Hal­cian Pierre

Tis the sea­son for en­er­gy, and in Trinidad and To­ba­go, en­er­gy doesn't come in the form of a tablet. We love to drink our en­er­gy blasts in a Sty­ro­foam cup filled to the brim with a cold, frothy, tasty punch.

Chances are you've en­joyed a blend from your neigh­bour­hood punch man. You can't miss the paint­ed carts with their rows of blenders go­ing a mile a minute, plus they al­ways have signs placed next to them dis­play­ing their com­bos. From the ba­sic peanut to some 'bombs' boast­ing in­gre­di­ents such as beet­root, wheat germ and even lin­seed, bet your bot­tom dol­lar that af­ter drink­ing one, you feel like you can do any­thing.

Not to take away from the punch man's trade, but lots of us can en­joy home­made ver­sions of a good punch from our very own kitchens, and this week's Eye Food puts the fo­cus on two pop­u­lar blends that I am sure you're fa­mil­iar with; Seamoss and Sour­sop. So, break out the blender and get your in­gre­di­ents to­geth­er, and en­joy the re­sults of your ef­forts!

Sour­sop­Punch

In­gre­di­ents

�2 1 sour­sop, peeled

�2 2 cups wa­ter

�2 6-8 ta­ble­spoons con­densed milk

�2 Salt and Sug­ar

�2 An­gos­tu­ra bit­ters

Method

�2 Crush the sour­sop in a bowl with � the wa­ter.

�2 Pound it well and pass through a sieve to ex­tract the juice.

�2 Add the re­main­ing wa­ter, milk and a pinch of salt. Mix well.

�2 Add sug­ar and stir un­til dis­solved. Strain, chill and serve with bit­ters.

Seamoss Punch

In­gre­di­ents

�2 1 lb seamoss

�2 1 lime

�2 An­gos­tu­ra bit­ters

�2 Milk

�2 Sug­ar to taste

Method

�2 Soak sea moss with lime juice overnight.

�2 Wash thor­ough­ly and cook in pres­sure cook­er for 20-30 min­utes or un­til the sea moss re­sem­bles a mass of jel­ly.

�2 Cool, add milk and sug­ar to taste and blend in your blender.

�2 Flavour with bit­ters and serve with crushed ice.