if you were like me growing up, I was always in the kitchen. It doesn't mean I was cooking, but just always like hanging around, whether it's one of my aunties.
Teri: We were allowed to help. I remember, I think, mainly Sunday. You know, Sunday food in a Caribbean home is always a production, right? So mainly the callaloo, because my mom is a from scratch type person. She is very traditional, and now she has adopted some more modernized techniques, but I remember grating coconuts even when, you know, blenders were readily accessible. I remember, you know, pulling the tips off of the dasheen bush. I remember we had to cut up the okra with the pumpkin, everything. So I remember helping her in the kitchen a lot. It's probably only, as I said, when I left home, that's when I was really able to kind of dip into my end of, you know, food.
Hema: Definitely helping out. I was like the roti flipper. I was the fry bake, the fry bake. person, I would do those things until I started to cook for myself.
But, it's December and Christmas is coming up and it is such a big food time. I want to talk about some of the Christmas recipes because you have a whole bunch of them on your website and there are some things in Trinidad and across the Caribbean that are made specifically at Christmas.
Teri: We have, I think with every holiday, it's, it's, I was telling my husband earlier, we are such a big holiday food culture, where almost every holiday has all these there's food surrounding it. And of course, as I said, Christmas is no different.
One of the things I made sure to add first my list was ham, because we doh play with we ham. Ham is, yeah, one or two hams over the holidays. Traditionally, we definitely eat a lot of pork, especially local pork, closer to Christmas. So we have a lot of pork-based recipes. Hops, because you have to have your ham and hops. Christmas morning with your glass of sorrel. Sorrel is the other thing. I think now we get it a little bit easier because we'll get sorrel right through the year.
You'll get dried sorrel leaves to purchase as opposed to waiting until it's blooming in December. But sorrel is definitely a must have around the holidays. Things like pastelle, paime. Black cake is, is such a huge part of Trini Christmas, Trinbagonian Christmas culture. Those are some of the foods that when you think about it, you know, you think Christmas as soon as you hear, hear those things.
Hema: And some of, and some of these dishes are made across the Caribbean
Teri: Yep.
Hema: in various ways. And I, I even think from household to household, whether the way my family makes something is probably going to be slightly different than the way you cook it.
Teri: It does, it varies so much. People, a lot of people can't come to grasp, can't, you know, so hard for them, especially when they're sharing recipes, it's so difficult for them to, come to like that, you know, we may do things differently, but it really is, varies. Maybe just slight tweaks, others in larger ways, across Trinidad and Tobago and across the larger Caribbean. So yeah.
Hema: Yeah. When you talk about some of these dishes, I wanna dive into some of them a little bit because they’re, they’re so unique and flavourful and have such different origins. I’m gonna start with sorrel because that is one of my favourite things. And I’m in Toronto so I’m lucky if I can find fresh, but mostly it's just dry that I get. Tell us what, what sorrel is.
Teri: Sorrel is essentially a drink. It comes from the sorrel plant. We call it sorrel but it's also known as hibiscus and what we use to make the drink is essentially the flower you remove the seed from the flower. Well, most persons. That's how I know it. I know people who boil it with the seed and they just strain it with a fine mesh strainer. I've never done it that way before. So you remove the seed and you boil the flower, which is mainly red, but we, I have, we have grown I remember us growing the green version that even when it ripens it still remains green. That usually draws a white sorrel drink.
Hema: I've never seen.
Teri: Yeah.
Hema: Interesting.
Teri: I don't see that one anymore at least I haven't seen it. I've seen the red and the really, really dark red one which people call black sorrel. So you just boil it for about a few minutes and then you let it steep overnight. You usually add like cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf, ginger. Again, that is something as well that varies over, you know, from home to home and from country to country. And you sweeten it. It is a little tart. The flavour's really big, big flavours. And it really is refreshing. It's not really something that I drink all year round. Dry, fresh. I enjoy it all the same.
Hema: Now most people drink it with a little bit of rum or something, yes?
Teri: It's quite the Caribbean way. I have been holding out on my spiked sorrel post for a while to let everybody know, listen, remember spike your sorrel please. But yeah, a little bit of rum.
Hema: What kind of rum usually goes in it?
Teri: I don't think traditionally you have like a particular rum that you have to. Well, especially as it pertains to liquor in the Caribbean, because we call almost everything rum most times. Um, that's just the way we refer to alcohol. So it's whatever you like. You put a little in it and that's just fine.
Hema: So you said this earlier that normally the hibiscus or the sorrel grows around this time of the year.
Teri: Christmas time. Yeah.
Hema: Which probably is why it became a Christmas drink.
Teri: Yes, most definitely. The fresh sorrel, you'll start seeing that around Christmas time. And you can get a little bit going into the Carnival season because I remember us making sorrel around Carnival season as well.
Hema: One of the Christmas dishes that I have never made, and it wasn't something that was made in my, in my home growing up, is pastelle.
Teri: Right.
Hema: And it is such an interesting dish because a version or a variation is made all over the Caribbean, but also in so many different places. Have you made it?
Teri: I have. It is probably my least favourite Chrismtas food to make. It is very time consuming. Essentially it is corn flour. Right, so it's the finer ground cornmeal, that you make into a dough. And then you do a filling. It's,the filling varies. You could use minced beef, chicken, soya. There's a lot of people use different fillings in it and you cook it down with, seasonings.
We are obviously big on seasonings in the Caribbean. So you have all the fresh seasonings, your chandon beni, onions, garlic, that kind of thing. And you also add, olives and things like olives and capers to give it a little, salty umami flavour in there as well. Raisins is something that some people, I have to say some persons, add in their pastelles because there's a big debate about raisins belonging in pastelles or not being in pastelles. I like it. I like, I like the contrasting flavours and you roll out your dough into like a round shape. You fill the insides with some of that filling. You wrap your filling back, because that's the traditional way to make it, you use the fig leaves and you freeze that or you can enjoy it just as you make it. You steam or you can also boil it in like a shallow pan of water and that's essentially pastelles and once you have one you're probably gonna have two or three it is very good. It is very good.
Hema: It is very good, and because it’s so time consuming is probably why not many people make it.
Teri: Yeah, yeah. And that's why it's also so expensive. It does take a lot of time.
Hema: And across the Caribbean, I talked to somebody from Puerto Rico and they have a version called pasteles and she said they make it with yuca or cassava. And it's similar to tamales in Mexico, sort of the same concept, but with Caribbean flavours.
Teri: Um, yes, yes. Because we’re so close to Venezuala that is where we would have gotten our version from. And of course, as with anything else, when it comes to a different country, you find the country adopts their own version. There are actually so many variations that I have seen researching online of pastelles and some called, as you said, almost called pastelles as well, but it, it always is just a little slightly different, maybe wrapped in something a little different. I've even seen someone do a flour version locally. So the dough is actually made out of flour as opposed to corn flour. And, um, she was explaining that this is something that this version is a version that she grew up with as well in her area. So yeah. And this person is in Trinidad, so, yeah.
Hema: I'm pretty sure it was on your website that I saw this: a pastelle pie.
Teri: Yes.
Hema: Is it, now tell me about that. Is it the same ingredients just in a pie form?
Teri: Yes it is. Well, you know, we love all pies in Trinidad. We love all pies and it's so much easier to do. Of course, it's a bit different because the pies would have a thicker, the cornmeal base would be a bit thicker. And with all the other pies we have, we add cheese but it's so much easier to still get some of the pastelle flavour making it this way because you don't have to make how many different amount of pastelles. You just do one pie and it's one and done. I've seen a couple different variations that also resembles tamale pie.
Hema: Oh.
Teri: Yes, so there's a vision. I'm sure probably the persons who tamale originated from don't know about this. But there is, I have seen tamale pie and it's very, very similar to that when you do the pastelle pie. I just put my filling in the center. Some people mix the filling into the cornmeal itself and make it as a pie.So yeah.
Hema: I’ve really always wanted to make pastelles, but it just looks like so much work. So I think I might start with the pie, and then maybe next year, try actually doing the whole wrapping of the leaves. If I can even find the leaves here in Canada.
Teri: You can use foil, and I know that might sound like blasphemy to some people, but you can. The leaves are sometimes a challenge for me. So I I use foil, and it's perfectly fine. The only issue may be, you know, you're not really supposed to heat foil so much when you're using it with cooking.
But yeah, sometimes I use foil and it's one and done and it's easy and it's fine. So it’s an option.
Hema: When we talk about pies, because you said we love our pies and we absolutely love our pies. When I talk about pies here in Canada, it's a completely different thing than what we talk about Trinidad.
Teri: Just in my e-cookbook alone, I have probably about six pies and essentially our pies are a starch. And we mix it in with cheese and milk and seasonings and butter and sometimes eggs. And we normally top it off with cheese and we bake it. So normally what happens is it solidifies into this thing you could slice. It's almost always a side, which it really shouldn't be of the amount of calories, but it's, it's commonplace.
Um, so we have, I have listed Shepherd’s Pie. Which, again, once it gets to the Caribbean we are going to make our own version of it. So it's Shepherd's pie, but it's beef-based in most homes at least the homes that I've eaten it in, it's usually made with ground beef.
Macaroni pie, which is very similar to mac and cheese, but then it is also very different. Potato pie. Um, I have listed corn pie. We have lasagna, which would also be considered a pie to us.
And all of these things may have roots in different places. More than likely coming from British influence and Italian influences, but we always take it and make our own versions of it. And that's pie.
Pie with chicken and rice and salads. That's usually what a Christmas plate or even a Sunday lunch plate looks like in Trinidad and Tobago.
Hema: And when we talk about pie, it's usually what I think people here might call a casserole, right?
Teri: Right.
Hema: Because it's, it's made in like that kind of a dish, but it's a side dish. And it's usually, like you said, a side dish, maybe starch-based, and there's, there's so many different versions.
Like there was, there's like green fig pie and, and macaroni pie, and they all have what you said cheese, seasonings…. what, what's the most common cheese to use for some of these?
Teri: The most common cheese you'll find in your grocery is well, it's labelled New Zealand cheddar cheese. That's the cheese we use. So most of the time when you hear someone refer to cheese in Trinidad, it's that type of cheese that we're referring to. This is a really light cheddar cheese. I'm guessing groceries and stuff buy it in like really big blocks and then they cut it up and they wrap it in like a cling wrap or whatever but it it normally is labelled New Zealand cheddar if I remember correctly. Really?
Hema: New Zealand cheddar, interestingly enough we can get here in Canada, but it is very expensive.
Teri: Um, really, I mean, it's probably the most affordable cheese locally. So Right.
Hema: When I..when I was growing up and I would go to Trinidad there was something people would call government cheese. Is that the same cheese?
Teri: I am not sure to be honest. It's something I grew up hearing but not being entirely sure what it was. So it's quite possible if that is the cheese that we have been using for a long period of time is quite possible. I know there are versions of New Zealand cheddar that is expensive.
Even here, I'm guessing that's probably because of the grade of the cheese. that probably is the deciding factor there because definitely I don't think this particular type of cheese would be priced really expensive, know, elsewhere. But you never know.
Hema: When it comes to Christmas food, desserts are a big thing. What is your go to or what, what do you normally cook and bake dessert wise for Christmas?
Teri: Black cake is definitely one of my favourites associated with Christmas.
Hema: It’s not Christmas without a black cake. And the name describes what it looks like, but people who don't know what black cake is would never understand I've seen people look at a black cake and think that it might be chocolate because of the color, so let's talk about what black cake is.
Teri: So essentially it is uh, some people call it a pudding because of the texture, but basically you use these rum-soaked fruits. And all of the fruits are dried before, so you are using raisins, currants, prunes, um, sometimes you use the mixed fruits that is essentially pawpaw that is preserved, you mix in all of these things together and then you're soaking it in rum and brandy or rum or brandy. And a lot of people soak their fruits months in advance. Some, some people years in advance. Some people have jars of fruits that have been soaking and they just keep topping it up with more fruits and more alcohol because of course the alcohol preserves the fruits.
Hema: Yeah.
Teri: And earlier on what you would have done is grind these fruits in what we call a mill, into like uh, a paste or like ground beef texture.
Hema: Uh huh.
Teri: Right, and you mix this into what is typical cake batter what we still use flour, we still use eggs, we still use butter and we don’t use milk in this particular cake because we use something called browning and that is what gives it that black cake colour. So browning is essentially when you liquefy sugar in a process similar to caramelization. And you liquefy it until it gets this really dark rich brown colour just before the sugar burns to the point of being bitter and you use that syrupy kind of liquid it cools, of course, to put into your black cake to give it that really rich dark colour. And then you bake it. And after the baking process, you soak the cake many times as you like in that same brandy or rum, which also goes on to preserve it. A lot of times black cake can last for really, really long, before it starts going bad because of the process of soaking it in the alcohol.
Hema: Do you think that that is a variation on a British pudding or a dessert or fruitcake?
Teri: I believe the research that I did said Plum Pudding was the inspiration. And of course, again, it came to the shores and I believe it was the African slaves that changed the structure of it a bit, added their own flair and flavour and turned it into what it is today.
Hema: If you were to describe Trinidadian food, how would you describe it?
Teri: Oh my goodness, whew, bold. We have some big bold flavours and it is so unique. the flavours are just so I can't even find the words. I think it's not really something that you have to experience to really understand. Um, but it's very unique as well because we have so many different influences from so many different places
Hema: Yeah.
Teri: A lot of times people will realize that we may traditionally look at our food as East Indian or African, but the mix of it all, especially as it pertains to the ingredients that we have available locally. It is most likely at, by the time we, you know, get our hands on it, mixed with a little bit of something else from here and a little bit of something else from there, and it is definitely Trinidad and Tobagoian when it comes to the food.
Hema: Now I agree that the influences come from history and way back, but it has its own unique flair right now.
Teri: It definitely does.
Hema: We were talking about black cake. What are the other desserts that you typically would make for Christmas?
Teri: Sponge cake as well, which is a basic for lack of of a better word, sponge cake. We have black cake, we have sponge cake, we have sweet bread, and then we have something that I haven't had in so long that just thinking about it earlier on today made me feel like I need to get some this Christmas, which is paime, is the sweet version or the sweet cousin to pastelles. Same cornmeal base, but this one is made sweet, so wrapped in the same fig leaf, this one usually contains raisins as well. It doesn't have any filling in this one. This one is just, it's just the paime that the, the cornmeal dough that you're enjoying.
But I, looking at this one, again, saw so many variations. I know that there was a First Peoples influence from some of the research I did. Then I saw Latin America, places like Venezuela and stuff like that. And then I saw a lot of versions as well in Africa of this sweet, but it is something that you don't see a lot anymore. At least I don't see a lot. I remember my aunt used to make a very delicious paime so I'll definitely have to talk to her about possibly getting a new recipe maybe getting some this holiday because it is very delicious.
Hema: What else is on your Christmas table?
Teri: Um, what else? Well, of course as I said we have a lot of pies, we have ham, hops is another thing because that’s what you talked about, that’s what you saw first. So hops is essentially dinner roll. But recently finding out that actually it is very uniquely Trinidad or Trinbagonian, because the first version was created locally.
So it's like a crusty roll that we would traditionally have with our ham and whatever other accompaniments on Christmas morning. Created by, I believe the gentleman was British, but he was looking at French Creole bakers who were using the hops the, the extract of the hops meal, meal hops flour, and using it to create this unique bread. That will give you this nice crusty top, as I mentioned, and soft, fluffy insides. And it's a big, big part of Trinbagonian traditions because you need to have your hops and ham Christmas morning, with your glass of sorrel. Otherwise, it's not Christmas.
Hema: And hops bread is something that, you’ve perfectly described it with that crusty top and soft in the middle. But hops bread and ham or there's so many ways that you could eat it. And I remember visiting and going to stay with my grandmother and across the street was somebody who had a little parlor under their house and they would sell hops bread that they they made in their kitchen.
And it would be like hops with sardines maybe sardine choka or just cheese.
Teri: I've lived in Trinidad all my life, so my experiences are limited. And because I haven't had much more experiences outside of our culture, all of these things seem regular.
Hema: Yeah.
Teri: It's only when you're looking into it, or, I might post it and somebody would ask a question, ask me to elaborate. Ask me, say it's interesting. They've never seen it made this way. It's only then you realize, oh wait, this is actually not a commonplace thing. Other cultures don't, some other cultures doh know, on their way home from work decide to grab hops from any neighbourhood bakery to have with something to eat at night or to eat for breakfast. Um, it is very uniquely, from what I understand, Trinbagonian.
It definitely does make you feel, all warm inside, thinking that, you know, this unique culture, you get to indulge in it. And as we said in the beginning, food is such a huge part, huge part of any aspect of Trinbagonian culture. So looking at all these little things tied together and is, is really, really, really special.
Hema: It is so special to think about, even some of the dishes we've been talking about that the influences, historical, how they've made them, these recipes uniquely Trinbagonian and somebody might look at your, your Christmas table and think, how do you put these different dishes together?
Because they don't feel like they match, but they do. They're just, they're just a plethora of unique and interesting flavours that just go so well together.
Teri: They do. They definitely do.
Hema: What’s a must-have for you for Christmas? That you're just like, if I don’t make anything else I’m making this one thing?
Teri: Ham definitely ham. It's the first thing to go. I can't tell you how many times I've burned my mouth after making you know it has to cool but you just want a slice, a taste, a piece of the ham. I had to do mine early because I was putting together my pictures and recipes for my cookbook.
Hema: Right.
Teri: So I just try to do it around other celebrations.
Hema: Tell me how you prepare your ham.
Teri: I like experimenting. So traditionally, we would score the ham, which is to just cut the rind, maybe a little bit of the flesh. Everybody has different ways that they do it. I am doing a glaze, I will cut a little bit of the flesh. If I'm just doing how we do traditionally, which is to cut the rind, insert cloves into the rind. Sometimes some people bake it with pineapples and such or at the top of it. That is the most common way you would see it being prepared. But that is now within more modern times. Before, and my aunt-in-law does this still, because we had two hams from her for the last, maybe two or three years, I think, where she, she does her hams from scratch, the traditional way. She salts it and stuff from scratch. So you just have to boil it and then bake it. But now, of course, we have hams we manufactured in large amounts and you don't need to go through all of that. So I love a
Hema: Mm hmm.
Teri: glazed ham. Absolutely love a glazed ham. So most times I will glaze mines now, as opposed to doing it the traditional way, which is just baking it with the cloves I would use a sweet glaze most times to get the sweet savoury balance. So I have a brown sugar glazed ham that I have on my website as well as my social media pages. And this year I did, the first one I did was a orange pine rum glazed ham, because you know, you must have the rum. I love having the glaze because hams are salty, most times very savoury, and the sweet gives it a nice balance.
Hema: Yeah,
Teri: So that’s how I would do mine.
Hema: Just the cloves, that's how I remember it, just baked with the cloves. And it has that cap of fat with the skin on top that gets nice and crispy and the fat sort of keeps it nice and, and juicy. And for me, when I was growing up, and it sounds so simple, it would be ham on hops bread with maybe some mustard, pepper sauce, and that's it.
That's the simplicity of exactly how I would eat it.
Teri: Yeah, that’s definitely how I remember it. And only now that I, again, I love to do my own thing, simply because I like experimenting.
And one of the things that I absolutely love, I started doing it with wings initially, this is one of the recipes I have not shared yet, even though I've had requests. I'm doing, planning to do a sorrel glaze with, to baste my ham in, which I've seen other people doing it.
There are so many versions now, of things people experimenting with sorrel. Love to see it.
Hema: Mm hmm.
Teri: I’ve seen sorrel barbecue sauce. I made sorrel pepper sauce recently
Hema: Oh!
Teri: That I used on my hops and ham video. I didn't mention it because I didn't want questions.
Hema: Speaking of your social media and where you post, Teri, you have a website full of recipes, but you also have three downloadable cookbooks, that you give away for free on your website. Talk about those three cookbooks.
Teri: Well I know since last year, actually, maybe early into this year, that I wanted to do a cookbook for Christmas. And I am by no means a pro at this, I am not formally trained when it comes to cooking, so everything is basically me teaching myself.
Hema: Mm hmm.
Teri: So what I wanted to do at the beginning of the year was try my hand at doing my first e-cookbook, and I of course wanted to stick to as much Trinbagonian recipes as I possibly could. So I focused on doing sweets and snacks that I had as a child and that I learned to cook. So it was more along the lines of things like mango jam and kurma and fudge, coconut fudge, um, just to kind of get, you know, maybe dip my toes into the water, see what the response is like, see what the work would entail to get this done. And as you said I did that for free.
And then I did one on accident for Diwali because I had these recipes that I wanted to do for Diwali but it just kept on growing. So I did a small one for Diwali, I think it was 10 pages. Well not 10 pages, but 10 recipes, and then it was, time to work on the one for Christmas, which was the big one.
I had my recipes that I did last year. I wanted to put that in and then I had my recipes I was working on this year, as well as a couple of recipes that I don't plan on doing videos for, but I just wanted to include in the cookbook to give more variety and exclusivity and all that good stuff.
The reason I was able to give it away for free is because I worked with, in this instance, just two brands. that did some sponsorship in the cookbook in terms of advertisement. And that's the, the angle I was aiming at. In the future that might change based on what I'm doing. But for now, like this, doing it this way.
Because everybody gets to experience, what I have to offer. And I can still, you know, do the business aspect of it.
Hema: I'm going to put the link to your website and also your social media in the show notes so people can go look because not only are you sharing the recipes on your website, but you're also showing how you're making them in your videos.
Before we wrap up, outside of your cookbooks on your website, the recipes on your website, your YouTube channel and Instagram and TikTok, is there anything else that you're working on that you want to share with us?
Teri: I have been working on something that, I'm taking my time with, because of what it means to me. I've been doing a lot of product testing. I have been working on some stuff and I'm hoping that soon I'd be able to launch and offer these things.
My aim is to do small batch. I know most persons want to think big corporation and big product match out and all of that. But I I'm perfectly fine with quality items that are almost homemade, manufactured in a homemade setting, that I can offer people. So I have been working on that. Hopefully I'll be able to start giving people due dates on when we'll be rolling out those things, but for now it's still in the testing phase because I want to be sure that it's ready when it's ready.
Hema: Can you give us any l little hints? Is it going to be like a sauce or a spice or?
Teri: Quite a few items actually. So I love tea, So it'll be a line of chai’s actually, to start off because I'm obsessed with chai's.
I have chili oil that I'm working on, I have barbecue sauces or just sauces on the whole that I'm working on. And I have a line of granola healthy, more on the healthy side of things.
And I am also already thinking about what other cookbook I could put together. we were talking about the Diwali cookbook that I have. There's something I've been wanting to work on for so long, which is basically just showcasing curries from different parts of the world.
Hema: Ooh.
Teri: Because I know a lot of people don't realize that there are so many different blends of curries.
So that's also another project that I hope to start working on very, very soon, as soon as Christmas wraps up. I'll be getting into that. So those are some of the things I've been focusing on.
I know you mentioned my YouTube. I haven't done a lot of work on my YouTube. YouTube takes so much more work than just making two minute video. Um, the plan is definitely to start doing more in-depth videos on YouTube. So that's the direction that I'm heading in, hopefully, in 2025.
Hema: So, I mean, you already are doing so much and putting out I understand adding YouTube and then adding products. It is a full-time job and a half to do all of this, so I so appreciate you taking the time to come on and chat with me about foods and specifically foods that are served around Christmas time.
I gonna put the links in the show notes. If anybody's interested in recipes for any of the things that we talked about or maybe any other recipes that Teri has put out, you can go find her cookbooks or any of the recipes on her website.
Teri: So, thank you so much for having me. It has been a pleasure.
Hema: It has been so much fun and I wish you and your family a very happy, wonderful, and full belly Christmas.
Teri: Same to you and yours.